The Story of Stories A Storyteller at the International Storytelling Center As novelist Reynolds Price notes,


A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens – second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter.Millions survivewithout love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, fromthe small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths.


Before the advent of awriting system, storieswere passed orally from one person to another.While stories may recall actual events, many stories—such as fairy tales, folk tales or fables—may be intended to teach expected social behavior and morals to younger audiences. In many cultures, igures such as the bard (British), rhapsode (Greek), ili (Irish), griot (West African),minstrel (European), jangam(South Indian)


and storytellers skald


(Norwegian) served as the historic


professional of


their


societies. These poetswere often employed bywealthy patrons to create and perform poems and songs that praised the patron, or else wandered from town to town performing their work in exchange for room and board.


An artist’s rendering of a skald telling stories


Human beings have been telling stories practically since we irst became human beings. Historians believe that early cave paintings may have played a role in storytelling performances, allowing storytellers to reference illustrations or symbols as they recounted their tales. Stories are all around us—in the commercials, television programs and movies we see each day; in the books, magazines and newspaperswe read; and even in thewaywe speak and think.


Griots performing inWest Africa in 1991


14


www.rps.psu.edu


Fresh Air Photo


www.hurstwic.org


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