A story for St David’s Day

Tomorrow is not only St David’s Day. It’s World Book Day too. A few years ago in a workshop on Local Legends, a Top Junior boy told me a wonderful little tale which suits both days. The workshop was in Ysgol Dewi Sant, my own old Secondary School in St David’s. Junior children from local schools were visiting to hear and tell stories. ‘Can I tell a story, Miss?’ this boy put his hand up to ask. The little tale he told and its subsequent history confirm my belief that modern children are far more inventive and orally literate than they are often given credit for.

What the boy said was that if you go down to the Cathedral, follow the path round the outside to the great West door and then look up above the door, you’ll see a statue of St David. Actually, I think it’s just an anonymous monk but it’s certainly true that, as the boy asserted, the statue shows him reading a book. ‘Well Miss,’ said the boy, ‘you know if you go down there at midnight, Miss, when the moon is full, Miss, you can see him lift his right hand and turn a page of the book.’

After hearing this little gem of a tale which I’d never previously encountered despite spending the first fourteen years of my life in Fishguard, just 15 miles away, and then completing my growing-up in St David’s, I began to develop it with other groups of children as I went about schools in the course of my storytelling. Even before that first workshop was over, those present had come up with some fantastic developments. When I gently enquired, for instance, what would happen when St David had finished the book, I was given the obvious answer. ‘He turns the book over and starts it again.’ And how many pages are there? 365, of course.

Other ideas that have emerged include one I got told in a school inBedfordwhere children had spent a little time making up more stories after hearing mine. According to this development of the basic idea, oneBedfordgirl who went on holiday to St David’s heard the statue sighing deeply when she went past the West door at midnight. When she politely enquired what was wrong, he said he was bored with his book. And what did this girl then do? Arrange for him to get a new one, of course.

So entertainingly did the whole idea develop that when I was asked by Pont Books to provide a contribution for a book they were producing, A Gift for St David’s Day, I knew immediately what I wanted to write. It appears there as ‘The Moving, Sighing Statue’ together with a wonderfully spooky illustration by Brett Breckon of the night-time scene complete with owl. It’s a book that is well worth getting – ready for next year if you’re too late for this one! 

There’s just one problem. On occasions when children have been asked what would happen in a Leap Year – would there be enough pages? – they don’t appear to have been too sure. Perhaps we all ought to visit St David’s this Wednesday night to find out.

Mary Medlicott is a writer and professional storyteller. She has a Storytelling Blog called Storytelling Starters.