Origins of Storytelling

[Purposes of Storytelling] [History of Storytelling] [Bardic Storytelling] [Stories of the Folk] [Storytelling in the Religious Traditions]

Purposes of Storytelling

Anne Pellowski has written a superby scholarly analysis of the history of storytelling in her The World of Storytelling from R. R. Bowker, 1977. She has suggested that storytelling had its origin in play activities, with gifted but ordinary folk entertaining their particular social group informally. Gradually these activities were included in religious rituals, historical recitations and educational functions. She found evidence to support many theories on the origins of storytelling, including:

(1.)That it grew out of the playful, self-entertainment needs of humans;

(2.)That it satisfied the need to explain the surrounding physical world.

(3.)That it came about because of an intrinsic religious need in humans to honor or propitiate the supernature force(s) belived to be present in the world.

(4.) That it evolved from the human need to communicate experience to other humans.

(5.) That it fulfilled an aesthetic need for beauty, regularity, and form through expressive language and music.

(6.) That it stemmed from the desire to record the actions or qualities of one's ancestors, in the hope that this would give them a kind of immortality.

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History of Storytelling

We have documentation of storytelling from many cultures. Records of storytelling have been found in many languages, including Sanskrit, Old German, Latin, Chinese, Greek, Latin, Icelandic and Old Slavonic. The origins of storytelling, however, are ancient. One of our earliest surviving records is found in the Westcar Papyrus of the Egyptians in which the sons of Cheops (the pyramid builder) entertained their father with stories. The epic tale, Gilgamesh, which relates the story of a Sumerian king, is frequently cited in history texts as our oldest, surviving epic tale. As Shakespeare wrote in King Richard II, "For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of Kings."

Hannah Arendt captured the purpose of storytelling when she wrote,:

Storytelling reveals meaning without

commtting the error of defining it. (Bartlett's Book of Quotations, 1907)"

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Bardic Storytelling

Anne Pellowski in The World of Storytelling has traced the development of the bardic tradition in depth. She defined the bard as, "a storyteller whose function is to create and/or perform poetic oral narrations that chronicle events or praise the illustrious forebears and present leaders of a tribal, cultural, or national group (p. 19). The bardic storyteller was a storyteller, a poet and a musician. The term bard had its origin with the Celts. If you'd like to know more, visit On Bards, and Bardic Circles. The meaning of the term changed over time in Scotland and Ireland. Other storytellers were called minstrels, jongleurs and other terms.

Out of the bardic traditions, however, epic tales from different cultures have been preserved for us. Some examples are:

Gilgamesh. Sumerian epic. Tale of the Sumerian king, Gilgamesh, and his friendship with Enkidu, the half-beast, half-man being created to destroy him.

The Iliad. Greek epic. Story of the Trojan War.

The Odyssey Greek epic. Story of Odysseus on his homeward journey from Troy.

Story of Sigurd (Siegfried) Norse. The Volsunga Saga tales of the adventures of Sigurd, including the killing of a dragon, Fafnir.

Merry Adventures of Robin Hood English. Robin Hood and his band fight oppression.

Song of Roland. French. Legendary tales of Roland.

Sundiata, The Epic of the Lion King. African. Sundiata overcame physical and other handicaps to become King of Mali.

The Tain. Irish. Tale of the legendary hero Cuchulain, his birth, battles and ultimate death.

The Ramayana. India. Great Indian religious tale.

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Storytelling of the Folk

The common folk told their stories at home, at work and at festival time. We can thank many of the great collectors of folktales, such as the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Joseph Jacobs, Peter Christian Asbjornsen, Jorgen Moe, Andrew Lang, Joel Chandler Harris, Richard Chase and others for preserving these stories for our cultural enrichment. Some folklorists such as Linda Deg in her Folktales and Society have suggested that the folktale played an important part in the transmission of traditional societies' cultural values to children. Degh has said,

"It does not matter whether the children's stories

are told well or badly or whether they are read. They

constitute for the children the first real encounter

with the folktale, and it quite often happens that is

decided then and there who will become, sometimes after

many decades, a good storyteller (Degh, p. 104)."

Although customs differed, storytelling played a strong role in traditional societies. Folk stories were repeated generation after generation by gifted amateurs or professional storytellers. Stories might be used to introduce children to correct behavior in an entertaining way. In some cultures, storytelling for the young was considered more important than for adults. T. S. Eliot has said:

"I incline to come to the alarming conclusion

that it is just the literature that we read for 'amusement'

or 'purely for pleasure' that may have the greatest and least

suspected infuence on us (Gardner, p. 105."

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Storytelling in the Religious Traditions

Both Hinduism and Buddhism made use of storytelling for teaching purposes. Hindu storytellers used story cloths from The Ramayana to illustrate their narratives. The Ramayana, the great epic tale of India, is part of the Hindu scriptures for Rama is believed to be an incarnation of the god Vishnu. Joseph Gaer has told the story for children in The Adventures of Rama. Within the Buddhist faith, Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, incorporated storytelling in his teachings. The Jataka or birth tales, are stories of previous incarnations of the Buddha. Buddhist children love these tales. See books such as Virginia Haviland's Favorite Fairy Tales Told in India for some of these stories.

There is evidence that early Christian prophets used stories in their preaching, but little more is known. In Judges 9:7, Jotham tells the people of Shechem a tale to point out the wickedness of their ruler. The Hasidic Jews also used storytelling in introducing their rituals and belief to young children. Isaac Bashevis Singer is well known for his folktales from the Yiddish tradition. These include Zlateh, the Goat.

In the New Testament Jesus Christ used the parable form in his teachings. A personal favorite is the story of the Prodigal Son. Storytelling remains a part of Christian services, especially for young children. There are many excellent Bible stories used in Sunday Schools today and as part of youth services.

For more detailed information, please read Anne Pellowski's The World of Storytelling, p. 63-75.

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