Wednesday morning we heard the rest of the first stories told by students in The Irish Storytelling Tradition 2011. As with the first eight tellers, I was very impressed with how well the new tellers chose stories that fit their personalities, or revealed something about them we wouldn’t have known had they not told the story they did. The range of stories they chose also gave a natural context to discuss Irish folklore, customs, and national identity and psychology. It was a very rich day.
9. Andrea Robinson told Gold Tree and Silver Tree that she put together from several sources.
10. Lizzy Murphy told The Legend of Knockgrafton from Folktales of the British Isles by Kevin Crossley-Holland. (The story included the music, so Lizzy played the tune on her penny-whistle at the beginning and the end and sang “Monday-Tuesday” in Irish within the story.)
11. Laura Rutherford told The Tale of the Tail that she learned from her mother, Cheryl Rutherford, who has taken this class twice, once in Ireland – as Laura now has done as well!
12. Jesse Soper told Cromwell from Henry Glassie’s Irish Folktales. (The story opens with Cromwell – the brute – skewering an Irish baby and holding it aloft on his sword.)
13. Alison Vincent told The Black Bull of Noroway from Best Loved Celtic Folktales by Neil Phillip.
14. Melinda Bokel told Sleepy Pendoodle from Glassie.(It's a puppy!)
15. Tammy Chapman told Butterfly Soul that she put together from Sean O’Sullivan’s and Kevin Crossley-Holland’s versions. (Tammy deftly integrated just enough information about the symbolism of the butterfly for the story to need no explanation at all.)
16. Bryan Jagiello told Finn and Saeva from Erica Helm Meade’s The Moon in the Well. (Bryan served in Iraq and Afghanistan and it was wonderful to hear him tell this warrior's story of lost love.)
17. Fidencio Ybarra told The Legend of Knockfierna from Glassie.
18. Ashley Sanders told Fox and Hound from The Genie and Fisherman by Duncan Williamson. (Actually, therefore, a Scottish story.)
19. Melissa Barrett-Traister told The Origin of the Shannon.
20. Kayla Linn told Fairy Property from Glassie.
21. We had some time left, so I told the story of how the great bard Seanchan recoverd the Irish National Epic, The Tain. (The timing was right for it since they have been reading about The Ulster Cycle in both mine and Barry's classes.)
I’m looking forward to the next batch of stories. We will hear them next Monday and Tuesday.
The image at the top shows Fidencio, Jesse, Laura, Alison, Ashley, Lizzy, and Kayla Below is Tammy, Melissa, Bryan, Melinda and Andrea.
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