Fortune and the Woodcutter
One man's way to ensure Fortune blessed him
Video not yet publicly available
This tale has been recorded and will be uploaded to the video gallery on 3rd Sept. 2024, where it will be available to watch for free - together with many, many other tales.
Subscribe to the newsletter to receive an e-mail of all new uploads (usually one or two a month), as well as performances and workshops in your geographical area.
If you have a particular reason for wanting to watch the recording before it is publicly available, send a mail and we can discuss this.
A text version can be found in Andrew Lang's The Brown Fairy Book (London, 1904). Lang gives Traditions Populaires de l' Asie Mineure as his source.
But like so many of the tales I tell, I was first pointed to the story by the Storytell listserv. Years ago long-term member Batsy Bybell posted about the story and its source, commenting she found plenty of comic opportunities. Yesterday I re-read it in Andrew Lang, and sure enough the performance possibilities opened up.
The tale is also included in Allen Chinen's In the Ever After - Fairy Tales and the Second Half of Life.
More comic tales
The video gallery has become very extensive. So if you would enjoy more tales like this, here are a few suggestions.
The video clips here are all amateur quality, shot in various theatres or, as here, in my home studio.
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.
Professionally recorded CDs and DVDs are available here.
Go here for tales to watch
Go here for a list of all tales included on this site
Go here to receive an e-mail notification when new tales are added
Permission to tell outlines my views on copyright
For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling