The Story-Teller's Start-Up Book
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Discover the form of storying that pleases you. Then cherish it and carry it into the world with pride.
NOTES
I Paul Galdone, The Gingerbread Boy (New York: Clarion Books, 1975), 11-13.
2 "The Pancake Man," adapted by Jean Warren, in Totline January-February 1989,
10.
Helen and William McAlpine, apanese Tales and Legends (New York: Henry A. Walek, 1950), 188.
4 Keigo Seki, Folktales of Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963),
115.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reading to Develop an Ear for Fine Language
Andersen, Hans Christian. Andersen's Fairy Tales. Trans. by Mrs. E.V. Lucas and Mrs. H.B. Paull. New York: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 1945.
Colum, Padraic. Legends of Hawaii. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937.
Farjeon, Eleanor. Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1937.
Kennedy, Richard. Richard Kennedy: Collected Stories. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
Kipling, Rudyard. Just So Stories. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1912.
Pyle, Howard. Pepper and Salt: Seasoning for Young Folk. New York: Harper & Row, 1913.
Sandburg, Carl. Rootabaga Stories. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1950.
Reading to Develop an Ear for the Oral Telling
Read all collections mentioned under "Collections with Texts Close to Their Oral Traditions" (p. 67). Read also these collections by contemporary folklorists. They present the tales in ethnopoetic form, allowing the reader to sense where the teller breathed, added emphasis, or dropped voice.
Seitel, Peter. See So That We May See: Performance and Interpretations of Traditional Tales from Tanzania. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.
Tedlock, Dennis. Finding the Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuni Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.
Tenenbaum, Joan M. and Mary J. McGary. Dena'ina Sukdu'a: Traditional Stories of the Tanaina Athabaskans. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Press, 1984.
And Read in These Excellent Children's Collections Too
Fillmore, Parker. The Shepherd's Nosegay: Stories from Finland and Czechoslovakia. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1919. Reprint c. 1958.
Hamilton, Virginia. The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1985.
Walker, Barbara K. A Treasury of Turkish Tales for Children. Hamden, Connecticut: Linnet Books, 1988.
Advice on Finding Your Story
Smith, Jimmy Neil. "Discovering Your Story." In Homespun: Tales from America's Favorite Storytellers, 305-18. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 1988.
Researching Tale Variants
Ashliman, D.L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1987. Mostly adult sources for Aarne-Thompson tale types.
Eastman, Mary Huse. Index to Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends. Westwood, Massachusetts: Faxon, 1926.
. Supplement to Index to Fairy Tales, Myths and Leg-
ends. Westwood, Massachusetts: Faxon, 1937.
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. Second Supplement to Index to Fairy Tales, Myths
and Legends. Westwood, Massachusetts: Faxon, 1952.
Ireland, Norma Olin. Index to Fairy Tales 1973-1977: Including Folklore, Legends, and Myths in Collections. Westwood, Massachusetts: Faxon, 1985.
. Index to Fairy Tales 1949-1972: Including Folklore,
Legends, and Myths in Collections. Westwood, Massachusetts: Faxon, 1973.
Ireland, Norma Olin and Joseph W. Sprug. Index to Fairy Tales 19781986: Including Folklore, Legends, and Myths in Collections. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press Inc., 1989.
MacDonald, Margaret Read. "Type and Motif Indexes for Folktale Research." In Twenty Tellable Tales: Audience Participation Folktales for the Beginning Storyteller, 199-200. New York: The H.W. Wilson Co., 1986. Listing of scholarly titles.
. The Storyteller's Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and
Motif-Index to Folklore Collections for Children. Detroit: Neal-Schuman Publishers Inc., 1982. (Second edition prepared by MacDonald and Brian Sturm to be available in 1997.)
Advice on Adapting a Story for Retelling
Barton, Robert. "Making a Story Your Own." In Tell Me Another: Storytelling and Reading Aloud at Home, at School, and in the Community, 44-57. Markham, Ontario: Pembroke Publishing Ltd., 1986.
Colwell, Eileen. "Adapting the Story for Telling." In Storytelling, 44-52. Westminster College, Oxford: The Thimble Press, 1980. Reprint 1991.
De Wit, Dorothy. "Modifying Tales." In Children's Faces Looking Up: Program Building for the Storyteller, 28-54. Chicago: American Library Association, 1979. Gives samples, showing story before and after cutting or expanding.
Griffin, Barbara Budge. "The 'Best Parts' Version." In Storyteller's Journal: A Guidebook for Story Research and Learning, 30-32. Medford, Oregon: Barbara Budge Griffin, 10 S. Keeneway Dr., Medford, OR 97504, 1990.
MacDonald, Margaret Read. "Preparing a Tale Text from a Children's Short Story." In Twenty Tellable Tales: Audience Participation Folktales for the Beginning Storyteller, 184-85. New York: The H.W. Wilson Co., 1986).
