For the storyteller in fact based storytelling, our sources are everything. Our sources bring us closer to what the facts are, and illustrate the world in a way fiction never can. However over the course of time, reporting and facts can become lost, distorted, or misrepresented, or oral traditions fade. Identifying pertinent, and authoritative sources is critical to building the facts and world of a fact based story. This is especially true when telling fact based stories that by their nature exist in the past and beyond modern records. In the following I’d like to show a few examples of sources that can help you tell stories about the past. For this post I’ll focus on the folk tradition and modern database and curation efforts of Irish and celtic folklore.
- Annalistic / National or State Records can be incredibly helpful in building the base of knowledge. CODECS, an acronym for Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies, is an online platform published by the G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies, a non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands. It presents an ongoing attempt at building a comprehensive catalogue/database of sources of interest to Celtic studies, including every text and manuscript ever written, together with an extensive bibliography. For example, This source represents the earliest story of my ancestor, Eochaid Find Fuathniart.
Example of Annalistic / National or State Records: OʼBrien et al (1954), The Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Núachongbála, vol. 1, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1954. 260 pp. Via https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/
- Academic and Scholarly Sources, can represent the bleeding edge of academic research in an area provided that their own sourcing and citation skills point back to the earlier works which they draw from. Observations from different areas of study and science can provide new glimpses. In the article, ‘The Murder of Shane O’Neil’ the author argues similarities in the language of betrayal used to describe the Murder of Shane O’Neil (1567) to that of the betrayal and death of Conn of the hundred battles to which Eochaid Find is tied in myth. Through the lens of comparative linguistic analysis of the base cognate forms of; gaelic titles, words, and names etc, we can compare them to their hiberno-anglo definition. Truly wonderful observations can be made from academic material, but it must be vetted and authenticated appropriately. This is when source origin and authorship is most important.
Example of Academic and Scholarly Sources: Breatnach, Caoimhín (1992). The Murder of Shane O’Neill: Oidheadh Chuinn Chéadchathaigh. Ériu, vol. 43, 1992, pp. 159–75. JSTOR
- Firsthand accounts, oral traditions, and direct transmission of oral stories are one of the few remaining ways in which events from the past are still kept alive through outside of modern means of recording. Local retellings of the stories persist in the minds and heats of oral storytellers. Often regional or local variations to a popular story will contain hidden details that can turn a story or understanding thereof, on its head. As part of the Schools Collection program that ran from 1937 -1939 to become part of the repository of the national folklore collection, a students notes on the story of Goll Mac Morna at the battle of Cnucha, where the student describes Cumhail’s anger that the lands that were supposed to be awarded to him, have gone to his Mentor/tutor instead. In annalistic records Eochaid Find is recorded having been awarded lands in Leinster after coming to the defense of the king. This entry represents a rare 1st hand account of oral traditions being recorded to the page containing a rare fact or facet of the story that otherwise be untold in the popular renditions
Example of Firsthand accounts, oral traditions, and direct transmission of oral stories: Clochar na Trócaire, Cappamore (1937-39) Goll Mac Morna. The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0521, Page 022. National Folklore Collection, UCD.
In conclusion, by utilizing Citation sources like the annalistic documents and records, academic sources, and firsthand or oral traditions; you now have many of the necessary components to tell a fact based story of the ancient past! While these resources are tailored toward folk traditions of the Irish and Celts, I would encourage any storyteller to seek out similar resources that will connect you to the name, land, and stories of the past.
(The image at the top is some of the copy books used by children in the 1930s to collect folklore as part of the Schools Collection.)
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