Folktales

I

Introduction

Folktales, generic term for the various kinds of narrative prose literature found in the oral traditions of the world. One of the many forms of folklore, folktales are heard and remembered, and they are subject to various alterations in the course of retellings. As they are diffused (transmitted through a culture), some folktales may pass in and out of written literature (for example, the “Rip Van Winkle” story), and some stories of literary origin may cross over into oral tradition. Nevertheless, an essential trait of folktales—and all folk literature—is their diffusion, and their passage from one generation to another, by word of mouth.

The principal kinds of folktales are myths (see Mythology), legends, and Märchen, or fairy tales. In common usage, these terms are interchangeable; they refer to any highly imaginative concept or narrative and usually carry an implication of falsehood and incredibility. To folklorists, however, each of the three represents a distinct form of the folktale. Other forms include animal tales and fables, tall tales, formula tales, jokes and anecdotes, as well as cante fables (folk stories partly in song or verse). See also Ballad.

II

Folktale Scholarship

In the early 19th century great interest in folktales was created by the publication of Household Tales (2 vols, 1812-1815; trans. 1884) by the German philologists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (see Grimm Brothers). Their work stimulated writers of many other nations, including the Scottish classicist and folklorist Andrew Lang and the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, to publish and retell similar materials of their own peoples. The Grimm brothers noted great similarity in themes and characters among German and other European folktales; later folklorists discovered resemblances between European folktales and those of other continents.

Much 19th-century scholarship concentrated on attempts to account for these similarities. Generally, the 19th-century scholars were unaware of the vast store of African, Native American, and Oceanic lore that existed independently of the Indo-European tradition. They sought their explanations in those parts of the world that seemed important to them. Thus, the Grimms postulated a common Indo-European origin for folktales, and the German philologist Theodor Benfey as well as the Scottish writer William Clouston believed that stories diffused by way of travellers migrating east and west from India. Such theories, however, have proven incomplete and inadequate. Nevertheless, the research of these and other scholars greatly stimulated interest in folklore and folktales. The German scholar Max Muller held that myths originated when Sanskrit and other ancient languages began to deteriorate, and when the Scottish classicist and folklorist Andrew Lang attacked this view, folktales became the subject of additional attention. Research was further stimulated by the immense popularity of The Golden Bough (1890), a 12-volume compendium of ancient lore by the British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer.

More recently, researchers—many of them influenced by the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas—have collected and made in-depth studies of tales and lore from every part of the world. Some, following the leads of the Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne and the American folklorist Stith Thompson, have prepared full geographical and historical surveys of all the known variants of widely disseminated tales, always with an eye to discovering and cataloguing the basic tale types and motifs. Aarne produced a catalogue in 1910, which Thompson enlarged and translated in 1928. This catalogue became the Type-Index; it classifies the plots of a variety of folktales. Thompson’s Motif-Index catalogues narrative elements—such as objects, special animals, concepts, actions, or characters—found in folktales. As a result of the work of past researchers, few folklorists today believe that any one theory is satisfactory in explaining the similarities and variations in the folktales and folklore of the world.

Some modern authors, critics, and literary scholars, heavily influenced by the writings of the psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, use the term myth in a more generalized way than defined here. In this usage (which varies from writer to writer), myth refers to recurring symbols and motifs that are shared by all people in all places and that serve as a common language for the expression of ideas, values, and emotions. When used in this way, myth is not sharply distinguished from legend or Märchen, or even from literary genres such as novels and dramas, which are all considered more recent forms assumed by humanity’s urge to express itself through myths.

III

Myths

When strictly defined, myths are folktales that are religious and explain the universe and its inhabitants. Such stories are considered true by both the narrator and the audience and tell of the creation and regulation of the world—tasks usually performed by a deity (god or goddess) who exists in chaos, in a void, or in some other world. With a series of offspring and companions, the deity gives form to the world and introduces life to it, then proceeds on a series of adventures and struggles in which he or she does such things as liberating the sun, the moon, water, or fire; regulating the winds; originating corn, beans, or nuts; defeating monsters; and teaching mortals how to hunt and plough.

Called a culture hero, the being who performs these tasks may take the form of a human (as does Zeus in ancient Greek myths) or an animal (as do Coyote and Raven in Native American tales). He or she may frequently change shape. Some mythologies, such as those of the Native Americans and the West Africans, involve whole cycles in which the culture hero is a trickster who is small and resourceful, as well as greedy, pretentious, deceitful, and stupid—a paradoxical creature who is tricked or tricks himself as often as tricking others. Thus, Anansi the Spider, the trickster-hero of a great body of West African folktales, seems both to instruct human beings in what not to do and to illustrate the price of such rebellion from the proper way. Analogous figures in folktales of other cultures are Brer Rabbit in African-American folktales, as well as Coyote, Raven, and Hare in North American tales.

IV

Legends

Legends are folk history, and even when dealing with religious subject matter they differ from myth in that they tell about what has happened in the world after the period of its creation is over. They are believed by both narrator and audience and encompass a great variety of subjects: saints; werewolves, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures; adventures of real heroes and heroines; personal reminiscences; and explanations of geographical features and place names (called local legends).

Legend differs from formal history in style of presentation, emphasis, and purpose. Like other folktale forms it tends to be formulaic, using clichés and standardized characterization. Little effort, for example, is given to recording what a hero was really like. Jesse James, an actual American outlaw, is presented as a modern-day Robin Hood: a good-hearted character who stole from the rich to give to the poor. The American wilderness scouts Davy Crockett and Kit Carson are virtually the same character in legends. Likewise, Helen of Troy and Cleopatra (of ancient Egypt), Deirdre (of Irish legend), and more recently the modern actress Marilyn Monroe have passed into folklore as symbols of female beauty with almost no individuality. A similar patterning of characters and plots occurs in ghost stories, local legends, and in some cases even in family reminiscences. Such stories, though they may be presented as history, are too patterned to be trusted as objective historical accounts.

Urban legends are contemporary stories that are set in an urban environment and reported as true (sometimes in newspapers) but that contain patterns and motifs that reveal their legendary character. The context of these legends may be contemporary, but the stories reflect timeless concerns about urban living, including privacy, death, decay, and vermin.