LCIS logo

WOSAS : F266 WOSAS/CD93/track2
R279.wav


Sound recording, story; a Welsh legend and transformation tale, told by an unidentified storyteller and translated by Michael Harvey, in the Pavilion at the Beyond the Border Festival, St Donats Art Centre, Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan, Wales, 7th July 2002.

Introduction and story told in Welsh by Michael Harvey, translated into English. A story about two men going to hunt geese on Barry Island and encountering two swans who fly onto barry island at sunrise and remove their feathers to reveal themselves as beautiful women. The men steal the skins and feathers, and trap the women as their wives. One of the women is killed; turns back into a swan and flies away. The other women finds her skin and feathers hidden in the house one day, and she too escapes.

This story has parallel motif to that found in stories of the Silky, or seal people, from Scotland.

audience:- adult
language:- Welsh; English
    recording quality
condition:- good
completeness:- complete
duration:- 0 hours, 9 minutes, 58 seconds

Beyond the Border Festival was founded in 1993 by Ben Haggarty, Artistic Director of the Crick Crack Club, and David Ambrose, the then Director of St Donats Arts Centre, Wales. The Festival was founded as The Beyond the Border International Festival of Storytelling and Epic Singing, but became known simply as Beyond the Border. The festival ran from 1993 to 2006 co-directed by the two founders: with Ben Haggarty programming storytellers and David Ambrose programming musicians. Since 2007 the festival has been directed by David Ambrose. The festival is a weekend event running on the first weekend of July annually; attracting around 2,500 people from across Britain and from overseas. The festival is sited at St Donats Arts Centre and in the grounds of St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan on the South Coast of Wales. Beyond the Border was initiated as part of the UK Year of Literature in 1995. The successful bid submitted by Academi Wales, prominently featured a storytelling festival. The original Director of the UK Year of Literature was Maura Dooley, who had been at the South Bank Centre in London when Ben Haggarty ran the Third International Storytelling Festival there in 1989. Maura Dooley supported the proposal brought to her by Ben Haggarty and David Ambrose to hold an International festival and series of summer schools at St Donats Castle and to begin Beyond the Border in 1993 in order to build an audience and a core of Wales-based artists for the Year of Literature in 1995. However before the plan could be implemented Maura Dooley resigned from her post (the position was later taken by Sean Dorran). Despite this, St Donats Arts Centre was committed to the festival and Beyond the Border was launched in July 1993. The 1993, 1994 and 1995 festivals were accompanied by summer schools, which produced a number of storytellers including Megan Lloyd, Francis Maxey, Richard Berry and Michael Harvey.

storytelling:- music:- storyteller; translator: Michael Harvey
male / British

storytelling:- music:- storyteller
male / Welsh

storytelling:- music:- musical group: Toreth

storytelling:- music:- musician: Gareth Westacott
male

storytelling:- music:- musician: Guto Dafis
male / Welsh

origin:- Barry, Wales


thumbnail, click for 
large
thumbnail, click for 
large
thumbnail, click for 
large
thumbnail, click for 
large
thumbnail, click for 
large
thumbnail, click for 
large
thumbnail, click for 
large
thumbnail, click for 
large
thumbnail, click for 
large
festival programme

thumbnail, click  
for large
Michael Harvey

Click to enlarge images


programming:- Festival Co-Director: Ben Haggarty
Festival Co-Director: David Ambrose


administration:- administrator: St Donats Arts Centre


storytelling:-music:- St Donats, Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan, Wales: St Donats Art Centre: Pavilion
07 Jul 2002
festival: Beyond the Border Festival


gift from:- St Donats Arts Centre


©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
mailto button  email to The LCIS