Nuala Hayes Kicks-off the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival

“This is the beginning of the story. One day, Bran went walking alone near his home. Hearing music behind him, he looked back often, but he saw nothing. So sweet was the music he lay down and fell asleep. When he awoke, he saw beside him a silver branch, decorated with white blossoms set into it so well it was hard to tell blossom from stem. Bran picked up the wand and returned to his home. His many royal friends were gathered thickly about as he held court, when the mysterious woman appeared in their midst. She calmed and inspired the host as she sang the 50 verses only to Bran, though all could see and hear her. And the Mysterious Lady sang:

Let Bran hear from the crowd of the world

What of wisdom has been told to him.

Do not fall on a bed of sloth.

Let not thy intoxication overcome you;

Begin a voyage across the clear sea,

If perchance you mayst reach the land of women.”

           This is the beginning of “The Voyage of Bran,” which is the first story that Nuala Hayes told us last Tuesday, June 4th.  She was the first teller in our month-long Three Rivers Storytelling Festival.  The story is long and complicated with many adventures – sort of a Celtic odyssey.  It is an example of an Iomramh - a voyage in the physical world or of the mind or the imagination. Nuala’s elegantly crafted and beautifully told version got to the essence of the story and captivated me and my students.

She followed her version with that of Tadhg Pey, a Co. Offaly man she met and has interviewed several times.  When Tadhg (pronounced Tige) turned eighty, he decided to write down all the stories he knew.  When Nuala met him, he gave her a date book into which he had affixed the texts of several of them including his Bran. His version was quite distinct from hers with a very practical orientation.  He told, for example, about how the boat was made and provisioned.  Nuala says this is what you would expect of the no-nonsense natives of that county. It made for a great connection to what the students had just read about the connection between stories and the land.

Nuala then explained the differences between the two primary types of traditional storytellers – the seanchaí and the scéalaí.  The seanchaí knew and told stories, but would have also been the local historian and genealogist.  The scéalaí was more of the “artist” who told the great epic myths from the Ulster and Fenian cycles and the long complicated hero tales.

She finished with her version of “The Weakness of the Ulstermen.”  This is the story of Macha, a goddess married to a mortal, who cursed the Ulstermen for nine generations.  She cursed them because not a one of them showed pity or respect for her when the king forced her to run a race against his horses when she was just about to give birth.  Macha won the race and the Ulstermen were cursed for centuries.  Nuala speculated that perhaps that curse has finally come to end since there is now peace in that province.

           After a short break, Nuala had a session at the Aidan Heavey Library in Athlone.  She had about 60 children from two schools, both within walking distance of the library.  It was great session during which she told the story of the origin of the River Shannon. You might think that children in Athlone - right on the Shannon - would know the story, but few did.

           She finished up with a beautiful story by Mary Lavin the name of which I failed to get.  In brief, it is a story about a boy the fairies can’t keep because he has a thorn in his finger that keeps him linked to this world.  Nuala’s oral version of Mary Lavin’s literary retelling of a folktale was filled with beautiful images – a thatched cottage was described as “a note of gold in a sea of green” – and with a catchy refrain for the children to join in on. It definitely made me want to learn more about Mary Lavin.  Mary Lavin’s daughter suggested the story to Nuala and gave her permission to tell it.  I can understand why;  there is a great fit between story and teller.

The quoted text at the beginning of the post was taken from: http://www.danann.org/library/gael/bran.html and from http://www.lamp.ac.uk/celtic/BranEng.htm