Dear Khayaam Ravenhurst welcome to our humble repository of thought and knowledge, normally I would prefix this with "Roll up, roll up to Oracle Forum..." ( nay the latter is part of the tall story tradition!), but indeed bright minds are rallying to the lighthouse in droves. You too Sintrasesity, your light has been hidden under the bushel of this post, so welcome and we hope to hear further from you in your own right.
Passing myth, legend, belief and knowledge down through generations on a directly spoken word communication basis is to my mind essential to the spritual growth of human kind, whether it be through teacher, historian, priest or shaman. The rapt look on a circle of children's faces in the lamplight when they are collectively being told an on the spot creation or an established story, is beautiful to behold, the teller is the equivalent of a tribal elder. Their sense of memory is also heightened, for they know that they may never hear exactly the same tale again. Knowledge passed via group articulated essentially performed fables, parables and stories is a definable source of human pleasure.
For instance in Britain a performance of mummers and mystery plays is always massively well attended. This year William Shakespeare's and Miguel de Cervantes' shared 400 birthdays will spawn a plethora of performance and audience attended tale telling, shedding further light on the respected Tudor dominated realm of Albion and rural Spain in the 16th century to an extended family of global humanity.
Indeed the wide spread of Mummers play productions, a title acquired because they were performed by actors know in old English as mummers or guisers, spawned a rash of colloquial nouns which have enriched the English language. Adding a series of coined names for performers into localised vocabulary such as: rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, wrenboys, galoshins and guysers. Undoubtedly that linguistic creativity is equally replicated by the multiple words describing the story tellers role entering common parlance across a broad palette of languages spoken around the world.
Yet the importance of the passing down of pagan spiritual as well as defined religious beliefs is simply immense: The Aborigine, Aztec, Druid, Maori, Maya, Native American, Polynesian and the developed religions across Asia and Europe that eventually spread much further afield, were effectively passed outwards and down through time via dramatised word of mouth. Reading and writing was not a widespread skill as well as an ennobled profession.
The epitomy pictures below are worth perhaps another thousand words apiece from this subjective pen.
However, this is a hugely important topic to the core website and further contributions would be much appreciated.