Come and Take a Seat

Hello, Friends and Fellows!

And welcome to the Forest Pool! Now that you've found your way here, take your time and find a seat beside the cool water. Glad to make your acquaintance. I'm Otter, and this pool is my home. Here is where I keep my treasures; everything brought to me by the water, the wind and the trees. And since I live beneath hazel trees, the kind that gather the most knowledge, what they bring me are stories. They're old, these trees, and a great many stories are gathered up in their roots. Hang about and I'll share a few with you. Each week I'll be bringing out a few songs, stories, rhymes or riddles on the theme of the month.

But why stories? What use is a story in the world today?

Perhaps more use than you'd imagine. Recent studies in human cognition and learning have found that narrative is one of the most important tools the brain uses. We learn and think by relating one thing to another in order to form coherent cause-and effect scenarios on which we can base our behavior and reactions, and narrative is a very successful method of doing so. We know ourselves through the story of our lives, and know our world through the tale of our history. Stories and songs give us a sense of place and time. They help us belong, link us to the past, to our people, to the present and the future. Stories give us a place to express our hopes, our fears, our dreams and the social lessons we will pass down the generations.

The lapping water of the pool brings me songs as well, a more direct and emotional form of story. A good singer can pour every emotion that a human has ever felt into a few warbled stanzas. I am a great devotee of songs, and have gathered up quite a cache of them here inside my head. At one time, before books were on paper, things were remembered in songs, kept in the minds of people who held high prestige within their cultures. Bard, Skald, Filid,Rous; these were the living history of their people. You and I can be the same if we keep their songs alive. And besides, it's fun! When you feel happy or boisterous, letting a song pour out of your throat is a lovely thing to do. When you are angry, a good song of battle will let you speak out. But one of the most annoying things in the world is reading lyrics that touch your heart, and then being unable to find the tune. It'll drive you mad. So anytime I post a song, I'll do my best to give you a reference for the tune if not a link to the tune itself.

Oh, on the subject of references: I've referenced everything that I can. You're welcome to anything you find here, but please site the reference any time you do so.


So stay a while and read a tale or two. I'll be sharing new stories all the time. And if you have any tales, songs, lyrics I don't post, bits or bobs, please send them along; I forever am on the lookout for a shiny new song to add to my cache.
So, without further ado, I'll get down to the stories. In honor of this first sharing, I'll tell you the story of how inspiration came into the hearts of men. Thanks, and enjoy!

The Tale of the Hazel Pool

I have a story for you, a story about Imbas. Now there aren't many stories about Imbas; it's usually the thing that stories come from. Some people say that Imbas is simply the Irish word for Insparation. But it's more than that. It's that spark, that moment when an idea leaps fully formed into your mind and sets it afire. Imbas flows in all our hearts. But there was a time when no Imbas existed at all. This is how it came to be.
There is a pool where nine hazel trees grow, their branches high overhead, and their roots deep, deep in the earth.They are old, these trees, oh, so old. And they know much. For all that is comes to them in the air. All that was comes to them through the earth. And just a little of what will be comes to them through the water. And they know and remember, and their knowledge runs in their sap and gathers in their ripening nuts. And the nuts fall into the pool, and steep there, and so there is wisdom in the water as well.

There was a king once, Nechtan, who said he owned the pool, for it was on his land. He had a great well covering made and fitted over the pool so that none could steal from it, and barred the path to it with three spears. And any man who wanted to be wise, or tell tales, or lead men, had to pay Nechtan three rods of silver, three rods of gold, and three years of servitude for one sip from the well or one nut from one of the hazel trees. And Nechtan grew wealthy.His money bought him the liking of a man with a beautiful daughter. Boann of the Sweet Face they called her. Soon she was his bride.
For a time Boann was happy. But soon her husband's meanness upset her. The leavings of the feast hall went to the pigs rather than the poor, and his harpers sang of small and trifling matters, for he would not give even his own a taste of the water from the pool.
"Husband," Boann said, "Could we not give a little more, since we have so much?"
"Hush woman." Nechtan replied, "All our wealth comes from that pool, and who knows how long it will flow. We must save for the future. Do you go and see to the weaving."

Boann was content. Each day she would take a long walk through her new home. At first she walked through the town, wandering through the streets. Soon she knew it well, and began to wander the fields without the town, and eventually the forest beyond that. On her walk, she found a path barred by three spears; the path to the hazel pool.
"Husband," Boann said, "may I see the pool?"
"Hush woman." the king replied sharply, "Only myself and three servants may go near it; it is forbidden to all others. See to the serving women now."
Boann was...frustrated. She was not needed in the court, yet the people were too much in awe of her to let her roll up her sleeves and lend a hand. And if she heard 'hush woman' once more, she would go mad.
Now it was coming time for a fair that Nechtan was required to attend as king.
"Husband..." Boann said, "I would go to the fair. I would buy silks and satins and gold, and a little bit of spice..."
"Hush woman!" Nechtan said in alarm, "Do you stay here and see to your spinning." And he rode away

When he was away, Boann began to walk. Through the town. Through the fields. Into the forest. Up the barred path. And she came to a place where nine hazel trees swayed over a great well-covering sunk in the earth.Boann sat in the shade of the high trees. She could hear the water burbling beneath the cover and the wind sighing in the branches. Her eyes fell on a bronze ring, attached to a hatch in the well cover. And because it was a hot day and she had walked far, she lifted the well cover and took a drink.


For three days Boann stayed by the pool, eating of the nuts and drinking from the well. On the first day she listened. She heard the voices of the wind sighing in the branches. She listened to the burble of the water through the hatch, churning in frustration.
On the second day, she watched. She saw how the trees drooped, and watched the salmon who lived to the pool as they swam up to bask in the sunlight that they had not felt for so long.
On the third day, she understood.She heard the trees lamenting the loss of knowledge lost as their nuts fell to the ground and rotted away. She listened to the splash of the salmon and in it heard sadness. And in the bubbling of the water she heard set me free.


And then Boann acted. She put her shoulder against the well covering. And she pushed. And pushed. And the water, which had for so long been entrapped, came pouring out; first a stream, then a river. Boann laughed, and ran with it as it began to flow. She passed Nechtan's castle just as he came riding up.
"Woman! What have you done to my pool?!"
"It was never your pool, Nechtan!" she cried. "You who would give nothing, now you shall have nothing."
"Wife! Come back!"
"I am not your wife! You did not treat me as such, and so I am none to you." And she ran on.
The people cried out, for they feared the flood.
"It is not a flood!" Boann called, "It is a river! It will flow, and all of you will drink!"
And they did, and each one gained a measure of Imbas. Smiths saw new ways to work the metal, harpers heard music in the river. And Boann ran on with the river, down to the sea. Some of the water soaked into the land and fed the crops, and some of it became rain and fell in new places. And so today there is Imbas in all things and all places, if you look for it.