ABSTRACT
The author describes and comments on his innovative application of creative/interpretative methods to the composition of his 2012 historical novella, The Legend of Vortigern. Faced with the need to repair apparent plot holes in the source text – the account of the career of the eponymous semi-legendary 5th-century tyrant contained in the 12th-century History of the Kings of Britain of Geoffrey of Monmouth – this text is applied to the exegetic methods learned from the Anglo-Dutch tradition-bearer Shanaleah (Shonaleigh) Cumbers, originally used in relation to her family oral tradition of many hundreds of unwritten Jewish folktales and legends. Through disciplined reflection, the historical and ideological silences and evasions of the text can be teased out in a way analogous to an oral storyteller working on the symbolic meaning of an oral legend or folktale, producing results of unexpected interest and relevance. This reveals how practical engagement with the silences and omissions of early texts casts a surprisingly clear light on their context and contemporary meaning.
