It's a helpful thing to be able to have our friends and family and future
generations be able to hear and experience. It's not the same as in person,
but you still get a sense a flavor of that. Since the dawn
of time, we've shared stories. They remind us of who we were,
who we are, and who we wish to be. Through story, our
ancestors speak to us, passing on wisdom and truth from the past, and
stories prepare us for the future if only we listen. Welcome to episode six
of Listen. My name is Daniel Foytek and I love a good story.
To returning listeners, thanks for coming back to hear more stories, and hello
to all the new listeners. This podcast is called Listen and it's about one
of my favorite activities. If you're here, hopefully one of yours too,
listening to great stories. If you know a great storyteller who's working on building
their following and who should be featured here, contact me at feedback at nightstory
dot com to let me know and let them know. Today's featured teller is
Daniel Morden. Daniel is an incredibly talented Welsh storyteller. I had an opportunity
to record him at the twenty fourteen National Storytelling Festival. You can find out
more about Daniel over at the Devil's Violin dot co dot uk. You can
also find his work on Amazon, and you can find out more about the
National Storytelling Festival at Storytelling Center dot net Forward Slash Festival. Please support Daniel
and the other tellers you hear on this podcast by picking up one of their
CDs and attending their lives whenever you can. The story you're about to hear
is a Norse tale called Tatterhood. It's a beautiful story. I know you'll
enjoy it. Today Daniel's bringing us a story not from Wales but from Norway.
Now. Daniel has been heralded by the BBC, The Guardian, the
Times of London as one of the UK's greatest storytellers, and storytelling reminds me
that this is collaborative art. So I ask you to lean in, listen
and let his stories have their way with your imagination. Would you please welcome
Daniel Morden. Before I begin, we should give thanks for the Don't don't
look over your shoulder, don't taste from that tree that's a good one.
Don't stray from the path, don't open that box. Without them, there'd
be forget it. Without them, the mistakes, I mean, like this
one, there'd be no stories. They're the grit that makes the pearl.
The don'ts are the vital imperfection. When I hear it don't in a story,
I think, Ah, this one's for me, for us, stumbling,
bumbling, fumbling humans. Stories are mirrors. They show us ourselves in
all our screwed up, tousled glory. What use to us is a perfect
hero. He must lose the important letter, drop the egg, pick up
the forbidden feather. If he doesn't, he's not of this world. He
belongs up there with the gods and the goddesses, the perfect, pristine,
sterile Syrian gods. Achilles, give thanks for your heel. Without it,
you'd have been forgotten long ago. And I thank you Eve, I thank
you Pandora. We should give thanks for all these transgressions, because they gave
us stories, proper stories. They took us the long way home, through
the dark forest, over the glass Mountain, and when we got back we
had a story to tell, our proper story, with doubts and loves and
trials and crises. It's the twists that make the pattern beautiful. I'd also
like to thank ed Stivender for this wonderful spoon. Once upon a time there
was a perfect alice. Everything was perfect, except except the king had gotten
himself killed in some futile war, and the queen had no children. She
felt their absence more and more. Whenever she saw a mother with a daughter.
It was as though a dagger had been thrust into the Queen's belly.
One night, she could stand it no longer. She took off her crown,
she took off her fine clothes. She dressed herself instead as a commoner.
She crept out of a secret passage of her palace, and she made
her way into the forest. Once she was good and lost, she sat
down on a tree stump and wept. After a while, she felt eyes
on her. She looked up, and here was a white haired woman.
Why do you cry? I cry because I have no children. What I
wouldn't give for a beautiful baby girl. Now the whitehaired woman was a witch,
a good witch, for there are such things. Go home, get
yourself two buckets of water. Wash yourself from head to foot. From those
buckets, ring out the flannels back into the buckets. Then pour some water
from the first bucket onto one plate, some water from the second bucket onto
another plate, and put the plates underneath your bed. Go to sleep.
In the morning, when you check the plates, you will see growing from
each plate there will be a plant. The first plant will have borne a
bright fruit. The second plant will have borne a dark one. Eat the
bright fruit here it comes, don't eat the dark one. So the queen
went home. She did as she was bid. She washed herself from head
to foot. She wrung out the flannels back into the buckets. She poured
from the two buckets onto plates. She slid the plates underneath her bed.
