Storytelling...

Today we went to Beyond the Border, wales International Storytelling Festival at St Donat's castle in the Vale of Glamorgan. Cath was down for reviewing an extraordinary combination of storytelling and music called "Fire in the North Sky: Epic Tales from Finland." In it, Nick Hennessey, who has been studying the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, for a mere 15 years, did the story telling along with three Finnish musicians, Anna-Kaisa Lieden, Kristina Ilmonen and Timo Väänänen. It was very powerful, with a thought-provoking talk by Nick beforehand, about such things as should a folk tradition be preserved in stone, as if there were a moment when it was perfected, whereas the oral tradition meant that story-tellers were forever changing and adding to the stories, altering the order, making topical references and so on. There is a tendency now to say "this is a precious and fragile thing that must always remain absolutely unchanged and true to what we know of correct performing practice out of respect for Tradition," whereas the practitioners were always developing it. Do we want stuffed dodos, or living birds?

Anyway, St Donat's castle, dating back to the 12th century, is home to an Arts Centre and also Atlantic College, a residential international sixth-form college.