The Singing Bone
A New Fairytale (Part One)
Somewhere on the way to the Rugglestone Inn The Singing Bone came to life.
Coming to America: November
Just before we start, here’s a lively conversation with me and Paul Kingsnorth – by far my favourite of our chats, a Jawbone episode, and news of an evening just outside Birmingham, Alabama in November. Been a while, America. Here’s the link for the evening event:
1st November, Alabama – details and tickets: Biblical Tales: An Evening with Martin Shaw
In collaboration with Jawbone I’m going to be filming a live series of Biblical and Saint stories leading up to the 1st November evening at an intimate location in Chattanooga, TN (October 29th & 30th). We are expecting a livelier demand for that than we can fulfil, so we are going to have to hold a lottery for tickets. If you’d like to apply, email jawbone@mamabearstudios.com with the subject line ‘Biblical Tales Course Lottery’. It will be a completely random selection.
On 2nd November there will also be an afternoon conversation with myself and Justin Brierley at Samford University which I’m very much looking forward to:
Wild Faith: The Rebirth of Belief with Martin Shaw & Justin Brierley
And a jump into the Celtic world next week here in Devon: The Hazel Bush & The Magic Hour
Hello my friends,
For the next couple of weeks I’m delighted to bring you a fairytale that’s new to me – it’s called The Singing Bone. I’m quite taken with it. I started to tell it on the Dartmoor World Tour a few months back and it’s lingered encouragingly since. It’s a slim little thing, but has its power. Now – in the spirit of full disclosure – some of the commentary to the story you will have read before. Stories talk to each other, and I found the way most profoundly into this tale was through a few Bible stories. And wonderfully, I’d already sketched some of that out here a few months ago. Stories shimmer differently when placed up to an unexpected connection. So be ready for something both new and vaguely familiar, which is the kind of combination that really makes a folk tale thrive.
Part two will be next week.
*
The Singing Bone
In a country far away there was once a terror amongst the people. It arose from a wild boar that laid waste the farmers’ fields, slaughtered oxen, and ripped up people's bodies with his tusks. The King was promising gold by the chestful to anyone with the pluck to free the land from this terror. But the beast’s reputation was so awful, his aura so dark, no one would enter the forest it slouched in. At last the King sent out a decree that whosoever should capture or kill the wild boar should have his only daughter to wife.
There were two brothers, skinny and skint, who declared themselves willing to undertake the harrowing; the elder, who was crafty and shrewd, out of naked ambition; the younger, who was a little innocent, from a straightforward heart. The King said, "In order that you may be the more sure of finding the beast, you must go into the forest from opposite sides."
So the elder went in on the west side, and the younger on the east. When the younger had gone a short way, a little man stepped up to him. He held in his hand a black spear and said, "I give you this spear because your heart is pure and good; with this you can boldly attack the wild boar, and it will do you no harm." He thanked the little man, shouldered the spear, and went on fearlessly. Before long he saw the beast, which rushed at him; but he held the spear towards it, and in its blind fury it ran so swiftly against it that its heart was cloven in twain. Then he took the monster on his back and went homewards with it to the King.
***
So, my question is this: what is laying waste to your fields?