She went to sleep. Next morning she woke up. She was the queen.
Nobody had ever said don't to her before, so she ate the other
one. Nine months later she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, with
hair like span, gold eyes as blue as the summer sky. Mama the
queen, she looked down, my beautiful baby girl, and then she went
into labor again, and she gave birth to a dark haired child, a
child with wild black hair, dark skinned, dark eyes, eyes as dark
as a winter's night. The second child, Mama get rid of it.
Get rid of it at once. The queen called the bright child Ella.
The other one everyone called her tatter Hood, because you see, the Queen
made her wear a hood to hide her face. Ella. She grew up
in a nursery full of sunlight, with books and dolls and toys. She
had a horse to ride on. People taught her how to say clever things
and dance. Tatter Hood grew up in the stables with the animals. No
one ever taught her anything. Everything she knew she taught herself. She had
no dolls, so instead she played with Ed Stivender's spoon, who good old
ed she had no horse, so instead she rode a goat yip be Time
passed and time passed the two children they grew up to be young women.
Tatter Hood was always up to something or other, climbing trees, exploring in
the woods, making dens. She was a never ending source of frustration and
embarrassment to the Queen. And the worst part, Ella loved her sister.
They were inseparable. At one time, a perfectly good prince came a courting.
Could they find Ella? They could not. Eventually the Queen went out
into the woods and they're hanging upside down from a tree like bats was both
of the girls, their skirts dangling over their faces, their legs scratched.
Come down, come down at once. Not you, You're no better than
an animal. Ella, Do you want to end up looking like her?
Ella looked at tatter Hood, and Tatterhood grinned a gap toothed grin. Ella
said, I wouldn't mind. She's lovely. What are you talking about?
Don't be ridiculous. One time tatter Hood was woken in her stables in the
straw. She was woken by a great commotion coming from the palace, and
so Tatterhood. She went to search for the source of the sound. She
found herself before her mother's bedroom. Her mother was blocking the doorway. What's
going on? What's that noise? None of your business. I'll find out
one way or the other. It's midnight, said the queen. And at
midnight every year when my birthday arrives, soda my sister's evil, which is
everyone They come to create chaos in my perfect palace. Tatter Hood servants fetch
me ed Stivender's spoon, Bring me my goat. She sat on the goat.
She said, mother, I'll see them off. Get out of the
way while I'm in there, mother, don't let anyone else in, and
she went. The air was full, like like autumn leaves. The air
was full of whirling witches, whooping, cackling. Tatterhood set to with Ed's
spoon, luckily had two because one got broken in the process. And then
there was the batting of the goat. The noise was such a great sound,
such a commotion, that Ella was woken, and so she made her
way down to her mother's bedroom. She said, what's going on in this?
It's your stupid sister. She's whacking witches. You let my sister go
in there and fight witches alone. She pushed her mother out of the way.
She opened the door, poked in her head. The moment she did,
one of the witches, as she whirled by, plucked off Ella's head,
replaced it with the head of a cow, and flew away. The
witches were gone. Tatterhood looked at Ella, and Ella said, and a
great tear roll from her eye and dropped from her muzzle. Look what you've
done to my beautiful baby girl, said the queen. What I did?
I told you don't let anyone in, but you did. Where do they
live your sisters. They live in the far North, in the wild lands,
to the far North. Then I said, Tatterhood, will go there.
Give me your ship. Guards, said the queen. Prepare my ship.
Wake the captain, prepare the crew. Captain said Tatterhood, crew.
I don't need a crew. They don'tly spoil it with cannons. I'm the
captain. All I need is my goat, my sister. And so off
they went to Tatterhood steering, sailing the ship until she saw looming over the
ocean are amendous castle. She went down below decks. She said, Ella,
stay here. I will return with your real head. Ella. Tatterhood
rode her goat up the hill. Sure enough, she peered through a window,
and didn't she see hanging from a hook in the hall of that castle,
Ella's head. Tatterhood crept through a window. She crept across the hall.
