Oh fit a lovely time Fizzy the Fairy and I had yesterday at Banff Castle – Banffshire!! Such a lovely audience of giggling grown ups, bubbly bairns and totty-wee toddlers who joined in with stories of daft loons, funny fairies and princely puddocks!
Thanks to Jo Edwards for the photographs!
Weel fit a grand trip we hid tae Portsoy fur the Haal this wikend!
Sheena and I had a great weekend at the Portsoy Haal this weekend – heading off on Friday afternoon (with Wee Imp and the caravan in tow!)
After the concert our first session was the late night storytelling at the Town Hall – a grand 2 hours with folk sharing their tales from 11pm to 1am. Wee Imp enjoyed the late night walk back to the camp site!
Our storytelling workshop on Saturday morning went down a treat too – we had 16 enthusiastic attendees who heard stories and learned about how some famous authors got into a bit of trouble by putting their neighbours in their novels! Abdy then had a go at creating life stories from photographs and came scarily close to the truth in some cases!
Wee Imp and I went off with oor pal Tattie to hear some of the ballads sung at the Greig Duncan Collection competition – after which I was brave enough to have a swim in the North Sea (but there’s nae photies o that!)
A few sangs, many midgie bites and a fire on the beach on Saturday evening made sure I had a good nights sleep ready for our last storytelling session at the Town Hall bar at Sunday lunchtime. Then it was already time to go home – wi a few songs and ballads sung all the way home in the car. (Wee Imp had her headphones on by this point, preferring Eurovision over ballads!)
Thanks to Portsoy Haal for having us both along, fit a gran time wi hid! And thanks to everyone who came along to share their stories, songs, poems. And thanks to Sheena for having me laughing so much!
Well today was our last week in Aberdeen’s primary schools as tutors for SC&T Youth! Cornhill Primary School – thankyou for your amazing enthusiasm and wonderful singing!
Once again, pupils from three classes had 4 hours – only 4 hours! of tuition in penny whistle, clarsach, guitar and … Scots Song!
Despite my ever-worsening laryngitis, the pupils of P4, P4/5 and P5 learned to sing The Silver Darlings, The Fisherman’s Lassie and The Barnyards of Delgaty as well as learning all bout the history of the songs and how they describe life in the North East of Scotland. I’ve posted in greater detail about all of these songs in the past few weeks, but I’ve not yet posted about the songs the pupils have been learning for their grand finale!
It is of course Billy Connolly’s The Wellyboot Song – which probably doesn’t need much of an introduction! One of the teachers managed to find this recording of Billy singing it in 1976 -which I can share here cos there’s no swearing! 😀
Noo I’m aff tae nae spik for a wik! 😀
It’s another busy week ! This time starting off with the pupils of Ashley Road School who we Scat Youth tutors are visiting to teach penny whistle, guitar, clarsach and Scots song!
I’m teaching the P3s The Barnyards O Delgaty and the P5s the Fisherman’s Lassie (both of which I’ve spoken about in previous posts)… but the P4s are learning The Silver Darlings – a song about the herring boom in Scotland which peaked in 1907. “The Silver Darlings” is a fond nickname for the herring.
The song was written by Jim McLean, Bob Halfin and Andy Hulskrammer and later on this week I’ll share a video of a recording of it with Alastair McDonald. (Find a discussion of the song origins here on mudcat: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=40414 )
The pupils are taught the meaning of the song they’re learning – as well as any unfamiliar Scots words. Many pupils in each school have families who came from farther afield, but no matter where they’re from, they’re all doing a grand job of learning and pronouncing the Scots and Doric!
The image I’ve chosen to illustrate this post is an etching by James McBey (1883-1959) from 1908. The title is “Herring Fleet, Aberdeen” – the etching has made its way across the pond where it is stored at The Boston Public Library Arts Department. James McBey was local to the area and may be familiar to those that visit Aberdeen Art Gallery where there’s a fantastic exhibition of his work. My daughter and I love the interactive display of how etchings were made! (Thoroughly recommended!)
I had a very busy week last week with SC&T Youth! But I also also a visit to Clashfarquhar House (where the residents joined in with the Wellyboot Song and had some fun stories from Aberdeenshire and beyond) an then at the end of the week I visited Braehead Primary School whose project this term has the wonderful title “I am a Storyteller”
I told stories to all the pupils – from the wee ones in the nursery, where we had a wonderful adventure in Seaton Park and fed a monster rainbow ice cream (after almost being lunch ourselves!) – all the way up to Primary 7, who got a couple of my scarier tales. All primaries were encouraged to ask questions about stories and storytelling – the different ways of sharing a story with an audience, what makes a good story, and what makes a good storyteller!
The drawing below is by one of my favourite artists. It’s The Nøkken by Theodore Kittelsen. He’s famous for his paintings and illustrations of fairy tales, particularly trolls!
