Tales for a Dark Winter's NIght

 A few words about this Blog I decided to run some storytelling sessions in October 2020 using the Zoom platform for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the Covid19 Pandemic had brought so many things to a grinding halt and with winter approaching I thought it might be nice to find another way to use our new-found video conferencing skills to connect with some people. Secondly, and less important, I felt I was getting 'out of practice' with storytelling. These were skills I had developed over a long period and I hadn't used them for a while, and especially in view of Covid, couldn't see me being able to use them for a while to come either. I wondered if storytelling could work 'on-line' and decided there was only one way to find out.... I decided to set up this blog to partner the storytelling sessions and to give a bit of background to each story after I'd told it. Please Note:--- I have 'doctored' the dates of each post so that the stories app...

Storytelling: A famous storyteller once said, "There are three things which are necessary to storytelling. One is the story, the second is the story-teller, and the third is an audience  Each of these is equally important and if any one of them is not present and fully engaged, the process will simply not work." Storytelling is a unique art and a unique experience in which you, the listener are every bit as important as the Storyteller or the story. Unlike books, television, cinema or even the Theatre, all of which are wonderful, Storytelling only works properly if someone is listening. This is why at the end of my storytelling sessions I usually leave time for the audience to ask questions about the story and what happened in it. This on-line storytelling session is experimental, partly because I don't think that the technology will easily allow this conversation to take place. I'm sorry about that, but would invite any who has listened to send me an email with any q...

The Storyteller For several years after leaving teaching I worked part-time as a professional storyteller, mostly but not entirely with children and young adults. During this time I developed a repertoire of stories, typically designed to fit into a one-hour storytelling session. All of my stories are unique to me and are mostly built around a folk song or ballad, so music is an important feature of all of my sessions. I am going to run an experimental online storytelling session at 8.00pm on Thursday 29 th October using Zoom. If you think you might like to listen in, please send me an email now to dragonfolk@btinternet.com with your name and the email address to which you would like me to send the invitation. I will then send you some more information about the session (which will last approximately 1 hour) about a week before the event, and the invitation to join the session will come at about 7.50pm on the night. If you tell me now that you might be interested but then fin...

The Wizard of Alderley Edge . The story that I told last Thursday was based around the legend of the Wizard of Alderley Edge. This legend tells of a magical cave called 'Sleepers Hall' in which all the Knights of King Arthur lie in an enchanted sleep, waiting for a time when England shall have need of them, whereupon they will awake from their enchantment and come galloping down the M6 to sort out all the ills of the country. As the landlord of the Wizards Inn told me in the story, 'they'd better get a b****y move on'. There are various suggested sites for 'Sleepers Hall' around the UK, but Alderley Edge has as good a claim as any. The legend is also the basis of Alan Garner's books 'The Weirdstone of Bresingamen', and 'The Moon of Gomrath'. Peter Coe is a celebrated folk musician who originally hails from Cheshire and wrote a collection of songs about the various stories to be found around that beautiful county. The song I use in this st...

  The Ballad of the Battle of New Orleans Was Tom just a good at telling stories, or did he really believe that he had been in the Battle of New Orleans? Either is possible, of course the third possibility is that he really was there, though of course that would mean that at the time I met him he was about 200 years old, which is, of course, completely impossible. Isn't it? There were some historical inaccuracies in his story. Chiefly, 'Stonewall' Jackson was a General in the Civil War some 50 years later. General Andrew Jackson was the General in the Battle of New Orleans, his usual nick-name was 'Old Hickory', and he went on to become the seventh President of the United States. On the other hand, he was still a young military commander in the Battle of New Orleans, several contemporary records refer to him not as 'General' but as 'Colonel'. It's understandable that young local recruits might have called him 'General' even if he wasn...