Important questions, great discussions: FEST 2024, Glasgow

This year's FEST (Federation for European Storytelling) conference took place in Glasgow, organized by representatives from four nations: Scottish, Irish, English, and Welsh. They created a great program in collaboration, running parallel to The Village Storytelling Festival with all its marvelous events.

Fun fact: this was my 10th FEST conference! I attended in 2009 for the first time. Even more fun than that, we had a whole lot of Hungarian attendees this year. I traveled with my long time friend Kata Orosz (who is a volunteer storyteller from Világszép). In addition, Meseszó was represented by Klitsie-Szabad Boglárka, Hungarian Heritage House by Sándor Ildikó, Holnemvolt (Onceuponatime) Festival by Szabó Enikő, and Világszárnya by Hajós Erika, Zámborszky Eszter, and Bedőházi Beáta. Three of us (Bogi, Enikő and I) even presented workshops. Although I didn't get to see the other two, I heard they were really popular.

I arrived in Glasgow Tuesday evening, missing the first evening's welcome events, but welcomed by friendly storytellers in the lobby of the hotel anyway. It always feels like coming home when I arrive to FEST, seeing friends from all over Europe. 

The conference program itself began Wednesday morning, with welcome speeches and keynote presentations. The organizers introduced themselves and welcomed us officially, then handed the stage over to the keynote speakers. Steve Byrne talked about intangible cultural heritage in Scotland, and the work it took to record and register traditions as such (my favorite quote: "Cultural heritage is not just what we used to have."). Dr. Stephe Harrop talked enthusiastically about creating storytelling spaces in Glasgow, and the work of women storytellers in this process. We also received a warm and friendly welcome presentation from Amadu Wurie Khan, who talked about identity as a "new Scot", as well as finding a place among cultural similarities and differences between Scotland and his native Sierra Leone. At this point, the conference program was running a bit late, but no one minded much - we heard a lot of fascinating things in one morning. During the breaks we were treated to coffee, tea, and pastries in the cafeteria; we even received reusable coffee mugs in the spirit of sustainability.

I chose to attend a fascinating presentation after the break. Peter Chand and Aoife O'Connor promised us "a provocation and a discussion", and that was exactly what they delivered. They dropped some hard truths about diversity (or lack thereof) within FEST and the larger storytelling community. The talk revolved around representation of marginalized identities (by race, nationality, gender, sexuality, ability, language, etc.), and the ways FEST and other storytelling events in Europe could be more inclusive in general - especially to young, upcoming tellers. They also touched on the topic of cultural appropriation, and doing justice to stories from other cultures - from learning to pronounce names all the way to dealing with people from colonizing countries telling stories from the groups they had colonized. The presenters didn't only open up a lot of important questions, but they also allowed time for feedback, discussion, and expressing feelings (even uncomfortable ones). The entire presentation was just the start: whoever wanted could sign up to a mailing list to continue the discussion. It was a very important session, much needed for the European storytelling community - and all the while honest, friendly, and open. The presenters held the space well. I am glad I attended.

After the lunch break there was another selection of workshops. In the first half hour I did my presentation on MythOff and bringing mythology and storytelling to new audiences. I got some great questions at the end. After my time was up, I hurried over to Dougie Mackay's workshop on wolves. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, especially because the reintroduction of wolves to Hungary sparked some debates (not to mention the shooting of a Swiss wolf by a Hungarian hunter recently...). And I love stories where wolves are not evil or dumb. Dougie led a great discussion on wolves, their importance to the environment, and the responsibility of storytellers. He also told us about his adventures tracking wolves in the wild.

I doubled down on environmental storytelling in the next session: after a coffee break I attended Cara Silversmith's workshop on environmental literacy and storytelling. Cara is passionate and enthusiastic about nature, and educating people - through stories - about our relationship with it. We got to touch some leaves and try to guess what tree they came from; we talked about different types of knowledge, and the emotions nature can evoke in us. It turned out the leaves were from an elm tree (and I was a little ashamed that I once wrote a whole article on elm trees in mythology, and yet I did not recognize the leaf). It was a lovely workshop, and great discussion.

After having dinner, we returned to the Centre for Contemporary Arts for the evening shows. Kata and I arrived early, so we got to sit and chat with people in the cafeteria - among them Ronni Gurwicz who runs a really fun podcast series, and also published a book alongside Arjen Barel and Stu Packer (yes I bought it). The evening performance I got to attend was Queens of Albion by Stephe Harrop. She masterfully combined personal stories with the foundation legends of Britain and some Greek mythology. She is a sparkling, humorous storyteller who owned the stage with minimal props - a few rocks, and a shiny jacket that transformed into various things in her hands. It was a stunning performance. I was too tired to stay for the late night shows (toddler mom), but I was happy I made it to that one.

