Lust & Loss at the Undercroft - 'The Illuminators Wife'

 

As Undercroft regular Joy reminded us, last Wednesdays gathering was the beginning of Imbolc -The Celtic festival marking the beginning of spring and so a perfect time to celebrate lust and loss at the undercroft. But as Dave Tonge observed, "You can't have one without the other - For it is the way of stories and perhaps real life that lust leads to loss". He backed up this assertion with a tale he calls 'The Best Forgotten', where a young peasant girl's lust for coin and a chance meeting with a ghostly Monk leads to the loss of all she hungered after.

Shock or Shame? You decide.

But whilst Dave focused on lust for coin, the other tellers were more content to tell tales of physical lust that sent ripples of shock through some in the audience and shame amongst those who were disturbed at their own enjoyment in the sins of the flesh. Liam Carroll took this to extremes with the tale of 'Genesis' and the origins of Original Sin, although the most literal interpretation of the theme this month should go to Jim Kavanagh with his version of 'The Illuminators Wife' - Of a Norwich artist who being down on his luck and with a young beautiful wife to support, decides to journey to Bruges to find work. But being forced to leave his young wife at home he contrives to paint a lamb on her stomach, beneath her navel. His finest most delicate work, the fragile nature of which was designed to ensure that no other man would be able to take advantage of his wife whilst he is away. For two and half years he labours in foreign lands till he has enough coin to return to his home in Norwich and his beautiful wife. And no sooner has he arrived than he undresses his wife only to find that the delicately detailed lamb has been replaced with a roughly painted Ram complete with long horns, which as some of will know is the symbol of the Cuckold. But as Jim pointed out to all gathered at the Undercroft, 'What else should the Illuminator expect, for two and a half years had gone by. Plenty of time for a lamb to grow into a ram!' *

Dave Tonge telling to a packed house

*If you enjoyed Jim's tale you can also read some of Dave the Yarnsmith's stories at: http://talesfromtheyarnsmith.blogspot.com/
Just remember stories are better heard than read!

Next months gathering is on the 7th March with guest teller Sophie Snell telling her 'Seven Deadly Sins'. Free crisps and cake for those who arrive before the 8.00 start!

Dave Tonge  - The Yarnsmith

Artwork by Jim Kavanagh

Meet the Regulars - Dave Tonge aka 'The Yarnsmith'

Dave telling at Settle Storytelling Festival - October 2011

 Dave has been telling tales since 1999. Prior to that he had a very varied career which in itself would make a good story, although alas far too long to tell here! Suffice to say that by the early 1990s he was unhappy with the road he was travelling, went back into learning and by 2000 found himself with a BA & MA in English history and even the first year of a PhD under his belt! At the same time Dave was working for the Norfolk Museum Service and met Stewart Alexander. He was a story teller of many years standing, who encouraged Dave to start telling and it wasn't long before they formed Past-Imagined, Historic Tales Tellers and he ran away from his PhD to become an Itinerant teller of tales! 

When it comes to his tellings, Dave says, We fused my passion for history with Stewart's passion for tale telling, adding some authentic costume and objects into the mix and travelling the whole of England telling tales at museums, heritage sites, festivals, fayres and schools. He also says, My storytelling is not that far removed from the historical research and presentations I was already doing, for my work on court records had already convinced me that people long ago were not that different to us - A fact born out by the large collection of folk tales I now tell. People laughed at, and mocked many of the same things that we still do today.

  

Although Stewart and Dave still work together, the majority of his work now is as the Yarnsmith of Norwich and as well as the typical heritage venues that make up most of his work, Dave is now also telling regularly at many storytelling clubs including the Cambridge Storytellers at the end of September 2011 and also the Flying Donkeys in Derby, the Yard of Tales in Market Harborough, ASTORy or Two in Deal and Settle Storytelling Festival for a second time in October 2012.

For more info on Dave check out his website: http://www.theyarnsmithofnorwich.com

Or contact him at theyarnsmith@yahoo.co.uk

Or 07908515766

Old Tales & True Tales : Kelly Kanayama

Ms K gave a solo performance at Jurnets on Monday 6 February.  After gobbling his chips, The Gob hurried along to catch it...

One look at Kelly Kanayama tells you she comes from some far away, exotic place, and as soon as she begins to speak, you know you're in for tales from another world.  One by one, strange, beautiful names and unexpected ideas flow through her stories, across oceans and continents from the other side of the Earth.
  Did you know that once, the sky and the earth were so enamoured of each other that there was barely room for people to live between them, and every one went around bent double?
  Us regulars to the Undercroft Tales already know that Kelly's stories are full of mythological wonder, and expected nothing less, but none of us had any idea she could sing as well!  Without a word, the evening began with a haunting song in another language, delivered in a melodious voice that made me think yep, when people sing at storytellings, this is exactly what it should be like.
  The ancient stories began from the time when the world was young, and Maui (pronounced M-ow-ee) made islands by pulling them up from the sea.  Not just any old islands, of course, and certainly not this one, but great mountainous, exciting ones with volcanoes still smouldering and forests rich with animal song: the eight islands of Hawaii.  Time was definitely a theme Kelly had chosen, as we grew closer to our own time over the tellings, but there was another recurring theme as well, the one which none of us seem able to avoid in story, that old man-woman thing… Maui didn't fix the sky because he could, or for anyone's benefit at all, but simply because he wanted to impress a girl.

  Lucky for us she wasn't that easily gobsmacked, & we all walk tall because of her. There was a Flood Myth, where a man (who was also an eel) gave everything he had because he loved his wife, from which we all still derive bounty, as niu: the coconut.  Hmm, maybe the concepts aren't always that alien and different, even half a world away: who amongst all the gods could overcome and calm the angry war god Ogun, but the goddess of love, Oshun..?
  Inspite of how far we travelled in time, from the beginning to the 1950's, it felt like a sea breeze, and Kelly gave us an insight into how it is that everyone growing up in Hawaii is steeped in story.  It's not just the ancient Polynesian myths that have remained, like minerals in the volcanic soils, it seems the islands have been a destination and melting pot for many nations over the centuries.  Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Philippines - they've all cast their folktales and languages over the land, and every island has not just a richness of national myth, but its own particular folklore too.
  O'ahu, where she grew up, home to Honolulu, is a place where the goddess Pele will not tolerate pork beyond a certain midway line… woe betide the hapless infringer of her ban, who will suffer mysterious misfortunes, failed MOT's and other hassles as a result: testimonies supplied.
   I have a suspicion that Pele, the mistress of volcanoes, conqueror of handsome men and shape-shifter in many forms, is Kelly's favourite home spirit, as she has appeared in her tales often.  In our times she tends to choose the guise of a grey old crone, and hides her powers, which put me in mind of other female deities, such as Celtic Brigid whom Joy described at this month's club tellings.  A world of oceans lies between them, but there seem to be universal truths on the wind.
  In her final tale, Kelly proposed the idea that stories seek to escape and fly around the world, like living things, ever eager to find new ears.  Presumably they also seek strong voices to tell them, and those of us who know Kelly will vouch she is certainly one of those, as even being currently on crutches (with a broken ankle), she still can crack an evening of tales like this one.