In The Griffin and the Minor Canon, the third story in the Unnatural Creatures I found myself questioning the narrator far more than I did in Inksplot or The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees. This story was written around 1885 (the best information I could get is from Wikipedia so, you know, grain of salt) for a younger, at least a less questioning, audience. Maybe it’s my love for Etgar Keret’s Hole in the Wall (in The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God and other short stories) and other stories where that narrator isn’t trustworthy that has me questioning what characters say without backing it up and another part of me thinks judging this story based on today’s standards misses the point.

That being said, I kept wondering if what the narrator was telling me the truth. The instances where a little verification would be nice are the first reference to the griffin’s red-hot tail and when the townspeople assume the griffin eats people. (SPOILER: Late in the story we do see the griffin’s tail become hot with anger but it’s too late for me to start trusting the narrator. It is a one sentence add-in that the tail is causing the stream to steam when the Minor Canon goes to see the Griffin. The Griffin also confirms that he eats people but only after the townspeople confront him with that, and since the Griffin is angry and wants to scare the townspeople into treating the Minor Canon right, I wouldn’t put it past him to lie.)

What set Frank Stockton apart from his contemporaries is that he wrote children’s stories without being too preachy. The story felt timeless, with its clean use of language the story could have been written recently because nothing in the subject matter dates it– that is great. Stockton never gives the Griffin or the Minor Canon names, which fits the fable feel of the story. The language is sparse which fits for the anti-social griffin and a duty-bound man. Can you imagine reading The Hunger Games one hundred years from now and thinking, “This could have been written last year.”

Have you read the story? What do you think about The Griffin and the Minor Canon?