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Is an ancient celtic art form (one of the "High Arts" formerly). It has a multifacted history of use including, education of both children and adults, history keeping, law making, conflict resolution, community decision making and mental healing. Many of these uses are still applied by tellers today, especially in the New World.
As such, storytellers were (up until the last 300 years) members of the elite class in many cultures including Celtic, where Brehons / Bards / Seanachaidhean / Storytellers were valuable advisors to the Kings and Queens.
The old people had a way of coming together in the Celtic Lands - The Cèilidh (pron: "Kay-lee"). The Gàidhlig word means "a gathering of the people". They would collect, young and old, around the hearth of one of the villagers, or perhaps the hearth of a Chieftain's House. There would be songs sung and music to dance to. The oldest, or the Seanachaidh (storyteller) if present, would tell the Tales they had learned from their elders - Tales of their people, Tales of honour, of battles, of magic, of love, of sorrow. The Cèilidh and these Tales, older than the languages which now recall them, weave the people together, give the people a sense of who they are and where they come from.
In Éireann (Ireland) in times past there were those known as Seanachaidh (Shan-ah-kee), tellers who carry the Traditional Tales and history of his people in a particular way. A Seanachaidh is a genealogist, a historian, a documenter of events and agreements, a walking library. In addition, the Seanachaidh carries the Folk Tales. These are non-historical Tales and are important for other social reasons. They are remembered with great precision, in quite a pure form, something precious, to be handed on intact to the next carrier of the oral tradition. And so it has been for hundreds of years, with apparently, very little evolution and change in each Tale (so cross cultural studies show us).
In the many Tales that I carry, there can be found much of ancient Irish literature - the great heros: The Sidhe folk, CuChulain, Fionn MacCumhal and the Fianna, as well as Folk Tales from most of the Celtic nations, many of these stretching back to pre Celtic times. There are Tales from more recent times - of the Scottish history. All of this is woven around the listener with harp and songs in the old style Cèilidh
In this way of working with Tales the teller is a Weaver, a weaver of energy, people and words, and sometimes healing and magic. This kind of storytelling is a highly interactive experience with the listener. I describe these gatherings (cèilidhean) that as "A ceremony of Tale", a sacred space of magic, words and peoples' hearts.
"There are many ways to come
to an understanding
of ourselves.
The Tales are just one.
A powerful
one"
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