Is Older Better?

Raven, artwork by Simon Brooks
 © 2016

I'm not talking about me here! I'm talking stories!
There is much stress is made on the Greek Myths in education.  I suppose there is very good cause for this.  Many of the places in these tales are real places and can be traced and taught. But there are so many other cultures whose myths and stories we should be exploring and sharing.  After my own cultural mythology of the Norse Gods, I discovered the Native American stories. They really spoke to me on a deep, deep level.  And I have found the same with Chinese and Indian (Asia) tales.  Much of this I want to explore and research more.

The Old Tales were for grown ups, not children. Let's face it, Grimm's stories contain infanticide, murder, theft, cannibalism, and yet more murder, as do many folktales from other cultures.  Look at the Baba Yaga stories, and some of Australia's traditional stories. In Australia there are tales where babies are eaten, of people setting fire to each other and the animals killing each other in horrific ways.  Many European stories have been watered down over the years, more recently and heavy-handedly in the last 40 years.

I think the stories from former Eastern Block countries were able to keep their strength and power, as they were less touched, as it were, by the French Romanticism and the Victorian era idea of cleaning everything up prim and proper! Some of these are not tales to tell or read to children, at bedtime or other times! But they are great for adults. It irks me a little that the Norse and Germanic pantheon of myths are often overlooked.  Huge units are taught on the Greek Myths, why not the Norse Myths and Sagas? Why not the Indian and Buddhist, Hindu tales too?  I have nothing against the Greek myths, although if children were taught the full story of Zeus and his philandering, the tricks he played in spite, and fear of wrath from his wife Hera, they may have a little less respect for these gods. And Hera always took out her revenge on the innocent, who Zeus had already mistreated!  The Norse gods always held themselves accountable, they seem like real people - "oops, messed up there!"  Very human.


I love the older versions of the Old Stories and take great pleasure from sharing them.  They are so strong. The messages strike harder and deeper.  I love telling these stories.  With all the personal stories being told and being listened to on The Moth and the like, there seem to be few kindred spirits in telling folk tales for adults.  I think if people took the time to sit and listen to the Old Stories we would find a medium in storytelling that is more intimate than theatre, more powerful than the movies and just as healing at times as a much needed call to your parents, trip to the therapist, or a snuggle with your Gran!  As Cassandra Cushing put it in the Bay Express on-line: "...part of the appeal of these stories is how they provide more concrete and straightforward ways for thinking about life's complications."

If you want to explore some of these tales, check out my beginners list of books on folk and fairy tales, myths and legends by clicking here: http://www.diamondscree.com/Booklist.htm
Enjoy!
Simon

Why Do I Tell Folk Tales?

Why Folk Tales? 

Based on an interview with Sam Payne of BYU Radio, and the Apple Seed show.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/qyyggrj

Old folk stories are still around because they are such great stories. If I get a book published, that would be great, but I don’t expect it be around in 100 year’s time. How many books have been printed since 1900 and before, which are no longer in print, nor being read, or have even been forgotten? I want to give the Old Stories which have been around not just for hundreds of years but thousands, in some cases, the light they deserve, the voice that they need.

Arthur Rackham, 1910

Because the Old Tales, the folk and faerie tales, myths and legends have been passed down from generation to generation, during that time cultures change, way of life changes and the stories change with that. But they still have the core value, the core lessons in them, if you want to find the lessons in them. These stories are powerful, and strong, and yet adults and kids are not getting to hear them.  These stories are so deep, we need to get them out to adults as well as to children. Some of these tales have a lot of red meat in them. If you were to tell one or two of these to a group of kindergarteners they would be going home telling their parents: “Mummy, there was this scary man there, and I don’t want to go to school tomorrow.” Not all folk and faerie tales are like that, but there are a good number which are. And there are stories about life, love, growing up, and death. It is a shame that adults think it is stuff for kids, but it’s not all like that. There are many stories which are deep and have much meaning in them. I told my own version of Little Red Riding Hood to a group of 12 year olds who thought, when I mentioned it before I began, it was a little kids story. They saw another side of it, by the time I had told the tale. These tales were not meant for books, they need to be told.

I love the fact that the MOTH is out there and people are sharing their personal stories. I think it is great that people are sharing their stories. We all do it, whether on a stage, or by the water cooler. Some of the stories I have heard on the Moth, I wonder why they are shared and broadcast across the country if not the world, but they are interesting and some are great. It is all about empathy and how we see each other as other human beings, and how we translate our experiences with one another, or don’t!  But these tales, these shared experiences will not be around in 50 years time. The old folk tales need to be heard, too. I do not tell personal stories, not often, because these old tales are so important. We should be giving the Old Tales the air time they deserve, and need, and keep them for another few thousand years.

Yesterday I was told by one listener after my performance that she couldn’t tell stories. “But,” I told her, “You will be telling stories about your trip here, when you get home.” Teachers tell me they are not storytellers, yet the best teachers ARE storytellers. Humans inherently learn through story and experience. List a bunch of facts and they are hard to remember, but couch them in a story and the facts will stay. Some storytellers dress up, and act out stories, but there are many who do not. They may only use hand gestures (which they may or may not be aware of), or facial expressions, but there are some storytellers, who just use their voice, and a certain choice of words. And it always engages. Even the ‘most troublesome kid in the class.' Those are the ones who usually respond the best!

