Eric Morgan- The Troll Myth

During class many of the discussions stuck in my head, but the one that really made me understand myth the most was the story Dr. Redick gave about an interaction with his child. He told a story where he was on a walk with his child and his wife and they came to a bridge. At the bridge the child was going to close to the edge and Redick was getting nervous about the child’s safety and to deter the kid from getting hurt he told him a myth. He said if you get to close to the side of the bridge a troll will come up and gobble you up. Then his wife thought it was wrong that he told his child this story because it was false and there are no such things as trolls, but after a discussion he argued his case for the reason why he told it in this way. He said would it be better for me to tell the child that if you get too close to the side you may fall and die or is it more useful to tell the child a troll will gobble him up. He then went on to explain how he in no way told a lie but instead reality through his myth. This was because the danger of going to close to the side was made clear to the kid which may not have happened with telling of the simple facts. Although this may be hard to see what must be noticed is that he did tell the truthful fact that the child could die if he gets to close to the side but instead of saying death he used the word troll which represented death. This simple example made me understand myth better then anything else that we read. I understood completely what he meant when he said that myths are fictitious but instead tell the reality of the situation and the hard part to understand is that reality for each and every different person is a little different especially between a child and an adult.