Performing Summer of the Red Dragon for 5th Grade at Spicer

This afternoon I had the privileged of performing my "Summer of the Red Dragon" Program for the 5th graders at Spicer Elementary BISD. Though today was Memorial day it was also a make up day for Spicer and so the most of the kids were at school. So today was treated as a fun day for most of the classes.
Jane Redfern is the new librarian at Spicer and earlier this year I had given her my CD on which this program is based on for her to listen to. She loved the CD and decided today would be a good day to have a program like this one for her 5th graders.
I ended up doing the program in their small gym which normally is not my favorite storytelling location because of sound problems but this worked out ok or better than I had expected.
This particular story is one hour long and with the kids having to sit on a hard gym floor for an hour I decided that I might need to spif the story up a little bit to keep their attention. So I decided to use some props that would suggest items from the story. Also in order to tone down the drama of the story and to tie the idea of imagination and playing together with the story I decided to use toy props. In other words all plastic except for the artifact and sleeping bag. I used two toy swords that I had purchased a couple years ago just for this program and a little toy bat. The props worked just as I thought they would. I thought maybe the kids would be put off by them but just as I had hoped it seemed to peek their interest or help draw them into the story.
Despite having to sit on a very unforgiving hardwood floor for an hour (I kept the program to one hour almost exactly) and being late in the day, the kids did great. Some I could see were more interested or drawn into the story than others but overall they all seemed to enjoy the story and performance. The story itself is about two teen age boys, the time period is 1963 and I call it a modern day fairy tale. The story is a combination of mystery, drama and magic. The focus of the story is about how Jason must over come his fears to help save his friends.
This presentation was the FIRST full performance of this story ever. I wanted the kids to know that it was special and it was. I hope to have more opportunities to tell Jason's story again and again in the years to come.It is a special story that I believe many youths can and will appreciate. It is also a story that adults would enjoy as well.
I would had liked to expand on the story and supplied more details but reason dictates that with circumstanced as they were that I make the story as tight as it was on the CD. This I did and with hardly a mistake. It was a near perfect telling.
So thank you Jane Redfern and Thank you 5rth graders of Spicer for making this a very special day for me.I hope that I made it special for you.
Gary

Summer of the Red Dragon- Beginnings

I have always wanted to write. It has been a dream since I was a kid. Not so much to be published but more to just find a way to use my ideas and material. When I was a youth I wrote short stories all the time. This is one of the reasons I fell into oral storytelling and have had such success in this field. Storytelling and writing stories for storytelling or converting material for storytelling falls easily within my mindset or how I approach material. I have off and own tried to approach writing a novel or book. But as always success is limited to vision and personal road blocks (basically bad habbits) that have been developed over the years. In other words oral storytelling and writing the novel are conflicting concepts in my mind. Your focus as oral storyteller is to reduce the material to a compact well organized and contrived presentation where as when trying to write a novel or novella you are doing just the opposite.

What about just writing short stories you ask? Good question. Yes I probably could do short stories and maybe get them published but that is not what I want in the end. What I want is to do the full blown book. To take a story and to flesh it all out. That is my real desire.

In 2001 I wrote a short story that I called Summer of 63. It actually developed out of a fun writing session that I had picked up from a book about writing Called The Zen of Writing by Ray Bradbury. I left the story alone and came back to it six months later. Reread it, liked it and decided to play with it some more. I did a rewrite of it and came back again to the story a few months later and decided to rename the story after the 2nd rewrite. I renamed it Summer of the Red Dragon.

The story sat again for another year when I decided I wanted to try and convert it into a oral presentation for a audience. I broke down the story like I do all material and began playing with it. I made some more changes of the oral version and I was quite pleased with what it sounded like. I don’t remember the 1^st time I did the oral presentation but as all of my oral storytelling the presentation changes with each performance. I figure things out as I tell the story mostly through watching my audiences faces. Then I make the necessary changes to the performance on the fly. Lots of fun.

