Finally, spring has sprung, the sun is shining and the birds are twitterpaitting(?) all around! 

This month’s Tales and Ales at the Locks Inn, is a Celebration of Fools, Foolhardiness and Folly! There are plenty of stories about Noodleheads, knuckleheads, nincompoops, numskulls, mooncalfs, softheads, boobies and ninnyhammers,  but  who is really the fool? They reveal a silliness that resides in all of us which often emerges at our most awkward moments. They enable us to laugh at ourselves. And that is why these stories are not told to ridicule or make fun of others.

Some of these fools are wise. We have Jack in England – (though at some point Jack must have immigrated to Appalachian America), Ivan in Russia,  Boots in Norway, or Guifà in Sicily, but just as often they have no names at all. 

Sometimes they may be whole villages of fools, such as, the merry men of Gotham in England. They may be Tricksters like Mula Nasrudin Hodja, who seem very much the fool, but whose pranks often just expose the foolishness of those who think themselves wiser. 

The stories are very old – Gotham to before 1540, Hodja to before the 1300’s. But these Medieval “urban legends” are as frequently told today and as fresh and revealing as they were before.

There are many, many tales to tell, to laugh at and to maybe to recognise the fool in ourselves!

I hope you will be able to join us:)

best spring wishes

 

Suzanne