The reason I’m sharing this here is that I told a tale of a North East Kelpie and explained to the pupils that there were other similar creatures in stories around the world. One boy was very interested and asked if I knew any – and the first that came to mind was the Nøkken who play the violin and tempt their human pray into the water. They are also shape-shifters, one of their forms being that of a horse. Just like our Kelpies!
This week, and for a further four weeks, I get to do something a little different!
Rather than storytelling, I’m going to be working as a tutor with SC&T Youth (the tuition for bairns and young adults through Scottish Culture and Traditions). I’ll be teaching a different song to Primaries 3, 4 and 5 (this week it’s Ps 4, 5 and 6) and one song they’ll all sing together. Meanwhile the other wonderful tutors will be teaching them accompaniment on clasarch, guitar and whistle as well as some trad tunes.
This week we’ve been at St Peter’s Primary – and the snow hasn’t dampened the pupils enthusiasm for learning! Here’s a photo taken on Don St yesterday. A beautiful part of town affa bonny in the snaa.
The Primary 4 pupils are learning one of our old favourites –
The P4s are learning our old favourite, The Fisherman’s Lassie. Noo I wis rummaging aboot tae find a video tae show you of someone singing it – totally forgetting that I recorded a wee video of it at Fraserburgh Lighthouse Museum back in… 2016! Which seems an eternity ago 
Here’s my version The Fisherman’s Lassie – more on the song tomorrow if I get a chance to post again 
Look at that massive smile… :
Elsie the Fishwife is delighted because she knows she’ll now be travelling to our storytelling sessions in style!
I have been looking for an authentic fishwife’s creel for years, and finally I got one yesterday from Fancy That? in Edzell! (We enjoyed our nosey around at all the other amazing things and will have a nosey at their shop Ivy’s Emporium next time we’re in Banff)
The creel came from Whitehills near Banff and has been well looked after, so it’s perfect for another few decades use. If you would like a fully costumed storytelling fishwife for your event, please don’t hesitate to get in touch
It’s not the end of 2022 yet but in between wrapping gifts and nipping out to post my cards, I’m starting to look at my calendar for the following year. Here are some of the year’s main dates for storytelling activities – so if you’re looking for stories a storyteller to inspire your school pupils or entertain at your event look no further!
I tell all sorts of stories – folk tales, myths and legends, stories of local places and characters – including old Scots songs and ballads. My specialist areas are science, environment and pre-history and I have a number of costumes to choose from. Puppets can also be brought and incorporated into the storytelling session. I am also keen on the promotion of Scots and Doric which is not just used around “Burns Season!” I thoroughly believe that stories are for all ages and can provide storytelling sessions or storytelling workshops from age 2 to 102! (If you’re over 102 then I think you have a few tales to tell to me!)
I am on the Scottish Storytelling Centre’s Directory as well as the Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature Author Directory. I am a member of Equity and can provide Disclosure certification. Make your enquiry today by emailing paulinecordiner@gmail.com !
Burns Night – 25th January 2023
National Storytelling Week – 30th January to 6th February 2023
World Book Day – 2nd March 2023
Mother’s Day – 19th March 2023
World Poetry Day – 21st March 2023
British Science Week 10th – 19th March 2023
International Children’s Book Day – 2nd April (held on or near Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday)
National Share A Story Month – May 1st to May 31st 2023
National Writing Day – June 23rd 2023
Festival of British Archaeology – July 16th to July 31st
National Poetry Day – 6th October 2023
Father’s Day – June 18th 2023
National Poetry Day – 6th October 2023
Scottish International Storytelling Festival – End Oct 2023
Odd Socks Day – Anti Bullying Week – 13th November 2023
St Andrews Day – 30th November 2023
Book Week Scotland – 16th to 22nd November 2023
National Children’s Book Week – 31st October to 4th November 2023
Book Week Scotland – 16th to 22nd November 2023
It won’t have escaped your notice that there is SNOW!!
Unfortunately this means I won’t make it to Turriff Academy today to visit the S2s as part of my Scottish Book Trust Residency 
The students had been collecting stories from family members and friends and I was looking forward to hearing them – but that will now be postponed until January.
Oh well… I thought I’d find out what the fairies were up to!
After Mallku’s party it was a quick tidy up and off to Peterhead for the Light Up Peterhead event! There was so much on and I was lucky to be telling Christmas stories in the Muckle Kirk. (Just look at those stained glass windows!!)
Of course this required a quick costume change from Viking to Christmas Tree Fairy. See I’ve got my shiny tinsel crown and aathing!
I had some wonderful audiences throughout the afternoon and had the help of Fizzy the Fairy and my wee Tomte/Nisse pal – who is insisting he is not a gnome or a gonk!
Pauline Cordiner - Scottish Storyteller 