Scottish Storytelling Centre and Network

Blethers Issue 29 Autumn 2014

Historic Independence Referendum ONCE UPON A PLACE Stories are the immaterial map that As we go to press with the autumn issue of Blethers, Scotland has allows communities to gone to the polls in an historic Independence Referendum. Scottish navigate their politics are never going to look the same, due to the energy and surroundings and give grassroots activism that has developed around the debate on what meaning to the kind of society Scotland should become. Many pundits have spoken landscape. Old legends of the decline of politics and of democracy withering by neglect. The of place link people to evidence of recent months defies these pessimists. their lands and give us an insight into the events, hopes, fears and So what does that mean for tragedies that shaped a community over the culture? The unpredicted centuries. cultural surge is a clarion call And of course one of the best ways to get to for arts organisations to be know a place is to learn its stories and more engaged at the local myths. The Scottish International Storytelling level, and for more people Festival (24th Oct - 2nd Nov) provides a throughout Scotland to be wonderful opportunity to see Edinburgh, actively involved in the Scotland and the world through the lens of shaping of our cultural life. the tales of this and many other lands. The campaigning has had Creative connections between live narrative many creative aspects, not and place in Scotland, Europe and the Pacific region will be celebrated, exploring the least those brought about traditional and innovative ways in which by the National Collective, but their effort will be wasted if we do not people express their sense of identity by follow through in making the arts an inspirational presence through 'seeing stories' in their landscapes - rural every strand of social and community life. and urban. It is for that reason that the Scottish Storytelling Forum is now We are also delighted to be marking the 10th working so closely with the Traditional Music Forum and the anniversary of Edinburgh's designation as Traditions of Dance Scotland Forum. Through TRACS, our unified the world's first UNESCO City of Literature umbrella, we aim to contribute to a vibrant, healthy society playing with celebrations of Edinburgh storytellers - Sir Walter Scott in the 200th anniversary of its full part locally, nationally and internationally by building on local his first novel, Waverley; Robert Louis ownership of culture. Stevenson who links us with the Pacific; and In that endeavour we have a huge resource of song, music, dance raconteur extraordinaire of the Old Town, and story which was nurtured by our foremothers and forefathers. John Fee. That is not a static inheritance but something crying out to be carried Warm nights of tales in good company await into the future in new forms and patterns that feed into all the us in Edinburgh and in venues across contemporary arts as well. It is a time of promise in a challenging Scotland, and together we will cross the world, and the arts of tradition in Scotland and worldwide bring threshold to a world where mountains are rocks tossed by giants and caves are wisdom, joy and hope for humanity. passages to the Otherworld. It will be an This issue of Blethers reflects that growing collaboration between incredible journey. story, song, dance and music and we look forward www.tracscotland.org/festivals Y T E to the creative years and decades ahead. R L L O I T N S G

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Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR T: 0131 556 9579 E: [email protected] www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling

Scottish Storytelling Forum SC020891 Blethers

A Welcome to… From this issue, Blethers will include contributions on traditional music, song, dance and across artforms from the Traditional Music Forum and Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland. Here is a brief introduction to the two organisations.

Traditional Music Forum (TMF)

Walk down Waverley Bridge or of Scotland. One answer to the Traditional music has been one of Sauchiehall Street any day of the question 'what does the Forum do?' Scotland's cultural success stories in week and you'll hear the sound of is contained in that membership. It recent times, exemplified recently the pipes, Scotland's iconic, sonic collects and archives, it teaches, it by its high profile at the badge of identity. There are other develops skills, it promotes, it Commonwealth Games, and in musical sounds though that are provides platforms for the events like Celtic Connections, equally distinctive - Scots and Gaelic performance of Scotland's Hebridean Celtic, and Piping Live. song, the fiddle, accordion and traditional music - from the These great high points are Clarsach, all with accents as recording studio to the club to the platforms for work that has been redolent of their local origin as any concert stage - because that's what going on at the grass roots for speech. All of them can be classed its members do. more than a generation. Taken under the broad and welcoming together, the high profile events What the Forum also does is heading of Scotland's traditional and the continuing activity on the represent that network at a music. ground make a strong, interlocking national level, enable mesh which reinforces all of The Traditional Music Forum is the communication within, to and from body which advocates the value of Scotland's culture. The Traditional it, offering the voice of Scotland's Music Forum is a vital part of that. those sounds, those distinctive traditional music in fields such as vibrations, to Scottish life and education (formal and non-formal), For more info on the Traditional culture. It does so as the sum of its cultural tourism, social enterprise Music Form visit parts and as an emergent partner in and cultural policy. We catch up www.traditionalmusicforum.org the wider body known as TRACS. with each other at the annual Trad What are its parts? The Forum is a Talk conference in March and network of some eighty traditional support each other in various ways music organisations from every part throughout the year.

Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland (TDFS) Tap your toe to the sound of the pipes, fiddle or accordion and you're dancing to the rhythm of Scotland. Scottish dance has flourished over Today, Scottish traditional dance is facilitate the development of the centuries alongside traditional most known for four distinct types: educational resources, facilitate music and storytelling, evolving and ceilidh dancing, step-dancing, training, and increase access to absorbing influences from new Highland dancing and Scottish research and archive materials. In cultures to fuse into a fascinating country dancing. Each has its own addition to membership services, history. One of the earliest distinctive background but TDFS aims, as part of the wider structured uses of dance recorded technique, movements, footwork TRACS body, to support was in the performance and telling and patterns are common to all. collaboration across traditional of stories, as a means of Alongside these, there is a wealth artforms and advocate traditional committing knowledge to memory. of dance traditions from all over the arts at a national level, securing a From castles to stately homes, from world that have now found a place place for traditional dance in the village halls to family kitchens, within Scottish communities and fabric of Scottish life. dance was of great significance to contribute to the richness of the Membership of the Forum is open people and had an important social traditional dance landscape. to all who support, engage with, or and community-defining function. The Traditional Dance Forum of have an interest in traditional In some contexts it was a test of Scotland is inspired by these dance. To find out more about strength, stamina and agility - traditions and works with, and on traditional dance or joining the Highland dance was once used to behalf of, its membership to Forum, visit test men aspiring to join the provide a platform for exchange www.tracscotland.org/tracs/ Scottish regiments. and critical debate. The aim is to traditional-dance

2 www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling Issue 29 Autumn 2014

Storytelling and the Arts of Change

Illustration: Henry Rivers

The renaissance of live storytelling is He is to be thanked for undertaking It is essentially a group of stories the subject of some landmark books this task, and if the book provokes collected from holy books, historical this year. In Storytelling in the some arguments and debate then legends, folk tales and contemporary Moment filmmaker Michael Howes that is all to the good, as we reflect experiences by Martin Palmer and sets out to explore 'a contemporary on the inspiration of traditions and Katriana Hazell. Apart from useful verbal art in Britain and Ireland', and the challenges of change. introductions, the stories are left to the result is a most practical survey of Another sort of change is to the fore speak eloquently for themselves. what is happening with storytelling in Storytelling for a Greener World. But in fact this book is addressing now. The approach combines that of Mike Howes would surely approve of another of our global frontline a documentary filmmaker surveying the exemplary way in which this book challenges: the displacement of the field and that of an taps traditional sources and then people, the refugee experience, and anthropologist commenting on it. shows how they can creatively the potential rise of xenophobic This may not satisfy academic engage with the challenge of 'the demonization of 'the other'. Stories of rigorists but it makes for an accessible now'. Subtitled Environment, the Stranger speaks from a different and informative read. Community and Story-Based Learning, place, one of welcome, recognition of Amongst the most valuable parts of the book really delivers on all three what 'the other' brings to us and, Storytelling in the Moment are the aspects by assembling a cornucopia above all, the deep instinct of the interviews with audience members, of excellent contributors describing heart to embrace the stranger as a identifying the appeal of storytelling practical approaches, creative sister or brother. It is a wonderfully as a live and participative human interpretations and insightful stories. warm and slightly understated book engagement. Howes is also critical at No-one who is involved in storytelling, with a big message. points of poor organisation or limited environmental education or indeed self-understanding of the any other kind of education, should Storytelling in the Moment: contemporary artform, emphasising be without this volume. You will keep Exploring a Contemporary Verbal Art the need to be public-facing, dipping in and developing your own in Britain and Ireland responsive to social change and ideas and approaches as you go. Here Michael Howes (Academia Press, professionally organised. is a critical area where tradition is a 2014) ISBN 9789038221991 radical source for empowerment and Not everyone will agree with all of the Storytelling for a Greener World: change. What could be more vital opinions expressed and, as in much Environment, Community and Story- than the very sources of life itself? contemporary ethnology, the Based Learning (Edited) Alida Gersie, Storytelling for A Greener World is background and biases of the Anthony Nanson and Edward inspiring and practical, and forms the investigator are openly declared. But Schieffelin (Hawthorn Press, 2014) centrepiece of this year's Storytelling it is very refreshing to have an ISBN 9781907359354 outsider's eye on where things are at, Festival event at the Royal Botanic and Howes has been diligent and Gardens in Edinburgh. Stories of the Stranger: Encounters energetic in attending events, digging Stories of the Stranger: Encounters with Exiles and Outsiders (Collected) into source materials and, above all, with Exiles and Outsiders presents Martin Palmer and Katriana Hazell speaking to those involved in all the itself at first as a very different kind (Bene Factum, 2014) ISBN different aspects of storytelling. of book. 9781909657441

www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling 3 Blethers

The ABCs of Storytelling: tips, techniques and reflections D is for Delivery and D Dialogue Many come to me wanting to know how to deliver a story. They're hoping I can offer some sure-fire techniques to guarantee a first-rate delivery. While I can offer a variety of techniques, I cannot guarantee success. Delivering a story is much more than technique; among others it involves a deeper sense of timing, pacing, use of language and imagery, connection with the story and the audience.

