Storytelling

Last week the storytelling festival has started in Ljubljana; it lasts until today. It is interesting that among the listeners there are mostly women, aged 20-60. I was among them, of course. Last Friday I was listening to the tales from the Orkney Islands, told to us by Tom Muir. Some were sad, some were funny. I liked them all.

Yesterday in the evening I escaped into the world of the tales from the different parts of the world. Stories were told to us by eight people living in Slovenia, and all were told in Slovenian. After many years living here these people still can't speak proper Slovenian, and this gives me confidence to continue writing this blog in English, although I am fully aware that my English is far from perfect. But you can understand me, like I understood the storytellers yesterday, making me laugh and sometimes even cry.

I was a bit bored by the Serbian and Indonesian storytellers and I didn't really like the "political" tale by the North American one. I almost cried hearing the legend from Albania and stared absentmindedly while listening to the one from Ukraine. I liked the intelligent tale of the Spanish storyteller and I laughed out loud hearing the one from Italy. My favorite was the tale told by the Zimbabwean storyteller about this how a wild cat was domesticated.

I found out that the men are better storytellers than women, maybe the reason is also their deep voice; I don't know. I know a man who has a voice for telling stories and fairytales; as far as I know he does tell them to his children. In 2006 I met a man who had that magical voice for telling the tales. He made my day then and I always remember him when I walk up that hill. We all need to hear stories, the ones with a happy ending. I think that this makes our lives much happier and full.

Happy weekend!