History of Storytelling - In the Beginning

Today, stories are everywhere in our societies and culture. They are found in our music, books, movies, news media, religions, painting, architecture and urban legends (the modern equivalent of myths). They influence us in many ways, some overt like religion and the law, others covert like propaganda and advertising. They define our values, aspirations, dreams and, unfortunately, our prejudices and hatreds.

But how did storytelling begin?

The origins of storytelling are ancient and lost in the mist of time. When was the first the story told? Was it perhaps told around a flickering fire in the gloomy recess of a cave? Did a primitive hunter tell his family of his successful hunt as they devoured the game that he brought home? Or, more likely, he told of how he found off a terrible animal that stole his kill, adding a little imaginative details to convince his hungry family that he had did all he could but was foiled by cruel fate? In some ways, storytelling may have begun as excuses for failure. Stories could have also been used long ago to calm the fear of family and clan members huddled at night in their fire-lit caves while wild animals howled outside. As families joined with other families to form clans, then tribes and eventually nations and societies, those who could spin a good yarn and tell of heroic events of the tribe began to attain position of respect and power. People began to listen to them. Thus may have developed the Shaman, the priest, the judge and the ruler - all effective storytelling in their own way.

Before writing was invented, people had to listen to learn anything and a good memory was an important tool. The person who could tell a good story always found an audience as well as respect, a good meal and place to sleep. People when they traveled took along their stories and shared them with others in far away lands. When they returned home they brought back exciting tales of exotic places and people.

The oldest surviving tale is the epic, Gilgamesh, which related the deeds of a famous Sumerian king. The earliest known record of storytelling can be found in the Westcar Papyrus of the Egyptians. The sons of Cheops (the pyramid builder) reportedly entertained their father with stories.

Stories through history came in all shapes and sizes, myths, legends of all kinds, tall tales, fairy tales, fables, trickster stories, hero stories, ghost tales, teaching stories, oral histories and epic adventures. These stories were told, retold and passed down from father to son, mother to daughter and one generation to another. The stories increasing came to convey the accumulative wisdom and knowledge of early people, often used to explain significant and often confusing events and disasters in nature such as storms, tidal waves, lightening, and fire. Stories of gods and heroes bound groups of people to a common heritage and beliefs. Tales with a moral help develop the laws and customs that help control the destructive impulses in humans and develop civilization and societies we know today. In fact, many historians, anthropologists and psychologists suggest that storytelling is one of the many things that define our humanity. Humans are perhaps the only animals that invent and tell stories.

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