ON FAIRYTALES An anthology of legends

Be they echoes of tales from long ago, retellings, or twisted and fractured mash-ups, folk and fairytales never lose their appeal. In this issue, screenwriter and children's author Simone Greenwood tells us how her love of myths and legends led her to coordinate an inspirational project with a Welsh primary school, resulting in The Great Legend Swap anthology.

Simone Greenwood, director of Ymaginosity, the organisation behind the project

Dragons, kraken, yr afanc (a Welsh lake monster), yr gwyllgi (a mythical wolf-like dog), giants, griffins, a lost baby and, of course, a wealth of heroes who save the day ... just some of the characters in the 103 stories making up The Great Legend Swap, an anthology of imagined and reimagined tales written by Year 5 and Year 6 pupils from Risca Primary School in South Wales.

“This is the story of a boy called Toby and he is about to make history…” – opening line of ‘Y Kraken Mawr’ by Zachary (Year 6)

One hundred and three imagined and reimagined stories are in the anthology

The project, culminating in the printed anthology and a series of events with parents to share and swap stories, was managed by Ymaginosity, a non-profit organisation working with schools and libraries. Funding from Caerphilly Arts Development and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, meant every pupil involved received a free copy of the book they helped create, as well as creative writing workshops with author Eloise Williams and Children’s Laureate Wales Alex Wharton at the start of the project.

Children's author Eloise Williams running a workshop

Children's author Alex Wharton with pupils from Risca Primary School

Inspiration for The Great Legend Swap came from The Mab (Unbound, 2022), an anthology of epic Welsh tales reimagined by 11 children’s authors, edited by Matt Brown and Eloise Williams, illustrated by Max Low, and translated into Welsh by Bethan Gwanas. The original Mabinogi tales are perhaps the oldest written-down stories in Britain, and this new bilingual collection has been embraced by primary and secondary schools across Wales and beyond, winning the Tir na n-Og Readers’ Choice Award in 2023. Ten copies of the book were donated to Risca Primary School for pupils to read and get inspired by.

Inspiration for The Great Legend Swap came from The Mab (Unbound, 2022)

Of course the original Mabinogi tales were not only written down, but shared orally by storytellers from generation to generation across the centuries. Max Low’s stunning illustration of friends around a camp fire perfectly encapsulates this spirit of shared myths and legends for the cover of The Great Legend Swap, giving the finished anthology a professional look.

“The two friends ran outside ready to investigate. They slowly approached the beady-eyed dragon ... All of a sudden, the vast creature let out a huge, powerful roar...” – from ‘The Scarlett Draig’ by Ruby (Year 6)

“Rhys was walking home from work when he heard a cackling sound behind him. He looked round and saw a strange creature ... a tiny fairy floating in the air.” – from ‘Rhys and the Fairy’ by Eden (Year 5) 

“The horrifying beast struck fear into the heart of David. Its fur looked infected, and he could swear he saw a maggot on it.” – from ‘The Epidemic of Wales’ by Orson (Year 5)

Tips for creating a pupil anthology like The Great Legend Swap...

1. Setting up a not-for-profit company like Ymaginosity is not for the faint hearted, but there are other ways you could fund an anthology, for example working with a school’s PTA to raise money, or collaborating with an arts organisation or a local council’s arts development team to deliver a project.

 

2. Work with class teachers to embed the project in their planning. This way, they will be more engaged, as they can see the impact on targets they need to meet. For example, the stories written for The Great Legend Swap included some Welsh vocabulary, and pupils also researched local history and legends, which ticked various curriculum boxes. Teacher feedback throughout the project was really positive. In particular they were pleased to see how excited and engaged pupils were, especially after the author workshops, including pupils who were previously hard to engage in any creative writing task.

 

3. Use a creative writing template to model the structure of a legend-style story. After the workshops from Eloise Williams and Alex Wharton, the teachers created a template to help pupils draft their stories; including aspects like a heroic protagonist, a mythical creature antagonist and a location to set the legend in. Also give a word-count limit to make the anthology a manageable size (e.g. 500 words).

 

4. Twists are a great option to reimagine an existing fairytale or legend. For example, some pupils created a twist where the mythical creature turned out to be good/misunderstood, and their story involved the protagonist working this out and helping the creature be accepted.

 

5. Once the stories are finished, you can collate them in software like Adobe InDesign if you want a professionally published anthology, but Microsoft Word, Canva, etc are other choices. Ymaginosity had perfect-bound paperbacks printed with 4Edge, but cheaper options include stapled booklets or an ebook. Similarly, if you don’t have funding to commission a cover illustration, run a competition for pupils to design the cover.

 

6. Ask teachers to check names are spelled correctly before anything is printed.

 

7. Organise an event to celebrate the finished anthology with parents and/or the wider community. The Great Legend Swap sessions with parents were so positive, with pupils excited to share their stories.

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Looking for more Welsh fairytales? Children’s author Claire Fayers has written Welsh Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends (Scholastic, 2021) and Welsh Giants, Ghosts and Goblins (Firefly Press, 2024), while Catherine Fisher includes y tylwyth teg (Welsh fair folk) in her gothic The Clockwork Crow series for children (Firefly Press, 2018-20). Meanwhile, Daniel Morden’s Dark Tales from the Woods, illustrated by Brett Breckon (Y Lolfa, 2022) is rich with Welsh landscape and gothic humour. Catch Daniel’s in-person storytelling at a festival or event too if you can; his award-winning performances are mesmerising and unforgettable.

*Header image: Tita Berredo

*All other images courtesy of Simone Greenwood

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Simone Greenwood is an award-winning scriptwriter and writes chapter books for Serial Mash, a digital subscription library for schools. She’s working on several middle-grade novels, including a modern-day sequel to The Pied Piper. Simone lives in the Welsh Valleys, and was part of Literature Wales’s Representing Wales programme for underrepresented writers in 2022-23, with author Patrice Lawrence as her mentor. She was a director of Ymaginosity CIC (now dissolved).

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Françoise Price is Deputy Editor of Words & Pictures magazine. Contact deputyeditor@britishscbwi.org

Tita Berredo is Illustrator Coordinator for SCBWI British Isles and Art Director of Words & Pictures. Contact illuscoordinator@britishscbwi.org

Follow her on Instagram and X/Twitter or www.titaberredo.com