Creating Your Own Story
Cassady, Marsh. Creating Stories for Storytelling. San Jose: Resource Publications, 1991.
Moore, Robin. Awakening the Hidden Storyteller: How to Build a Storytelling Tradition in Your Family. Boston: Shamhhala Publications, Inc., 1991.
Personal Stories
Ross, Ramon Royal. "The Experience Story." In Storyteller, 55-71. Columbus: Merrill Publishing Co., 1980.
Steward, Joyce S. and Mary K. Craft. The Leisure Pen: A Book for Elderwriters. Plover, Wisconsin: Keepsake Publishers, 1988. Useful for beginning to write personal stories, which you may later tell.
Myths
Cook, Elizabeth. The Ordinary and the Fabulous: An Introduction to Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, c. 1969. Reprint 1976. Sound advice and useful bibliographies for the teller who is ready for the hard work needed to bring myth to life.
Smith, Ron. Mythologies of the World: A Guide to Sources. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 1981. Detailed bibliographical essays suggesting scholarly sources for the study of mythologies of the world. Use to build your own background in myth.
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Defending the Story
We do encourage our children's fantasies; we tell them to paint what they want, or to invent stories. But unfed by our common fantasy heritage, the folk fairy tale, the child cannot invent stories on his own which help him cope with life's problems.
—Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment
At times you will face attacks on your story selection. No matter how careful you are, this is apt to happen. Not only are witches and devils taboo in some homes, but fairies and elves are equally abhorred. To comply with the wishes of some parents, we would have to eliminate all literature dealing with fantasy of any sort. Storyteller Bob Polishuk was censored for asking the children to make a wish and blow out a story candle by a parent who considered this act a form of consorting with the supernatural.
In order to respond to parental criticism of your stories you need to find out the basis for their complaints. Some parents are justifiably concerned because of nightmares their children have been enduring. Take this into consideration if you have such a child in your classroom. Realize, however, that to some parents the very act of reading a story about fairies to children puts you in league with the devil. To understand what these parents and their children fear, read The Seduction of Our Children by Neil T. Anderson and Steve Russo (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1991) or Like Lambs to the Slaughter by Johanna Michaelsen (Eugene, Oregon: I
larvest House, 1989).
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Psychologists Defend the Folk/Fairy Tale
Many psychologists
defend the frightening effect of fairy tales and insist that children need to hear such tales in order to work out their own fears. Without such stories, says Bruno Bettelheim, children believe themselves to be the only ones who imagine such horrors.
Since what the parent tells him in some strange way happens also to enlighten him about what goes on in the darker and irrational aspects of his mind, this shows the child that he is not alone in his fantasy life, that it is shared by the person he needs and loves most. In such favorable conditions, fairy tales subtly offer suggestions on how to deal constructively with these inner experiences. The fairy story communicates to the child an intuitive, subconscious understanding of his own nature and of what his future may hold if he develops his positive potentials. He senses from fairy tales that to be a human being in this world of ours means having to accept difficult challenges, but also encountering wondrous adventures.'
Psychologist Erica Helm Meade suggests that parents whose children have nightmares after hearing scary stories should thank the story for bringing this fear to the fore so that it might be dealt with. The tale does not create the fear, the tale provides a safe avenue through which the fear can be discussed. She writes:
As you know, stories convey conscious and unconscious understanding: literal and symbolic meaning. The empathy children feel for struggling heroes and heroines contributes to their emotional education. Stories give youngsters hope that they too can
overcome adversity. Heroes and heroines strive to limit evil. This teaches children about containing their own hostile impulses, and coping with evil in the world. Ethical dilemmas in fairy tales contribute to the child's moral and ethical development. The action and images speak more directly to the young child than abstract explanations. Stories are one of the more gratifying means of learning and contribute greatly to the child's self-esteem.
Read what psychologists have to say about this matter, then prepare your own defense for the materials you will use. Realize that if you decide not to tell "Molly Whuppie" because a parent says it frightened her child, it is you who are the censor, not the parent who intimidated you.
NOTES
' Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1976), 154-55.
2 Erica Helm Meade, letter to King County Children's Librarians, June 25, 1992.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1976.
Chukovsky, Kornei. "The Battle for the Fairy Tale." In From Two To Five, 16-39. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1963.
Heuschler, Julius. A Psychiatric Study of Myths and Fairy Tales: Their Origin, Meaning and Usefulness. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, 1974.
* * *
Accepting the Role
of Storyteller
What I wanted to do was take what I knew and break it down for those who didn't have the literary teeth to chew it, so they could at least gum it.
I've given my life to storytelling, it's sacred to me. We can touch human hearts forever.
My kind of theater can be presented anywhere, in any setting, with nothin' but a place to stand—and imagination.
