Merry Miller

How a happy man without a care in the world is rescued from the greatest care of all

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The story, a variant of The King’s Three Questions (Type 922 in Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature) has been around for centuries. I first met it when it was posted on the Storytell listserv by Marilyn McPhie.
Before I had told other versions in which the king sets the questions to an abbot (sometimes the Abbot of Canterbury) and it is a simple shepherd who answers. But I now find this version with the miller has a lot to offer in the telling.

The recording was made on 26th April 2016 as part of a benefit performance at Edith-Stein-Schule, Darmstadt in support of refugee projects.

I have just discovered a delightful podcast of this tale, The Rabi and the Bishop, told by Pam Faro. The setting is quite different, as are all but one of the questions: an example of how folk tales develop as they travel the world.
Pam’s telling begins 1.55 min. into the podcast.


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.

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