When you use folk tales, there is a layer of separation, and it is this which allows one to identify themselves safely with the stories. They can see issues and difficulties second-hand, if you will, which can act as a buffer, whether the audience is elderly and the story is about death, or the audience is a bunch of middles schoolers who are trying to deal with bullying.

Start with the personal stories, they are easier to remember after all. But then move into the folk and faerie realm of stories, share the myths and legends, and be prepared to see those Old Stories in a completely new light.

Simon Brooks (c) 2014

If it ain't broke (or how change occurs when it is 'not supposed to')

From the 1970's and earlier

Stories change as they travel through cultures, and as society changes. As I was putting together some information for teachers about storytelling and the new Common  Core Standards, I was using Little Red Riding Hood as an example of stories to use.  I had found an interesting article by Terri Windham on the Endicott-Studio website from 2004.  Terri wrote: "Great Aunt Tiger, a story found in various forms in China, Japan, and Korea is a close relation to Little Red."  This reminded me of an article reported in 2009 by the Guardian (which also mentioned Jack Zipes' work (his book on Little Red Riding Hood) which talked about an Iranian version with a boy in the place of Red.  "Dr Tehrani found that the variants shared a common ancestor dating back more than 2,600 years... He said: 'The oldest tale we found was an Aesopic fable that dated from about the sixth century BC, so the last common ancestor of all these tales certainly predated this. We are looking at a very ancient tale that evolved over time.' "  NBC recently covered Dr. Tehani's story two months ago with a new twist, showing all of Little Red's relations in a chart!  Dr. Tehani's full report can be found here!  All of it makes for great reading.  Andrew Lang published back in the 1800's that he thought all 'fairy stories' came from India so this research has been going on in various forms for a while.  Looking at these reports and articles shows how stories can evolve.

Stories do change over time. With the printed word, illuminated manuscript, chiseled stone, found papyrus, or scribed scroll we can trace stories and find, or have an educational guess, at where they began. But I also believe that two people, or cultures can have similar ideas at the same time in very geographical places.  I wonder, sometimes, if when people like Tehani say they have found variants, they are simply stories that appeared in different places at the same time, independently.

Can something hit the human psyche at a given time and start things happening? It has happened with technology from the Victorian times to present day.  Even artists go through gestalt moments and come up with a new variant on a theme.  Writers in different places on the planet come up with similar ideas, as did, I believe, storytellers did hundreds of years ago, either to explain why things happened (what's the sun doing up there and why does it go away and come back every day? Where does it go, and can we go there too?) or as cautionary tales like Red.  As humans change either in development (have we really?) and culturally we see new things sometimes in these ancient stories, or we re-write them, either knowingly (The Weight by Jeanette Winterson) or not.  Recently my son and I were talking about the Lord of the Rings trilogy and suddenly I remembered a movie we had seen a few months back called '9'.  I asked my son if he also thought (as I had) if there were similarities. He agreed.  Did the writer/creator come up with the idea independently, or had he read Tolkien?  Did he think it was an original idea?  It is, but there are many influences.  (If you have not seen '9', it is a lot shorter than the Rings movies, coming in at 79 minutes in a single sitting and is a whole lot of fun, even if it is dark.)

And the stories change again! And more research is done and we might be getting closer to finding out who Little Red Riding Hood is and where she came from. Folk tales, to me, are fabulous things, and the research which has been done and continues to be done on them is fascinating. But I wonder when some of us say we need to be true to the original Old Tale, how true we need to be.  We choose what we put in and leave out.  I try to keep as much as the culture as I can find as a way to honour the tale.  But there are stories which I have changed.  My story of the Shape-Shifting Girl is a retelling of a Scandinavian of the Boy Who Could Turn Himself into an Ant, Falcon and Lion (also The Ashlad and the Beasts).  I loved the original story but was frustrated by the number of stories I was reading in the collection where the boy got to marry the princess. She, of course, had no choice, as it happened back in Those Days, but I thought I could make it so that no one had to get married. And also the gift of shape-shifting was given for some very small reason.  I believed that a gift such as that should be won by growth or a somewhat large challenge - more like Real Life. The lad became a lass and the beasts asking the lad to decide for them which part of the horse carcass they should eat became a battle and rescue mission.  These are probably the largest changes I have made to a story, but I have made others.  Some changes to make the story more accessible to a modern audience, some to make a story richer, adding to it where I have found additional cultural information giving depth.  Are either of these things doing a disservice to the stories? The Shape-Shifting Girl is a popular story of mine which is popular with boys and girls of all ages - from kids to adults - running at usually 20 minutes in the telling. It addresses things like consequences, strength of character, and shows that girls can be just as adventurous, smart and courageous as boys.

Many people tell their own versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  When I was growing up Goldilocks was always depicted as a pleasant looking girl, which sort of gave her permission to do the things she did.  A bit Jack and the Beanstalk-ish. My version of Goldilocks came out of talking with my daughter about Goldilocks (what a terrible person she was - a pain, a liar and thief, taking no responsibility for her actions) and playing around with the story and characters.  I added things that were part of my life, or at least my parent philosophy, it one could call it that ("what kind of a parent would I be if I gave you chocolate for breakfast?"), and experiences as a parent.  These things are identifiable to the older care-providers and draw them to the story as much as it draws the children. The Old Tales surely did this when they were first told - were empathic to the listeners, linked to their own existence, and experiences. Should storytellers, oral and/or authors, make changes like these?  And if we do, I wonder which stories will still be told, or read in 50 to 100 years from now.