—Brother Blue, in Homespun: Tales from America's Favorite Storytellers
Folklorists talk of "active" and "passive" tellers. We are all passive tellers. Most of us know the plots of many stories: Cinderella, The Three Bears, Pandora's Box ... but we may never have told these stories. Those of you reading this book are about to become active tellers. Perhaps you will draw on t hose tales you already know. Likely you will also select from printed versions tales to bring to life. You will become an active bearer of tradition.
The tales you tell may not come from your own traditional background, but as you retell them for your audiences they become a part of your own tradition. Children and other listeners hearing these tales may pick them up and begin retelling them, passing them on, transplanting them from Ja-
* * *
pan or Ghana to suburban Indianapolis. Of course not all seeds take root, but this is the tradition into which you enter as you become a storyteller.
Accepting the Identity of "Storyteller"
Folklorist Robert J. Adams has written of the "social identity of the storyteller."' Perhaps you already identify yourself as a storyteller. Perhaps you are still hesitant to do so. At what point does an individual say, "I am a storyteller"?
Adams studied Japanese teller Tsune Watanabe and came up with a list of the items which contributed to her acceptance of an identity as a storyteller. Let's look at the steps in Mrs. Watanabe's path from story listener to storyteller. Have you passed similar signposts in your story path?
First, Adams says, the potential teller must have a history as a story listener. Possible steps in the individual's path from story listener to storyteller are:
The individual listens to stories. As a child Mrs. Watanabe was an avid story listener.
The individual identifies with the storyteller. Young Tsune Watanabe identified closely with her mother and her grandfather, both of whom appreciated her desire for stories and told them whenever she asked.
The individual instigates storytelling events, seeking out tellers and asking for more stories. Tsune often left her playing to go and ask for stories, while the other children continued at their games.
The individual finds that stories contain a reflection of personal beliefs and an expression of personal experiences and values. Adams found that Mrs. Watanabe's tales contained clear representations of her own beliefs, pointed up by asides and by her own tale selection. She projected into the tales her own value system and world view.
The individual desires to become a teller. Mrs. Watanabe's desire to please as a teller was so great that she did not rest with the repertoire she had learned from her elders. She read avidly in books from the school library to increase her repertoire.
The individual instigates storytelling events in the role of teller. This proved difficult for Mrs. Watanabe since times had changed and her own children were too busy with school and activities to provide a ready audience. She had to plan ahead to arrange storytelling situations for herself. Adams mentions that during his interviews in her home her grandchildren entered and turned on the television, bringing her storytelling to a halt. When Adams appeared with his tape recorder she was thrilled ... an avid listener at last!
Once the desire to become a teller is instilled, there are still factors which must be met if the individual is to assume the identity of "storyteller." Adams suggests that acceptance of the teller by the community depends on:
the teller's ability to master storytelling techniques;
the teller's ability to understand and fulfill the needs of the audience; and
the opportunity to practice telling in a supportive environment.
Think over your own story listening and telling experiences. Have you consciously sought out the role of storyteller?
If you have decided to accept the role, you will be working to master storytelling techniques. You will move toward an understanding of the needs of your audiences. And you will need to begin engineering opportunities to practice your telling—hopefully in a supportive environment!
The way to do this is to let people know that you are a teller. Do not be shy about offering your tales. You have a gift to share, hut no one will know this unless you make it known. offer to tell stories for your child's school class, provide a tale
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for your club's next program, volunteer yourself for the next church potluck as entertainment. If you are a teacher or librarian, use your stories to barter. Trade a storytime for something special that another teacher or librarian can provide to your class.
Accept your role of storyteller with pleasure and confidence. This is a special gift that you can share with your family and community.
Giving Yours
elf Permission to Tell
In this age of increasing cultural exclusiveness I find tellers shying away from folktales which are not ethnically theirs. This is a dangerous trend for the life of the folktale. Through the centuries these tales have traveled from culture to culture, passing around the world, changing and growing with each teller. The charming Vietnamese variant of the Cinderella tale is quite different from our French classic. What a loss if the Vietnamese teller had said, "I must not tell this story. It belongs to the French. I was not born to the tale." And think of all the medieval travelers who carried tales and ballads. What if the Spaniard had believed he should never retell a Moroccan tale? And what if the Moroccan had refused to retell anything Spanish?
Our world is as rich as it is because we have shared our stories across cultures, and with them our hopes, our beliefs, our ways of seeing. Now is not the time to freeze all story into pockets of ethnicity. Now more than ever we need each other's stories.
So, after much thought on this matter, I give you a set of assumptions and a set of permissions based on those assumptions. Here then are MacDonald's Permissions for Storytellers.
PREMISE: Storytelling is a folk art.
We are the folk.
Storytelling belongs to us.
PREMISE: Storytelling is performance.
Through body language, delivery, attitude—in every manner—the teller enters a "performing" mode.