Balor of the Evil Eye

[david poole]

Here is a great version of the battle between Lugh of the Tuatha De and Balor of the Evil Eye. An excellent rendition by the great bard Robin Williamson. http://druidcast.libsyn.com/druidcast-a-druid-podcast-episode-126 The whole series is generally of a high standard. Professor Ronald Rotherham is another great storyteller, weaving great stories around St. Nectan’s Glen and the Arthurian Mythos. I have however a sense that he may have taken certain liberties or inventions with some of the stories, as at least one story seemed very different from what I would normally have expected.

[Dowrgi]

Hi David. I suppose each story tell leaves their signature, so to speak.

[david poole]

It is a great pleasure to hear stories being told rather than simply reading them; this shows you so much of the storytelling craft and its effects. You get to see certain things, the magic that happens, such as the way a storyteller can manipulate an audience or the way an audience can react. Robin and Roland seem to have certain similarities; wisdom, maturity, and a sense of humour. This shows what a Bard can be capable of at their best. These people and indeed ourselves can bring these old stories back to life once more.

[Dowrgi]

Try getting a copy of a poetic translation of Homer’s Iliad and reading it aloud … it’s powerful stuff.

Bennathow.
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[david poole]

Maybe I will, thank you Dowrgi.

[Dowrgi]

At the beginning of the Iliad, the poet (Homer) implores the goddess to sing to him. The beginning of Homer’s Odyssey begins with the line “Sing inme, Muse …” (Robert Fitzgerald’s translation, 1961) and the poet (Homer) then continues to ask the muse to tell him about the exploits of Odysseus. Of course, the great Anglo-Saxon/Old English epic poem, Beowulf, begins:

Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon …

Which loosely translated goes: “Listen! We Spear Danes, in days of yore, of those tribe kings, glory we have heard.” The interesting bit being the very first word hwæt (what) but meaning: “Listen!” – so the Anglo-Saxon bard, or scop, is actually telling people to listen, which points to this being meant to be sung or chanted aloud – as it should be!

Bennathow
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