THE GRIFFIN AND THE MINOR CANON
Lead pupils to discuss their ideas of griffins before reading the story.
To what age of literature do griffin and dragon stories belong?
How could the Griffin know that the stone image was a good likeness of himself?
What things do you think the Griffin told the Minor Canon about minerals, metals, and the wonders of the world?
Stop at the point in the story just prior to the sending away of the Minor Canon, and let the children discuss what they would have done under those circumstances.
Do you agree with the Griffin in his opinion of the only two good things in the town?
What did the Griffin mean when he said, “If some things were different, other things would be otherwise”?
Thus we learn that goodness, bravery, and honesty, even in a griffin, demand for companionship, goodness, bravery, and honesty.
Ruskin says some very good things about dragons in the first few pages of “The Queen of the Air.”