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Oral folklore is a literary genre that includes a variety of traditional tales, including folktales, fairytales, myths, legends, and fables. Students will be able to: read a wide range of literature to build an understanding of human experience. apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts.
- I. What Is Folklore?
- II. Examples of Folklore
- III. The Importance of Folklore
- IV. Examples of Folklore in Literature
- V. Examples of Folklore in Pop Culture
- VI. Related Terms
Folklore refers to the tales people tell – folk stories, fairy tales, “tall tales,” and even urban legends. Folklore is typically passed down by word of mouth, rather than being written in books (although sometimes people write down collections of folklore in order to preserve the stories of a particular community). The key here is that folklore ha...
Example 1
It’s interesting to notice the way common themes run through the folklore of various cultures. For example, the story of the frog prince is of unknown western European origin; but there are many other similar stories, such as the Finnish tale “Mouse Bride.” In these stories, someone is looking for a spouse, but only finds a small animal. After showing kindness and love to the animal, the main charactersare rewarded when the animal changes back into a human and reveals that their animal form w...
Example 2
Modern-day folklore often takes the form of “urban myths.” Although these stories are usually not actually myths (see §6), they are very popular. One common urban myth tells of a couple travelling to a foreign country where there are many stray dogs roaming the streets. They see one sick puppy and decide to adopt him, but upon bringing him back home they soon discover that they’ve rescued a rat instead of a dog.
G.K. Chesterton, the famous philosopher and author, explains the importance of folk tales in this way: That is, folk tales speak to an innate psychological need shared by all human beings. As we encounter the world, we see pain, loss, and emptiness everywhere. How can we face such a world and not feel despair? Part of the answer is that we tell sto...
Example 1
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is a perfect example of an author making up folklore to enrich his fictional cultures. He wrote an entire book, The Silmarillion, giving the folklore/mythology of the Elves. Of course, the entire Lord of the Ringssaga was heavily influenced by Nordic, Welsh, and Finnish folklore, so Tolkien had plenty of excellent source material to draw from.
Example 2
The story of Beowulfhas no known author, and was almost certainly a popular Anglo-Saxon folk tale before it was eventually written down. This story is an example of the “monster-slayer” story, one of the most common story types in the world. Nearly every culture has such stories, from Thor in Scandinavia to Hercules in Greece and the Hero Twins of Navajo mythology.
Example 3
Thousands of books have been written with folk stories as their inspiration. Often, such books will take a character or situation from the folk story and expand on it. For example, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley is based on the Arthurian legends(folktales about King Arthur and the Round Table), but focuses more on the female characters rather than the male ones.
Example 1
Monster-slayer stories were extremely common in ancient societies, and they have not declined in popularity – even as our storytelling technology has changed, our love of these stories has stayed the same. Think of how many video games have been made around this concept – the hero emerges and slays and increasingly difficult series of monsters before facing the “final boss.”
Example 2
Popular culture is full of “cryptozoology,” which is a kind of folklore based on the supposed existence of mysterious creatures. Stories abound of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, the New Jersey Devil, and hundreds of other strange creatures. Although there is no scientific evidence to support any of these stories, they are fun to tell and retell, and survive in popular culture because of their psychological effect.
Mythology
Folklore and mythology are very similar terms, and the line between mythology and folklore is pretty subjective. The basic difference is that a myth is somehow held in sacred or religious reverence, whereas a folk tale is popular but not sacred. Some of the most famous myths are creation stories. For example, the Hindu creation myth holds that Vishnu was sleeping in the coils of a giant cobra when he was awakened by the sacred sound, ohm. Unfortunately, the word “myth” is often used as a syno...
Legend
A legend is a kind of folklore. Legends are typically thought to have some truth in them, but they may be highly exaggerated or distorted. For example, the legend of Robin Hood is a very popular piece of English folklore – it was probably based on a historical figure who lived at some point in the Middle Ages, but no one is exactly sure what the truth is.
Folk Music
Folk music, like folklore, emerges out of the cultures of everyday people. In fact, the two concepts are so closely related that folk music is often written about stories from folklore – for example, “The Ballad of John Henry” is a popular American tune that tells the story of the powerful steel driver John Henry. (This story is also a legend, since John Henry was probably a real person who lived in the 1860s or 70s.)
Definition of Folklore. Folklore is a collection of fictional stories about animals and people, of cultural myths, jokes, songs, tales, and even quotes.It is a description of culture, which has been passed down verbally from generation to generation, though many are now in written form.
an understanding of social development, cultural implications and trends in literature. Skill-based Instruction Using the folk tales to teach a variety of skills such as decoding, fluency, oral presentation and grammar. Creative Writing Project Use the folk tales to teach styles of writing such as persuasive, descriptive and
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Nov 26, 2023 · Whether woven into the fabric of epic sagas, contemporary novels, or short stories, folklore in literature serves as a dynamic bridge between the imaginative realms of storytelling and the cultural landscapes from which these tales emerge. Folklore in Literature: Examples
Myths are stories told aloud that were passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. Myth is from the Greek word, “mythos” — which means “word of mouth” — oral stories shared from person to person. Myths have helped people from different cultures to make sense of the natural world, before
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Jun 10, 2024 · Amid the vast body of folklore that exists, then, folk literature refers to its specifically verbal and narrative aspects — stories, myths, legends, fables, poems, songs, and more. In the following guide, we will pick out some key examples of folk literature, and explore its continued relevance in today’s world. The rise of folklore studies