She lifted the head off the lock. She crept back across the hall
through the window, onto the back of the goat. But the goat sneezed.
The witches heard. They were on their brooms pursuing Tatterhood down the hill.
But Tatterhood leaped onto the deck of the ship and as I'm sure you
know from the Wizard of Oz, evil witch's hate running water. And so
the witches pulled back, but they summoned the winds from their four quarters,
and the north wind through them from the south winter catch. Tatterhood's ship was
tossed Hilor and Yon the next morning, and the storm had abated. When
they had moved out of the range of the spell, Tatterhood saw before her
a harbor of some strange city. She steered a course into the harbor.
There she docked the ship. She went down below decks, and it was
Ella kissed her sister. Now this kingdom was ruled over wisely and well by
a young king with the help of his brother. The king was woken by
a servant who said, your highness them that's great tempest has brought some strange
ship. Is that? So? Said the king. He looked out of
the window, and didn't he see flapping on the mast of the ship.
A royal pennant. Go to them, greet them in my name, invite
them to come and dine with me. And so the servant went down the
hill. When he came to the ship, all he saw was a young
woman, her head hidden by a hood riding a goat around the deck,
brandishing, where's the crew, I'm the crew. Where's the captain, I'm
the captain. It's just me and my sister. Is that? So said
the servant. Well, the king of this land he invites you to come
and dine with him. Will you come? If he wants us, he
must come here and invite us himself. So down came the king, tatter
Hood greeted him, politely, led him aboard the deck. She opened up
the door down into the cabin below, and out came Ella. Guess what?
Anything? But as soon as the King saw Ella, and Ella saw
King, guess what? And so there was a feast that evening, a
very strange feast it was. There was the King, there was Ella,
there was Tatterhood, and there was the King's brother, the Prince. In
the weeks that followed, the King did it right. He would take Ella
for walks in the rose gardens. He would write poems for them. They
were dreadful, but well meant. Musicians would play music for her. And
then he dropped down on one knee. He took Ella's hand, and he
asked her to make him the happiest man. In the world. I wish
I could, said Ella, but I can't. If I were to marry
you, my sister would be all alone, all alone in the world.
Wait, said Ella, what if your brother was to marry my The King
said, I can ask him. So perhaps you were peering through a window,
and the conversation took place. There was the king and the prince and
the king have you gone out of your mind? I'm sorry, said Ello.
When she heard the news, she said, I am so sorry.
I won't abandon her after what she's done for me. We leave in one
week. During that week, the king he couldn't sleep. He was desperate.
He went down to the jetty. All he saw was Tatterhood riding around
the deck brandishing. So he went to his brother. He said, you
will marry that girl, or I will cut off your head. The prince
said, cut off my head. So the King sent for the spin Do
you have spin doctors here? He sent for his spin doctors, and one
of them said, marry this woman, and then once you're married, locker
in the dungeon for the rest of her life. And the prince right then.
The king, when he heard he was so excited, he rushed across
to hug his brother. Get off me, said his brother. The king.
He didn't even notice. He was already making plans. Yes, we'll
have a procession. We'll make our way that the happy couples will process through
the streets of this city. Yes, with everybody cheering up to the cathedral
on the hill. Yes. And so the day came. There they were
the King ella tatter Hood, the prince tatter hood. Prince, why don't
you talk? What is there to talk about? Why don't you ask me
why I ride this goat? Why do you ride that goat? Because it
is a marvelous, a magnificent goat. Do you know When the prince took
the time to look, it actually was a rather wonderful goat. Prince,
Why don't you talk? What is there to talk about? Why don't you
ask me why I wear this tatty hood? Why do you wear the tatty
hood? Tatty? It isn't tatty. My hood is made of the finest
silk. When the prince took the time to look, it was a rather
beautiful silky hood. Prince, Why don't you talk? What is there to
talk about? Why don't you ask me why I'm so ugly. Why are
you so ugly? Ugly? But I am not ugly. I am very
very attractive. When the Prince took the time to look, he realized he'd
never seen a woman like her in all his nautic blonde life. Never had
he seen a woman quite so extraordinary. Her dark skin, her wild hair,
her dark, dark eyes, and that gap between her front teeth.
