King Midas and his Donkey’s Ears

Ovid’s tale of censorship and state secrets

Ovid writes of King Midas in Metamorphoses.

A fellow member of the Storytell listserv, Richard Marsh, sent me the following:
In Ireland, it’s incorporated into the historical legend of Labraidh Loingsigh (pron. lowry lingshee), which explains the arrival of the Leinstermen, the people of the laigne, a spear with a broadleaf-shaped head, some 2500 years ago. Labraidh lost his temper and kicked a horse, for which a widow cursed him with horse’s ears. Only a priest’s curse is more powerful than a widow’s curse.

Told at an Amnesty International benefit concert, I introduced the tale as dealing with issues of free speech and censorship (my introductory remarks about that came just before the camera started recording).


Disclaimer

The video clips here are all amateur quality, shot in various theatres.

Their intention is just to show the range of my storytelling and give a flavour of a live performance.

Permission is granted for use in non-commercial educational contexts.

The videos are © Richard Martin.

Professionally recorded CDs and DVDs are available here.

Go here for tales to watch

Go here for a list of all tales included on this site

Go here to receive an e-mail notification when new tales are added

Permission to tell outlines my views on copyright

For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling