i have been reading a book by Nevada Barr called High Country. It is an Anna Pigeon mystery, the third one I have read. However, she has a delightful paragraph on page 246 where she describes the merits of storytelling. It goes like this:
The tragedy was being turned into a story. Before much time passed the story would be worked and reworked by subsequent tellings until it became legend. Storytelling was the way humans assimilated tragedy, made of it a thing that, instead of defeating, became strengthening: a cautionary tale, a teaching story, a rallying cry for the troops, a builder of pride and a sense of brotherhood.
Words By Montgomery 