The Tale Of Tales

At first there were only sounds and gestures which gained meaning and became words. And words became language, a very useful thing for letting others know where the fresh fruit was. As man learned more about his world he refined language to pass on more information: how to split apart coconuts and which mushrooms were good to eat and which would render you insensible. And as he successfully explained what, he turned his attention to why: the zebra has stripes because its snow-white fur was set on fire, that river was formed by the tears of a jilted lover, and the sun sets as Ra sails his boat to the underworld to bring light to the dead. He began to tell stories.
Stories shaped his world. Passed-down from generation to generation by word of mouth, they were the tribe's knowledge, traditions and histories. Shamans and warriors alike told each other these stories, and told and retold they changed in the telling. In time it was not enough to simply tell stories, but these stories must be painted and hewn on rock, tattooed on flesh: visual aids to the story-teller, these drawings became more and more abstract until they became writing. And when writing came, everything changed.
Stories written-down travelled farther and lasted longer than oral traditions, such that tales that began in a certain time and place could have tremendous impact hundreds of years, in far-off lands. However, for several thousands of years literacy was far too rare a commodity for writing to make much difference. Most stories were still oral in nature and told from memory, a stupendous feat when one considers the truly massive lengths of some of the greatest tales: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Ramayana, Beowulf or The Song of Roland to name a few. Tales grew in the telling, and even straightforward fact became submerged in legend. King Arthur in reality could not have been more than a minor chieftain in pre-medieval Britain: eventually his name became associated with jousts and chivalry, lakes and magic swords, his story still capturing the imagination centuries down the line.
There was more than one way to tell a story, of course. Dramatic representation of stories through performances is an ancient tradition, incorporating such media as dance and theater. The theater emerged in Ancient Greece, and the three classic play-types of comedy, drama and satire remain in our culture still. It spread throughout Europe, becoming refined and more sophisticated over the centuries until it arrived at its present format. Theater also developed in the East, first in India where plays were written in Sanskrit sometime around the first centuries BC and AD, and later in the Far East with theater forms such as No and Kabuki. Story-telling through dance often had religious purpose: though these devotional aspects are largely lost in modern storytelling dance such as ballet, there are still rituals such as the Indian Theyyams where the dancers dress-up as and are believed to be possessed by the deities whose stories they are telling. And while music is mostly abstract there have been many songs that tell distinct stories.
Though these forms of performance story-telling were for the most part once popular and mainstream, they have gradually fallen out of favour and are steadily being relegated to the category of 'things rich people pretend to like'. This was due to rise in popularity of another story-telling medium: moving pictures. Television and cinema have been with us for less than a century, and yet they have become such a part of our culture that they have even managed to threaten books as the primary story-telling form. As a medium it offers the sights and sounds of theater (done more realistically), with the added benefit of explosions. Many films have successfully used non-linear storytelling (events not being show in order of occurrence), which was a story-telling technique popular in the days of the epics. Examples include Citizen Kane and Pulp Fiction, and the resurgence of older styles in newer media is quite interesting to observe.
And now stories have become something we can take part in. Video games are ushering in a new era of interactive story-telling where the gamer can be at one and the same time audience, protagonist and story-teller. Take The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which tells the tale of how the Dragonborn saves his homeland by battling dragons and bringing an end to civil war… or, if you please, how he chose to wander about the country in a loincloth, collecting cheese.
It's an exciting future: who knows what new ways to tell stories await us in the next few decades? I for one am waiting for the day I can put on my 3D-Sensory Apparatus and walk into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Avoid the Whomping Willow.