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Even now, however, because these are still only tales intended for young children, their heroes and heroines still return at the end to the familiar security of home. Only with a third step in the unfolding pattern does the story add a further important ingredient to the general message. In tales such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff or The Three Little Pigs, we again begin with little heroes living at home with mother: in each of these examples, three young brothers. Again, as they grow up, the heroes go out into the great world, where they encounter a terrifying dark figure: a fearsome troll guarding the bridge, a big bad wolf. Again, through courage and ingenuity, they themselves eventually manage to destroy this monstrous figure (even though, in the case of the little pigs, two are eaten). But we no longer see the victorious heroes having to retreat back home at the end of the story. The important thing now is that they can move forward rather than back. Having crossed the bridge, the goats can begin their new life feasting on the meadow of sweet grass up on the mountainside. The third little pig can live happily ever after in his home made of bricks, which has successfully with stood the wolf's assaults because, unlike his brothers, he has built it soundly, out of strong, secure materials. Thanks to their victory over the dark power, they have now established a secure new home for themselves in the outside world, where they are free to live their own independent life.

Finally we come to all those stories which show this pattern unfolding to its fullest state of development. In stories like Aladdin or Snow White, we again see the young hero or heroine going out into the world and being drawn into a struggle with the same dark power, which lasts through most of the story. Again they finally emerge triumphant. But their ultimate reward now takes a much more specific form, as we see them brought together in loving union with a beautiful Princess or handsome Prince, and in some way succeeding to rule over a kingdom.

We thus see them having completed perhaps the most fundamental transition in any human life. They have begun in the secure but dependent state of childhood. They have gone out into the great world, to face all sorts of ordeals and adventures. But they end up having established an entirely new secure base of their own, united to a loving partner and presiding over their own little kingdom. The transition from childhood to maturity is complete. And the key to reaching this goal has been to emerge victorious from a series of battles with the dark power.

Indeed what we also come to recognise from such tales are those essential elements making up what Aristotle identified as the beginning, middle and ending of a story which, expressed in more sophisticated outward forms, remain central to our experience of storytelling for the rest of our lives.

Beginning

The `beginning' of almost any type of story shows us a hero or heroine who is in some way undeveloped, frustrated or incomplete. This establishing of their unhappy, immature or unfulfilled state sets up the tension needing to be resolved which provides the essence of the story.

Middle

The `middle' of the story shows them sooner or later falling under the shadow of the dark power, the conflict with which constitutes the story's main action. In the types of story we come to early in life this threatening presence is invariably personified as outside the central figure, although later we come to the type of story in which those same dark qualities are shown as lying in the hero or heroine themselves. Through most of the story we see its little world divided into an `upper' realm, where the dark power holds sway, and an `inferior' realm, where the forces of light remain in the shadows.

Ending

The `end' of the story provides its resolution. The action eventually builds to a climax, when the forces making for threat and confusion rise to their highest point of pressure on everyone involved, and