and your traditions. Stories can be found at the dinner table at home, at the library and on the Internet. But we must take precautions. We must show sensitivity towards stories and their origins. There are “forbidden” stories and you must adhere to copyright laws. It is often easier to learn a story you have heard, and to be on the safe side, when you hear a story you want to tell, ask the storyteller for permission. Check the sources for your stories and look at different variations of one story and make the story your own. To boil it down to some simple advice, we recommend the following: 1. 2.
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If you and your listeners/students are inexperienced with storytelling, choose short stories. When you start looking for stories, search your own background and culture. We can be easily fascinated by stories from other cultures, but stories have often been told in a particular context and we can misinterpret the function of a story if we are not familiar with them. If you make the story up yourself, whether it is based on your own life or made up completely) tell and try it out on family and colleagues before you tell it to the learners. If you want to tell a story you hear, check with the person who told the story if it is okay to tell it or ask for the source. If the story is written by an author, ask for permission. In some countries it is okay to use stories free of charge for educational purposes. If you find the story on the Internet, make sure you use stories from places that provide the sources of the stories. And finally what we really would recommend is to create a small storytelling circle together with your colleagues or friends. You can meet once a month and share stories, then you can get an increased repertoire, give each other feedback and practice telling.
Two examples of stories Man and animals A long time ago all the animals came together. They had been told that God would create a creature that would surpass them all, namely, man. Yet the animals thought that they had something that man would never get and that man would always admire the animals for. The animals began to boast about their abilities. The horse said that man would always admire its beauty, the lion its strength, elephant its size and so on. In the middle of all of this the animals heard a little voice saying “I also have something that people always wish they had”, “who said
that?” the animals said and looked around. Among them they saw a little snail. The animals laughed and said “you ugly little thing, what do you have that people will always yearn for?” With his tiny voice the Snail answered “Time”. (Oral source: Helen East) The Bat Once there was a great conflict between the birds and the animals. The birds and animals got ready for war. The bat did not want to participate in the war. The birds that passed his perch and said “come with us” but he said “I am an animal.” Later on, some animals where passing underneath him and looked up and said “Come with us” but he said “I am a Bird.” Luckily at the last moment peace was made, and no battle took place, so the Bat came to the Birds and wished to join in the rejoicings, but they all turned against him and he had to fly away. He then went to the animals, but soon had to beat a retreat, or else they would have torn him to pieces. “Ah,” said the Bat, “I see now, he that is neither one thing nor the other, and has no friends”. (Source: Aesop’s Fables)
Advice for the new storyteller • You can: People have been telling stories for thousands of years. The art of storytelling will never die. You tell stories every day. Maybe you have already noticed how easy it is to capture the listeners. You can! • Rehearse: Tell the same story over and over again. Find people to listen. The story will change - you will change - as the story becomes more and more yours. Through rehearsing you will find yourself more secure in the storytelling and more able to embroider it in your own way. • Select stories intuitively: The story that you are instinctively attracted to is your story. Or the one you find yourself marvelling at, or the one that keeps pestering you without you knowing why. Allow a story to choose you. Be sensitive to its own logic and what you find you want to say with the story. Change it so it fits you but without altering “the bones”. Make the story yours. • Distinguish “the bones” of the story: The story has a plot - a skeleton that is independent of the setting or the context it had when you found it. Expose these “story bones”, maybe through short notes or bullet points in drawings or text. Then fill out the skeleton with new flesh: your own settings, your details, your interpretation of the idea. • Do you have to keep “the bones” in old stories?: Traditional
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