Finally in 2003 I decided to try and convert the story into a longer or more complete story. In other words finish what I had started story wise. To complete the tale more for fun than anything, so I went about the task of seeing what I could do with the original story. It truly took a beating. I fought with the characters and plot off and on trying all sorts of attacks and approaches and pretty much deleting all my efforts of what I wrote. What finally brought the story together for me was a series of incidents. I won’t go into detail on that but on of the major contributors to the final story involved a strip to England and Scotland on a vacation with my wife. At least that provided the fodder I needed to bring the story full circle.

In 2006 I produced a CD called Summer of the Red Dragon in which I tell the 55 minute story of Jason and Weasel and their struggle against a fairy tale beast that is destroying their neighborhood. The oral version was not every thing I wanted but it was close enough to do the job. It worked in other words. I have had many praises for this CD from a variety of sources but it has not had the success that I had hoped that it would have. I envisioned doing this as a special one hour presentation at schools and libraries but I am apparently the only one who sees this.

At the end of 2007 I began work on writing a novel version of this story. At first I started out like gangbusters and quickly discovered the complexities of trying to write a story this long. After about four chapters I started creating reference materials. I wrote out a chapter by chapter brief, what I intended to write and then discovered that I was adding material as I went along and started up a chapter adaption brief to keep track of everything. It got worse, much worse. Eventually I bogged down myself after about 6 chapters and stopped for about a year, I did nothing on the story.

Last Month I decided to try and attack it again but this time I took a completely different tack with writing the story. I started by reviewing all I had previously wrote and rewriting and editing it as I saw fit. I have not yet picked up where I had previously left off but in a few weeks I will be there. I may make some other changes now after reviewing my writing and story but only time will tell.

One of my previous problems when I stopped before was due to the fact that I knew inwardly that something was missing or wrong with the story. I couldn't quite figure it out. So when I run into road blocks like that I shut down till the answer comes. Well it did a last Sunday in Sunday School. I went in and added the needed text and changes and now I am ready to continue on once I get to that point. Also some other problems with the story had previously haunted me and I think that now I have resolved those issues.

If I am lucky I will overcome my own issues with writing a novel and produce a final product, hopefully in the next six months I should finish. Whether or not it is ever published is another problem but I will deal with that when the time comes. At the moment that is not my concern. I must conquer one wall at a time.

When I first started working on this novel version I had intended to try and mimic my one hour story version but that soon proved to be folly. I realized shortly after starting that the story was to simple and needed a more interesting and complex plot. This is a story about two teenagers and thus if it is ever published that is the group that it will be published for and so because of that I need to keep that in mind when writing the story.

What I hope to have in the end is a fun and thrilling tale about two boys set in the year 1963 that will have the focus of watching a young man who is afraid of his own shadow and has low self esteem learn to face his worst fears. And learn what is most important in life through his experiences.

If I am fortunate God will bless his endeavor and help me to face my own demons and get this story published. And hopefully my story will help others to fight their own demons in their lives.

In the future I will write a few more blogs regarding this story and its status.

Preparing for North Texas Irish Festival and Beowulf Retold
I love working the North Texas Irish Festival ( NTIF ) held in Dallas at Fair Park (this year March 6-8, 2009). It is by far the most fun and enjoyable festival in all of Texas. It has the best music and entertainment and is run far better than any annual weekend festival I have ever worked for. Not only is it the best but those who run it treat their performers great.

As a storyteller I have known Dawn Sparacio for well over 5 years now. I first met her when I was working the Celtic Heritage Festival in Bedford Texas which is pretty much defunct now. She was running the childrens area for the festival and it was obvious from the first that she is a creative and inventive soul who had a big heart for kids. She eventually gave up on the Bedford festival and went over to NTIF. They gave her full reign over the children's area and she over the years moved this program up a quite a few notches. Last year she technically resigned from running the area because she remarried and moved to another state but she still has her hands in the general organization of this program. I owe a lot to Dawn. Now Dawns Daughter has taken her place and is continuing with Dawn’s same vigor.

