THE MATTER OF BRITAIN

From early Hunter-Gatherers to the Enclosures

Retreats for Storytellers with Hugh Lupton and Eric Maddern

People have told stories since time immemorial. The stories have always reflected the kind of society they lived in. So hunter-gatherers told mythic tales about the powerful animals and plants they hunted and gathered; and about the making of the world. The stories of the first farmers were about almighty gods and goddesses of the Earth, the Sky and the elements on which their crops depended; and about the cycle of the seasons. In the Bronze and Iron Ages people told stories about super-human heroes and heroines who had magical powers. In the Dark Ages the emphasis shifted to tales of prophets, poets and saints.

In each age the stories of earlier ages were incorporated, transmuted or sometimes completely buried. The culminating legend of Britain, the cycle of Arthur, subsumed and transformed much of what came before. The cauldron of rebirth, for example, became the chalice of the Holy Grail. The Arthur cycle reached its climax in the literary works written and published in the early years of printing. But for several centuries unlettered folk continued to tell mysterious folk and fairy tales of the Celtic and Norse Otherworlds. Only the coming of the Industrial Revolution and mass education managed to quash the vestigial remains of an oral tradition that goes back millennia.

With this new series of retreats (over seven years), ‘The Matter of Britain’, Hugh and Eric will build on the success of their long-running series, ‘Storytelling and the Mythological Landscape’. As before the emphasis will be on exploring the storytelling material rather than on how to tell stories. Although Eric and Hugh will guide the course they will not teach it in the conventional way. Rather they will be facilitators, cultivating a sense of friends and colleagues delving together into shared passions. They will almost certainly include landscape visits as part of the course, but these may play a lesser role than before to allow time for new approaches to emerge. They will aim to cover the oral traditions of different cultural periods in chronological order. The ground covered will provisionally be as follows:

1. Totemic Animals (Palaeolithic/Mesolithic)
2. Tales of Trees and Plants (Mesolithic/Neolithic)
3. Gods and Goddesses of the First Farmers & the Cycle of the Year (Neolithic and Bronze Age)
4. Celtic Deities, Heroes and Heroines of the Mabinogion (Iron Age)
5. Poets, Prophets and Priests, including Odin, Taliesin, Merlin and the Saints of the early Christian Church. (Dark Ages)
6. Arthur – Dark Age to the Printed Page (Early to late Middle Ages)
7. The Otherworld – from Annwn to Elvinland (Late Middle Ages to the early Modern period)

The focus of the material will be primarily Britain, meaning Wales, England and Scotland. However there will be some inclusion of the Irish traditions and, where relevant, reference will be made to comparable cultures in other parts of the world. This will be a comprehensive (though not exhaustive) exploration of the oral traditions of Britain.

It is therefore intended to keep detailed notes of each retreat and to record oral retellings of the stories. Based on these accounts and records Eric and Hugh propose to then write a book with a title something like ‘The Matter of Britain: a Storytellers’ Guide to Mythology and Place.’