Myths, Legends and Folktales

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Myths, Legends and Folktales
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myths, legends and folktales

• Storytelling is common to every culture. Most
  people enjoy listening to stories. Storytellers
  have catered to the need for a 'good story' since
  the beginning of civilization.
• Most people have their own favorite story from
  childhood and, often, these tales are both
  fascinating and frightening. These stories
  include legends, myths and folktales.

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What are legends?
Merlin the Magician

• A legend is a semi-true story, which has been
  passed on from person-to-person and has important
  meaning or symbolism for the culture in which it
  originates.
• A legend usually includes an element of truth,
  or is based on historic facts, but with 'mythical
  qualities'.
• Legends usually involve heroic characters or
  fantastic places and often encompass the
  spiritual beliefs of the culture in which they
  originate.

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What are myths?

• A myth is a story based on tradition or legend,
  which has a deep symbolic meaning.
• A myth 'conveys a truth' to those who tell it
  and hear it, rather than necessarily recording a
  true event. Although some myths can be accounts
  of actual events, they have become transformed by
  symbolic meaning or shifted in time or place.
• Myths are often used to explain universal and
  local beginnings and involve supernatural beings.
  The great power of the meaning of these stories,
  to the culture in which they developed, is a
  major reason why they survive as long as they do
  - sometimes for thousands of years.

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What are folktales?

• A folktale is a popular story that was passed on
  in spoken form, from one generation to the next.
  Usually the author is unknown and there are often
  many versions of the tale.
• Folktales comprise fables, fairy tales, old
  legends and even 'urban legends'. Again, some
  tales may have been based on a partial truth that
  has been lost or hidden over time. It is
  difficult to categorize folktales precisely
  because they fit into many categories.
• Folk tales are often referred to as Tall Tales.

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What is the difference between legends, myths and
folktales?

• Myths, legends and folktales are hard to classify
  and often overlap.
• Imagine a line (or continuum) as illustrated
  below, with an historical account based on facts
  at one end and myths or cultural folktales at the
  other.
• As you progress towards the mythical/folktale
  end of the line, what an event symbolizes to
  people, or what they feel about it, becomes of
  greater historical significance than the facts,
  which become less important.
• By the time you reach the far end of the
  spectrum, the story has taken on a life of its
  own and the facts of the original event, if there
  ever was one, have become almost irrelevant.
• It is the message that is important.

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Why were the stories told?

• As well as making fascinating reading, these
  stories also tell us a great deal about how
  people in the past saw, and understood, the world
  around them. There are many reasons why stories
  are told and passed down the generations. Here
  are just a few of them
• To strengthen a community and provide a common
  understanding.
• Stories often reflect the beliefs of the people
  who tell them. The popularity of any story
  depends on whether those listening approve of the
  values underlying it.
• By telling and listening to stories, people
  confirmed their ideas about the world around
  them.
• Things that people found scary, infuriating, or
  desirable all found their way into the stories
  and they were passed on, because people wanted to
  be assured that other people around them were
  thinking along the same lines.

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Continued

• As a way of providing moral guidance and showing
  people how they should conduct themselves,
  including the consequences of not doing so, myths
  and legends, like any good stories, often include
  a moral. Within the myth, the hurt or
  embarrassment experienced by people is often due
  to their own stupidity, greed, dishonesty or
  negligence.
• To explain how the world works, for example why
  the seasons change, and to explain strange
  happenings or phenomena such as eclipses - the
  reasons for which were unknown in early times.
• For entertainment purposes, stories were told to
  amuse and enthrall an audience in the days before
  TV and other forms of mass entertainment.

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Continued

• Myth were composed to pass on history and
  knowledge, such as the outcome of battles and
  tales of courage, in ages when many people could
  not read or write.
• Many myths have an element of truth that has been
  built upon and embellished over the years.
• Some were composed for fame, money or recognition
  - as in all areas of life, not all stories were
  told for good reasons. For example, stories of
  bravery in battle could enhance the status of an
  individual or a group or, in later centuries, a
  good ghost story could be sold for money. The
  truth was not always the most important
  consideration.
• Regardless of why they were told, many of the
  stories still remain popular today and, although
  we no longer swap stories around the fireside,
  the tradition of storytelling still continues in
  the form of urban legends. Many older stories
  also live on in current day carnivals or
  festivals, which have their roots in a very
  different past.

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Features of Myths and Legends

• A re-telling of an old story.
• The orientation/setting is typically timeless
  e.g. Long, long ago...
• Before animals walked the earth...
• A single animal is representative of all animals
  of that kind.
• Natural forces like wind and fire are represented
  by gods or god-like form.
• The resolution of myths and legends explain why
  things are the way we are
• A classic opening and\or closing (e.g. Once upon
  a time., And they all lived happily after)

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A representative of good and evil in characters

• Stereotypes e.g. Animals e.g. wolves are bad
  rescuers are male
• The involvement of supernatural forces, e.g.
  fairy godmothers, creatures that can talk
• Tales are based around themes like trickery and
  foolishness

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Folktales / Tall Tales

• A tall tale is a story that provides enjoyment to
  a wide variety of audiences. Tall tales stretch
  the imagination through colorful figurative
  language and exaggerations.
• Tall tales are also known as lying tales they
  are humorous exaggerations.
• Tall tales may come from other countries but we
  are most familiar with American ones.

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Attributes of tall tales

• Tall tales are often about the frontier days in
  the United States. They are an exaggeration of
  the hardships of frontier life.
• Tall tales may be about animals, weather,
• everyday events, and ordinary people but the
  more famous tales are about heroes.
• Tall tales often feature over-sized people
• and exaggerated deeds.