The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves

The role of fable, legend, and myth...

Here are three recent podcasts that examine our use of story to explain, valorize, and understand our origins, our lives, and our destinies.

The Great Cauldron of Story: Maria Tatar on Why Fairy Tales Are for Adults Again, from On Being with Krista Tippett.

The Phantom Cup that Comes and Goes: The Story of the Holy Grail, a Gresham College lecture by Dr. Juliette Wood.  This one comes complete with a transcript and a PowerPoint.

The Faces of Eve, from Ideas with Paul Kennedy on CBCRadio, featuring Professor Ronna Burger, Dr. Ingrid Mattson, Aviva Gottlieb Zornberg, PhD, and Professor Valarie Ziegler.

Our stories need not be factual to hold truth.

Image Credit: "The Damsel of the Sanct Grael" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail

SCENE III. The English camp.

My favorite scene from my favorite Shakespeare adaptation...

Kenneth Branagh's "Band of Brothers" speech from Henry V (1989) 

WESTMORELAND

O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING HENRY V

What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day!