The Features of Traditional Irish Storytelling

The Features of Traditional Irish Storytelling

Fairytales are probably the most popular mean of entertainment not only for children but also for grown ups no matter which form they may take on: a story read or told by the parents, a play or an animated film. People rarely consider that while enjoying tales they contribute to the preservation of folklore, which also ‘includes all the traditional forms of expression that circulate without the aid of books – the art, speech, and literature created through personal interaction rather that through the printed medium’ (Swann-Jones 2002: 2). It may be argued that fairytales are not traditional form of folklore anymore as nowadays they do not circulate without books since people usually read them instead of just telling them. However, it cannot be denied that their primal form was spoken, that they transmitted from one generation or land to another by being told directly to other people. That is why there usually are no authors of fairytales but there are people such as Brothers Grimm, who collected them, as well as there are more than one common version since almost every person telling a tale would change or add something of his own. Although fairytales always make a part of folklore in every country, some countries have more of them than others. Ireland is one of the richest of them as it, according to Irish folklore scholar J. H. Delargy, ‘has the largest body of collected folktales in the west of Europe’ (1945: 31). This is the result of traditional storytelling which not even a century ago was one of the main social entertainment forms and therefore a very important part of life of Irish people. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the main features of storytelling: the time and the place, the teller and the audience, and finally the tales themselves, at the time when it was one of the most common activities in Ireland. To begin with, storytelling was typical for a specific time and place. Days were busy as Irish people belonged mostly to the working class which means that they had to work all day in order to take care of their families, consequently storytelling took place at night during the period between September and May that means that there were no sessions during the summer since people had more work then and the days were longer. J. H. Delargy notes even more precise time of storytelling which is from the 31st of October, the festival of Samhain, which meant the end of harvest season and the beginning of ‘dark’ period of the year, until the 17th of March, St. Patrick’s Day, which symbolized the beginning of the spring and work (1945: 19). There was no reason for storytelling, it simply happened when people gathered together which was often since stories, as well as other types of entertainment in the meetings such as songs, dances and gossip, helped people escape from their ordinary troubles and spend long and severe winter nights more joyfully. Thus, storytelling was a part of any social interactions such as a simple nighttime gatherings of neighbours – ceilis, a planned meetings of men – joins, an assemblies of all community – balls (Glassie 1982: 33, 72-74), christenings, weddings, religious services and even wakes of old but never young people as death of a young person was a huge tragedy (Delargy 1945: 20). It also occurred in some workplaces after work (Brennan-Harvey 1992: 11) and even during the work since for example fishermen used to ask storytellers to tell stories in order to pass the time quicker (Delargy 1945: 20). The most frequent gatherings therefore the most frequent occasion to tell stories were ceilis, which happened at home of any person in the neighbourhood or at the local house called ‘ceili house’, where during the storytelling sessions people used to sit near the hearth which was considered to be the heart of the home as it provided warmth and light (Glassie 1982: 71-72, 373). Furthermore, storytelling would not exist if there were no teller or the audience to listen to him. Storytellers usually were men, because, according to Brennan-Harvey, women were still occupied with ‘their domestic responsibilities’ even in the evening after a long day, which limited ‘their opportunities to hear and to learn new tales, and thus participate more actively in the tradition’ (1992: 12). However, they used to tell stories among other women and knew such stories as short anecdotes, genealogical lore and folk-prayers even better than men therefore they did not hesitate to correct men if a story was told in the wrong way (Delargy 1945: 7). So, apparently women could tell stories, but in the presence of men they did not as probably men were considered to be superior. The only type of stories which was thought to be not appropriate for women at any circumstances was long heroic also called Finn tales, which required good memory and time to memorize them (ibid.). There were no professional storytellers as well as they were not common only in specific social classes (ibid.). Everybody could be one and if he was a decent orator, he could even become known among the people of the area he lived in and everybody would gather to listen to his stories wherever he would spend his winter nights. The person who started to tell a story was given the most honorable place in the house – the stool or chair near the fireplace and sometimes even the pipe to smoke (ibid. 19). Ones of the most welcome tellers in every house were travelers as they used to bring news and gossip from other counties (ibid. 24-25). It can be said that they functioned as newspapers or books at that time since they told stories to people from one county to people from another, this way connecting them and broadening their perception of the world since there were people who had not travelled out of their home for all of their lives. Finally, there were specific types of stories that were usually told during the sessions of storytelling. The stories were part of usual conversations as storyteller did not announce that everybody should listen for him as he was about to tell a story, but he would tell one in reference to what people were talking or gossiping about (Glassie 1982: 71). The storytellers tried to tell the tales the way they heard them for the first time, therefore they did not change the plot, theme and characters, but sometimes the use of the language was changed according to the audience, for example if there were children or women listening, the story was told in a different way than it was told when the audience consisted only of men (Delargy 1945: 20-24). Ones of the stories that used to be told were of courage and wit, which usually described a brave action of a local men and his wit due to which he could escape from danger or even benefit from it. There also were stories of history and experience which either told the historical events of the community or personal experience of the teller. Moreover, people used to tell pants or tall tales which included unbelievable elements as well as fictional tales which included ghost and fairy tales. The difference between these two types of tales was that pants were regarded as jokes or ‘harmless lies’ while fictional tales had implied instructions or tutorials for men. Tales that were obviously didactic and often involved animals as characters were usually told for children before they went to sleep so that they would listen to their parents and for example would go out of their home at night (Glassie 1982: 43-62). Pants and fictional tales were usually told by old wise men, while young men could tell bids, beautiful phrases or poems created on the spot in order to ‘demolish another in swift, wicked satire’ (ibid. 44). The same rule applied to telling heroic tales especially Finn-tales which were long and complicated so even one story could have been told for a few nights. The storytellers who could tell Finn-tales were highly esteemed by people (Delargy 1945: 19-21). To conclude, storytelling in Ireland was an exceptional phenomenon since it not only united all the people of particular community but also helped them escape from their concerns and boring, repetitive work. It also was the main form of entertainment during the long, dark winter nights as well as one of the means used for teaching children and even the way of telling news. Although storytelling is a unique not material heritage which should be saved for next generations, nowadays due to technologies which occupy most of people’s free time it is not practised in the same way as it was over a century ago.

References:

1. Brennan-Harvey, C. (1992). Contemporary Irish Traditional Narrative. The English Language Tradition. Berkley: University of California Press.

2. Delargy, J. H. (1945). The Gaelic Story-teller with some notes on Gaelic Folktales. London: Cumberlege.

3. Glassie, H. (1982). Passing the Time. Folklore and History of an Ulster Community. Dublin: The O’Brien Press.

4. Swann-Jones, S. (2002). The Fairy Tale. The Magic Mirror of Imagination. New York: Routledge.

References: 1. Brennan-Harvey, C. (1992). Contemporary Irish Traditional Narrative. The English Language Tradition. Berkley: University of California Press. 2. Delargy, J. H. (1945). The Gaelic Story-teller with some notes on Gaelic Folktales. London: Cumberlege. 3. Glassie, H. (1982). Passing the Time. Folklore and History of an Ulster Community. Dublin: The O’Brien Press. 4. Swann-Jones, S. (2002). The Fairy Tale. The Magic Mirror of Imagination. New York: Routledge.