Last night I told The Glass Coffin, a Grimm's Fairy Tale, at Rocky Mount Museum outside of Johnson City, TN. There were six of us, all from the Jonesborough Storyteller's Guild, and all telling scary stories collected by the brothers Grimm 200 years ago. Our notions of what it meant to tell a tale of that sort varied, but all were true to the nature of the stories as translated from the original transcripts.
While the subject matter was emotionally difficult, I found the telling of it easy--there is a clear path to follow in the story's setup: a defined beginning, middle and end. When a story is well-constructed like that, all a teller need do is prepare by learning it well, and then allowing the story to become what it wants to be at the moment of performance. In this instance, I was slated last on the program. I knew we had kept a room filled with adults interested, (and even some brave children over age 12), but it was my job to wrap it up and send them home with a good memory of the night.I think I did that, but more than anything, I hope that story settled into their collective psyche's as it did mine.
You see, The Glass Coffin involves a young woman literally preserved in a glass case, buried deep in a cavern under the earth's surface. She was violated--emotionally and probably physically, by a dark stranger in her own home. She refused to submit to his demands, and paid dearly with the loss of all she knew, and loved. Her brother turned to a stag, her castle and village shrank to a miniature--also under glass. There are strange inscriptions etched on cave walls, the life forces of her people captured in glass bottles, and she, the young woman, wrapped in her own hair for cover, and a lucky young tailor who just happens to be in the right place at the right time. Check it out--it's a thought-provoking story that may change your way of thinking about fairy tales.
I am a storyteller by calling and a writer by trade. Inter-connectivity is my mantra--everything we do and say impacts our place in the world and the people in it. Our stories help us experience the connection, removing fear and prejudice as we learn to live and work together with dynamic Mother Earth.
About Me

- saundra
- Born in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida, I am a genuine Florida Cracker--a descendent of sturdy women and men who farmed their way south from North Carolina in the early 1800's. I am a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Social Science, and earned an MA in Education/Storytelling from East Tennessee State University. My work is deeply influenced by a love and reverence for the natural world and environmental issues and my love of story. Performance Photos by Valerie Menard, Silentlightimages.com.