Review by Georgina Coburn
Bob Pegg: People Of The Sea
Inverness Library, 6 October 2007
Storyteller and musician Bob Pegg (photo - Fergus Pegg).
STORYTELLER and musician Bob Pegg wove a magical tapestry of music, song and story to children and parents as part of the 4th Inverness Book Festival series of events at Inverness Library.
His performance paid homage to storytellers such as Tom Muir (Orkney), Lawrence Tulloch (Shetland) and Jerker Halstrom (Sweden) whilst delivering his own unique blend of sounds and tales.
The quality of engagement with an audience possible through live storytelling and as a continuation of the oral tradition is always compelling. Our capacity to make sense of the world through the telling of stories and the value of the imagination comes to the fore in the art of storytelling.
The distinctive quality of Pegg’s voice and character added much to the telling and his performance was enjoyed as much by adults in the audience as the children.
Invoking tales of sea people and creatures from around the world Pegg brought the telling of tales full circle for his young audience, centring them in the familiar territory of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Easter Ross.
Complimenting the telling of legends and tales with a fascinating array of instruments and soundmakers added another dimension to the telling of stories, conjuring the sadness of the mermaid without her tail or the selkie’s longing for the sea in a tune calling the seals forth from beneath the waves.
As was once the case around the campfires of our ancestors, imagination holds truth and is as powerful a force as the physical world.
The Inuit legend of Sedna and the creation of all the ocean’s creatures illustrate beautifully the fluid relationship between human kind, environment and animal spirits central to many indigenous cultures. This interconnection is present not just in the imagery of the story and its characters but in the human dimension of live storytelling.
It is this human element, the emotion and resonance of stories passed down through bards and tradition bearers that still holds true today. It is wonderful that in a modern age with so much territory mapped and charted stories can still be imagined and told out of the great mystery of nature. The central theme of the sea was introduced to the audience quite appropriately as an opening riddle.
The storyteller’s fascination with the origins of stories, sounds and music were clearly evident as he told the tale of the “Grotty Stone”, the source of the “swelkie whirlpool” in the Pentland Firth, the story of the murderous “Storr Worm” who terrorised the Caithness coast and the 800 year old Icelandic legend of “How the Sea Became Salt”.
Embellished by the sounds of a Viking lyre, rhythmic shells, singing stone, bone flute, deer skin drum and a magic disappearing ocarina, Pegg’s telling of tales were a captivating evocation of ancient times and otherworldly events.
What is obvious in Bob Pegg’s delivery is his respect for the oral tradition through his stories about storytellers, his numerous recordings, collaborative projects, education work and his joy and enthusiasm for the sharing of tales. Direct communication such as this is seldom available to us in daily life and I hope that live literature of this kind will be a strong component of future Book Festivals.
The storyteller/musician/composer’s next project will bring forest legends to life as part of the forthcoming event “Between Two Worlds” taking place in the Glenmore Forest Park near Aviemore from 2–18 November. A collaboration between sculptor and environmental artist Diane MacLean, light artist Malcolm Innes and Bob Pegg, who has composed the soundtrack , “Between Two World’s” promises to be a unique event. Like the storyteller’s art it will highlight our two greatest assets here in the Highlands; culture and environment.
© Georgina Coburn, 2007