I wrote Dawn a few months ago and asked her if there was anyway I could get an adult stage to do my Beowulf Program (I could not do this program in the children’s area) . She plugged me into Connie Ener and I told her what I would like to do and she listened. Connie told me that she would see what could be arranged but didn't promise me anything. In the meantime I created my youtube presentation of my opening segment of Beowulf Retold and posted it on in the last week of November 2008 ( a link is posted on my website to this presentation on the home page).

Once I saw that my youtube video was getting a favorable response I sent an email to Connie and gave her some background on the video and sent a link of it to her. I can only assume that it made a difference in some way or form or fashion because the next I heard from her they would try to find me an adult stage, which they did. Finally I was contacted by John Hebley who is running that stage and I was set up. I will get my chance to do Beowulf Retold on the Traditions Stage at 2pm Saturday March 7, in the Creative Arts Building at the 2009 festival this year.

Of course I am pretty excited about this opportunity to do this program at the NTIF. I did get to do this program at the Bedford Celtic Heritage Festival on a main stage last year but this festival was so poorly attended that I only had an audience of 30 by the time I finished the program and that was in the big tent. I was told that the program would be advertised and that was one of the reasons I came back to the Celtic Heritage Festival but the only promise that was kept was that I got to perform on the main stage. I had no other form of advertisement besides the sign and all it said was my name. And adding to that I was never paid for my time and performance because the festival made no money.

Still it gave me an opportunity to do the program on a main stage with my hand made lyre to complement the presentation and with a professional sound system and sound man. In that it was great. I started out with an audience of 6 and ended up with 30 and I sold 5 CD's which turned out to be the only money I would get for that festival. This is how it is sometimes for a storyteller such as myself.

It is my hope to be able to present the entire Beowulf Retold or in other words the entire Beowulf story in my version when I am done. I just recently finished writing the 3rd and final section, the part of the story dealing with Beowulf as King of the Geats and his battle with the dragon. I finished and refined the 2nd section last year. I will probably have the 3rd section completed (refined to final form) by this summer. After that I will start memorizing those final two sections just as I did with the first one. Through memorization I will be able to present Beowulf as I see it and in the words that I see it being told in. The entire presentation performed with my lyre will probably take one and a half hours, maybe less. I won't know until it is finished. My ultimate goal with this presentation is to make it presentable for stage and to take it around Texas and beyond when I retire in a couple years or maybe even before.

The script for Beowulf is the only script that I memorize when performing. Even with that it still varies on occasion because it is an intense presentation and not designed for younger audiences. Normally a storyteller does not memorize their story. They learn the basic plot, names and or structure of the tale and the story is literally remade before the audience eyes and ears. It is a thing of beauty. But with Beowulf Retold I decided early on to take a different tack with it. The first script covering the first section of Beowulf took me nearly two years to write, mostly because I wanted something original. I tore up a lot of scripts that did not do what I wanted. When I finally stumbled onto what would be my final approach to telling this tale I soon realized that in order for it to work that I would have to tell it just as I had written it. Nearly word for word. Believe me when I tell you this, memorization is not my thing. It took me nearly three months to learn the first section and will most likely take me at least twice that time to memorize the entire program.

Why? You ask should I torture myself like that. Good Question. The answer is quite simple.
When I began writing the first script I had been studying Beowulf for around 10 years. I had fallen in love with the original version. I had found it enthralling. Yet I understood quite well that it was archaic and challenging to modern day audiences. I myself had to resort to all kinds of translations to figure the story out. But once I had accomplished that, much became clear and the beauty and power of this tale unfolded before me. In the beginning I was just trying to write a version I could perform in schools. Then that progressed to trying to do it at festivals and other settings. Now I want to turn it into a stage production and that explains the decision to memorize the entire program. If I am perform it on stage for repeat audiences it needs to at least be similar or exact every night because that is what audiences like that pay for. That is what they want to hear and see.

So there is my goal for Beowulf Retold.

