By: Eric Wolf,
on 3/29/2011
Written by Richard Martin In 2004 I wrote an account for the UK storytelling magazine Facts & Fiction of how as an Englishman based in Germany I had become a teller of traditional folk tales to adult audiences. The article provided the occasion to look back on what had happened and what I had learnt. As [...]
By: Eric Wolf,
on 2/19/2011
For me, storytelling is a wonderful thing, very precious to my soul because I really feel joy seeing that I can influence in good people souls and lives.
By: Eric Wolf,
on 5/24/2010
Press Play to hear Brother Wolf speak with David Ambrose on the foundation and running of the International Storytelling Festival of Wales.
Picture a fairytale castle perched on a cliff-top on the romantic Welsh coast; at the foot of the castle, a medieval jousting field, fringed by woodland, the tower of an ancient Saxon church rising above the trees. Terraced gardens slope gently down from the castle to the sea. In every garden, there is a tent. And in every tent, a storyteller….
This is St Donats Castle, the setting for Beyond The Border Wales International Storytelling Festival, which I set up with the help and encouragement of leading UK storyteller Ben Haggarty in 1993. Ever since then, BTB has been dedicated to exploring and celebrating the world’s rich heritage of oral tradition, bringing to Wales an unparalleled selection of storytellers, epic singers and musicians from the four corners of the earth, and creating for itself a worldwide reputation as a unique haven for traditional story. The result has been the growth of a remarkable quality of listening. Where else could you find several hundred people sitting in a Mongolian–style yurt, listening in rapt attention to the mesmerizing recital of a 1,000 year-old Kyrgyz epic, while acrobats and fire jugglers entertain hundreds more on the castle Lawns, a European Wonder Tale unfolds to cello accompaniment in the Rose Garden, and in the magnificent Great Hall of the Castle, an audience is spellbound by a tale from the Arabian Nights? Unfortunately for that loyal audience of listeners, the changes of funding that often upset arts events like this forced the festival to take time off over the last couple of years.
But the good news is that Beyond the Border is back! In July this year, Britain’s leading international festival of storytelling returns to its spiritual home of St Donats Castle, on the beautiful S Wales coast, for another spectacular weekend of stories by the sea!
For three glorious and magic-filled days, the grounds of our fairytale castle will echo with the sound of stories from Wales and the World…Silk Road stories….travellers’ tales….stories and songs from Celtic Britain…1001 Nights….stories & music from West Africa & The Caribbean…..Tales To Sustain….
A stellar line-up includes storytellers and musicians from Italy, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Nigeria and from right across the British Isles.
Together they will entertain and illuminate, amaze and amuse an audience drawn to St Donats Castle from across the UK and from around the globe, an international audience attracted not only by the breadth and quality of the programme, but also by the magnificent, other worldly atmosphere of the location. To visit Beyond The Border really is to be in a fairy tale come true. We hope you can join us. To learn more about Beyond The Border 2010 and find out how to get tickets and join the BTB email list, visit http://www.beyondtheborder.com
Written by Richard Martin In 2004 I wrote an account for the UK storytelling magazine Facts & Fiction of how as an Englishman based in Germany I had become a teller of traditional folk tales to adult audiences. The article provided the occasion to look back on what had happened and what I had learnt. As [...]
Press Play to hear Storyteller Diane Edgecomb talk about place based nature storytelling on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf. In this interview with Eric, I speak about how the various elements of nature mythology can be an enlivening force both for those who hear you tell and for your own journey into this ancient [...]