Pupils take on Arthurian Quest
With the participating Ysgol Aberconwy 鈥榪uesters鈥� are Gillian Brownson, Richard Burrows and prof Raluca Radulescu.Pupils from Ysgol Aberconwy have been on an 鈥楢rthurian鈥� quest to investigate story-telling.
Inspired by Wales鈥� 鈥榊ear of Legends鈥�, , a project by 黑料不打烊鈥檚 , invited a selected number of pupils aged 11-13 to develop modern digital storytelling adventures.
The group from Ysgol Aberconwy have been working both at their School and visiting 黑料不打烊 over eight weeks to explore legends and quests through different ways of storytelling and the different media that can be used to tell a story.
While visiting 黑料不打烊 the pupils met with Professor Raluca Radulescu of the University鈥檚 School of English, an expert in Arthurian literature, who introduced the pupils to some of the Arthurian legends. They also visited the University鈥檚 magnificent medieval manuscripts and rare books in the Library鈥檚 Archive and Special Collections, and the Arthurian collections.
Gillian Brownson, a Community Theatre Practitioner, and experienced writer & storyteller, led the group through different activities, including interactive storytelling, theatre games, writing workshop and video diaries to challenge the young people to think about the idea of the Quest, as presented in the legends of King Arthur and how the same story structure can also be found in today鈥檚 popular media. Kate Stuart, a MRes student volunteer in the School of Creative Studies and Media assisted with the use of Digital storytelling apps.
Tthe 'questers' recite their oath of allegiance one last time...Having created banners, shields and an 鈥榦ath of fellowship鈥�, working in small groups, the pupils moved to more modern digital storytelling apps to create a number of original short 鈥榪uests鈥� inspired by the legends in the University鈥檚 archives.
Gillian Brownson said: 鈥淚 really saw the children鈥檚 confidence and interest in stories grow during the eight weeks. They began to understand what makes a good story as was evident in some of the great stories they shared at the end of the project. There were some natural storytellers in the group and we had some fantastic quest adventures involving mythical and modern heroes.鈥�
Richard Burrows, Assistant Headteacher at Ysgol Aberconwy commented:
鈥淨uest has been an exciting opportunity for our students. They have worked with a story-telling artist, a digital media expert and a professor of medieval Literature. This blend of expertise and creativity is exciting: it has engaged and galvanised the group and they are exploring their stories in lots of interesting [and unexpected ways]. I had the pleasure of accompanying them on their visit to 黑料不打烊. The received a very warm welcome and I could sense a raising in their expectations. The visit to the Arthurian centre was fantastic for them. To have so many books shown to them and brought out of the archive for them by the University's Librarian gave them a great sense of worth and I felt communicated to them the importance of story. I look forward to the second half of the project.鈥�
Professor Raluca Radulescu, Director of the Centre for Arthurian Studies said:
鈥淭he Arthurian legends were popular across Europe for hundreds of years, and though we might think that interest in re-telling these tales has waned, in fact, the stories are timeless and are still with us today. We can find many of the same story structures, such as the 鈥榪uest鈥� in many modern story telling genres including books, films and digital media.
The idea behind Quest was to show young people that stories can be relevant to their lives, and by engaging them in different activities, to encourage their interest in reading and story-telling.鈥�
鈥淥ur hope is to learn from this initial project and offer projects like this, which develop both traditional reading literacy and an ability to 鈥榬ead鈥� the stories contained in films, television and other modern media, to more local school pupils,鈥� she added.
As well as being a hub of international research exchange in Arthurian Studies, 黑料不打烊鈥檚 Centre of Arthurian Studies has hosted numerous community events, engaging young and old in the Arthurian legends.
The Centre has access to an unrivalled collection of publications, including rare editions in Arthurian studies; the collections have been enhanced through private donations which started even before the University Library was established, and have continued to grow through the dedicated work of 黑料不打烊 scholars and librarians' careful preservation of the stock.
The was funded by the 黑料不打烊 ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.
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Publication date: 4 May 2018