So hopefully by 2010 I will have the complete program ready. In the mean time I plan to try and hit more stages to do the first part of the program on and to try and develop a following for my version of Beowulf. For those of you who know me, you understand that I am quite passionate about this program and often with passion comes the unexpected. So if you have not heard my version of Beowulf, please come see me March 7 on the Traditions Stage at 2pm at the North Texas Irish Festival. I will be looking forward to performing for you.

Storytelling at Worth Ranch

Storytelling at Worth Ranch
Last weekend I had the privilege of camping with my old Boy Scout Troop 336 at Worth Ranch. We spent Friday night at the cola camp site and then went up to Kyle on Saturday night and left Sunday morning.

The soul purpose of me being there this weekend was to do some storytelling because the troop still keeps me on the books as the Troop Storyteller (God Bless their little souls collectively) and Worth Ranch is where I discovered my talent for storytelling. It is also the only place I will tell my version of the Hugo Monster tale.

There are lots of things I would like to talk about here (such as freezing my rear end off in below freezing tempts) but for this particular blog I am going to just stick to the basics, the adults and the boys of 336 and then my choices regarding stories.

It had been over two years since the last time I went to Worth Ranch with my troop to do some storytelling or as they would say, since I told the Hugo story. In two years a lot can change.

Now the boys who were still kids when I last told at the camp are now young men and helping run the troop .Most of the faces in this troop are fairly new to me because I only make a few meetings a year. I served 336 as their 2^nd assistant scoutmaster from 1993 to 1997 and raised my son Joe in this troop. The troop log is my design.

First, for those of you who have never dealt with scouts a little insider info. This is an organization that thrives on boys running the program. The adults are there to answer questions and provide a referee when needed and supervision to those scouts whose job it is the provide leadership. The adults are mainly there to make sure things happen and to help when needed.

This is also a chance for the boys to seek their wild side. Whether moms or dads realize it or not most boys have a desire for adventure to do something out of the ordinary. Something that requires a little more of them than normal society ask, to challenge themselves.

So the boys are given the chance to be boys with some guidance. Some camp outs are meticulously planned with all kinds of activities for advancement and some are easy going. This particular camp out was fairly easy going. Some of the advancement work needed this weekend was for cooking and so on Saturday morning they cooked bacon and pancakes and did a pretty decent job. Yes moms your boys can cook if given the opportunity to do so.

The older boys in the troop who have done all their rank advancement or most of it are the true guides to the younger scouts. In fact if you wish they are the younger scout’s inspiration. Yes the same kids who want or claim that they can’t clean up their rooms are providing guidance and inspiration to the younger kids. Interesting hmmm….

Yes, it is never pretty or perfect and seldom works as it should but the fact is that it does and will work to some degree. Sometimes it works great and others so so.

Worth Ranch is a special place to me as it is too many adults. My father was an assistant scout master for troop 34 out of Saint Georges in Haltom City. I had two older brothers who both went through scouts and so when I was 6 or 7 years old dad was taking me out with him on campouts (thanks Dad) and many of those camp outs were at Worth Ranch. By the time I became a scout I was steeped in the lore of Worth Ranch. I spent many wonderful and challenging summer camps at Worth and in the end as an adult it serves as the place where I found my love for storytelling.

This camp out was also a back packing camp out which means we carried a minimal of food and supplies and that Saturday morning after lunch and some play time we packed up to Mt. Kyle (it is actually a typical Texas Plateau) and camped out up there that night.

This was a real challenge for most of these younger boys just hiking up to Kyle. The boys learn quickly about balancing your pack (how you pack it) and what to leave behind or take. They figure this out about half way up the hill when their packs start falling apart or their legs begin to give out under the weight of what they thought they needed. Yes, the leaders told them and showed them how to pack and what to do but most kids have to learn by experience (you can lead the horse to water but…).

