Before I tell you about folktales, I have to tell you who “folks” are and
why their “tales” are so special.
Folks or folk,
is another way of saying “people." The word folk usually refers
to the common or regular people who are
not kings or queens or other special types of people.
Tales or tale, is another way of saying “story.”
Folktales are “people stories.”
They are the stories people love to tell to each other.
..........................*
Some folktales are very old.
They are usually short stories.
People have been telling these stories for a very long time.
The grown-ups tell these stories to
each other.
They tell the stories to their children.
The children remember the stories.
The children grow up.
They can now tell the stories to each other, and their children as well.
We say that the folktales are passed down “from one generation to another.”
That means that the folktales are passed down by older people to younger people. The younger people grow older, and they, in turn, pass the stories down to the younger people.
........................................*
At the beginning, folktales were "telling stories."
The stories were not written down. We call "telling stories" ORAL stories.
Through the years, some of the folktales had some changes."
Sometimes, something was added to the tale.
Sometimes , something was taken out.
However, most of the time, the PLOT of the story stayed the same.
The plot of the story is the main part of the story.
The plot of the story is what the story is mostly about.
....................................*
Some folktales are so old, no one knows who made them up at the beginning.
People just kept telling them through the generations.
Sometimes a person or some people decided to write down some of the oral folktales.
These people were "collectors" of
folktales. The Grimm brothers in Germany are
examples of "collectors" of folktales. Joseph Jacobs collected many stories in
England. * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * An author of a story is the person who makes up a story. There are some stories that we think
of as folktales, but the story or stories can be traced to an author. We can then say that this story is NOT
a folktale at all.
However,
it is not always certain whether these authors made up the idea for
the stories by themselves, or, whether they based the stories they wrote on
older folktales.
An
example of this type of story is "Beauty and the Beast."
We know that an author named Madame de Beaumont who lived in France in l750,
wrote this story.
Some people think that she might have gotten the idea for the story from two folktales, one from the Scandinavian countries, and one from Germany
Other people think that she got her idea for " Beauty and the Beast"from another story written earlier by a woman named Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve. Madame de Villeneuve also lived in France.
Many of the stories that have an author that we know about, are grouped together with folktales.
This is because they are old stories and because they are told in a folktale style.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There are many types of folktales.
You can read about these different types of folktales in the
FROM THE FOLKS link,
ABOUT FAIRY TALES, LEGENDS, MYTHS, TALL TALES, AND FABLES
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY A "VERSION" OF A FOLKTALE
There could be many versions of the same folktale.
A version of a story is the way the story is told.
One version of a story could be different from another version of the same story in some way.
Sometimes, something is added to
the story.
Sometimes, something is taken away from the story.
Sometimes, just the wording is different.
WHERE DO FOLTKALES COME FROM?
People in different countries have their own folktales.
People in special groups within a country could have their own folktales too.
The most important thing to remember, is that the people in the group or country who tell a particular folktale belong to the same culture.
People in the same culture OWN their folktales.
The culture of people is the way of life of these people.
The culture is the way people live and
think within their own
groups in their own countries.
 |
The people have the many of the same or similar interests. |
Similar means "almost
the same."
The people have the same or a
similar ways of doing things.
|
They usually share the same customs and traditions. |
Customs means the way people in a group live and do things.
How people celebrate holidays, could be an example of a
custom.
What foods people eat at certain times, could be an example of a custom.
Traditions are customs that have lasted for a long time.
The words CUSTOMS and TRADITION have very similar meansing.
Most importantly, people who share the same folktales see themselves as part of their group, sharing the same customs of their group.
We say that they IDENTIFY with that group.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WHY DID PEOPLE TELL FOLKTALES?
There are many reasons why folktales came about.
|
FOLKTALES WERE OFTEN A FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT |
Entertainment
means the activities that people do to have a
good time.
These activities are usually done in the times when
they are not working.
Entertainment for children are usually activities children do
when they are at recess in school,
when they are not in school,
and not doing their homework.
A long time ago, there were no
televisions, movies, computers,
video games or other forms of fun
that we have today.
Most people never learned to read or write.
Storytellers would go from place to place and tell folktales.
Sometimes, storytellers would sing
their folktale stories.
This was fun for people who were poor and worked very
hard.
|
FOLKTALES COULD TEACH GOOD VALUES |
Parents wanted to teach good
values such as honesty, kindness,
hard work, courage, generosity and other
good values to their
children.
Can you
think of other good values that parents might want their
children to learn?
Most poorer children did not go to school. They did not know how
to read or write.
Many of the grown-ups did not know how to read or write either.
Listening to folktales was a good way to learn good values.
In
many folktales, good deeds were rewarded and bad deeds were
punished.
For example:
The European Folktale, "THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER" is the story of
a poor
shoemaker and the little elves who helped them earn enough money to live
on. In return, the elves were rewarded by the shoemaker and his wife with
new clothes. THE STORY TEACHES ABOUT KINDNESS.
The African Folktale, Mr. Minoo, is the story of a man who was not
happy
because he was poor and had few things of his own. He learns to
be satisfied
with what he has.
|
WISHES AND DREAMS |
Many of the people who told these stories were very poor.
They lived hard
lives.
They knew that their children could not hope for a
better life.
These stories allowed people to dream of having better
lives.
They knew that their children could not hope for anything better.
They knew the dreams could never come true.
but while they listened to the folktale, they could pretend
that anything is possible.
In many European
folktales, for example, a common idea was for a poor farmer's
son who was
honest, brave, and smart, would end up marrying the beautiful
princess.
THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN IN REAL
LIFE.
But people like to pretend that it could
happen as they listened to
the folktales.
EXPLANATIONS ABOUT LIFE
For many people, life was scary.
There were not too many explanations as to why things happened in the natural world.
Many of these tales explained what was happening.
These tales are usually called "Myths."
LET'S REVIEW
What is a folktale?
1. A folktale is usually a short story.
Sometimes the
story is very short.
2. Folktales were "telling stories" at the beginning.
Collectors of
folktales wrote them down.
3. Parts of some folktales have changed a little bit , over
time.
4. A folktale is a story that is part of the culture of a group of
people who
share that culture.
The culture of a group of people is
their way of living;
that is, HOW THEY
DO THINGS.
These people share customs which could be traditions.
5. A folktale is a story that is passed down from one
generation to the
next generation.
The folktale lasts a
long time because it is usually a good
story that many people
enjoy.
It is often an old story.
6. We usually do not know who first told the story.
But we may know the
country or group of origin.
The origin means the beginning.
When we talk about the
origin of a folktale, we talk about
where that folktale came
from , to start with.
Usually, that folktale remains part of the culture of origin.
7. Folktales may have many versions.
When someone writes his or
her own version of the folktale, we
say that he or she is
doing a "retelling" of the folktale.
Sometimes books will say, "retold by..." Then the name of the
person who did the
retelling of the story in that version
is written down
after the words "retold by..."
For example:
At the end of the link there is a folktale which comes from
England. I did a "retelling" of the story.
So it will say: THE LITTLE RED HEN retold by Suzie-Jean
8. Versions of a folktale might be told as a folktale in more than one country or in within more than one group of people.
It is possible, then, that more than one group of people will
feel they "own' that story.
This happens because people who
traveled, brought their
stories with them to other places.
They tell people in other places
their stories.
Then the people in that other place, makes the story part of their
own culture.
For example:
There are many versions of the European folktale, Cinderella.
These
versions not only appear in Europe, but in other parts
of the
world.