There is no one way to deliver a deepening the storyteller's character is taller or smaller than story. Some storytellers are very connection with the story and their the other and indicate this with the animated and gregarious, while own inner storyteller. This takes angle of your head when speaking. others are quiet and still. Some use place through critical reflection and Jack would look up when talking to humour, others pathos. Some use dialogue. In a small coaching group, the Giant and the Giant, of course, props, others none. There are as storytellers have the opportunity to would look downward. It sounds many ways to deliver a story as watch and listen to one another, to obvious but many storytellers tell there are storytellers. learn from each other's experience, the dialogue rather than show it. I would also argue that deliver is not to explore their natural talents, to Also, try eliminating the 'he said' the right word. Delivering a story try on techniques and decide which and 'she said' indicators found in suggests that a story is a package or feel natural and allow them to texts. Use your voice, head position, commodity. My own view is that speak and act authentically. and relevant body gestures to stories live and breathe around us I would also say that my approach indicate who is speaking. Such and within us. They look for bodies to story is dialogic; that is, that I dialogue techniques will help you and voices through which they can encourage dialogue or tell the story in a way common to be told and heard. They are not conversations with stories. We talk oral rather than written storytelling objects to be delivered or thrown to stories and listen to what they and liberate you from the printed about. Stories are our connections have to say. We get to know the page. Your storytelling will come to the past, to our humanity, to characters within stories, not just alive, I can guarantee that. what we might become. We enable the protagonist and antagonist but MICHAEL WILLIAMS stories and stories enable us. the marginal characters too. In fact, [email protected] This philosophy is at the heart of my I like to have storytellers retell story-coaching. We prepare our stories from different perspectives. bodies, our voices, our imaginations Try Little Red Riding Hood from the Wolf's point of view, or Grandma's, Michael Williams is a story and our hearts as one might in a coach, storyteller, and host spiritual practice. I imagine myself or even from the point of view of of the Teller and the Tale as a sort of story-monk devoted to the basket of goodies Little Red is providing time and space in which carrying. Whose stories are not radio show. He welcomes you meet story. Storytelling being told within a story? Explore your comments. Michael can requires commitment and faith. those, listen and learn. be reached at While I can offer techniques And finally, while we're on the topic [email protected] associated with the communication of dialogue, may I offer one m or through his website at and performance arts - vocal particular technique? It's the simple http://michaelwilliamsstoryt techniques, body movement, turning of the head from left to eller.blogspot.com gestures, rhetorical devices, acting right to simulate a conversation skills and so on - I focus on between characters. Decide if one D4 www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling Issue 29 Autumn 2014

Storytelling in the Corporate World New buzzwords enter the business world all the time, and today the biggest corporate buzzword is storytelling. Corporates are obsessed with storytelling; conferences and workshops on the subject are told to full houses. I know because I deliver them.

But even I was amazed when each other and the build-up of their SAMSUNG sent an entire film crew romance through the constant from South Korea to film me doing offering of cups of Nescafé. We a storytelling workshop in watched with bated breath to see Corporate storytelling is about Manchester. They had begun to how the story would unfold, and engaging an audience through realise that their competitors, surely still remember the product it simple narratives that will relate the particularly in the US and the UK, promoted. story to prospective clients, were selling their products more This technique is widely used now. employees and others in a way that successfully through advertising Think of your own favourite; mine inspires and motivates them to using a back story. So they had at the moment is definitely the react favourably to whatever decided to film storytelling live and Compare the Meerkat saga, now suggestions may be put forward. wanted to do it at my workshop; I with the addition of a cute baby was thrilled to bits! meerkat. This also enables companies to reinforce their brand identity and Storytelling has been in the Each of these stories aims to create corporate world of advertising for mark the difference (as a positive) an interest and to focus the between themselves and their decades, but we just didn't notice attention in a way that dry data and that it was the story that was doing competitors by offering a number blunt facts could never do. Any bit of coherent concepts throughout the selling. Storytelling is a timeless of information that we feel no skill and story has been an essential every communication they produce connection to washes over us and is and every PR action they take. vehicle for change throughout soon forgotten. Giving the same Naturally in order for this to be human history. Now more than information as part of a story is successful, the 'story' has to be ever, with the extensive choice of much more effective, as the story embedded in the branding and be media available, businesses have focuses our attention and taps into instantly recognised. the opportunity to stand out, our feelings and emotional spread the word and be more attachment. This means that the Last but not least, it is also successful through the message or other bit of corporate important to remember that use of back stories information is remembered along corporate storytelling relies on and the power of with the story, even long after it facts, never fiction, and is grounded good storytelling. was first heard. solely in meticulous research. It is So what is a back People are designed to engage with not about telling a tall tale, it is story? A back stories and will empathise with about telling a good story well. story is where interesting characters, and Rona Barbour you have an storytelling can help the corporate intriguing Corporate Storycoach world with that. In fact, the most [email protected] narrative and successful companies are using this the advertised strategy to put themselves ahead of product is a the game. catalyst for the story. But storytelling in the corporate CORPORATE world is not just about ads and back An example of stories, it can play an important role COMMUNICATOR’S this is the at organisational level too. A new CHECKLIST famous idea, line of products or  Have a clear understanding of Nescafé management setup will need who you are targeting. adverts with 'buying in' from staff, sales  Have a clear understanding of the gorgeous personnel and shareholders, and the values (and principles) of couple living this implies that they need to be the proposal. next door to receptive to the message that is being passed on.  Understand what is expected to be the achieved outcome. Success happens when these people are able to understand  Be aware of any pitfalls and exactly what the aim is, the reasons how they may be managed or behind it and agree to go along avoided altogether. with the ideas presented.

www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling 5 Blethers

Stories of Natural Scotland In September last year I set off on a quest: to walk 220 miles coast to coast across Scotland on the Southern Upland Way.