Unfortunately the meds my Dr. has me on for my diabetes has been giving me severe cramps and muscle pain on occasion and sure enough even though I had limbered up all morning with a good hike I started cramping in my right leg just as we were getting ready to mount up and I could not carry my pack. The scout master did not hesitate, Steve said, ‘don’t worry the boys will get it’ and so I did not worry about it. Sure enough I went up without the pack and as soon as we reached the top, duties were given out by the SPL , Kinkaid (Senior Patrol Leader) and two boys went down to fetch my pack and some fire wood (it was Derek who brought the pack back up for me). Eventually several shortages were realized and the SPL was quickly sending boys back down to retrieve supplies even to the extent of creating a relay line to get supplies up to Kyle as dark was descending on the hill. I was very impressed.

Finally after dinner my time came to do my bit and with a log for a seat and a nice warm fire before me I told my tale of my experience with Hugo Monster in 1963. Then I told the tale of 'Teig O’Kane and the Corpse' (an Irish Ghost Tale) and finally upon request from the troop I did the intro for 'Summer of the Red Dragon'. When I go camping with my troop I always want to give them something special, extra. Some thing that no one knows about except for a special select few. So next I shared with the boys some facts relating to the creation of Summer of the Red Dragon and other interesting tidbits related to my storytelling. The boys were awesome and listened intently. But what I told them that night is between me and the boys of 336.

It was a wonderful night for me. The boys and adults were awesome. The boys were rapt in listening and wanting more. The camp fire was perfect and the setting almost unbeatable. The boys thanked me afterwards for my storytelling but what they don’t get is that without them I am worthless.

A storyteller must have an audience and 336 is my all time favorite.
I want to thank all the adults of 336 for continuing to make me comfortable with my infrequent visits with the troop and their incredible support of my efforts to keep storytelling alive in boy scouts (far to many adult leaders believe that storytelling is just for cub scouts).

I especially want to thank Scoutmaster Steve Grady and his two adult assistants Rich Treu and Mike Everett, all three of these guys were easy to talk to and I found them all very friendly and courteous. I want to thank them for their efforts last weekend and for their comradery during the camp out (can't tell you how much I miss that). I want to thank the Kincaid and Derek for their extra efforts to help a tired old man. (They even offered to carry my pack down Sunday Morning but by then I seemed to be okay). I want to thank the boys of 336 for being a little different and giving scouting a chance and I especially want to thank all you mom's and dads for keeping these boys in scouting. You won’t regret it.

Over the last 15 years I have managed to develop a career as a professional storyteller and I have performed in front of audiences of 1 and a 1,000. Today I am called a Master Storyteller by many of my piers. I have sometimes not been paid and others I have received a hefty payment for my performances. Yet in the end all that matters is that someone in that audience listens and realizes that I have a message for them and if I succeed in that then I have done what I was born to do and that makes me smile.

Thanks 336

Mr. Whitaker aka The Storyman

Beowulf Retold, Gary Whitaker , Storytelling - Recording for Youtube

I will be the first to admit that I have to do things before I can see what works what doesn't work. I can plan what sounds and looks good on paper but until I actually do it I am at the mercy of what appeals to me. Last night I spent over 5 hours working on a video for youtube of my intro to Beowulf Retold. My original idea for this specific video was to film it in my backyard. I have an area back there with a fire-pit. I figured build a fire, use the dark as a back ground and the sounds of the night. Shoot the performance across the fire and use my wireless sound system to make sure I am heard. What I did not anticipate was the battery life on the camera nor what it would look like trying to handle my lyre in between passages and the wider camera shot. After about 2 hours and 4 shootings I decided that it wasn't gonna work. I doused the fire-pit and put everything up. Previously I had made a three minute recording for my facebook site of a portion of the Beowulf intro, in my library, and so I decided to try it back there again

So eventually I went back inside the house to my library and took a another shot at it. Still trying to minimize the light but have enough to illuminate the performance (I had loved the look that the fire outside had given my face and so I lit some candles and put them on the book shelf and came away with a similar look) . After a couple attempts with the sound system I eventually decided to drop it and go for a closer approach and see what that looked like.I continued to go through the batteries like fire on old wood. Finally with the camera about two feet from my face and keeping body movement to a minimal, I let my face tell the story. I finally ended up with what I thought was the best I could do on my own and loaded it onto youtube. When I began this process I had given a lot of thought to how I should dress and in the end it didn't matter except for the fact that I kept my clothing dark to add to the effect. So this was how all this came about.

