THE ART OF STORYTELLING AND THE ORAL TRADITION
We don't know exactly what early stories took forms. One theory is that they were mostly accidental accounts of a particular act of courage or ability that a man might like to force upon his fellow tribesmen. Instead, with the passage of time, men who discovered they had a knack for storytelling undoubtedly began to involve other characters and incidents in their tales to make them more compelling. They will be called upon at religious festivals to recount the stories of great leaders and the accomplishments of heroes, and to sing the praises of local gods and spirits.
An African tribesman holds his audience spell-bound
with a story. Such tribal storytellers-who are expected
to be well versed in the history and legends of their
communities- are skilled in the art of bringing events
to life by acting them out with vivid gestures.
with a story. Such tribal storytellers-who are expected
to be well versed in the history and legends of their
communities- are skilled in the art of bringing events
to life by acting them out with vivid gestures.
Since these first stories were straightforward emotional expressions, they undoubtedly followed a songlike type closely linked to music and dance. Perhaps the storyteller will accompany himself on a stringed instrument, using his words to move his body in time. He realized that such gestures and facial expressions made a story more vibrant, while particular words were anticipated indications, even as "once upon a time" is now the cue to pursue the fairy tale. The storyteller would structure his story so that it would reveal its twists by degrees and hold its viewers in suspense by careful pacing. The storyteller, therefore, became a thinking performer, using all of his abilities to keep his listeners' attention.
Illuminated page from the Lindisfarne Gospels (English, eighth century) showing St. Luke recording the life of Christ. Such accounts were copied out in order to preserve them from distortion-not for the benefit of ordinary people, who were mostly unable to read. |
While most early tales actually started as accurate accounts, it was common for people to exaggerate and idealize details in order to have a larger impression on their viewers, and their imaginative forces frequently took the tale well beyond the limits of truth. Thus the art of storytelling developed into richly varied poetry and prose from simple historical accounts. Through a long narrative poem, the Greek epic of the Iliad (blog 10), the Hindu Ramayana (composed around 500 B.C. and detailing the wanderings of the Indian prince Rama), and the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf (blog 10), each praising a great hero. The Norse sagas of Laxdaela and Njaia in the 13th century present their tales in terse, straightforward prose to express the anger and brutality they represent with greater intensity.
| The 19th century English author Charles Dickens giving a dramatic |
All of these different story types were transmitted by word of mouth, often in the form of verse ballads and romances (blog 9, 10). These were echoed by experienced storytellers as these journeyed from place to place. These performing storytellers had been called scalds in Scandinavia; minstrels in England and Ireland; minnesingers in Germany. The French were amused by troubadours and trouvères who took their tales from Charlemagne's period traditions (A.D. 768-814).
Wherever there traveled soldiers, pilgrims, merchants and wandering peoples, they took their stories with them. Stories shifted in the process. Some specifics would be stripped out and others introduced, replacing new "foreign" features with local and recognizable ones. The appearance of African folk tales in the Spanish-speaking West Indies is an example of how Negro slaves took their tales with them in this situation.
Many tale elements, like Cinderella (blog 2), have counterparts in almost every language, but the names and specifics differ from place to location. The prince who marries Cinderella appears as the son of a chief of North American Indians. In Finnish, Scottish, and Portuguese variants of the story, the deceased mother of Cinderella comes back to life as a goat or dog and saves her.
Throughout Europe and America, the oral storytelling tradition continues throughout country areas, and in city music halls, cabarets, and wherever people meet to speak and say jokes. Radio and tv in recent years have helped rekindle interest in oral storytelling. However, in Asia and the Near East, the skilled storyteller's influence, going from village to village, remains unchallenged.
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