Telling of Tales (10 lines)

Gathered around the fire, someone asked : “Is there anyone here who remembers the Time of Troubles?”.

They turned to the one, ancient of days, and said “Tell us the story”.

He gathered his dim recollections, and voice still strong, started a Tale.

“ It was a Time of Heroes, when the men where tall and wide of shoulder, strong of arm and bold; the women were slender and graceful, nimble fingered and bright.”

His speech was slow and measured, as he sought to mingle facts with coloured words and spin out past events and characters.

“But what about this person and that?” someone interrupted, not understanding that the message of the telling was more important than mere details.

So in the tale, the characters became more heroic or evil, the events more dramatic. 

The truth of the past became a parable of warning

“Did I mention, It was a Time of Heroes, when the men where tall and wide of shoulder, strong of arm and bold; the women were slender and graceful, nimble fingered and bright.

 

And if that was not the way it actually was, it most certainly is the way it should have been.”

 

 

This, like the telling it outlines, is a fable of itself, based on an actual event. One late night gathered around a fire at the recent SCA Trillium War event, the question was posed, and a story of the past woven. I was quite surprised (although in retrospect I perhaps should not have been) that only one other had any personal memory of that Dark Time in the history of the North. So the telling (and the weaving of a tale) fell to me. 

A standard joke about my years of the SCA in Ontario is being 'older than dirt'. Only one other from that initial core group is (like myself) still marginally active, quickly approaching 45 years ago.

Image is taken (without permission, primarily as it is not indicated just who took the photo) from :

https://www.dipaola.me/en/storytelling-next-big-thing/

I took almost as much time attempting to find a suitable illustration, something that at least might suggest the mood I wanted to create. (Note that I don't share the view point of the blog posting that image came from, for a number of reasons that will be clear to any who really know me.)