Nana Tomova Storyteller

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Nana Tomova Storyteller

Traditional Oral Storyteller & Apothecary. Medicine of old stories for new uncertain times. Scottish Highlands

15/04/2026

I spent yesterday on a train, 9 hours from the north of Scotland to the north of England, travelling for the masters in storytelling I’m studying with Shonaleigh.

Kapka Kassabova’s new book was my companion on the journey. Her new book is about the Scottish Highlands that are her home, and have been bruised and abused by power lines and hydro schemes, privatisation, industry and soulless greed.

I can hear the soulful land in writing sing and breathe. It’s both so beautiful and so heart-breaking, like her writing tends to be. A very needed book right now.

11/04/2026

Happy Easter! Честит Великден.
Wishing everyone much light, health and peace.

#великден #великденскияйца

07/04/2026

Bear Bones: Stories from the Ancient Cult of the Bear
Sat 09 May | The Old Courtroom, Forres Tolbooth

Bear stories are coming to Forres. I’m going bear tracking in Bulgaria later this month led by senior tracker and and then telling some beer stories on my return.

My upcoming book Bulgarian Folk Tales illustrated by the amazing and published by contains the story of How the Bear Came To Be. As I started researching it two years ago, I spent more and more time with the bear in my imagination and in my dreams.

I was utterly delighted when my tracking and ethnobotany teacher John Rhyder announced that he was leading a bear tracking course in Bulgaria. I had to be there.

And so, I will be walking in the footsteps of Bulgarian Bears. After I come back, I have planned to tell these bear stories again, this time in person. The last time I shared them was when bears were entering hibernation. This time, when they emerge.

Bears, revered and feared for their strength and power, have been worshipped in ‘Bear Cults’ over Ancient Europe and the World since Palaeolithic times. Bears bridge the worlds between spirits and humans, and they can step in and out of both worlds. Through them, we too have access to other worlds.

Bear and Woman are similar. Coming of age rituals for girls involved withdrawal from society, a transformation and the return to society, the girl now a woman. This mirrors that of the bear: hibernation, transformation and emergence.

Book your tickets via ‘Events’ in my bio or follow the link below:
https://www.nanatomova.com/event-details/bear-bones-stories-from-the-ancient-cult-of-the-bear

📷Daniel Diesenreither via Unsplash

07/03/2026

Mountains and Mists.
I like walking slowly in the mountains, savouring the experience, tasting it. Sauntering and strolling. It’s the best way to receive the mountains’ magic.

As Nan Shepherd says in her book The Living Mountain, “the mountain gives itself most completely when I have no destination, when I reach nowhere in particular, but have gone out merely to be with the mountain as one visits a friend with no intention but to be with him.”

This is how I visited the mountain today.

01/03/2026

Happy Baba Marta, as Grandmother March arrives! We are delighted to announce that Bulgarian Folk Tales will be released on 4/6/26.

📖 Two years in the making, written by .tomova, illustrated by Rima Staines and published by , this book contains 30 beautiful stories divided into seasons. The stories are accompanied by exquisite illustrations.

📖 Bulgarian-born oral storyteller Nana Tomova carries in her bones old tales of golden maidens and winged serpents, of wise women and wild nature stretching back to ancient Thracian times, when the Great Goddess was revered. Spirits of forest and water cure and curse, the Three Fates determine destinies, a girl lets down her hair for a wolf to climb up, whilst Vampires roam the dark nights. Through this freshly translated collection of traditional stories and Rima Staines’ otherworldly illustrations, you will be enchanted in a world of imagination.

📖 ‘Told, retold, and interpreted with wisdom and joy, elegantly structured to reflect the Earth’s seasons, this collection of folk stories is magical in every sense. Nana Tomova has dug deep to create a compendium of the folk imagination as passed down the millennia by our ancestors. In doing so, she makes an important contribution to the canon of oral story-telling for the 21st century. Reading these stories is like sipping fine aged wine at candle light inside a dragon’s cave. It transported me to the creative dawn of Thrace, the Balkans and Bulgaria - and to my own psyche. I will be giving this book to folk aged between nine and ninety.’ - Kapka Kassabova

📖 You can pre-order your copy now from all major book sellers. https://thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/bulgarian-folk-tales/

Честита Баба Марта! ❤️🤍

20/02/2026

A wee recce today for my upcoming story walk next week as part of a wonderful Women’s Wilderness Retreat by . There was not one but two rainbows in the sky, the lochan was frozen and the mountains were veiled in mist. So beautiful.

I can’t wait to share stories in this beautiful landscape.

15/02/2026

What a beautiful evening last night in Layer By Layer, Love Laid Bare. Love tales in an old courtroom, whose walls once listened to the merciless judgements passed over women who were called witches. The almost imperceptible groans of the stone walls softened with the hearing of love stories. Thank you to everyone who came to listen.
Thanks to Ollie for the photos x

13/02/2026

What a beautiful and heartfelt afternoon in the company of Wild Women, with a story and a sharing circle.

10/02/2026

Three tales of love. A story from Armenia where Love and Death compete - but who will win? A story from Norway in which a serpent wishes to marry, but what happens to his wives? A story from Bulgaria, where and old husband and wife have an epic adventure in the winter of their years.

In these stories there is love. In these stories there are no certainties. In these stories there could be death. In these stories there should be hope.

09/02/2026

Wild Women Session 2 is this Friday 13th in Findhorn.
Our last story circle was beautiful, generous and heart-warming. I told Grandmother’s Tale - the women’s oral version of little red riding hood, which has little in common with Perrault’s and Grimm’s versions. With laughter, tears, deep listening and debate we explored the story together.

Join me this Friday for the story of the Handless Maiden.
A tale of courage, of self discovery, of grief and belonging. In this old tale, we will see what it takes to face grief, illness and loss. The Handless maiden is a story that allows us to see the helpers along the way, and humble ourselves enough to receive help. A story that highlights the importance of the wild spaces, where we can find our own wilderness.

Booking recommended.

Address

Aviemore

Website

http://www.nanatomova.com/

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