The second full day of the conference also had a lot to offer. I chose the workshop titled Finding Your Voice run by Irish storytellers from the Leprechaun Museum. They had done a project on Erasmus+ funding, reworking traditional stories with LGBT+ youth. We got to go through a shorter version of the workshop they designed, and had great fun with it. We discussed what queer stories do exist in tradition, and what storytellers can do to queer other tales - also, what kinds of heroes and plots we would love to see in stories 100 years from now. We had a great group of people at the workshop, and it was lovely to see folklore research combined so well with creativity.

The second half of the day was Open Space - attendees could suggest topics of discussion, and we gathered in small groups all around the Centre. I joined the table where the topic was "how much can we change myths when we tell them?" We sat in the cafeteria, and we were "violently agreeing" with each other. It was great fun. Sadly, the program was running a bit late, and we soon had to return to the main room to share our thoughts.

All that was left now was to close the conference, and pass the torch on to Paola Balbi - next year we will be in Rome!

We ended the conference with singing, laughter, and gifts - but the day was not over yet. In the evening we had a gala dinner at the National Piping Centre (with some great Scottish music). We heard stories between courses, and after dessert a surprise guest appeared: a Mari Lwyd came dancing, and we all sang and cheered. It was a great way to celebrate us being together. The evening was so lovely that in the end I only said a few goodbyes and slipped out to go sleep. 

Kata and I spent the remaining day on the Isle of Arran, walking the beach, enjoying the sunshine, and visiting the Bodick Castle botanical gardens. It was a gorgeous place to visit, with friendly people. On the morning before we returned to Hungary we also got to browse some bookshops around Glasgow, and have lunch with folklorist Maggie Mackay. We made the most of our time to the last minute.

This was my second time in Scotland, and I was once again enchanted by the place, and by the storytelling community. I am sure I will be back. And next year, I'll see you all in Rome!

X is for the Xiphoid process (Body Folktales)

 This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy! 

The xiphoid process is a small projection on the bottom of your sternum. It's not exactly a popular folktale topic, but I did rustle up some stories featuring breastbones in general.

The singing breastbone (Scotland)

A princess' lover is seduced by her younger sister, so she drowns the girl out of jealousy. A harper finds the body of the drowned princess, and he makes a harp out of her breastbone, strung with her golden hair. At a banquet at the royal court he plays the harp, and it sings the true story of the murder.

The Old Man of the Cliff (Iceland)

A king is sailing on his ship with his men when an old man calls to them from a cliff. The king asks how many men he has in his household, to which the stranger answers with a riddle. While the king is trying to work out the riddle, the old man's troll magic is pulling the ship dangerously close to the cliff. A sailor named Thorgeir sees this, and braces the ship's sailyard pole against the rocks and against his own chest. He pushes against the magic, snapping his breastbone and his ribs with the effort, but manages to heroically save the ship from the enchantment.

Q is for Quadriceps (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy! 

The quadriceps are the muscles in the front of your thigh. Therefore, I am collecting folktales about thighs today. The most famous story here would be the birth of Dionysos from Greek mythology, but I did find others that are intriguing.

Donnran, the Brown Searcher (Scotland)

In this Scottish legend Caoilte, the swiftest runner of the heroes of the Fianna, is badly wounded on his thigh in a fight. Healers claim they have to cut off his leg because of the infection, but he refuses. Instead the Fianna sends for Donnran, the great healer who lives in the woods as a hermit. Donnran treats the infected wound with live maggots and herbs and honey, until it is miraculously healed.

Thirty-six Colors (Missouri French tale)

A prince dresses up as a jester and sneaks out of the palace to go adventuring. He decides to work as a cowherd, and encounters three giants, befriending each. They later help him win a contest for a princess' hand. After winning, he keeps sneaking away; on the third try, the king throws his spear, which lodges itself in the prince's thigh. Later on, he is discovered and identified by the wound and the tip of the spear lodged in it.

The terrible child and the birds (Burkina Faso)

A woman is infertile, and asks a healer for help. The healer tells her to cook some porridge, and if it spills on her, don't wipe it off. A drop of porridge spills on her thigh, turns into a swelling a bursts. A child springs out of it, ready to go hunting. As he hunts with his friend, a hawk keeps stealing their food. Eventually, the child gets the hawk to swallow him - then, coming out through its anus, strikes it with a club. The hawk swallows him again and he comes out again, continuing the process until the hawk dies.

