There's a lot of power in stories. Even today, on social media someone can make or break your reputation with a single post. A difference today is that you can

There's a lot of power in stories. Even today, on social media someone can make or break your reputation with a single post. A difference today is that you can fact check things much more easily. Historically, it's not hard to believe that professional story tellers had tremendous power. They could make or break the validity of a ruler's claim to his rule, they could "explain" natural phenomena, and essentially create an world beyond they knowledge of the audience where they had done fantastical things.