There has been such a lot to take in already from the large contributions received. But I want to pick up on this idea from Mike Dunstan's first mailing.
My first intention when starting into storytelling was to tell traditional english stories but bit by bit for good reasons things got skewed. The few that I had received from my father and one or two others had come through oral sources. But I gathered repertoire like a rolling stone. Most of these had recently been in print and the literary tradition has a different set of needs to the oral tradition. For an english storyteller it is difficult to find substantial traditional stories that have not been filtered through literature. This can put in question the material that I am working with and its relationship to the tradition.
The same is true of the nature of storytelling. The storytelling that I usually hear is being performed to an audience of strangers sometimes with a high performance qualities and sometimes not. Strangely this does not always determine how well the story comes over to me - it may have been something to do with the choice of story.
Some of the most effective storytellers I have heard have not been telling traditional stories at all. And I am reminded of three in particular, all Birmingham motor trade workers. All three were consummate performers in their own right. Their ability to hold their gathered audience depended on their extemporary skills and some very skilful performance qualities. But what makes them stand out for me was their use of vernacular speech and the idioms of the Birmingham motor factories, which in those days was a rich cultural source and for all I know may well still be. Thinking back this use of vernacular was also deeply rooted in my father's tellings, whether it was a traditional of family story.
The vernacular is usually lost in literary tellings but it seems to me it is one of the ways that traditional storytelling can be distinguished.
posted 27/7/98