In the end I was happy with the final product (and yes that was all done in one take- I hav eno editing systems at the moment). My video is in no means meant to be a professional recording. My purpose was truly quite simple. When I tell people that I have done a version of Beowulf or that I am a professional storyteller they look at me like I'm crazy. Well besides that fact, I want people to be able to see and hear what I sound like, especially those who will never come to one of my programs or for the fact to any storytellers program). Also when I storytell I become a very different person, kind of the Jeckel and Hide thing, I literally transform into a different person. So this is a way for them to see me in action. In many ways I am a unique storyteller and my approach to some material is quite different than other tellers. I will do typical material in typical storytelling fashion when it calls for it but some material requires a different tack as far as I am concerned and Beowulf is one of these programs. I will eventually add a link to to my youtube site from my website.

My intention is to do a few more recordings once I work out the camera issue (Batteries). I plan to do a portion of my Legend of Sleepy Hollow and I have some other complete stories I might add but now I have a better idea of what I am dealing with. I had given this idea thought for some time now (posting some of my work on youtube) but was not comfortable with doing that during that time frame. Why I finally changed my mind I can't say but I think in the long run it will pay off.

Beowulf Retold

I started working on a Beowulf Storytelling Script several years before I finally came up with the version that I am using now. It was quite a learning experience for me. Mostly because I ended up trashing a lot of work that didn't suit me. I had been studying this ancient work for nearly ten years when I finally decided to try and tackle it. I also had listened to several other storytellers attempts at bringing this great tale alive and all were good but I felt that something was missing. Whether or not my final version is any better or succeeds in a way that I had hoped for is purely up to the audience.
My basic desire was to create a version that somehow reflected the sound and feel of the original and yet be wholly original in creation, Beowulf Retold. I eventually ended up mimicking the sound of the Alliteration poetry by created a phrasing sound to my storytelling or in other words by breaking the sentences into phrases. I also did a little alliterative phrasing in the process. It was never my intention to do poetry. I just wanted to mimic the sound because I felt like that was imperative to the sound and feel of this great work. I also wanted to capture how some of the story was told, the language and the feel of it. All very important to what makes Beowulf such a great masterpiece.
As in all things it all came together with a phrase. "It Dwelt in the Darkness" and from there it grew. Even though the poem does not go into great detail about the initial attack by Grendel of Hrothgar's Hall, Herot. I needed a way to draw my audience into the story, so to speak, to set the stage. And so I enlarged on Grendel's first attack and established this creatures motives and blood lust and hate right off the bat.
The final script was over ten pages long. It was so exacting, so specific in language that I decided that I needed to learn it word for word. Something I had never done before. So over a six month period I memorized the entire script (memorization is not my thing). The thing is that this is not how a storyteller normally learns their story. Instead we learn key elements of a story and then depending on setting, audience and other factors we literally reinvent the story right in front of the audience. Sometime the story stays the same and sometimes it will change quite a bit.
But with Beowulf I decided to take a different tack and for the first couple years that was how I presented the program in a variety of fashions which I will not discuss right now. The first time I ever did it at a school was for a teacher at Haltom High School, Connie Sanchez. The kids seemed impressed with it and so did she. I remember her saying something to the effect 'I guess that this will change and grow with time like the rest of your work' and I responded ' that it was not my intention to do so. '
Well I was wrong.
She was right.
the story has not changed a lot but like every story it has taken on a life of it's own through me and because of that it has changed quite a bit in other ways.
Stories are never static. They are meant to grow.
Even the surviving script of Beowulf is just one version of this great story. I have little doubt that there were many other versions that were told. The Druids of old use to say that the written word killed the story and in some ways that is very true but what I have found is that the storyteller keeps the word alive.
I am now trying to bring my version of Beowulf into Irish and Celtic festivals. If things work well I will get a chance to do so at the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas Texas in 2009. I have been a regular in the childrens area for over 5 years now but Beowulf needs and an adult audience. So I am hoping to get my chance with a decent audience at this festival. I have not had the success with the schools that I had hoped for but Beowulf is my passion and I will do what I have to do to give it life. If I do get the chance to do the program at NTIF I will advertise it on my blog and on my facebook page. Thanks for taking time to read my thoughts.

