Menu
Cymraeg
Contact
HomeLiterature Wales' Writer CommissionsTamar Eluned WilliamsWeek One: The Golden Harp

Week One: The Golden Harp

Welcome to the Story Cauldron! This is a digital Home Storytelling Kit developed especially for families, to give you some creative energy during this time! Every week for four weeks there will be a new story, told in Welsh and English, as well as activities that you can do as a family to help you learn to tell stories and share them creatively.

As you explore the kit, I would love it if you shared your stories with us on the Literature Wales Facebook Page.

 

  1. Listen to the story

Now that you’ve heard me tell the story, I’m going to help you to learn to tell the story yourself, in your own words.

Storytelling is the art of sharing and gathering stories. This story doesn’t belong to me. It’s much older than I am, so I don’t own it – nobody does.

You can tell these stories in any way you want to. So we’re going to do a really quick activity to explore just how different your stories might be.

 

  1. Explore the story

 

For this, you will need:

  • A piece of paper
  • A pen or a pencil
  • Someone to read the questions for you (or you can read them yourself and answer as you go).

 

Top Tip: This isn’t a comprehension activity! You won’t find the answers in my story – you’ll have to imagine them for yourselves.

 

  1. What do the tylwyth teg look like? What kind of clothes do they wear?
  2. What does Taffy Morgan look like? How old is he?
  3. Write down three words that describe Taffy Morgan’s house.
  4. What can Taffy Morgan see from his kitchen window?
  5. What other things were happening at the festival where Taffy played the golden harp and the Old Bard couldn’t stop dancing? What could you hear?  What could you smell?
  6. What food did Taffy Morgan and the tylwyth teg eat together in his house? What sort of food would you make if the fairies came knocking on your door?

 

 

 

  1. Create a story map

For this you will need:

  • A big sheet of paper or piece of cardboard (you could sellotape some smaller sheets of paper together)
  • Pencil
  • Coloured pencils or felt tips if you’ve got them

One really easy way of remembering a story is to create a story map. Here’s a video of how to make a three-stage story map.

  1. Draw what happens in the story. You’re just going to draw what helps you remember the main points of the story.
  2. Write down how you want the audience to feel as you tell each part of the story.
  3. Write down any really good descriptions for you to remember to say.

Your story map doesn’t need to look like mine. You can make one really quickly or you can take a long time over it. You can lay it out in any way you want to. It just needs to make sense to you.

Just to remind you, these are the things that happen in the story, so you’ll need to make sure you include them in your map, but you can also put in extra details of your own. Remember your answers to your questionnaire. Perhaps you can use them here!

 

  1. There is a man called Taffy Morgan and he is a terrible singer.
  2. One day, an old Bard hears him singing in his gegin and is very rude to him.
  3. That same day, the tylwyth teg come to visit and, after Taffy gives them some food, they grant him a wish.
  4. Taffy wishes for an instrument that, no matter how badly he plays it, it always makes the most beautiful music.
  5. The fairies give him a golden harp and, whenever he plays it, it makes wonderful music and the people around him dance.
  6. His golden harp makes him famous.
  7. One day he is asked to play his harp in his local village festival, where he sees the Old Bard.
  8. To teach the old man a lesson, Taffy plays the harp on and on until the Old Bard is exhausted from dancing.
  9. The fairies take the golden harp away and Taffy never sees it again.

 

  1. Tell the story

Congratulations! You’ve learned the story of The Golden Harp.

To make sure the story sticks in your head, why not tell it out loud?

To do this, all you’ll need is:

  1. An audience (you could make on out of teddy bears, pets who will sit still, and willing siblings/parents)
  2. A performance area.

If you feel you want to, you could tell your story sitting down on a Storytelling Chair. Why not decorate it with a blanket, pillows or scarves?

Or you could stand up – or try both!

  1. Your story map, just in case you forget any details.

 

Stories like this change every time you tell them. The language you use to tell them will change – perhaps you’ll find different ways of describing things as you go along. You could practice telling your story in lots of different ways and find the way you like best.

Once you’re confident, put your story map down. Try telling the story without it! How does it feel to be able to move both your hands?

Why not film or record yourself telling the story and share it with us?
Back to Tamar Eluned Williams