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 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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King Arthur
HISTORY
LEGEND
MYTH
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The Welsh Christian monk Nennius wrote around 800
A.D. the "Historia Brittanum, which is the
first publication to mention " Arthur" by name as
a hero. Nennius was probably an early ninth
century Welsh monk, and probably wrote it.
Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) is
a strange assortment of texts covering the
ancestries of kings, geography, the lives of
saints.
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The Historia Brittonum has been controversial
as to its date and origin. Nennius has been
described as "unrestrainedly inventive" with this
work. Nennius made mistakes with dating schemes,
people's names and genealogical facts
"Historia Brittanum" is drawn largely upon Celtic
legend, written or oral.
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The brief mention of Arthur by Nennius occurs
when he describes him as being the British leader
who fought against the Anglo-Saxons. The battle
culminated in a victory for the Britons at the
Battle of Mount Badon (Mons Badonicus). Nennius
lists twelve battles with which Arthur was
involved.
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The Historia Brittonum (ca. 800),15 which was
probably compiled by, rather than written by,
Nennius, is the oldest work to record legends of
Arthur. By the beginning of the ninth century,
Arthur was known as both a dux bellorum and a
miles ("soldier"), although the legends of Arthur
being a king were apparently already in
circulation, given the care with which Nennius
points out that Arthur was not a king.
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King Arthur was said to be the son of Uther
Pendragon and Ygraine of Cornwall. Arthur is a
near mythic figure in Celtic stories such as
Culhwch and Olwen. In early chronicles he is
presented as a military leader, the dux bellorum.
In later romance he is a king and emperor. The
Tudor monarchs traced their lineage to King
Arthur and used that connection as a
justification for their occupation of the English
throne.
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Irrespective of whether King Arthur was real or
mythical, it cannot be denied that King Arthur
has been a major influence on literature, from
the early Middle Ages to the present day. And
although if King Arthur had been a "real" king,
he would have lived around the 5th or 6th
centuries, it is more as a Middle Ages
(1066-1400) knight that he is presented in
literature.
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The main impetus for Arthurian stories starts
with Geoffrey of Monmouth, who records Arthur's
birth, childhood, ascension to the throne,
military conquests, and death. He places King
Arthur as living from the late fifth century to
542, when the king was mortally wounded in his
last battle. This story became the basis of the
Arthurian legend, and was built on by Chrétien de
Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory.
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Other attempts to fill-out the above concept of
King Arthur have focused on trying to localize
this Arthur. Arthur has been placed by various
researchers as the war-leader in the North of
Britain, the South, the Midlands, southern
Scotland as well as Wales and Cornwall. But
these (researchers ) are not particularly
successful at localizing King Arthur, as the
early "historical" references are just too vague
to tie him down.
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But the main source of Arthurian myths did not
come from British English writings. Rather from
French authors living in Brittany about 300 years
before Malory's epic Arthurian tale was
published. They might well have based their
tales on stories told by English Crusaders in the
11th century, but they undoubtedly embroidered
these stories themselves. These early romantic
novelists gave us most of the myths that were
later further embroidered by Malory and Tennyson.
http//www.legendofkingarthur.co.uk/who-was-king-a
rthur.htm
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• Either way, the story behind King Arthur
  represents a man who was the epitome of
  struggles
• good against evil
• light against darkness
• right/wrong

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King Arthur was NOT
a Medieval King with knights in shining armor
living in a magical castle called Camelot.
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but there were many other characters that were
cornerstones to the legends and stories
surrounding Camelot,
Camelot
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Merlin
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Excalibur
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and the Holy Grail
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the Round Table,
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Sir Lancelot
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Sir Galahad
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And many other knights
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Of King Arthurs famous Round Table.
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These legends, real or imagined, recreate the
history of the Medieval Period (1066 -1486) and
teach the audience about valor and chivalry.
The Medieval Period was a time of feudal
manors, strict allegiance to the King,
magnificent religious festivals, and brilliant
pageantry.
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It was also a time of great magic.