The Magic Of Storytelling

I’ve always loved fairytales; the sense of the fantastical, the danger, the magic. When I was young, I grew up reading Grimm fairytales alongside Irish folklore, so the Children of Lir sat happily alongside Hansel and Gretel. I am happy to say that I never really outgrew my love of folk and fairytales and in my new book, The Story Collector, I’ve married both traditions in a story that reinterprets the genre for adult readers.

I’ll never forget when I first read Chocolat by Joanne Harris. It was like something inside me unlocked and I realised that I could still enjoy the magic I found in books as a child, but in a very grown-up way.  ince then, I’ve always sought out books, films and art that embrace magical realism, while grounding their stories very much in reality.

Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Torro is still one of my favourite films, not least because it incorporates fairies and fauns, but also because it is set against the very brutal backdrop of the Spanish civil war. Chocolat also addresses the stifling nature of a rural community bound by religion and strict social conventions. I think that is what makes the magic more powerful, because it exists (if only fleetingly) in a very grown-up world, offering an escape and even a catalyst for change.

It’s a shame that we are encouraged to leave magical tales behind, along with baby teeth, cut knees and endless daydreaming, because they are so full of imagination. At some point in the ‘adulting’ process, imagination goes from being something that is actively encouraged to an unnecessary thing; replaced by pragmatism and conventional thought.

It’s ironic really, because the Grimm brothers originally wrote their tales for an adult audience. They were far darker and dare I say, morally questionable before Disney got their hands on them and produced more sanitised versions for kids (who, presumably would have preferred the original versions!)

For me, imagination, magic and folklore offer an alternative view of the world. Since writing The Story Collector, I have had readers contacting me with stories of synchronicity – a butterfly flying into a room where they are reading, or certain aspects of the story relating to them personally – which have only cemented my belief that there is more to this world than meets the eye.

In our modern world, we really seem to have lost touch with the natural environment and that sense of feeling connected to nature. For centuries, our lives were lived in accordance with the seasons, the sun and the moon, waxing and waning. We have lost some of that awareness and that is why I feel it is so important to keep the old stories alive.

Folklore and mythology are essentially memories of our collective unconscious, handed down through generations to give us a sense of who we are, where we come from and what it is to be human. In Ireland, I suppose we are quite lucky because we still hold on to our ancient beliefs, even if we’re not altogether sure why!

In my new book, The Story Collector, I refer to a true story about a hawthorn tree that moved a motorway. It wasn’t just any old tree, and it wasn’t just any old motorway. This was a fairy tree and the motorway was being constructed to connect county Clare and our capital city, Dublin. As you can imagine, it was a big deal project, but when it became clear that the plans would involve the new road running through a field where a fairy tree grew, the protests began.

A local folklorist warned that if anyone tried to cut down that tree, it would spell disaster and misfortune for the road and its users.  As I’ve already mentioned, Irish people tend to take an à la carte approach to their beliefs in The Good People, but on this occasion, it was ultimately decided that it would be better to be safe than sorry!

While people don’t necessarily want to admit that they believe in the supernatural, there must be something in our Celtic DNA that makes it almost impossible for us to deny or disrespect the old ways. So, the route of the motorway was altered to make provision for the tree and it still stands there today, as a testament to the survival of our Celtic beliefs.

The Story Collector is a love letter to the past, to an Ireland full of storytellers and myth.

And in the time-honoured tradition of folktales, there are darker forces at play in my book. Set in a time when Ireland is still under British Rule and struggling for Home Rule, while Europe is also on the brink of war, there is a sense that the old ways are beginning to crumble.

I have also weaved the narrative into the present day, exploring how our culture and our traditions can still have relevance and the importance of guarding these stories for the next generation. Humans have been telling stories since the very first cave paintings. There has always been a very human need to ‘storify’ things around us and we have continually used the fantastical to frame our mundane reality.

Stories help us to navigate life, they give meaning to our experience and a narrative to our existence. They teach us about ourselves and our world in a way that entertains and excites. Stories live on forever with each generation breathing new life into that most universal of forms, and that is the magic of storytelling.

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Evie Gaughan is a novelist living in the medieval city of Galway, on the West Coast of Ireland. Her books are an eclectic mix of genres, incorporating her love of history, folklore and finding magic in the everyday.

She graduated from the Universite de Paul Sabatier, Toulouse with a marketing diploma in 1996 and spent the next few years working abroad and discovering that she didn’t like marketing one bit. Evie abandoned the corporate world to follow her dream of becoming a writer and an artist. Since then, she has written two novels, The Heirloom and The Mysterious Bakery On Rue De Paris, and contributes articles to The Irish Times and Women Writers, Women’s Books. Her third novel, The Story Collector, will be published by Urbane in June 2018.

Follow her on Twitter @evgaughan

Find out more about her on her website  https://eviegaughan.com/

About THE STORY COLLECTOR

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Category: On Writing