It did something to him. He looked about. The people weren't staring.
They were feasting their eyes upon her. Everyone was staring at this extraordinary woman.
Who are you as you see me? So I am? And so
that day there was a wedding, a double wedding, and after the wedding
such a feast. They had fried chicken, pimento cheese, sweet potato,
washed down with sweet tea and tapioca. And after the wedding, the King,
allah, the Prince, and Tatterhood drank from the bridal cap, both
deep and long. I was in here earlier on and heard the healing Force
perform a lovely bit of nonsense. So I thought I'd finished my little stint
here and hand over to Dervy. We just with a little nonsense. There's
a great tradition in Europe of ending a story with something like I found the
path, you found the puddle. I was drowned and you were found.
If it means something today, probably won't tomorrow. And if it weren't for
the stories, we'd have nothing to lose with it an old backtooth. So
here we are. Here's my nonsense. Yesterday morning, at six o'clock in
the afternoon, I was flying through the sky in a boat when I saw
two men on horseback riding a budgee. I said, excuse me, have
you seen my friend, the girl with the long white beard? And they
said, no, we haven't seen her. But there's a man down there.
Go and ask him. So I went down to the man's house.
You couldn't miss his house. It was all by itself in a row,
and knocked on the door. A big man opened the door. He was
so big he jumped out of a thimble. He shot me by the hand.
He said, would you like some breakfast? I said no, thank
you, so he gave me some. He gave me a plate piled high
with lumps of steaming, crunchy beer and a drink a mashed potato. So
I chopped up the beer into lumps of beer. I was chewing a lump
of beer when I washed it down with a drink a mash, when some
crumbs from the beer fell under the table. And do you know what was
sitting under the table eating the crumbs of the beer. Sitting under the table
on the ceiling a giraffe. I said, I'm going to strangle that giraffe,
and the man said, no, don't hurt the giraffe. That's a
very useful giraffe. Only this morning, that giraffe was out in the garden
and it caught a rabbit and ate it. If you don't believe me,
asked the rabbit. So when outside into the garden. In the garden there
was a lovely apple tree covered in bananas, there was a man who was
blind, a man who couldn't talk, a man with no legs, and
a man with no clothes on. The blind man saw the rabbit. The
man who couldn't talk went, there's a rabbit. The woman no legs have
I guess what he did? Chase the rabbit around the garden, caught up
with it and kicked it, and he gave it to the man with no
clothes on, who put the rabbit in his pocket. Then I looked and
I saw some deer. I was very hungry, My mouth was rumbling,
my belly was watering. So I loosed an arrow from my bow at the
deer, and the arrow missed the deer and hit a fish who was go
impost on a motorbike. And do you know with dot fish, I'm a
the best apple pie you've ever tasted. Thanks for tuning in for episode number
six of Listen What did you think? Let me know at feedback at ninth
story dot com. Today's episode featured a story by Daniel Morden Tatterhood. If
you'd like more information on Daniel and his work, please visit The Devil's Violin
dot co dot uk. You can also find him over on Facebook, and
you can purchase his books over at Amazon. Please share your love of story,
share the show, and help us grow. The best support you can
give us is to tell a friend who might enjoy the stories about us,
or to take a moment to rate review the show and iTunes to help others
find us, follow us on Twitter at Listen to Story, find us on
Facebook at Facebook dot com, forward slash story listeners. You can also find
us on iTunes, Stitcher, tune In radio, and Google Playing. Listen
is dedicated to bringing you traditional stories told by some of the best tellers in
the world of storytelling. Here, you'll rediscover your love of storytelling every time
you visit. All works read in this audio recording and associated music and artwork
or copyright of their respective creators. It may not be used in any form
without their permission. Stories in this episode of Listen were performed by Daniel Morden.
They'll Listen theme as a selection from Better Start Walking, which was written
and performed by Robin Brown. For more information on Robin's work, visit Robin
Brown dot info. Closing music is also from Better Start Walking. Listen is
a Ninth Story studio as production Ninth Story dot com creator and producer Daniel foyzech
That's Me. Full show notes with links and info can be found at story
listeners dot com, Forward Slash six