A Scottish Storyteller

The end of May already!?  What? Apparently this year has gone by quickly :)  Some of the audience from the Arabian Nights storytelling event at John Briggs Persian Rugs Specialist in Stonehaven We've been quite busy at GAS ( The Grampian Association of Storytellers ) with a workshop in Montrose organised by Blether Tay Gither and ourselves, a night of royal stories, a night for storytelling newbies and an Arabian Night held in the carpet shop in Stonehaven - all of which were well attended with some brilliant new storytellers (as well as some great stories from our regulars!) Storytelling (or perhaps singing?) At the Girvan Folk Festival In April I was a guest at the 37th Girvan Folk Festival along with Frances Logan from Glasgow Storytellers   and the Better Crack Club. We had a great time and were made to feel very welcome by the Girvan folk and our host Colin McAllister.  I enjoyed singing and storytelling in the evening concerts and telling ...

The Stonehaven Fireballs are my favourite Hogmanay event up here in Aberdeenshire.  In fact, I've blogged about them in the past - http://ascottishstoryteller.blogspot.com/2008/11/fire-festivals.html Well, we're just a few days away from Hogmanay now (that's New Years Eve for those of you unaquint with the name!)  and I'm very pleased to say I'm going to be storytelling at Open Air In The Square on Friday night. I've got a good selection of traditional stories and some new New Years stories I'm just bursting to tell! Open Air In The Square runs alongside the Stonehaven Fireballs and will be providing entertainment for all ages from 8pm until the wee hours.  Have a look at their web page for more details - http://www.openairinthesquare.co.uk/  (OK, not as impressive as the fireballs, but here's my attempt at bringing in the New Year in an appropriate way last year! There were more impressive moves, but these ones looked like 10 and 11, so I t...

As the final event of the year at Archaeolink, Wickerman, has always been the climax of the season. Quite simply, Hallowe'en has always been my favourite time of the year - I love the stories, the games, the dressing up, the traditions, and since I started volunteering at Archaeolink in Spring 2001, Wickerman has been part of my life.  (I just had to count back on my fingers there to figure out if it really has been 10 seasons that I've been volunteering there!) In the past few years, the weekend of Wickerman has consisted of getting out there early on the saturday to spend the day decorating the caves up for the "Spooky Tours" followed a party in the round house before attempting to get a full nights sleep ready for the busy day ahead.  A full nights sleep never seemed to happen though - whether due to the singing round the fire, last minute rehearsing of local ghost stories or child-like excitement.  This year, however, I was even busier than usual as Anna Fan...

Just a quick post to say that I have had a wonderful Storytelling Summer! The first event of the summer was telling Pictish tales at St Ternan's Heritage Fair in Banchory.  We had the run of both the museum and library - which had set up areas cunningly disguised as both a Pictish Fort and an Iron Age Roundhouse.  Banchory and the surrounding area is rich in folklore and legends relating to past kings and saints. Anna Fancett and Lee Ramsay tell stories in Banchory Library (note the "Make Your Own Hillfort" display on the right - we loved them!) Next, I was off to Glastonbury via Callanish where we took part in The17 with Bill Drummond , Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice and Avebury Stone Circle the day after that! Glastonbury was almost a rest in comparison!  I met some fantastic people and storytellers and am already looking forward to 2011's trip! For the first time, I told stories at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival in July and then Wizard Festival in Augu...

So a lot has happened since my last post! Most importantly the sad loss of our good friend, Stanley Robertson. He was an inspiration to myself and my fellow storytellers and ballad singers and I was very privileged to be one of his "quinies" - Stanley always had time to teach a ballad or story! Stanley's funeral was very touching and, as he was buried at Lumphanan and we were all there to sing at the graveside, a few of us made the walk up the Old Road past the great oak tree Auld Craobhie. Stanley was due to be the guest speaker at GAS's October Friday Fling for Doricfest. Instead we have decided to hold the event in his honour and everyone is welcome to share a story or song of Stanley's. Gabrielle and Antony, Stanleys daughter and son will be there and I'm sure everyone will do what he taught us justice! Stanley at the Travellers Well on the way out to Lumphanan In the last couple of months, I've been telling stories at the Burn O Vat and in the We...

What a busy summer this has been! I've now been back from Glastonbury for a couple of weeks - what a great start to the summer! I was storytelling in the Kidz Field and the Green Futures Field and met some great people. At the Green Futures field I had the privilege of telling with Christine Willison , Anne Lister and Cath Little. I was also given an unexpected slot at the Kidz Field storytelling tent, run by John Row - which I enjoyed thoroughly ! Next time, I'm determined to spend more time in the Kidz Field as there's always so much going on... Here I am storytelling in the Kidz Field - clearly describing a very grumpy character (I don't look like this all the time, honest!) We took the long way back home to Aberdeen - via Cerne Abbas (to see the Giant ), a couple of days relaxing (and washing off the mud!) in Bournemouth, up past Stonehenge to Nottingham, on past Sherwood Forest to Castleford and then a brief stop in Edinburgh before finally reaching...

