Well WHAT a busy day I had yesterday! In the morning I had the pleasure of telling Viking tales to Mallku and his guests for his 8th birthday out at Haddo House. After the stories they made clay tablets with their names in Norse runes – and what a great job they did!
Here’s a photo of me with my pal Bjarni who needs to be told that Vikings did not wear helmets with horns OR Ikea rugs over their shoulders 
(Also note the amazing birthday cake in the background!)
The Reid Queen O Aiberdeen hid a grand time on Tuesday night!
I had my second session at HANDSS as part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival ‘s #SISFStoryRipple
Can anyone guess the theme?
We all had a tea party with yummy cakes and the Queen announced that she enjoyed it so much no one would be allowed to leave unless they gave her the present of…. A STORY!
Luckily our friends at HANDSS. Are great at making up stories. We had a quest for seaweed, a gift for an imp, gold for a troll, shrinking potion, magical scones and a tiny but firey dragon who managed to save everyone from a land of ice and snow!
To top it all off, HANDSS have been telling jokes to each other and putting them up online as part of their Ripple Good Deed. Every day in November- that’s 30 jokes recorded, animated and uploaded to social media! A massive round of applause for all involved 
Here’s a photo of my cosy wee gazebo this afternoon from Ellon’s big Christmas Lights switch on and parade!
A few wee lights and some quality audiences and the festive season has arrived! (Well it certainly has in Ellon 
)
Yaay! What a great session I had this morning with the P6s at Greenbrae Primary School!
Here’s a quick selfie taken after tales and ballads about the treasures of the earth, death in love and gory revenge!
Thanks you lot for being a great audience!
This session was my second last one for the Scottish International Storytelling Festival‘s #SISFStoryRipple of 2022!
The pupils will be writing some tales of their own, inspired by Stanley Robertson’s stories and they will then take their stories into a local care home to share for their Good Deed
I’m heading off to Greenbrae Primary School tomorrow to tell stories to P5/6 as part of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s 2022 Story Ripple. ( #SISFStoryRipple)
Their current theme is “Could You Be An Artist,” so I’m going to be telling them some of the stories I learned from the wonderful Stanley Robertson.
Stanley was a storyteller, ballad singer, piper and an inspiration to anyone who wanted to learn the tales and songs he taught. He was a Scottish Traveller and spent many years as a fish filleter in Aberdeen before writing 7 books of his stories in Scots, Doric and Cant as well as traveling the world telling his tales.
I was privileged to learn many of the songs and stories he shared and here’s a photo from May 2009 of the last time I shared a stage with him. I’m looking forward to sharing some of my favourites that I learned from Stanley with the pupils 🙂
It may have been a dreich day yesterday, but the pupils of P6/7 at @hazlehead_primary_pc fair cheered me up with their enthusiasm for their stories and workshop!
The school is exploring different cultures through their sports and so we had two tales – one about a Sumo wrestler and another about a Heeholua (Hawaiian Lava Sledding) race!
#ScottishInternationalStorytellingFestival
#SISFStoryRipple2022
#SISFStoryRipple
Johnny and I were particularly chuffed last night to be asked to judge the Halloween poster competition at Middleton Park Nursery and Primary School Parent Council‘s Halloween Spooktacular!
The pupils had put in SO much hard work – from Nursery all the way up to P6. As a storyteller I was particularly taken with this one of Baba Yaga’s house! 
What a wonderful night I had last night at Middleton Park Nursery and Primary School – the Parent Council and the school organised an amazing evening for all the pupils (and their grown ups!)
As well as telling spooky stories with the help of an annoying fairy (you know who!) and a grumpy skeleton (aye he was there too), I got to judge the Halloween poster competition – which was really tricky with all the impressive entries!
The school got some funding from the Scottish International Storytelling Festival‘s #SISFStoryRipple and in return their good deed included a book hunt around the school grounds (books all donated by families and locals in the community)!
Book Week Scotland runs from the 14th to the 20th November – I still have some availability that week if you’d like to book a storyteller for your school, facility or club! 🙂
As part of their Halloween weekend supplement, the The Press and Journal interviewed me about Halloween!
It’s my favourite time of year, so I was glad to oblige
Here’s the link – https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/4943035/halloween-aberdeen-shetland-psychic/
Every neighbourhood has one: the house that goes all out for Halloween.
Proudly taking the honours in Garthdee is Pauline Cordiner, a professional spooky storyteller who brings north-east folklore and history to life in schools, community groups and at events across the area.
“In every neighbourhood there is always that one house that is decorated from top to bottom for Halloween and all the kids flock round for sweets,” laughs Pauline.
“Well, we’re that house so I’m going to light a fire pit in the driveway so the children can toast marshmallows and I’ll tell some Halloween jokes and stories.”
Halloween is a milestone moment in Pauline’s life as it was on October 31, 21 years ago, when a storytelling event changed her life forever.
“I used to volunteer at Archaeology Link Prehistory Park near Oyne and they were looking for people to tell stories for Halloween,” says Pauline.
“I was shy, unable to stand up in front of people and talk, but for some reason, I found myself volunteering for this and it just went swimmingly.”
Unlocking her storytelling spirit, Pauline left her job as a laboratory chemist for Shell to pursue a career in the spoken word.
Now her terrifying tales and haunted history capture the imaginations of adults and children across the north-east.
“It’s such a rewarding occupation, people seem to have this attitude that stories are for children and very often parents will come up and say I really enjoyed that,” says Pauline.
And with Halloween only days away, Pauline is keen to share some of the spine-tingling local folklore she has dug up through her meticulous research.
One fascinating tale dates back to 1825 when a man who lived in Longside near Mintlaw was tormented by a poltergeist.
“The man claimed he was being tossed in his bed and sheets would be thrown off him,” says Pauline.
“Everyone at the time thought he was a bit highly strung and an attention seeker.”
Face lighting up as she tells the tale of how a local news reporter spent the night at the house with friends, witnessing flying buckets and bowls and the sound of rocks raining from the ceiling, it’s easy to see how Pauline enthralls people with her storytelling.
Determined to get to the bottom of the story, Pauline delved deeper into the history of the site and made a startling discovery.
“What I then looked into was if anything had happened in that house before and I found that in the neighbourhood there was a woman who was murdered by her lover and it was quite a gory murder,” says Pauline.
“The woman was a widow and he was her lover.
“She was widely believed to be pregnant with his child and he came by her house and asked her to go for a walk before church on Sunday, and when they were down at the river he pushed her in and held her down, and she bobbed up and she managed to swim downstream, and he crossed the river and got a stick and basically bludgeoned her about the head until she went down again and drowned.
“After that there were other stories about a woman trying to beckon men off the road, pointing to the river.”
Another Halloween story Pauline enjoys telling is a bit more light-hearted.
“During Victorian times, there was a bit of a fashion in Stonehaven where people would dress up in sheets and run around the streets and graveyard,” laughs Pauline.
“It’s was all quite Scooby Doo.
“One chap who decided to run round the streets dressed up as a ghost was chased by a group of people down the main street and into an alleyway where he was captured by a fish wife who was smoking her pipe.
“She pulled the sheet off him and he was dealt with.”
Through her work, Pauline hopes to show that storytelling is for everyone.
“For people with additional support needs or those who are neurodiverse, the revelation that you don’t need to write to tell stories is huge,” says Pauline.
“For me to be able to stand there in front of them and tell a story without there being a book, a script, I think that’s quite an eye-opener for a lot of people.”
For more information about Pauline go to her website.
Pauline Cordiner - Scottish Storyteller 