Tamlin, The ballad

I have been trying to put together an oral storytelling version of the ancient ballad Tamlin that I would be happy with for several years now. Tamlin is a very unusual ballad especially for the time in which it would had been conceived, similar versions of what we today call Tamlin are referred to as early as the 1500's but the first written version appears around 1776.
The elements that make Tamlin unusual is that this is a story about a young girl (Janet) who decides to take her fate into her own hands and defy her parents (more specifically her father) and the culture that pervades their lifestyle.
This is in a time when young women were used like cattle to barter better lands and power for their fathers own status. Sometimes these deals worked out well between bride and husband. Since women had little power they were at the mercy of men and if the brokered deal was a good one (with a decent man) then she would at least be taken care of but in most cases they were horrid arrangements.
I have done research off and on regarding Tamlin but it was while reading a blog at Sarah Beth Durst blog site that I finally found what I had been missing before.
Sarah is a youth writer and has her 1st book out called, "Into the Wild" which I am looking forward to finding and reading. In her blog she called Janet a' Kick-butt heroine' and goes on to justify her perceptions of Janet, making some very insightful remarks about the kind of person she is. I had read similar reviews before or interpretations but somehow what Sara said and how she said it got through to me. Anyway something clicked inside that dark corridor that I call my brain. A light came on. AllI had to do was find that stupid switch.
So after doing more research ,either in my books or on the net, I finally put down a version of Tamlin for oral storytelling. I will have to refine it, play with it and tell it several times before I get it somewhere in the ball park of a fianl version but now I have something substantial to play with. Also keep in mind that a storyteller seldom has a FINAL version. It is a thing of growth and reinventing. It will always be changing as I see more of the story in my mind with each telling but the cruz of the tale will remain the same.
I decided to go with the version I have in the 1902 Oxford Collections of Ballads by Arthur Quiller and Couch ( there are actually many versions of this ballad and some with quite different takes on the story). I stuck to there version fairly faithfully but took took the liberty of filling in some gaps that would had left a modern day audience in the dark.
The trouble with trying to do material like this is how to convert it in such a way that a modern day audience, (youth or older), would get the crux of Janet's delima and what kind of being Tamlin had become.
It is my personal opinion (though I did not exercise it in my version) that Tamlin is a dog. When he describes to Janet how he came to be with the Faery folk he says he fell from his horse while riding one day.
If I was to interpret how that sounds; it sounds like he was doing what he pleased how he pleased with whomever he pleased and got caught by the fae folk in the process. In truth Tamlin is pretty much a scuzz. He gets Janet pregnant. ( but I think this is her ultimate desire) as he has many others who have come to Carterhaugh and then uses her to save him.
Of course in the end, it all ends well because when he was human he stood to inherit his grandfathers lands. So Janet is not only saving Tamlin but herself and her child. Pretty smart little girl. She has broke away from her father's power over her and taken care of herself and her child all in one fell swoop. In her day and time this would had been unheard of and that is why this ballad is so important.
In every since of the word, it was different. It told a different story about entittlement and power and the system. Though the ballad is called TamLin it is in truth about the girl, Janet.
This just goes to show that the concept of equality has been hanging in the shadows for a long time. If you were to go back even further , to the dark ages, you would find that in some cultures women were worshiped and highly respected.
When I deal with material like this I try to keep an open mind as to what kind of audiences I would tell this to and how I would present the material. Often it just depends on how the audience itself reacts to what I am doing and saying. My goal is always quite simple. to share, to open minds and to make people currious. The Balllad of Tamlin offers all of this.