The real challenge I had set myself, though, was to do the walk in the style of a wandering bard; what the Celts called a seanacaidh and the Norse called a skald. Every time I But eventually my perseverance yielded It rained all day and all the next night, came to a town or village along the some results with the schools along the and most of the following day. My gear way, I would stop and tell stories; route, so on September 5th I was in was good, but not good enough; in the Stories of Natural Scotland. Portpatrick on the west coast, ready to particular my shoes. I had been walking Stories of seal-people and the fairy begin the tour on a day of sparkling ten miles a day in trail shoes in the folk; of ghosts and goblins; of red sunlight. I gave my performance at the weeks leading up to the walk, as well squirrels and golden eagles. primary school there, had some tasty as running in them three times a week, The seed of the idea was a feeling I fish and chips from the van at the and was happy that they would serve had that, in order to really get to harbour and started on the path. me well on the Southern Upland Way. know the stories, I had to know the I always find when I begin a walk that They didn't. By Saturday afternoon my land they came from. Stories and for the first hour or two there's an thoroughly soaked feet began to land are intimately related; they are instinct continually telling me to stop. blister. By Sunday morning the pain part of each other. It's like my body can't understand why was awful. By Sunday afternoon… I it's not sitting down. Then, after a don't really want to think about Sunday Also, it was about authenticity. I couple of hours, I find my rhythm and afternoon. One thing kept me going; didn't want to be a pale imitation when I want to sit down my body the thought of arriving in Dalry before of those skalds who traipsed into won't let me, and I have to argue with the pub stopped serving food that the village, all bearded and hoary it that I need to take a break. In this evening and drying my shoes in front of and smelling of the forest; I wanted fashion I made my way along the the fire while eating fish and chips. to have a go at being the real thing. coastal path that leads north, then Wouldn't my audiences get so I kept going, chanting a mantra turned east and inland down quiet through gritted teeth as I walked, until much more from the session if they lanes in the gathering dusk, before at last I came over the brow of a hill to knew I had just come down off the making my camp on a bed of leaves in see the village nestled by the river hills to tell them a few stories and the woods outside Castle Kennedy. beneath me. Despite the pain, or afterwards would be heading back At Castle Kennedy Primary School the maybe because of it, that was one of into the wild weather? Wouldn't pupils couldn't believe that I had slept the most magical moments of the tour. some of that wildness soak into in the woods. Their eyes went even I felt like I had a real sense of what it me, into the stories and into them? wider when I told them of the giants must have been like for a travelling Hotels and B&Bs were out of the that lived in those woods before a wee seanacaidh to emerge out of the wild question. Fortunately I had a good boy from Castle Kennedy got rid of lands, cold and hungry, to see the stock of hi-tech lightweight them. Telling stories in this way was village lamp-lights and know what they backpacking gear (authenticity is vital; I wanted to 're-enchant' the promised: a warm welcome, hot food, relative, and I'm not that tough) landscape, encouraging imaginations good company and somewhere dry to sleep. which would be more than capable that had been fried by the X-Box to of meeting the demands of the leap into life again at the thought of journey. All I needed was time, what might be out there in the forests money and willing audiences. and hills. They loved handling my camping gear and testing the weight of Being a self-employed storyteller, my dehydrated meals and tent. time wasn't to be a problem. It was midday on Friday when I left Neither was money, since Creative Castle Kennedy. I had the weekend to Scotland was kind enough to fund walk 50 or so miles across the Galloway the project. Finding audiences Hills to St John's Town on Dalry, and I proved to be a little trickier. It's was looking forward to it. Then it well known that people in our started to rain. It was still raining when society tend to value things I put up my tent in a forestry plantation The worst over, by the following according to what they cost, so I that night. It was still raining when I morning I was in full swing. I carried on found myself in the very bizarre packed up my tent the next morning. It east to Sanquhar, and then the highest situation of phoning round schools, was still raining when, half an hour village on my journey and the highest offering to give away something after setting off, I passed a bothy that I village in Scotland: Wanlockhead. which I make my living from, and could have spent the night in but I was looking forward to visiting being evaded, ignored or refused wasn't marked on my map. That was Wanlockhead, not least because my almost everywhere I turned. painful. partner would meet me there with

