Now, there are dozens of such leagues, reaching from New York to Texas. The interest the children take in the work reveals one of the greatest educational possibilities, for as a child likes to build a house with clay, sand, or wood, and in doing so educates himself, so he likes to take a word here and a phrase there, and with voice and gesture build an ideal world, peopling it with life as he sees it. When a child or an adult retells stories that they have heard or read, they show reflection, meditation, self-reliance, creation, growth. A story never really becomes your own until you tell it to someone else.
THE TRAVELING STORY TELLERS OF THE NORTHLAND
BY ANNA BOGENHOLM SLOANE
Even before Magnus Ladulos introduced the titles and privileges of nobility as reward for service in war, which started the great baronies in Sweden, a kind of feudal system had been in vogue there from oldest times. The topographical conditions of the country, with its smiling valleys and fertile plains interspersed with numerous streams and rugged mountains was probably responsible for the origin of this system. For these natural barriers, in the absence of modern engineering skill in constructing bridges and tunnelled roads, were more formidable then, and contributed to the isolation of the people and the formation of clans.
The population consisted of only two distinct classes, the freemen and the “thrales,” or serfs. The freemen, or “Odalmen,” as they were called, owned the soil they tilled. The country was sparely settled, so that there was some distance between the homesteads of the odalmen. These homesteads were somewhat imposing, housing not only the odalman and his family, but also a number of house men, as they were called—fighting men and strong, a sort of guard of the fireside. Besides these were a number of thrales, or servants. Because of continual strife between the different petty kings of the country, the odalmen’s homes were never safe from attack by one party or another, hence the necessity of having as large house guards as could be afforded.
During the long and severe winter when fighting and warfare were impracticable life in the odalmen’s homesteads would have been monotonous, were it not for the relief afforded by the traveling story tellers, or “skalds,” for that was long before the day of the school, the book and the periodical. From the hall of the kings to the burgs of the jarls [corresponding to governors of small districts], from the baronial castles to the odalmen’s homesteads, traveled the skalds and the bards narrating old legends and relating the latest gossip, singing old songs and improvising new ones, recounting the deeds of valor and prowess on the battlefield and in the tournament, singing the praises of beauty and chivalry, and rhyming on drinking bouts and feasting. Not only within the bounds of Sweden did they travel, but over continental Europe as well, entertaining one people with the songs and legends and tales of another. Thus are the stories and lore of the different European countries considerably intermixed. For, when the stories the traveling skalds told of the great deeds of other countries were repeated by their listeners, much local coloring was added until gradually the stories of foreign lands became their own. In this way the Swedes have adopted the stories of Germany and France, and in like manner those countries have adopted some of the Swedish legends and hero tales until the old literature of nearly all European countries record nearly the same events, each nation giving to the stories the characteristics of its own temperament and environment.
The traveling story teller was the most welcome and honored guest in every home. He was the newspaper, the theatre, the concert and music hall combined into one. He brought to the fireside glimpses of the outside world, wreathed weather-beaten faces with smiles and made the roof beams return the echo of hearty laughter. At the King’s feasts the skald’s place was next to his majesty. To him was handed the tallest beaker and the fattest slice of pork. The story teller was always invited to witness battles and bouts and tournaments, so that he might afterward recount the deeds of valor in war and the feats of feasting, making heroes live in song and story. It was very much the same as now, when the newspaper reporter is invited to the baseball field or to follow the armies of warring nations so as to publish to the world the course of events.
The personal magnetism of the skald went into the account and made the story more vivid and its impression more lasting. Perhaps the overstepping of actual truth in the recounting was as common among the skalds of old as it is among our own modern newspaper reporters. Then as now a good story was wanted, and the better the story he could tell the stouter was the drink the teller received at its ending. So now the more sensational details the reporter can crowd into a murder story the nearer and surer is his promotion in rank and pay. But the old story teller was safer from being found out, and his story was accepted at its face value, which is not always the case with modern newspaper yarns. It is probable that to the tumultuous imagination of the old story tellers is due the astounding deeds of valor and the exaggerated achievements accredited to our forefathers in the legacy of legends that have been handed down from the ancient days.