Legal storytelling

Professional storyteller Milly Jackdaw and Dr Lucy Finchett-Maddock gathered round for two ‘around the fire’ storytelling events in Bangor and Cardiff Autumn 2022, as part of the Festival of Social Sciences.  They told chosen Welsh tales from history and folklore with the hope of communicating and identifying principles of law found within ‘lore’.

Stories relaying themes of environmental justice, common rights and stewardship, were be worked with, such as found in ‘Rhyfel y Sais Bach‘ (The War of the Little Englishman) and those most relevant to land rights, selected from the Mabinogion.

Participants were introduced to basic storytelling methods, as well as areas of law concerning the land and environment (with particular focus on Welsh and English law).  The aim of the sessions was to use storytelling as a means of giving access to justice.

The events were open to all but particularly relevant for young people, in understanding the relevance of today’s law within folklore and storytelling traditions in Wales, and how law can be used as a tool for empowerment for now and future generations.  

LORE of the LAND:  Tales, Trials and Environmental Justice was part of a broader interdisciplinary, cross-practice series of research collaborations and interventions entitled 'Telling Law' (with TBA21-Academy, Vienna) and 'Storytelling as Disorder' (with Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and HDK-Valand, Academy of Art and Design, University of Gothenburg).  The projects seek to understand how law is ‘storied’, whilst also engendering the use of ‘storying’ within legal education, research, provision and artistic practice, in order to foster legal literacy and access to justice.