The Story of ‘A Leaf on the Tree’

Across the world, across nations, peoples and cultures the same themes of stories occur and recur, consider the hundreds and hundreds of ‘Cinderella’ stories, with even a recorded version from ancient Egypt.  If each of these is a leaf on the tree of story, with each type a branch on the tree, each branch of story growing from the trunk of legend, the trunk growing from the roots of myth, and the myths growing from the seeds planted when ancient ancestors told a story that offered an insight, an explanation, a teaching, a lesson, of the world inhabited by those who listened.

Clearly what has grown from those early seeds into what we see growing today on the tree of story has been shaped by many ‘cultural gardeners’.  While we cannot know the shape, the colour, the size, the feel of those first seeds, we can, however, consider the leaves of stories; the branches of story types; the trunks of legends; the roots of myth; and perhaps look to find something outside of the pruning, shaping, cutting, sculpting of those cultural gardeners.  In so doing we may find that the messages of those early seeds are as fresh today as when first told.  I make no claim here of not pruning, shaping, cutting and sculpting myself as a gardener, every storyteller shapes the story, but so does every listener.

So I offer ‘A Leaf on the Tree’, I have considered the story of ‘Gawain and the Loathly Lady’ as a leaf growing on a branch from a trunk of legend and roots of myth, considering the story in terms of the ‘Goddess of Sovereignty’.  Seeking to identify the cultural lenses and gardeners of Medieval courts, of Christian scribes, of patriarchy, and in so doing offer a ‘Leaf on the Tree of Story’ shaped slightly differently, but hopefully a leaf that will thrive in today’s climate.

What was the first story told of the Land personified, walking through time and across the land since the sun first rose, what questions were answered in that ancestral story?

A question asked, are the rewards of leadership rights or rewards for the sacrifices made as leader?  A question asked, how does the spirit of man impact on the Spirit of the land?  A question asked, what in their heart of hearts do women want?  Questions asked as she walks across time and across the land she has walked since the Sun first rose….