This fascinating talk was given by Lisa Schneidau, storyteller, conservationist and author of Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland in conversation with Plantlife's CEO Ian Dunn.
Ian provides the detail of Plantlife's connection with the plant and ideas of each story that Lisa tells.
Juniper
The focus of the first talk is the tree that provides a key ingredient for gin, that of the Juniper. Plantlife have had much success in increasing the population of Juniper trees over the past decade.
Lisa goes on to give us a tale of gossiping Juniper trees near the road on a chalk downland.
The trees, lacking anything to gossips about, get bored, with two trees actually caving in.
Eventually a shifty man with a bag of corn hides among the trees, giving the Junipers something to talk about. They summise that the bag is stolen, and pass the information on from bush to tree to bush.
The local constable hears of this theft, arrests the theif and miller who accepted the bag of corn. Both men are hanged, giving the trees much to discuss for a long time.
Ian connects this idea of gossiping trees, to the tree root network that may indicate much more communication between trees that we had ever perhaps imagined.
The Land
Lisa then tells us of the land remembers, even as far back as King Arthur. This particular patch of land, this field in Devon, which nobody has ever been owned. Land grabs and laws have never been able to put the land in the ownership of any human.
Lisa describes a wonderful ancient hedgerow and the species growing along and within it. The farmer, Farmer Oak, that owns this hedgerow, believes he owns that piece of land.
On the other side of the field, a modern and productive farm, owned by Farmer Ash, who also feels that he owns the fields.
Neither farmer gets on with the other, with no communication for decades.
Farmer Oak walks through the field covered in plentiful species, he happens to bump into Farmer Ash. Finally, a chance to talk, after all these decades. Both farmers tell the other to get off their land!
Farmer Oak says that if he let Ash have the field, he'd destroy the last remaining wildlife meadow in England. Ash says he has no time for flowers, he needs to drain it and get his cows on the fields. This leads to fisty cuffs between the two, ending up down into a boggy end of the field, both with hands around the others neck.
This continued through the night and into the dawn, hands around necks.
Only the squelching sound of boots led to them looking around, at the same time, at a woman standing their asking, "What are you two doing?".
After hearing both saying that it was their land, she kneels down and listens to the land.
The land tells her that the farmers belong to it.
The Curse of Pantannas
Ian tells us that Plantlife are just as concerned with fungi as with plants and recognise the importance and deep connection between plants fungi.
Heading west to the Vale of Glamorgan, Lisa tells us of when farmers began to increase their land ownership.
The story tells us of a field of fairy rings, and loud fairies, that bother the farmer that 'owns' the field.
Getting fed up of the situation, the farmer visits the wise woman at the edge of the village. She questions the logic of removing the fairies from 'his' field, as the fairies will not take kindly to being evicted.
The farmer does no care and takes her advice of ploughing the field with iron, to remove the fairies.
A clean and tidy silence follows, he sows a crop. Just when the crop was about to be ready to harvest, a little man with a red coat and silver sword declares "vengeance will come", to the farmer as he stands at the edge of the field.
The ground rumbles and shakes as the field is ready to harvest. The ground is black and desolate. No crops.
The little man appears to tell the farmer that this is just the beginning, with more vengeance to come, even as the farmer cries and declares that he didn't know what he was doing.
The little man returns to his king to tell him of the sorry state of the farmer. However, he returns to say that vengeance will come, but to a future generation of the farmer's family.
As the generations come and go, the family joke that 'vengeance will come'. It doesn't come until after WWII to a man named Madoc, returning home as a war hero to the farm where he grew up. The future to him looked ever-so bright.
The the voices came, "vengeance is here", disrupting a part being held by Madoc. After leaving Teleri, his betrothed, with the safety of her parent, he turned to head home.
He never did return home. There was no sign of Madoc. Only Teleri believd Madoc had not gone.
A wise man tells Madoc's parents that Madoc will not return in their lifetime. However, Teleri awaits Madoc's return from the top of the hill observing the landscape.
As she watches, the land changes. Hedges ripped out, chemicals sprayed.
Eventually, Teleri is buried at the local church.
As Madoc was walking home that fateful night, he heard some magical music in a raven's rift. That music enchanted Madoc, he stood and listened. As hours passed, then music stopped, and he eventually made his way out of the cave, to a landscape unrecognisably changed.
The only familiar building is the old farmhouse. When he walks into his home, he is confronted by an old man, who knows no Madoc, apart from a century old folk tale.
The old man tries to touch Madoc, who turns to dust, which is blown down to the river.
As Ian comments, we can only ever be custodians of the land, never the owners, as the changes we make can be too devastating.
Janet and Thomalyn (TamLane)
A couple who have known each other since childhood. Tamlane goes missing for a year, with Janet searching the woods for him.
One morning, Janet is picking berries when suddenly TamLane appears after being taken away be the Queen of the fairies.
Janet desires to have TamLane back for good, but after spending the night with him, he has vanished again. Upon returning home, she is kept in her room by her parents for her safety. However, she soon discovers that her is pregnant by TamLane.
She escapes and TamLane appears after she picks three broom flowers. TamLane fears being sacrificed to the underworld by the Queen.
On the border between England and Scotland, as the crossroads, she follows TamLane's instructions and yanks him down off his horse to reclaim him. The Queen casts a curse, turning TomLane into a ball of ice, then fire, then an adder, then a swan, but Janet holds on. Finally, TamLane is turned into a red-hot piece of iron. Janet throws him into the river.
The Queen gives up her claim to TamLane. The two lovers, expecting a child, are free to live their lives free.
Lisa is a fantastic storyteller, who truly draws the listener in. The wonderful versions of these folk tales inspire a greater responsibility towards the land and the many species that need the land to live - as we do. She makes the case that perhaps fairies, within the stories, are acting as agents for plants and other species that cannot speak for themselves.
Lisa makes the case that storytelling can change the world because it is such a powerful method of communication, allowing us to see that pathway through to the positive changes that we can make in the future. Lisa challenges us to look at our own pathways and what difference we can make an individuals, on a personal level.
Get your copy of Lisa's fantastic book below (free to read for those with Kindle Unlimited at the time of publishing this post)
