Liz Warren | Storyteller

Who’s Your Favorite Folktale Teller?

         One of my favorite tellers of folktales is Janet Means, and this is one of my favorite pictures of her from her SMCC Storytelling Institute graduation.  I love several things about how Janet tells folktales.  First, she has a great talent for selecting stories that are a fit for her.  She goes for quirky ones like A Mouse, a Bird, and a Sausage.  She goes for dark ones about beautiful young women who are actually wolves.  She goes for quirky and dark like the Norwegian one I heard her tell last Sunday at Coffee Buzz, Butterball, which is about a plump little boy and the troll-hag who wants to eat him. The troll hag is memorable because she carries her head under her arm and a sheaf of dry twigs sprout from her neck where her head used to be.

             Janet never stands above the story, nor does she ever condescend or patronize with her tone. She’s in the story, but off to one side where she can witness the activities.  Sometimes she reports with a hint of ironic detachment, other times she is as astonished as the characters at how the events of the story unfold.

             Janet is also expert at making a folktale her own.  Her version of The Peddler of Swaffam is a thing of beauty.  I’ve never heard anyone tell it better.  In this story, Janet is 100% committed to the peddler and his conviction to follow his dream.  Janet has composed a tune and some verse which she intersperses in the action that both deepen the story and enliven it at the same time.  If you haven’t heard it, I hope you get that pleasure some day.      

             So . . . who is your favorite teller of folktales?  Or do you remember a particular instance when a folktale was told especially well?  Tell us about it!

5 responses to “Who’s Your Favorite Folktale Teller?”

  1. Glenda Bonin Avatar
    Glenda Bonin

    I have been thinking about the question relating to my favorite storyteller, and have found it almost impossible to land on the name of one storyteller for long. The reason for this is that I have such appreciation for the wide variety of tellers, their styles, abilities and the way they each approach a story. On one day I might find myself thinking about the quiet, complex, thoughtful and beautiful way Mary Hamilton tells a journey story. The next day I marvel at the talent, diversity and glee I experience when I see/hear/experience Willy Claflin. Then, there are my friends and storytellers right here in Arizona. How can I select just one as my favorite? I guess I am fickle. But do know that if I am in the audience and you are telling from your heart, you can be certain that I will be listening with great appreciation and delight.

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  2. Paul Larson, aka "Gusty" McCabe Avatar
    Paul Larson, aka “Gusty” McCabe

    Hi Gang,
    The fact is that I haven’t heard many true tellers of “folktales”. So many today tell personal narrative stories that, while they may be entertaining and interesting, do not beguile and intrigue the listener the way a well told folktale does.
    Walter Brennen was an excellent story teller and his delivery of Mark Twain’s “What Stumped the Bluejays” is a good example of his skill. It is also a good example of a teller and tale well fit together, like two kittens in a basket.
    I haven’t heard Mary Hamilton or Willy Clafflin but would surely enjoy hearing them. Kathryn Windham is very good and I especially like her voice and easy manner in the telling.
    I don’t have the wide experience that many of you have. I hope that one day I can tell tales so well that it will lure young people away from their Ipods and TV’s. I remember a wonderful story reader I had in summerschool in Milwaukee. Miss Ryan was her name and at the end of each class day she would read to us from the Odyssey and then later the Iliad. Imagine 27 young teenage boys and girls, eager to be outside on a summers day, hushed into silence, so intrigued and charmed by the reader that ,though the bell had rung, they remained in their seats unwilling to miss a word of it.
    Bless all. Paul.

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  3. Liz Warren Avatar
    Liz Warren

    Paul – What a treat to read your remembrance of Miss Ryan and her reading of theIliad and the Odyssey. It made me remember by second grade teacher, Mrs. Reese. Every day after lunch she would read to us. Over the course of the year she read all the Wizard of Oz books. Most of us would rest our heads on our desks and be swept away to Oz. It always seemed to be over too soon!

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  4. Sharon Gilbert Avatar
    Sharon Gilbert

    How good it was for us that some of our teachers had time to read to us. My teacher was Mrs. Stell, my 6th grade teacher in Gunnison, CO. She read to us every day and the one I remember most was King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

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  5. Sharon Gilbert Avatar
    Sharon Gilbert

    I meant to say that Janet is one of my favorite local tellers too. Of the National Tellers I have too many to select but I’ll never forget seeing Elizabeth Ellis hold a whole gym of elementary school children in the palm of her hand for over an hour. No audience participation, no props just very good storytelling. Ahh!

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