“now I feel myself betrayed
because I did not tell my love”  

Beatritz de Dia (1140-1175)

Legend says that Eleanor of Aquitaine encountered the Sufis in Jerusalem on the First Crusade. Inspired by their love poetry, filled with images of the beloved searching for the divine, she returned home and created a ‘Court of Love’ at Poitiers. Here troubadours gathered to pitch their skills of storytelling and song, composition and improvisation, poetry and music on the theme of love – human love, love for the Queen, and divine love for the Virgin Mary. Being a troubadour demanded you had a wide set of skills and repertoire, that included: all the courtly love epics and romances; inventing rhyme schemes; tenso – debates between two troubadours; pastorelle – narratives where knights fall in love with shepherdesses; planhz -complaints and laments; sirventes – political satire; alba – morning songs; seren – evening songs.

Beatritz de Dia (1140-1175) was a Torbairitz – a female troubadour and her sung poems are rare because they exist alongside the music that went with them.

“I’ve been in great distress of mind
about a knight whom I possessed,
how I’ve loved him to excess
I want known throughout all time
now I feel myself betrayed
because I did not tell my love
in great torment so I prove
In bed or in my clothes arrayed.”

Beatritz de Dia (1140-1175)

Storytellers Hugh Lupton and Eric Maddern have been running retreats for storytellers for thirty years exploring myth and landscape. I joined their team in 2025 for the retreat on ‘Creation Myth’, and this year we are exploring love! We will look at fairytales and myths, from human love to the wild passion of gods and goddesses, from the love of creatures and spirits to the mystical search for the divine. We will uncover images of bed tricks, burning hearts, unrequited love, green jealousy, true love, and a hazelnut that contains love for the whole World. We will play knights and Cupid and learn the skills of the bow and practise archery! We will explore the tools of the Troubadour and compose our own poems and stories. We will learn about Eleanor of Aquitaine and her influence on stories and storytelling. We will visit a medieval castle, church and sacred well. This is not a ‘how to tell stories’ course but a mutual exploration, a time out of time, where we come together to breathe, move, talk, imagine, share, walk, eat, think – stories – and fall in love with them and be renewed! Come and be guided by your hosts Hugh Lupton, Eric Maddern and Sally Pomme Clayton. Majnun says in the Arabic love story of ‘Layla and Majnun’
‘Make my love a hundred times greater than it is today! Let me love for love’s sake!’ Welcome to our ‘Court of Love’!

Tuesday September 1 from 3pm to Sunday September 6 midday. The cost of the retreat is: £640 which includes all tuition and events, shared accommodation and three vegetarian meals a day. Plus all the perks of being at Cae Mabon such as forest, river, thatched roundhouse and hot tub! Find out more about Cae Mabon.

To reserve the last remaining places email Eric on connect@caemabon.co.uk