Monday, October 16, 2006

A personal note here. My middle name is Storie and it is from the Scottish side of my family. The "story" goes that the original spelling was "storey" but my parents changed the spelling. As many Gaelic names are tied to occupation, I've often wondered about storytelling in my history...And that's the reason for the name of my blog-I tell stories about art.

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Irish Folk Tales

I swear I could hear traditional Irish music playing in the background while reading these stories. Even more so, the stories became songs--the main character walking (or running) in the course of their journey became the fiddle; high and low points of the journey became the strings and drums; pauses in the stories were pauses in the songs; and all came back to the beginning through their inherent cyclic nature--fantastic!

Folk tales were passed down orally, as was the music, and characters took on larger-than-life qualities. The mythological journey in the landscape was a journey of the soul, with tricksters and giants and monsters to battle and wise elders to guide. And at the end of each journey, after having learned a bit more, the protagonist returned home to the self, wiser and stronger for having made the passage.

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The King of Ireland's Son
This is a young man on a moral journey that stems from a killing he has committed. Yet we see early on he is a good person by the payment of a dead man's debts. This soon-to-be ruler is kind and protected by others, but not very effective in his own right. The story is quite circular--each meeting of new people who join the group along the way is told in the same words. While the little green man asks for a kiss as his reward, the other 3 only wish for a place and a garden--a home. Every night the king's son can not see a place to stay, but his little green companion can and approaches the giant owner of the place in the same way--and each are giants who fear bigness! After several lyrical stops and starts, the son finds the one woman he can marry, only to be thwarted. But the little green man's perseverance and quick wit saves the day so the king's son and the woman can marry. The little green man is the one who carries the story although it is supposedly about the king's son--a comment on who really does the work in Ireland?
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Dreams of Gold
Anthony stealing from a church? Rather than having a blatant devil-monster emerge from the ground to swallow Anthony, it is the thought of another real person seeing the theft that stops Anthony. Then the storyteller remembers another story about how a cobbler helped a man from Mayo. The cobbler dreamed of gold in the man's own garden and so the man returned home (treasure lies within). No monster under the bridge either---this one is rooted in the everyday.
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The Birth of Finn MacCumhail
A terrific story with all the elements! Love, danger, killing, family preservation, wise elder, mythological half-human half-animal creatures, hiding in the woods, self sacrifice and ultimately, advancing the well-being of the greater whole. Like the king's son story, "Finn" is circular--parts are repeated as the characters move forward. Yet this time, the king is not benevolent. Instead, the king is the enemy and Finn is his grandson. Even more so, unlike the king's son, Finn has to earn his royal blood. Yet because he is the next ruler, he sees the necessity of working for the greater whole (rather than from self-interest as his grandfather did). And so Finn's story ends with his ascension (his birth) to true leadership.
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Usheen's Return to Ireland
Another Return to Home story, this one more soft and luscious, yet not triumphant in the end. Usheen journeys into the water, the source of life, and finds a heaven that is "in everyplace, all about us." He misses his old way of being and so returns only to find all of it worn away. He forgets his "heavenly" source and guidance, touches earth, and immediately withers away. A Garden of Eden story...
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The Man Who Had No Story
Brian is a simple man with little sense of self. Each day he does his job and goes home--that's his life. And so when his job stops, he does not know what to do. How many people today rely on their jobs to describe themselves???? We've been doing this for years apparently! Anyway, he sets out on a journey to find himself. Others see him differently than he sees himself. With their declarations, he becomes a fiddler, a priest and a doctor! It is so easy! He only had to believe... And in the end, magically returning to his starting point, Brian learns he is so much more, and does, in fact, have a story to tell, as do all of us...

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