(; "A Night of

Storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pre ...

"; variously given as ''The Storyteller, The Story Teller, Storyteller's Night, Night of Story-telling'') is a 1935 Irish film directed by

Robert J. Flaherty Robert Joseph Flaherty, (; February 16, 1884 – July 23, 1951) was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, '' Nanook of the North'' (1922). The film made his reputati ...

. It was produced during the sound recording session for his more famous

docufiction Docufiction (or docu-fiction) is the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is (as direct cinema or cinéma vérité) and ...

film ''

Man of Aran ''Man of Aran'' is a 1934 Irish fictional documentary (ethnofiction) film shot, written and directed by Robert J. Flaherty about life on the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland. It portrays characters living in premodern conditions, d ...

'' in London, and is notable as the first

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

sync sound film.

Production

''Oidhche Sheanchais'' was filmed at Gaumont Studios.

Plot

Four islanders (who are actually the cast of ''

'') are gathered around the hearth. The film begins with an excerpt of a traditional sean-nós song performed by Maggie Tom Ní Mhaoláin (Maggie Dirrane).

Seanchaí A seanchaí ( or – plural: ) is a traditional Gaelic storyteller/historian. In Scottish Gaelic the word is (; plural ). The word is often anglicised as shanachie ( ). The word ''seanchaí'', which was spelled ''seanchaidhe'' (plural ''se ...

Seáinín Tom Ó Dioráin tells a traditional story called ''Máirtín Mac an Rí'', a version of the maritime folk legend '' The Knife against the Wave''. In the story, a fisherman successfully defends himself against the onslaught of a supernatural storm at sea by casting his knife against an oncoming wave; he is later summoned to the

Otherworld The concept of an otherworld in historical Indo-European religion is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other Earth/world"), a term used by Lucan in his description of the Celtic Otherworld ...

, where he learns that with his knife cast he injured a

fairy A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...

woman, whom he can only heal by removing the knife; upon doing so, he is rewarded. Versions of the same legend are common in other parts of Europe, including

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Loss and rediscovery

The film opened in a small number of cinemas in Dublin and Cork on St. Patrick's Day in 1935. The press reaction was generally favourable with reviewers impressed by the seanchaí's performance. A critic from ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' praised the film, although he did not understand

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

. But the public's reaction was one of apathy and it was withdrawn from general release after a week or two. A fire was believed to have destroyed all copies in 1943, but a

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...

distribution print was re-cataloged in 2012 in

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Houghton Library Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of Art ...

and soon pointed out by researchers. A restored 35 mm version was premiered in 2015. This version is only 11 minutes in length. Other records of a 20-minute version featuring exterior shots of the cottage appear to have been erroneous. In November 2016, the film received its first ever television broadcast on TG4, Ireland's national language station. It was preceded by a 38 minute documentary called ''Oíche Chaillte an tSeanchaí (The Lost Night of the Storyteller)''. Directed by Kieran Concannon, this gave the background story of ''Oidhche Sheanchais''.

References

*Ó hÍde, Tomás, ''Seáinín Tom Sheáin: From Árainn to the Silver Screen'', Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann (Four Courts Press), 2019.

External links

* * {{Robert J. Flaherty 1935 films Films directed by Robert Flaherty British black-and-white films Irish-language films Irish black-and-white films Gainsborough Pictures films Films set in Ireland Works about storytelling 1930s rediscovered films Rediscovered Irish films

Production

Plot

Loss and rediscovery

See also

References

External links