So since January this year, I have been doing a lot of puppet making and rehearsing for a blacklight and shadow puppet show - which is a totally new storytelling experience for me! Along with Aberdeen Street Entertainers, I have been working on a 20 minute show called the Story of Evolution - This is just part of of A Night At The Museum II which will be taking place at Aberdeen University's Zoology Department on the 16th May - just under a week away! We spent almost the whole day today rehearsing and putting the finishing touches to some of the scenes and we recorded one of the short sections - the dinosaur shadow puppet scene! If you want to see our first rehersals (don't worry - it'll get much better over the next week!), have a look here -

During the past week I was looking for a classic "fool" story to tell at April's First Friday Fling (which I'm just home from!) In the end I told Silly Jack, but one of the ones I considered was the Three Wishes. You know... man gets 3 wishes. Wishes he has sausages for his tea by mistake. His wife gets on to him for wasting a wish and wishes it was stuck on to his nose and they have to use the last wish wishing it off his nose... Classic story :) And best of all - I found this animated version of it on The Reading Bus web page: http://www.readingbus.co.uk/ReadingBusBlog/archives/category/animations/three-wishes Read more about the Reading Bus on their web page and enjoy more stories and podcasts recorded by kids from Aberdeen!

So today I did my first stint in the round house and it was totally amazing! It was really busy - no idea how many people came through the doors, but we didn't stop all day even though it was a bit nippy outside. I just checked and think I told 12 stories today - which is pretty good going for the old voice which has been out of use over winter. Three were completely new stories - one of which I'd put together for the RGU project at Archaeolink (mentioned briefly in my last post) and one I'd written myself about the Northern Lights. My favourite thing today was when I was asking the kids what they'd teach a Princess for her to be useful to her country and one girl was adamant she'd need to learn martial arts. Why? Because being a ninja princess would come in very handy. I love it when kids come out with things like this - quite often it stays in the story the next time I tell it. And I made sure that the princess's ninja skills did indeed come in handy later...

Well - spring is coming and that means that for me, so does the storytelling season! I was shocked to calculate that I have now been volunteering at Archaolink Prehistory Park for 8 years now! This will be my 9th season at the park. I've always had a keen interest in prehistory and archaeology, so when Archaeolink opened in 1998 and a workmate brought me along one weekend in 1999 to help with the preparation of thatching the round house, I knew then I wanted to spend more time doing this sort of thing. This was followed up by a couple of weekends at the dig on the top of Berryhill in 2000 where I was encouraged for the first time to explain to the visitors what was going on - back then I wouldn't have dreamed that some day I would have the confidence to stand up in front of over 200 people and tell a story or sing a song! (Incidentally, they discovered I was really good at turfing, so I never got to get in about with a trowel and paintbrush. Damn.) The Iron Age Roundhouse wi...

An English doctor, being shown around a Scottish hospital, is taken into a ward with a number of patients who show no visible signs of injury. He goes to examine the first man he sees, and the man proclaims “Fair fa’ yer sonsie face, Great chieftain e’ the puddin’ race!” The Englishman, somewhat taken aback, goes to the next patient, who immediately launches into: “Some hae meat, and canna eat, and some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, and sae the Laird be thankit.” The next patient sits up and declaims: “Wee sleekit cow’rin tim’rous beastie, O what a panic’s in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, wi’ bickering brattle. I wad be laith to run and chase thee, wi’ murdering prattle!” “Well,” says the Englishman to his Scottish colleague. “I see you saved the psychiatric ward for last.” “Nay, nay,” the Scottish doctor corrects him, “This is the Burns Unit...”

Being a storyteller and really into folklore, traditions and all that kind of thing, I do enjoy a good fire festival. Nothing like celebrating a particular time of year by getting a bit rowdy and setting fire to something. In fact I remember well a conversation with a few friends a couple of years back... Me: Ah yes, nothing better than a good old fire festival Friend: Fire festival? Is that a Scottish thing then? Me: Not at all! It's done all over. I admit I can think of a good few though. There's the Viking one up in the Shetlands - Up Helly Aa. Vikings march through the streets, set fire to a full size Longship and then revelry happens. Ummmm. The Burning of the Clavie at Burghead... Ancient tradition. A New Year thing. Set fire to a big barrel of tar and other burny things. March round the village and then revelry happens. Stonehaven Fireballs - that's Hogmanay - set fire to big balls of burny stuff. March up and down the High Street. Revelry Happen...