Sunabai Jai (India)

Seven brothers leave their cherished little sister in the care of their wives, while they go trading. The seven women treat the girl badly, giving her impossible tasks, hoping that she'd die. When her brothers eventually return, the girl meets them on the beach and tells them everything. One of them cuts open his thigh and sews the girl inside it, hiding her from the evil wives until it is time to reveal the truth. In the meantime, he feeds her by placing food on his thigh.

(People sewing things into their thigh is a common folktale motif; you can read another story here, and a collection of parallels here.)

Thigh pieces for giant birds

Once again, this is a folktale motif that shows up in a whole lot of different stories. It is most often found in ATU 301, a folktale type where a hero rescues three princesses from the Underworld, and then is left behind by his treacherous brothers. He is rescued from the deep by a giant bird that he has to keep feeding during the flight. When food runs out, the hero chops off a piece of his own thigh and feeds it to the bird so they don't fall. Once safely on the surface, the bird usually heals the hero's wound.
In one Hungarian version, the hero rides a griffin, and after the flight receives a feather from it that heals all wounds. In a Mansi version the hero - Son of a Bear - rides an eagle, and feeds it pieces of both of his thighs. In both versions, the bird notes that if it had known earlier that humans taste so good, it would have devoured the hero instead of helping.

Somehow, all these stories ended up being about thigh wounds... Go figure.

H is for Hands, Hair, Hips, Heels (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!

(Yes, I am aware it's Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels, but it was low hanging fruit.)

HANDS

There were some obvious choices here that I'm omitting, such as Beaumains from Arthurian legends, or the folktale type of the Handless Maiden (which I really hate, except for one Hungarian variant).

Invisible Grandfather (Italy)

A girl sets out to seek her fortune, and ends up in an enchanted castle. She encounters no one except a floating pair of hands that serve her food and make her bed. The hands turn out to belong to Invisible Grandfather, who helps the girl secure a king as a husband - but when she doesn't follow his instructions, he curses her to grow a beard. Unusually for folktales, the curse is lifted by an apology.

The most beautiful hands in the world (Philippines)

A girl is proud of her beautiful, soft hands but refuses to do any work to help others. She mocks another girl for having rough, dirty hands. And yet, when that other girl helps a poor woman, she is rewarded with riches - and told that her hands are the most beautiful.

The legend of St. Kilda (Scotland)

According to legend, people from both Uist and Harris coveted the island of St. Kilda. They decided to have a rowing race, and agreed that whoever lays a hand on the island first will be its owner. As they neared the shore, people from Harris were winning - but the leader of the boat from Uist, Colla MacLeod, chopped off his left hand in the last minute, throwing it to the shore, and thus won the race.

HAIR

Hair is very common in folktales. Think Rapunzel, think the Devil's three golden hairs, think Lady Godiva, or The youth with the golden hair (ATU 314). From mythology, think Sif's golden hair, Sedna's tangled hair, Prince Zal's white hair, or the myth from Guam where women catch a monster fish with their hair. (If any more come to mind, sound off in the comments!)

I picked some lesser known, interesting examples:

The king's daughter who lost her hair (Akamba people, Kenya)

My favorite hair-themed story. A haughty princess goes bald from a curse, and sends people out to find a magic tree that grows hair. A young man travels far and finds the enchanted island where the tree grows; he brings back all kinds of hair for the princess.

The maiden with the red-gold hair (Hungary)

This is a "False bride" folktale where the false bride (forced into pretending by her mother) is treated surprisingly kindly. The story tells about a prince who is looking for a special maiden with red-gold hair, and an evil countess who disguises her own daughter to fit the description.

The raven-haired prince (Slovakia)

In a kingdom where everyone has red hair, a raven-haired prince is born. His parents try everything to change his hair color but nothing succeeds; eventually they send him abroad to try his luck. On his way home his servant blackmails him to swap places. After that, the prince goes through a series of dangerous quests, even dies and is revived, and eventually reclaims his rightful place. And his hair turns red.

The girl who became a bird (Hausa, Niger)

A very beautiful Cinderella variant where the prince falls in love with the girl when he sees her at the party in tattered clothes, and asks about her life. Later, her stepmother braids a charm into her hair and turns her into a bird; she is found and rescued by her brother and her husband.

