Pembrokeshire Folk Tales
by Christine Willison
(The History Press ISBN 978 0 7524 6565 4)
I found this very Bardic lovely little book in the visitors centre Haverfordwest. We had travelled to take part in a dog agility competition that was part of the Pembrokeshire county show. Having left home in a bit of a rush I had not packed any books so I was on the lookout for suitable reading material when I found this unexpected gem.
It is as the title suggests a book of local Folk tales and as such it is a wonderful resource for the story telling Bard. But there is a twist, author Christine Willison, a very experienced storyteller herself, introduces the tales as part of a quest she has undertaken. In the company of a strange little man she has agreed to help, she travels the county
to helping him find items he has lost, and at each location local tales are told, woven into these are tales from the Mabinogion pointing to the connections between the land the people and the otherworld, a recurring theme in almost all of the tales.
The message is that stories need to be told and once heard there is a duty to retell them to keep them alive.
This is a fine collection of tales but to say any more would be to spoil the book, tales within a story lovingly told.
~ JM