6 www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling Issue 29 Autumn 2014 fresh supplies and encouragement, but also because I would be giving my first A Natural Scotland? public performance of the tour in the inn. When I arrived at the inn there was already a good audience of local adults The tour was called Stories of Natural Scotland. There have been ready to hear some stories. plenty of stories but I have seen very little of what could truly be It was a new experience for most of called 'Natural Scotland'. them and also for me. I'm used to arriving at venues with a car full of In all the lands I had walked across, didgeridoos, drums and exotic there was nowhere that was not artefacts. Here it was just me, the divided by fence or wall. Every patch of audience and the story. The vibe was grass was there for the grazing of relaxed and unpretentious and I found sheep, and where there were sheep my style adapting to fit the there was little else. Every forest was a circumstances in a way that was plantation, as uniform and cheerless as surprising and pleasing. Chatting to the a military parade. I spent just two audience afterwards, I got great nights in places that had the feeling of feedback and found that people loved wild nature; a community-managed oak hearing stories that populated places wood in Galloway and a cabbage-patch they knew with otherworldly sized piece of woodland, too small for characters but also related to their anyone to bother managing, by the side lives, the land and weather they knew. of a lane in the Lammermuirs. After Wanlockhead I headed to Moffat, I knew prior to starting the walk how precious little land is left to be as it will be in then into the Borders. By this point I Scotland, I just didn't know it was this bad. There was nowhere worse, though, had walked over a hundred miles and than the Lammermuirs. The high moor is 'managed' exclusively for grouse things were getting easier. The shooting and nothing that might harm the birds - other than those who pay sunshine that had blessed Scotland all handsomely to do so - is allowed to exist. I felt utterly dispirited as I crossed the summer returned for spells. I was able wasteland of the moor, where I saw nothing that lived or moved save birds bred to dry out my tent most days and get to die for sport. fish and chips in most villages, to make a change from my dehydrated meals. That put me in a bit of a fix. Here I was, promoting the beauty and wonders of After that it wasn't so tough. The 'Natural Scotland' and encouraging children to get out on the hills, and yet the amount of miles I had to cover each parts of Scotland that I had walked across didn't feel natural at all. day was less, and I had more time for Was this just because I had been spoilt by my many trips to spectacular places breaks - previously there had been days abroad and in the highlands? I knew the highlands were no different, their soul- of twelve hours walking with only a stirring sparseness the result of deforestation, overgrazing and the horror of the few five or ten-minute breaks. I nosed clearances - but due to the nature of the landscape they feel wilder. around the historic towns of Melrose and Lauder and stopped to read an Looking back, it is clear to me that despite and because of the abuses done to our article about my own tour in a land, we must encourage our children and young people to get out there, to newsagent's. make up their own minds and to begin dreaming Natural Scotland's future. After leaving Lauder I was on the home Myself, I have found huge inspiration in George Monbiot's book Feral, where he stretch, over the Lammermuir hills to makes a case for 'rewilding' the landscape, allowing forests to grow again on the Cockburnspath and the end of the trail. high lands and reintroducing native wildlife such as bison, lynx, wolves and bears. 'Home stretch' is a fitting phrase as I I believe that for the kingdoms our minds to be healthy, the borders of our grew up on the edge of the imaginations must be wild, shadowy places; forests and dark mountains where Lammermuirs; in a sense I had walked witches brew potions and wolves hunt by the moonlight; places where we roam home. At last, after over thirty in our dreams and fantasies. performances, two weeks walking and over two hundred miles covered, I saw the sea. I had made it. The pupils of Cockburnspath Primary School rain and blisters. I usually find it hard I loved meeting the pupils at each school welcomed me in for a wonderful final to talk about my own life and my and sharing the journey of each story school show, then in the evening I gave own personal stories, but here it with them. No matter how many times I my second and final public wasn't so difficult. The audience told give a performance or tell a particular performance at Cockburnspath their own stories, and though I still story, it never gets boring. Once you've Community Hall. It was much quieter told the tales I had promised, the begun telling, the energy of the story, than the Wanlockhead evening, with evening had a unique feeling; not a the audience and the place all intertwine just eight audience members in performance, not a ceilidh, but to make something that has never attendance. We stacked all the empty something in-between, a time and happened before and will never happen chairs at the side of the room and place where something very special again. It's a bit like dancing - no matter brought our chairs into a circle, and I was shared. I learnt a lesson about how many times you dance to a favourite began to talk. not holding back from an audience, piece of music, you'll never dance the Again, something new happened. I not hiding in the safety of my same dance twice. I'm back to using my didn't tell stories as I normally would. I menagerie of stories. Allowing car now, but I'm still on that journey and told the story of the tour, of the joy of myself to be vulnerable rewarded me won't be stopping anytime soon. meeting so many enthusiastic children with my favourite night of the tour. Daniel Allison and sharing stories with them, and And not just because I didn't have to [email protected] laughing at my struggles with torrential walk any further!

www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling 7 Blethers

Folk who gave me Folklore During my childhood in the decade following the end of World War II I heard many tales and legends from family and neighbours, especially from my great aunt Kate MacDonald (1879- 1968) who was retired from having been the only teacher in a tiny rural school.