So, the other weekend, I was storytelling for Scottish Natural Heritage at the Burn O Vat. For those of you that don't know, the Burn O Vat (part of the Muir Of Dinnet Nature Reserve) is just the most amazing place to go of a weekend - no matter what time of year it is. The Vat is a giant pothole carved by a huge meltwater stream during the last Ice Age, and the whole area is great to walk round, picnic in and so on. Whenever someone comes to visit me, we tend to take a visit there. As a child, my parents would go walking a lot. I wasn't too fond of this generally, being particularly attractive to midgies for some reason... but getting me out of the house to go to places like Dinnet was just fine! One year, on the September monday holiday my mum and dad took me, and a friend, to the Burn O Vat. To cut a long story short - we ran on ahead to the vat itself and as we got closer we could hear humming and chanting. On entering the Vat, we saw a group of pleasant looking grey ...

And now head over to The Other Scottish Storyteller's blog to read about the concert party (entitled "A Scots Handsel - Traditional Scottish Concert Party") she organised to raise funds for Ellon Academy pupils' trip to Ecuador. It was a great night and now that it's over and the sweaty hands and dry mouth have gone, I can say I had a brilliant time performing Hazel Murdoch's doric song "Learning To Be A Fairy." The acts were all really entertaining and Storyquine did an amazing job of organising the whole thing! (P.S. Thanks for putting up flattering photos of me Storyquine! ;)

Aye, The Ither Scottish Storyteller and myself will both be taking part in AROHA's Traditional Concert Party this Saturday 17th November. I will be a fairy. Stop laughing. Here's the link - http://www.arohascotland.org/news/eventdetails.php?id=25

The autumn edition of the Grampian Association of Storytellers newsletter (GASlight) is now out! click here to see it.

The Rhynie Man is a pictish stone carving of a fierce man with sharp teeth and an axe which was ploughed up in 1978 at a farm at Barflat, Rhynie. (A good description can be found here http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/archaeology/sites/pictish/rhynie.pdf ) Now I always wondered why The Rhynie Man was so angry looking, until I heard a couple of neighbours arguing one night and was inspired to write the following poem. THE RHYNIE WIFE - by Pauline Cordiner He bade up there on the Hill at Rhynie: A fearsome giant that wis far fae tiny! He wiz 12 ft tall, or mair, I’d say And he reeked of stale sweat and decay It could be said that his farts smelt like death But that wis nithin when compared tae his breath! For a’ hopes of dental hygiene were lost For the Rhynie man never, ever flossed. His stinkin feet were a sicht tae be seen The corns and the bunions were jist obscene And a terrible insult to anyone’s nose And he had puir squished sheepies between his toes! He’d stomp a’ roo...

I have heard this story told many times. Sometimes the story is attributed to "a stone circle in Auchterless," but in some versions the stone circle involved is the Hatton of Ardoyne recumbant stone circle on the road from Oyne to Old Rayne in Aberdeenshire. This is interesting as one of the circle stones has been used as a gate post - and has been returned to its original place! Nine stones of a possible original thirteen still stand. Only one flanker remains. The story is set in relatively modern times - in the last 100 years or so when farming methods were becoming more modern, yet animals were still used to pull things. And perhaps when attitudes towards the old traditions were becoming more modern, yet some superstitions held fast. There was once a farmer who lived a hundred years ago or so, at a farm not too far from here. The farm had been left to him by his father and he was becoming a wealthy man. He grew crops on his land and kept sheep, cows and had a couple o...

It was a cold spring morning when my friend and I stopped off in Inverurie on the way home from a party the night before. We got some snacks for breakfast and made our way to the old graveyard in the hope of finding some of the old pictish carvings that have been moved there for safekeeping. We found them and were just considering climbing up the old Motte which is situated within the graveyard when there was an eerie voice coming seemingly out of nowhere... "Mornin'!!! Huv ye ever heard the story o' twice buried Mary?" (When I tell this story, he sounds a lot like Private Fraser from Dad's Army. That might help you hear him in your mind). We looked around and first of all saw no-one, but eventually, just over the dyke of the kirkyard, we saw a wee grinning mannie, walking his dog by the burn. He then told us the story of Mary Elphinstone... Well, many years ago in the village of Inverurie, there lived a young lassie who had been happily married for a good...

Hi Folks! Long time no post, eh? I'm sure I'll get back to this at some point when things are not so hectic, but in the meantime, I'd like to direct you all to my new webpage - http://www.paulinecordiner.co.uk