Six Traditional Tale Genres

∞Myths are stories that try to explain how our world works and how we should treat each other. They are usually set in times long ago, before history as we know it was written. ∞People have always asked questions like “How did our world come to be?” or “Why is the ocean blue?” Some myths answered these questions.

∞ In other myths, gods or “super-beings” used their powers to make events happen. These myths described people and the choices they made. They might be about victory (achieving something), tragedy (losing something), honor (doing the right thing), being brave even when you are frightened, or being foolish and making mistakes. Heroes, gods and goddesses could help them or make things more difficult for them.

∞ Around the world, myths were shared by different groups of people and became part of their culture. Storytellers passed the stories on from generation to generation. Some similar myths were told in many cultures, but with variations in the events or characters. For example, most cultures, tribes or other groups of people had their own version of how our world began.

∞For early people, myths were like science because they explained how natural events work. However, these stories were made up and are not really true. ∞“Myth” comes from the Greek word “mythos” which means “word of mouth”. ∞Examples of mythical characters include the Greek god Zeus and the Viking god Thor.

∞Legends are also fictional stories, but they are different from myths. Myths are about how the natural world works, and are set in an ancient time. ∞Legends are based on real people who lived in more recent times and are mentioned in history. Legends are told for a purpose and are based on facts, but they are not completely true.

∞Either the person never really did what the story says, or the historical events were changed. The purpose was to make the story more interesting or convincing, or to teach a lesson, like knowing right from wrong. Like myths, legends are passed down from generation to generation. ∞Examples of people in English legends are King Arthur and Robin Hood.

∞A man who could have been King Arthur is known to have lived in the 5th or 6th century, but the stories of the Knights of the Round Table and Merlin the Magician are probably not true. The point was that knights and their king defended and helped their people.

∞The character and deeds of Robin Hood may have been based on someone else. Robin of Loxley lived in Nottinghamshire around the time of the story, and he did help the poor. However, did he live in Nottingham forest with a band of robbers? Probably not, but helping other people is important and the legend hasn’t been forgotten.

∞Today people use the word ‘legend’ in a different way when they talk about people and their deeds. They may describe an athlete as a “sporting legend”, or an actor as a “film legend”. What they mean is the person is famous because of their skills or things they have done. ∞Urban legends are intriguing stories that aren’t true but could be possible

∞A fable is another type of story, also passed down from generation to generation and told to teach a lesson about something. A fable usually ends with a moral, or a short sentence with a lesson about life. Fables are also usually very short.

∞Fables are often about animals, plants, and natural forces like thunder or wind, that can talk and act like people. ∞The most famous fables were written by a man from ancient Greece called Aesop. We know them as Aesop’s Fables, and he wrote more than 600 of them. The story of The Tortoise and the Hare was written by him.

∞To be a true folk tale, a story must have its origins in what we call the oral tradition. This means the story was first passed down orally by storytellers. Along the way it may have had things added or subtracted as each storyteller made it his or her own. It eventually was written down, which is why you're able to read it in a book now, but it wasn't written down first. For example, Paul Bunyan reads like a folk tale and has many folk tale elements in it, but it is not a true folk tale because it was a written story to begin with and not something passed down through the generations orally.

∞Folk tales are instructive. They caution readers/listeners about the consequences of certain kinds of behaviors or attitudes. ∞Characters are not complex. Instead they are stereotypes: the thief, the liar, the clever youth, the evil stepmother, etc. ∞Even when written down, they are sometimes told in a way that sounds like the spoken word: directly addressing the reader, use of dialect or slang, etc. ∞The structure may be repetitive. Things that happen in threes are common. Repetition of lines is also common and would have been helpful to whoever was memorizing and telling a story in the oral tradition.

But the presence of witches, dragons, trolls, magic spells, or other magical elements help distinguish fairy tales from folk tales. ∞Surprise! Fairy tales often don't have any fairies in them at all. In terms of the kinds of human characters the stories are peopled with or the structure of the stories themselves, there isn't much difference between folk tales and fairy tales. But the presence of witches, dragons, trolls, magic spells, or other magical elements help distinguish fairy tales from folk tales. ∞Both folk tales and fairy tales may involve a character learning an important lesson. Both may put the heroes in mortal danger. Like folk tales, fairy tales may serve as cautionary tales to teach their listeners what not to do.

∞Some fairy tales have roots in the oral tradition, but others, called literary fairy tales, were made up and written down, so technically, these are not folk tales. However, they may share many of the same traits as fairy tales from the folk tale tradition. ∞Like folk tales, fairy tales in their original forms often have less than happy endings. Because the stories were invented to be instructive and cautionary, they often feature a main character who suffers for his or her failure to do things the "right" way. Little Red Riding Hood talks to a stranger in the woods and gets eaten by a wolf. In the original story, that's the end of her. No woodcutter comes along to save her.

∞In the original version of Cinderella, the wicked stepsisters cut off their toes to try to fit their feet into the glass slipper, and then on the way back to the castle after Cindy and the prince are reunited, birds come along and peck out the stepsisters' eyes! Ouch! Folk tales and fairy tales are meant to disturb you and teach you to be careful. They may entertain you, but on the other hand, they may scare you.

∞Hans Christian Andersen is famous for writing fairy tales. He was born in Denmark in Examples of his stories are “The Little Mermaid”, “Thumbelina,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and “The Red Shoes.” ∞In Copenhagen there is a statue of the little mermaid, sitting on a rock on the beach at the harbor, in memory of the writer.

∞Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were brothers, born in Germany in 1785 and They are famous because they collected together many old fairy tales from different parts of Germany and wrote them down for people to read. We know them as the Brothers Grimm and their collection includes “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” and “The Frog Prince”.

∞A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. ∞Tall tales are often told in a way that makes the narrator seem to have been a part of the story. They are usually humorous or good-natured. ∞In a tall tale, the exaggeration of the story is such a dramatic hyperbole that it becomes the whole of the story.

∞Tall tales were popularized in the United States in the 18th century. They were told by people by as a means of entertainment, and relaxation after a long day's work. ∞One very well-known tall tale is about Paul Bunyan. He was supposedly the tallest man in Maine. He wasn’t just tall—he was a giant. In the tale, people of Maine credit Paul with digging their lakes, creating the Grand Canyon, taming a river, and digging Lake Michigan. The tall tale also claims him to be the best lumberjack who ever lived. His well-known sidekick was Babe the Blue Ox.