She had never married, so she In observing and participating in treated me as if I were her own such a variety of different European child: she watched over my folk cultures, I was struck by the education, taught me subjects parallels and similarities, especially beyond the school curriculum and in folktales. Not only did specific passed onto me all that she could motifs in the Slavic tales strike me remember of the lore she had heard as similar to those of the Gaelic in her own childhood. tales of my childhood, but the manner in which they were told was When she died she left me her virtually identical in all cases. The personal belongings, including a person telling a story in a home bundle of letters from the 1840s setting always sat and recited the which were the correspondence of sequence of events in a matter-of- her grandmother, Sarah MacCallum fact way; never dramatising it or (born 1824 in Barramolloch, Argyll) acting out the characters. I cannot from whom she had learned much recall any of them ever attempting of her lore. to mimic the actual voice of a character in a tale, except in some From the age of nine I was given instances where that character was weekly private instruction in piping. Being something of a vagabond an animal or a bird. They did not tell Already aware of the prevalence of myself, I often visited travellers you, nor pretended to know, the folktales in Highland culture, I including the splendid Willie thoughts, feelings or motives of a pestered my piping teachers for Macphee and Duncan Williamson, character; the storytellers simply stories and legends. My first many years before the Scottish reported what was said and done. teacher, Jimmie MacNeil, would Storytelling Centre was founded. They would sometimes respond to become annoyed that I wanted to Willie taught me some pipe tunes as their own storytelling as if they learn tales and songs as much as well as telling me many tales. He were actually listening to it piping technique or tunes, but he had a knack of sliding into a tale themselves for the first time; would usually comply. Later during a conversation, so that it was showing surprise at a sudden twist teachers were more readily difficult to tell where exactly the in a tale. People listening to these forthcoming and often appreciated story began, and he was often tales, usually family members and neighbours, more often than not the extent of my interests. Alec several minutes into it before I had their hands busy with knitting, Macrae, who was a car mechanic at would realise he was actually telling stitching, polishing, repairing: the Calvine in Highland Perthshire, was me an ancient fable and not simply standard evening chores of a rural particularly keen to tell me stories recounting an incident from his own and teach me songs, many of which household. So they could not focus past. on watching the person telling the were the sources of pipe tunes. He From my late teens, I spent much of story, who was quite often also even took me to visit the places my life in Europe. My home for a occupied with a simple task. where tales had taken place and while was in Macedonia and later in introduced me to game-keepers Neresnica, a Vlach village in eastern who had a wealth of local lore, Serbia. From those bases I travelled especially Bob Bissett in Lubriach, through Bulgaria, Slovakia and the upper Glen Lyon. Bob was the Czech lands. In later years, after I custodian of the Cailleach stone at had returned to Scotland, I the top of the glen, a steep hike up continued to visit those countries from his house. In later years, after I and also wandered around Italy, had settled in Edinburgh, I regularly France and Croatia. I generally Nowadays, when storytelling has went to visit Alan Macintosh Bain, travelled by hitch-hiking and been revived largely in venues with who had been brought up in the survived by busking in cities and a seated audience and a stage, Lochalsh district, and he would tell towns or by manual jobs in rural necessity perhaps demands a more me tales while teaching me pipe areas. All along I learned different dramatic delivery; but I have made tunes, so that the two became 'folk' bagpipes and picked up tales, the conscious decision to deliver quite intertwined with one another. songs, dances and traditional tales as close as I can to the manner He also had a fine memory for customs with a great appetite. I had in which I first heard them. In doing dances and dance steps which had to learn the languages as I went so I can relive those vivid not passed into the repertoire of along and, to this day, I tend to experiences from my youth and the Highland Dancing or Ceilidh speak them with the accent and perhaps pass that experience on to Dancing societies. He drilled me in idiom of a country bumpkin, much others. these until I got the movements just to the surprise and amusement of James MacDonald Reid as he remembered seeing them. tourists and diplomats I meet. [email protected]

8 www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling Issue 29 Autumn 2014

Storytelling and a Sense of Place All stories happen somewhere, but in some instances, where a particular story has become attached to a particular location, there is a much more physical relationship between story and place. This kind of story fascinates because it promotes an understanding which doesn't necessarily have something to do with historical fact, but nevertheless creates a psychic topography which can be lived in just as vividly as the physical landscape. Stories of place can have major social functions: they Smoo Cave can unite communities or set them against one another; they can be the focus of religious devotion or the fomenters of wars. More Local legends are always sited in The first Lord of Reay, in Northern recently and mundanely they have specific locations and include quite Sutherland, is a real enough been used for walks, school particular details which help to character - born Donald Mackay in projects, to anchor them there. Beyond pure 1590, supporter of the Protestant promote tourist entertainment, they may have a cause after the Reformation. But activity and so function such as 'explaining' how a there is a tale about how he on. particular feature of the landscape narrowly avoided a show-down earned its name, or came to be (a with the Lord of Darkness in Smoo giant dropped a hodful of rocks and Cave by sending his dog into the created a mountain); strengthening cave first - of course it emerged and confirming the identity of a hairless and virtually skinless. community (bold folk descended This shows that however much of from a legendary hunter); fleshing the legend is rooted in events which out an event or life round the bare can be shown to have taken place, bones of historical detail (the Wolf it will contain elements that can't of Badenoch plays chess with the be verified historically and which, Devil). when looked at more closely, can Stories of place can fall into two often be found in other stories main categories: legends and linked to other places as well. stories with some historical basis, Broadly, a local legend may not be but the boundaries between the as entirely local as first appears. The This autumn we want to encourage two are not always well defined. whole story, or parts of it, may also everyone to go and research the tales For example, take the story of the be found in essence in other places and the legends of their local community and other times. This doesn't mean and then share them with friends, family piper who enters a particular cave and with anyone else who might be in search of treasure, never to be that local legends have less value interested. Let's bring life back into the seen again (though his dog for this but rather that one of their landscape! emerges, several weeks later and outstanding qualities is an ability to Have a look at our Once Upon A Place from an entirely different cave, with adapt, like an organism, to a campaign on no hair, and hardly any skin left on particular location, and to create www.tracscotland.org/legend-hunting, its body). Versions of this tale are so within that location's community a part of the Scottish International widespread that not only a search feeling of connection to landscape Storytelling Festival, and you'll find free for a 'true' version would be and a sense of shared history. resources as well as tips and advice on how to become a Legend Hunter! pointless, but we find examples of Bob Pegg this tale mixing with historical fact. [email protected]

www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling 9 Blethers

LIVING VOICES Stories, poetry and song in care homes across Scotland Living Voices is a project in partnership with The Scottish Poetry Library that started in February 2013 with a simple premise: words have great power and they can benefit older people living in care. An 18-month pilot saw a team of storytellers, poets and musicians visit care homes and sheltered housing units in Perth and Kinross, South Ayrshire and Aberdeen.

