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A Tibetan folk tale about the stupidity of humans...

This is a Romanian Jewish Tale taken from a German collection from 1902. There are some familiar motifs in it, but it has a quite peculiar flavour.

The Sorceress's Head is a fast moving and irreverent version of the tale of Perseus and Medusa. It was taken from Italian Folktales, collected by Italo Calvino.

Momo Kapor was a Serbian artist and writer, a satirist in turns gentle and piercing - I picked up his book "A Guide to the Serbian Mentality" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5289153-a-guide-to-the-serbian-mentality) last year in Belgrade, so let me take you on a quick tour of the Myths of Belgrade Cuisine, courtesy of Mister Kapor.

I don't know if it's easier to propagate stereotypes today (if you study history you'll realize that stereotypes aren't hard to propagate or spread, even with minimal media - a voice is generally enough) but this story was told to me sometime during travels in Morocco and I sometimes think of it when the term "immigrant" is tossed around as if it always meant the same and as if everyone who leaves a place for another place means to stay there forever. A part of me is nomadic, so this perspective comes more easily.

Coyote, one of the favourite tricksters here at Voice of the Fire, is at it again. Now he takes a page from the book of Prometheus and wants to bring divine gifts to...well, mostly himself. This version is based on a legend first reported in 1939.

Embers are the actual stories of Voice of the Fire. Here I showcase and tell stories from different regions of the world. Coyote Kills the Giant is a trickster myth of the Flathead Indians - this particular version was recorded by the American anthropologist Louisa McDermott in 1901.

Voice of the Fire is back in 2019! The first Whispers of the Fire is a story of mine - a childhood story of a strange (and entirely un-haunted) house. Enjoy. Voice of the Fire is a podcast, dedicated to all forms of storytelling.

Episode number 6 of Voice of the Fire arrives with a bit of a delay. We stay in Northern Europe for our next interview. Torgrim Mellum Stene is one of the most original modern storytellers active in Europe today. Under the alias Kloverknekten (The Jack of Clubs) he has performed personal and mythical tales, war stories and story jams all over the world. We talk to him about his inspirations, co-operations with his friends and new and old projects. Tune in for a fascinating hour, all about stories. http://www.kloverknekten.no/en

In this episode of Voice of the Fire we talk to Markus Luukkonen, the foremost Finnish performance storyteller about his development as a teller, his unusual tours (the "Wilderness Theatre") and collaborations ("Three Troubadours") and a new piece detailing the Kalevala, the Finnish Ur-epic. You can find more information about Markus on his website: https://markusluukkonen.com/ The "Three Troubadours" are touring all of this year and you can find out more about them here: http://www.3troubadours.com/

For the fourth episode of Voice of the Fire we interview the German storyteller Uschi Erlewein. Uschi is a strong willed, irreverent and independent storyteller for whom authenticity and personal expression are paramount. She calls herself someone who plays with stories - they are her instrument. In her world things sometimes stand upside down before they can stand on their feet. Stories don't need a moral, all the rules need to be broken before you can properly understand them. Her stories, like herself, travel the globe - from Mongolia to the South Sea back to her native Swabia. You can find out more about Uschi Erlewein at her extensive and highly informative website http://www.uschi-erlewein.de/ (German only)

Once more we gaze into the embers of the fire for an Indian story. This one is a Tamil story and shows that in Indian folklore the wish to escape one's fate is at least as strong as it is in Western tales.

Welcome to Whispers of the Fire - where we talk about random themes related to writing, storytelling and what shapes a story...or indeed our own reality. Follow me into a slight rant on an old theme: reality vs imagination. Let's find out why those two are not opposites but work hand in hand.

In the third episode of Voice of the Fire we talk to two documentary filmmakers from South India, Anushka Meenakshi and Iswar Srikumar, who have been working on the Uramili project for several years. In long journeys through their home-country they have documented, filmed and recorded hundreds of songs - work songs, death songs, protest songs, laments, songs of joy etc. - that are found in different regions of India. We know of the tradition that songs had in Western art and storytelling, but we know very little of the (still living) traditions of song in India. Uramili aims to change that. You can see a trailer for their most recent documentary Up, Down and Sideways, which has screened at film festivals all over the world and received several awards here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJsCbJfICoY Their website, in case you want to contact or support them, is here: www.uramili.in You can also find them on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uramili/

Embers is an intermittent story. This could be anything, but mostly it focuses on the (bi)weekly theme of Voice of the Fire. This week it is India. Untold Stories is a tale of and about the Gond, an Adivasi tribe in Central India. If you are curious about the Gond, especially their folk art, pay this site a visit: https://www.deccanfootprints.com/collections/gond-art

In this episode of Whispers of the Fire we ask a simple question: Why do so many fairy tales talk about princes and princesses? Warning: Dark themes (contains language, as Neil Gaiman is wont to warn, not strong but hopefully effective) Illustration by Nadezhda Illarionova - https://www.artstation.com/nillarionova

Whispers of the Fire are little side-notes to the episodes of Voice of the Fire. They are room to play and wonder about certain themes and topics concerning storytelling. Here I talk about the traditional role of the storyteller and how he fits into society. Are traditional tellers really disappearing? Voice of the Fire is written and produced by Sebastian Buchner.

In this episode of Voice of the Fire we take a look at contemporary storytelling in Morocco and talk to the Moroccan storyteller Mehdi El Ghaly about his drive, his stories and his life in a changing society. Traditional storytelling in Morocco is not dead, neither is it dying. It lives on in people who speak and adapt, who turn stories of djinn and queens into modern fables about people, about power and intelligence. Mehdi El Ghaly: The Tribe of Ten (TedX Marrakech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pjFuLo4U3I https://mehdielghaly.wordpress.com/ https://www.facebook.com/thestorytellermehdielghaly/ https://www.instagram.com/mehdielghaly/ Al Halqa - a film by Thomas Ladenburger http://www.alhalqa.com/index.php/en/expo.html The Last Storytellers by Richard Hamilton http://www.richard-hamilton.com/the-last-storytellers/

In this first episode of the storytelling podcast Voice of the Fire join me to say farewell to one of the greatest writers of our time, Ursula K. LeGuin, who passed away in January 2018. We will enter the complex philosophical world of LeGuin with a reading of "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" Voice of the Fire is produced by Sebastian Buchner (www.sebasbuchner.com) "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" belongs to the estate of Ursula K. LeGuin Music by Rahi Sinaki