The dragon prince (Spain)

A girl encounters an injured dragon in the woods, and helps him. Later she discovers he is an enchanted prince who can only be saved if someone creates a suit of golden hair for the giant who cursed him. The girl takes up service as a princess' handmaid, and begs her for her golden hair - but she has to promise her the prince's hand in exchange. Luckily, it turns out the golden-haired beauty is the dragon prince's sister, so our heroic girl gets to marry him in the end.

HIPS

Father and Daughters (Morocco)

This is a "Basil Maiden" type folktale, about a clever girl who saves herself and her sisters from the intrigues of a prince. When he tries to put sleeping powder in their food, she manages to stay awake and kicks the guy out of the house so hard he breaks his hip. Later on, disguised as a doctor, she shows up at court to treat his injury (and get up to more shenanigans). At the end of the story the prince is sentenced to death for trying to harm her, but she commutes his sentence.

The lazy beauty and her aunts (Ireland)

A "Three Spinners" type tale, where a lazy girl is taken to a prince's castle with her mother's promise that she can work miracles in spinning and weaving. Three mysterious old women show up to help her - one with large feet, one with a large nose, and one with wide hips (Cailleach Croman Mór, Woman of the Big Hips). Each in turn tells the prince that their shape is due to the hard work they had done all their life. Alarmed, the prince forbids his bride from working ever again.

HEELS

The most obvious example would be Achilles' heel, but I'm not going to repeat it. If you are curious about a lesser known myth about the same, you can find it in my book.

How mosquitoes came to be (Tlingit)

A giant keeps killing people and devouring their heart. A brave man pretends to be dead, and the giant takes him to his house. There, he discovers that the giant is unkillable because he keeps his own heart in his left heel. As he enters the house again, the hero plunges a knife in his heel, killing him. He then burns the body - and the ashes turn into the first mosquitoes.

How rice came to Earth (Indonesia)

A poor boy walks up to the heavens on the rainbow, following some fairies. There, he encounters rice for the first time, but he is forbidden from taking any of it. When he tries to steal some, he cuts his heel on the rainbow bridge while fleeing and gets caught. The second time, he hides some grains inside the healing wound on his heel, and smuggles them safely down to earth.

The soldier and the wizard (Russia)

The folktale version of a villain being brought down by his own monologuing. A soldier encounters a wizard at night in a cemetery and goes on a clandestine nighttime adventure with him. At one point the wizard takes blood from a young couple, and tells the soldier they can only be revived if someone cuts them on the heel and restores their blood. In the end, the soldier learns all the wizard's secrets, and kills him.

Did you have fun with the stories on this list? Do you have a favorite?

H is for Heliotrope and Northern Lights (Gemstone Folklore)

Welcome to the 2022 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Gemstone Folklore. Because I love stories about shiny things. Read the introduction to the project here.

HELIOTROPE (BLOODSTONE)

Heliotrope is a form of jasper, usually dark green in color with bright red hematite spots, which is why it is more commonly known as bloodstone.

The Nimble Men

Scotland

Legend says that when the rebel angels fell from Heaven, they became three types of beings: those who fell to the land became Fairies, those who fell into the sea became Blue Men (Na Fir Ghorma), and those who stayed in the air became the Nimble Men (Na Fir Chlis, sometimes also translated as Merry Dancers or Streamers). According to another legend, the Nimble Men, the Blue Men, and the Green Ladies are all descendants of Queen Beira, the winter goddess. The Nimble Men are the Northern Lights, creating a flurry of colors with their dancing. Or, occasionally, fighting.

"The Nimble Men are divided into two clans. The heroes of one clan are clad in garments white as hoar-frost, and the heroes of the other clan in garments of pale yellow. Brighter and more varied colours are worn by the ladies of the clans. Some are gowned in green, some in red, and some in silvery white, and a few wear royal purple."

According to the story, a prince of the White Clan called Lightfoot, and the chief of the Yellow Clan, Green Eyes, competed for the love of a maiden called Princess Comely. She favored Lightfoot, who was the best dancer. One night, at the dance, Lightfoot proposed to her and she accepted. However, Green Eyes grew so angry that he and his men attacked the rival clan, and the party turned into a battle. So much blood was spilled that it dripped to the earth, and left red spots on the stones. When the battle was over, the princess went looking for Lightfoot, and found him cold and dead. Embracing him, she died of heartbreak.

The stones still bear the red spots of blood. They are called bloodstones, or fuil siochaire, "elf blood."

Sources: 

You can find this story in here. You can read more information here.

Have you ever seen the northern lights in real life? 

Did they look like a dance, or a battle?