During their monthly visits, the work to create something unique, staff, who report that Living Voices artists work with small groups and suited to each group's interests, helps them to engage with are supported by care staff or needs, histories and abilities, and residents in new ways, learn about volunteers. Stories and songs are this is hugely beneficial. Sessions them and build relationships. Many the starting point for conversations are run in a subtle and person- have been inspired to try working ranging from responses to the centred way, with no pressure on with poetry and story outside the pieces shared to reminiscence, and anyone. The aim is not to try to Living Voices sessions, and we have aiming to encourage the groups' entertain, but really to listen and trialled training to support this. creativity to flow. give participants a sense of a safe We hope to build on this success in Sessions have a common structure space in which they can share the future. Scotland's health and and the same themed resources, anything that the songs, poems and care systems are going through a but flexibility is at the core: artists stories trigger. period of great change, with a One very important factor of Living greater focus on individuals, their Voices is that we have been able to histories, interests and personal evaluate the impact of the project preferences. over time through independent In this context, there is great external assessment. potential for programmes like Living The final evaluation was recently Voices to bring quality engagement launched at a community with the arts into care settings. celebration in Aberfeldy. The Emma Faragher document suggests that Living Living Voices Project Manager Voices improves wellbeing and strengthens social connections Living Voices is funded by The Paul between residents, and is highly Hamlyn Foundation, The Baring valued by them: 'I find this of terrific Foundation, Creative Scotland and value…. It's very good, stimulating The Gannochy Trust. You can to be learning new things when you download the final evaluation get to this age!' document at Key findings also include www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/ demonstrable benefits for care learn/carers

AMANDA EDMISTON 'something for children' when ROSIE MAPPLEBECK As I arrived at the care home for my presented this way. Living Voices has taught me never to first session, I was met with The core group of six was often expect anything - dementia can apprehension by one of the carers joined by relatives, and four of the develop very quickly, so our group who was unclear about my role. And carers became regular faces. Poetic members could feel like different when I explained to a resident that I license was generously applied, we people each time we met. was a storyteller, she asked if there did not need the tales we shared to Underneath the confusion, frustration was to be a show could she leave? I be 100% accurate, and did not feel and anger that can accompany the joked that I hoped not, as I might go hurt when details were forgotten. with her if there was! Soon I proved This was important, in order to make progression of dementia though, my point. The session developed like sure the residents didn't feel anxious there are fine people who have lived a loosely structured conversation, I about getting things wrong. Tales lives rich in story, who enjoy meeting was not a performer but more like a became romantic glimpses through up and sharing those stories. new visiting friend - one with a clouds, or raconteurs' banter tailored We had snapshots of memories, selection of interesting anecdotes for comic effect. Over time the group sailed on seas of fabric while singing and unusual topics. After the first helped me review and tweak stories session I found a rhythm. I presented songs of home. We tasted our stories for other projects, shared their own the month's theme through poetry - I always have associated pictures, family legends and gave me valuable and tunes which branched off from a smells and tastes to back up any story, or sometimes through a family insights into life. My last session saw image made in words. Poetry and a lady hug me and say she would miss anecdote or a news update from my music have been powerful ingredients me, as I was 'something different'! previous month's work. Stories in the sessions, with people sharing became more accessible, not [email protected]

10 www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling Issue 29 Autumn 2014

