Clare Murphy, who kicked off the first week of the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival, is a serious student of Irish myth. After we met in Ballinasloe on Wednesday afternoon, we spent the rest of the day talking about myth, how to find it, craft it, tell it, and especially how to build audience for it. Clare’s energy, commitment, and skill assure that audiences will come for her telling of myth.
Clare was scheduled to tell for Study Abroad Ireland on Thursday evening. When she asked me the previous day what I wanted her to tell, of course, I wanted my students to hear Cuchulainn. Ok, I wanted to hear that, and as many of her other myths as we could, but they were actually a perfect fit for what the students are learning in both my and Barry’s classes.
Barry had arranged with Mandy, who owns The Shack, for us to use their conservatory room. When we arrived at 6:40 there were eleven people in the many rooms of the pub. Seven of them were at the bar. Four of them, the drunkest, loudest four, were seated directly outside the doors to the conservatory. As it happens, the juke box is also just outside the doors to the conservatory. We had to get someone to turn off the speakers in our room, but we could still hear it, and the drunks were loudly offended.
I was worried, but by the time all the students piled in and we closed the doors, we could only dimly hear the music. I welcomed everyone, and asked them to acknowledge Danielle Allison, without whom there would be no festival. I introduced Clare, and once she started telling, no one in the room was paying attention to the music and the drunks outside quieted completely down. I think they may have even been listening.
She started off with The Sons of Mil, who were the last of several waves of invaders to Ireland. The Milesians (the Celts) come to Ireland from Spain, where they have glimpsed the island from a great tower. They defeat the Tuatha de Danann, the people of the goddess, after sailing nine waves out, and then returning safely to shore. As the Milesian’s great poet, Amergin, comes to the shore he speaks a famous poem. Clare spoke it first in Irish, and then in English:
I am the wind on the ocean
I am the crashing wave
I am the song of the sea
I am the bellow of the stag
I am the ray of sunlight
I am the beauty of the herb
I am the furious boar
I am the salmon in the pool
I am the lake on the plane
Clare followed this with her version of Macha, or The Curse of the Ulsterman. She told the students later that Macha was no ordinary woman; she was “like 6’8” tall, she was mighty, she was Michelle Obama!” One nice touch was that she used a Northern Ireland accent for the Ulster king. Very fun.
She then told the story of how Cuchulainn got his name. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better version of it. She starts off reminding everyone of what Cuchulainn was like as an adult – a raging, unbeatable warrior with the capacity to turn himself inside out during his warp spasms. Then she gave us Cuchulainn as a maniacal five-year old, a seething, nearly explosive force of nature. Seeing her become that noble little terror was remarkable, and it seriously enhanced my image of Cuchulainn.
Clare finished with the story of Fionn and Sadb, who was the mother of Oisin. We took a short break, and then Clare took questions, told more stories, and entertained us for another hour and a half. One thing in particular I remember her talking about was the capacity of the Tuatha de Danann to shape shift. She said she thought of it often as she watched other storytellers and experienced herself as a teller. She speculated that the tellers of the Tuatha De no doubt shape-shifted in people’s imagination just as modern tellers do. It was an insightful way to link present and past. The whole evening was just that, an imaginative portal to the past. It was a great evening and we were all enchanted.
At the top of the post, Clare waxes eloquent after the telling, mid-post, her happy listeners, and below the whole group.
Learn more about Clare Murphy, and see some video at www.myspace.com/claremuireannmurphy
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