Fairies, heroes, wizards (Following folktales around the world 91. - Scotland)

Today I continue the blog series titled Following folktales around the world! If you would like to know what the series is all about, you can find the introduction post here. You can find all posts here, or you can follow the series on Facebook!

The Penguin Book of Scottish Folktales
Neil Philip
Penguin Books, 1995.

Yet another folklore classic, with notes, sources, tale types, and a world of information. It represents various aspects of Scottish oral tradition; the 112 tales are grouped into chapters by region (Highlands and Lowlands), as well as story types (historical stories, anecdotes, fairy legends, etc.). The long introduction talks about tale type indexes, the features of oral storytelling, Scottish tradition, and even the roles of male and female tellers. Each story comes with sources, type numbers, and the teller's name. Many texts were written out phonetically, which made it harder for me to follow, and often I had to read them out loud to understand the words, but it was worth it. I found quite a few great stories in this book.

Highlights

Kate Crackernuts

Some of my favorite Scottish folktales are featured in the book - for example Kate Crackernuts, with a heroine who saves a prince and also helps her stepsister (in a sort of reverse "dancing princesses" story); or Mally Whuppie, who repeatedly outwits a giant to save herself and her sisters. The latter also had a Highland variant, called Maol a Chliobain.
I really liked Maraiche Mairneal, the Weatherwise Mariner, who was not even the protagonist in his own story; the hero was a prince who had a snake twisted around his body, and in order to find the women who could help him get rid of it, he had to enlist the help of an old, blind mariner. All was well in the end. The story of The widow's son and the king's daughter took an unexpected turn when the hero, in order to defeat a fire-breathing dragon, got a camel, filled it up with water, and made it spew water at the flames of the dragon. Similarly unexpected was the story of The man in the boat, a version of "the man who had no story", in which said man was spirited away by a boat, turned into a woman, married, had children, and then got back on the same night - and now he had quite the story to tell. Teenagers love this story.
I was delighted to find quite a few Fianna legends in the book. Finn in the land of Big Men was familiar; I even have a version of it in my own book. Finn and the Grey Dog is also an old favorite of mine; I knew it from Rosemary Sutcliff's collection, but it was great to find the folk text as well. There was a variant of the Hostel of the Quicken Trees (here the Yellow Field), where the Fianna warriors get stuck to their chairs in an enchanted house, and the younger generation has to rescue them. And of course there was a story about Oisín (Ossian), after the Fianna.

Michael Scott's tomb

There were some fascinating historical legends as well. One was about the last of the Picts, and how father and son took the secret of the heather ale with them to the grave. I encountered Sir James Ramsay of Bamff, a legendary doctor with magical abilities, and Michael Scott, one of the most famous wizards in European lore (both were features in my book on superpowers).
Among the fairy legends, I really liked Black Lad MacCrimmon and the Banshee, where the fairy asked the piper lad if he wanted success without talent, or talent without success. He chose the latter.

Connections

A Fekete Bika képregény- változata (Image Comics)

There were quite a few classic tale types in the book, such as Mother killed me, father ate me; Cinderella; Beauty and the Beast (here the Black Bull of Norroway); Magic Flights (Green Sleeves); Frog Bride; The hunchback and the fairies; Clever Maiden; Water of Life (here with a friendly bear); Firebird (here with a friendly fox); and even Raven brothers (here with shirts made from bog cotton). There was a Scottish Frog Prince who had to be beheaded with an axe, rather than kissed. Rumpelstiltskin here was a woman named Whoppity Stoorie, and Frau Holle's tale was called The well at the end of the world (one of my storyteller friends recently released a CD with the Appalachian version of this).
I was reminded of other European wizards by Donald Duibheal Mackay who had not shadow, and other European tales by the Humble-bee that flew from the mouth of a sleeping person, and had dream-like adventures.
There were familiar Münchhausen tales among the anecdotes, such as the servant who ate one leg of the goose (known from the Decameron, and also my own grandfather), or the Mare's egg.
Of course I found sleeping knights, waiting for their king to appear; and there was also a Polyphemus story, but instead of blinded cyclops here it featured a blinded fairy (Tam M'Kechan).
The fairy legends were full of familiar motifs: Dance in the fairy hill, fairy midwife, changelings, wife kidnapped by fairies (who then had to choose between two husbands), and mortal traveling with fairies (Hurrah for Kintail!). There was also a selkie and an evil mermaid.
As for tricksters, we had George Buchanan, the king's clever fool.

Where to next?
Northern Ireland!