Scots Patron of Reading

I met Mackenzie Crook at the The Patron of Reading scheme is Edinburgh Book Festival. You quite new, having started in Wales know, he was the one who played two years ago. Tim Redgrave, a Ragetti in Pirates of the Caribbean, headmaster from St. Asaph's in but he also wrote and illustrated Denbighshire, wanted to get away two beautiful books, The from the idea of forever testing kids Windvale Sprites and The Lost and wanted something to Journals of Benjamin Tooth, which encourage reading for fun and he signed for me to give to the enjoyment. He invited author Helen children of Eyemouth Primary Pielichaty to be the very first Patron School. We had one of those of Reading ever and she has been rambling blethers and I said 'You working with the school ever since. would make a great Patron of Helen was the first, I am number 91 Reading. Would you like to do in the UK, number 19 in Scotland that?' and he said, and I still can't and, most importantly, the first in believe it, 'I would'. If he really the Borders. Eyemouth Primary does it, he will be in great School picked me, which is a real company because I am a Patron of honour and a surprise, as I thought Reading too, albeit a very recent they would be fed up with me being And all the time I'm looking for local one. in and out of the school all the time. words which are centuries old and using them in storytelling and Patrons of Reading are attached to reading, just scattering a few lovely a school for a period of three years. sounding words here and there. It They can visit, set up reading might just bring parents on board, groups, read to the kids, hold particularly the ones who still see quizzes and competitions, involve Scots as slang. A lot of Scots words classes or the whole school in are connected to place so there will events, introduce new authors, be words used specifically in the suggest books - in fact, the list of fishing or farming or boat building. possibilities is endless. One of the joys is that it is teacher-led so, Jon Biddle is the National Organiser although I can suggest things, it will and Katrina Lucas is the Scottish be the teachers who will call the Organiser with an interest in Scots songs in answer to the ones we shots and there is a greater chance language; they are spreading the brought and sometimes responding of them getting what they want. My news to all schools and their help to a poem with startling images and contact is P.T. Amy Perryman and has been invaluable. The most important piece of advice they have memories. the aim is to dovetail being both a given me is to have a blog (me, a We became friends and facilitated storyteller and a Patron of Reading blog?) so that the kids and parents laughter and tears. One abiding and fit it all in with the school's new can write about their reading. Now I memory is of a lady with only reading/creative writing scheme, have a mobile phone, a laptop, a monosyllables left, who cradled a starting this term, and the doll I had brought to represent the Kindle Fire and an Ipad, so I am all Eyemouth Primary School set. Nick of Eyemouth Library is in, I infant Robert Burns for a story. As Storytelling Festival on 24th she held it, she disappeared into her am reading like mad and trying to October. own story, and we could only watch put together a collection of books, her emotion-filled face and wonder. And of course let's not forget the as Jon Biddle wants this for the The Living Voices project has been Scots language. I speak Hiemooth, a website, and I am tweeting. practice-changing for me. Now I see very localised form of Scots. It is Excitement or what? story and inspiration in every item, also used to some extent both sides Marjorie Leithead and I seek to touch the essence of the Border as there are Hiemooth [email protected] within us with humility and an open words spoken in Northumbriana mind. It also made a huge impact on (the language of Northumbria) and social practice at the care home I vice versa, and they tend to be very visited, as individuals' needs were old words. Imagine saying to HASPAN - half-grown, a youth. revealed and responded to in children, 'My two Scots words of sessions, and the value of word and MOONBROCH - halo round the moon. story to bring people together was the day are haspan and moonbroch. recognised. Off you go and find out what they SKLENT - go to the side. mean!' Then the next day there are [email protected] another two Scots words, e.g. sklent WHIGMALEERIE - decoration/daftness. and whigmaleerie.

www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling 11 Blethers Issue 29 Autumn 2014

Book Blethers There are two new volumes in the History Press 'county' folk tales series, and both of them are stoaters. Lawrence Tulloch's Shetland Folk Tales and Tom Muir's Orkney Folk Tales bring lifetimes of island experience together with the art of the living storyteller. Both books are also beautifully illustrated by Alexa Fitzgibbon and Sheila Faichney respectively. All in all it's a wonderful two-hander They are drawn from a from the Northern Isles. Next up in wide variety of traditional this series is the Western Isles by and literary sources and Ian Stephen, and the full islanders' will provide material for hat-trick is celebrated at the many different curriculum Storytelling Festival. areas. On the whole, however, teachers and On the education front, an storytellers should use important PhD thesis by Fiona such a collection McGarry has just been completed alongside more locally and lodged at Dundee University sourced materials, as a Library. Story Teaches You Things is storytelling school draws a detailed exploration of how creatively on its own storytelling is being used as a environment and local identities. resource for teaching and learning in primary school classrooms in The final book to note is, if the SHETLAND FOLK TALES Scotland. It is full of useful insights, author will forgive a pun, a different Lawrence Tulloch and paints a picture of vigorous kettle of fish. Ian Stephen's A Book The History Press, 2014 activity, led not by any central of Death and Fish is the fruit of a ISBN 9780752497693 institutions or organisations, but by lifelong meditation and reflection teachers, pupils and parents on memory, storytelling and the ORKNEY FOLK TALES connecting with each other. There sea. The book is presented as a Tom Muir are lots of positives here based on novel, but also included is a lot of detail on cooking-fish, engines, and The History Press 2014 Curriculum for Excellence, and lots ISBN 9780752499055 of possibilities for future even European history and politics, development. Everyone concerned touching on religion, drugs and with Scottish storytelling will want alcohol along the way. THE STORYTELLING SCHOOL: to thank and congratulate Fiona You cannot help identifying the HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS McGarry, who teaches in Dundee, central narrator Peter McAulay with Chris Smith PhD on her fine achievement. the author, but fiction and factuality and Adam Guillain merge throughout. The book is a Hawthorn Press, 2014 Following on from that study, two ISBN 9781907359385 practical resource books from long read and I dipped in savouring Hawthorn Press could help us all on it in stages, till I was steadily drawn our way. The Storytelling School is into the emotional life of Peter, and 147 TRADITIONAL STORIES the second edition of an excellent began to read in longer chunks to FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL handbook for teachers, full of the end. A Book of Death and Fish is CHILDREN TO RETELL practical learning activities arising a testimony to the emotional power Chris Smith PhD from storytelling. The objective and of story, both when told, and when Hawthorn Press, 2014 philosophy is 'every child is a blocked or restrained. It is a moving, ISBN 9781907359392 storyteller'. Accompanying this is a very personal book that defies conventional genre boundaries to another volume, 147 Traditional A BOOK OF DEATH AND FISH Stories for Primary Children to sense the flow of life, like the tides of the sea. Ian Stephen Retell. These are simple, economical Saraband 2014 and well-crafted versions for oral Donald Smith ISBN 9781908643667 tellings, as it says on the tin. [email protected]

T: 0131 556 9579 E: [email protected] Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SR 12 www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk  www.tracscotland.org/tracs/storytelling