By the end of this page, you will be an expert on folklore stories! Here are the eight topics we will discuss:
1. Folklore Stories and the Oral Tradition
2. How to Classify the Story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree
3. Folklore Stories: Qualities and Characteristics of the Genre
4. Checklists and Cheat Sheets: Qualities and Characteristics of Genre
5. Genre Paths or Genre Breadcrumb Trails
6. Five Genres of Folklore Stories
7. Sixteen Types of Folklore Stories Defined
8. Building on Folklore Stories: Modern Fables, Fairy Tales, Legends, and Myths
Folklore Stories and the Oral Tradition
Human beings have told stories since the beginning. By the time writing was invented, certain types of stories were common. Let’s call the types of stories that originated in word-of-mouth form Folklore Stories. This entire page is devoted to understanding and defining various types of folklore stories. But first, let’s build a foundation for understanding these important stories by understanding a few terms that help define this category of stories:
1. Oral Tradition: “Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another.” – Wikipedia
2. Folklore: 1) “the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth”; 2) “a body of popular myth and beliefs relating to a particular place, activity, or group of people.” – Google
3. Lore: “a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth.” – Google
4. Mythology: “a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.” – Google
Although the spoken word plays a large part in most of these folklore stories, some folklore stories originate in literature and most become famous through literature. Here’s why folklore stories are so important and relevant even today:
8 Most of these stories are important and relevant because they relate to one or more of these topics: 1) History, 2) Culture, 3) Religion
8 The purpose of the stories is often twofold: 1) Entertain, 2) Teach
You may also be interested in:
1. Checklist and Cheat Sheet for Narrative Tales, Folklore, Myths, Legends, and Fables
2. Giant Lists of Myths, Legends, Tales, and Folklore for Scholars and Kids
How to Classify the Story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree
Have you ever heard the story about George Washington and the cherry tree? Well, apparently, a young George Washington received a hatchet as a present and went outside and cut down his father’s cherry tree. Later, when his father angrily confronted the future president, George replied, “Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree.” George’s father did not respond with anger, but instead with joy, “My, what an honest young man you are!”
How would you classify that story? MountVernon.org (an authoritative George Washington website) classifies the story this way: “The cherry tree myth is the most well-known and longest enduring legend about George Washington.”
So, which is it? A myth or a legend? When MountVernon says that the cherry tree story is a myth, they simply mean that the story is not true. Unfortunately, over time, the term myth has come to represent two types of stories:
1) A story with sacred, religious, or spiritual implications, overtones, or explanations.
2) A story that is presented as true and that some people believe is true, but that is not true. In short, the story is a lie.
Since the story of George Washington is not true, it is a myth according to the second definition. Now, is it a legend? Here is how Google dictionary defines legend: “a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.” Yes, the story of George Washington and the cherry tree is a legend. Having said that, it’s not what I would typically think of as being a legend. In fact, I would probably call it a historical fable, a morality tale, or simply a story that is not true.
If the legend of George Washington and the cherry tree were created by rumor and word of mouth, then I would be more tempted to call it a legend. But it wasn’t. The story was written by Mason Locke Weems and published in a book in 1806. Unlike George Washington, Weems told a lie. After that, the story caught on and became so-called legend.
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Folklore Stories: Qualities and Characteristics of the Genre
Genre means shares similar qualities and characteristics. NARRATIVE is a genre, and STORY is a genre of narrative. All narrative stories share the characteristic of “telling what happened.” Of course, we also have many different genres of narrative story. We have mystery, drama, comedy, western—and many more. Each genre of story shares similar characteristics with other stories in the same genre.
Sometimes genre is a simple thing. When we read one of Aesop’s Fables, it’s easy for most people to classify it as a fable. It’s easy because Aesop’s Fables contain the defining qualities and characteristics of fables. Likewise, when we read The Brothers Grimm original Little Snow White (1812), it’s easy to see that it’s a fairy tale.
George Washington and the cherry tree story is a bit more difficult. Although the story meets the dictionary definition of a legend, it doesn’t meet many of the commonly accepted characteristics and qualities that we associate with the genre of legend. It’s not a legend like King Arthur, Robin Hood, or the Trojan War. It’s not a legend like many of the stories that came out the Wild West. It’s nothing like these legends. As I mentioned before, I would probably call it a historical fable. What’s a historical fable? Well, it historical and it’s a fable.
Many definitions of fables state that fables by definition have animal characters. In other words, if the story doesn’t have animal characters, then it can’t be a fable. However, Google’s dictionary definition of a fable is this: “Fable: a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.” So the truth is that although fables typically have animals, they don’t have them by definition. And this is even truer with “modern fables.” People classify stories as fables because it helps other people see the structure and characteristics of the story more clearly. But this does not mean that the story has every single characteristic and quality of a fable. Genre is a heuristic—that is, it’s a shortcut for understanding.
Checklists and Cheat Sheets: Qualities and Characteristics of Genre
Genre is a neglected topic. And it’s also one of the most interesting, revealing, and informative topics. When you squeeze an orange, what comes out? Orange juice. Why? Because that’s what’s inside. That’s how genre is. To understand a genre is to understand what’s inside the genre—the qualities and the characteristics of the genre, along with the skills, strategies, and techniques required to create the genre. Many famous writers today specialize in one genre because specialized knowledge of a genre is extremely important for creating successful stories.
Whether one is writing a history report, an argument on global warming, a newspaper article, or a young-adult novel, the genre is an outline in advance. The genre mandates many of the choices, techniques, and strategies that the writer will choose and use. Students ask, “Why do I have to do that?” Answer: “Because it’s the genre. Forget that colloquial story you just read. This is an important writing assessment.” By the way, genre includes audience and purpose, but that’s beyond what we will discuss here.
What makes a thriller a thriller instead of an action story or suspense story? It’s all explained by genre. Genre explains the necessary qualities and characteristics that mandate the choices, techniques, and strategies that the writer must use to create the effect.
Here are four genre checklists and cheat sheets to get you thinking about the characteristics and qualities of genre:
1. Checklist and Cheat Sheet for Narrative Tales, Folklore, Myths, Legends, and Fables
2. Narrative Story, Narrative Essay, and Narrative Non-Fiction Checklist and Cheat Sheet
3. Descriptive Writing Checklist and Cheat Sheet
4. Persuasive Writing, Opinion Writing, and Argument Writing Checklist and Cheat Sheet
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Genre Paths or Genre Breadcrumb Trails
I like to place things in context for my students, and these Genre Paths or Genre Breadcrumb Trails do just that—quickly and easily. I also use Genre Trees and Levels, but that’s for another day. As you can see, I don’t classify myths and legends as folktales or tales. For me, the term tales is more appropriate for shorter, lighter fare. I’m flexible on this depending on the story and the situation, and my goal here is not to convince anyone that this is the correct way to view things. My point here is that this is how we discuss and analyze stories and come to understand genre classification systems.
1. Narrative Q Story Q Folklore Q Folktale Q Fairy Tale
2. Narrative Q Story Q Folklore Q Folktale Q Tall Tale
3. Narrative Q Story Q Folklore Q Folktale Q Basic Folktale
4. Narrative Q Story Q Folklore Q Folktale Q Fable
5. Narrative Q Story Q Folklore Q Myth
6. Narrative Q Story Q Folklore Q Legend
In a sense, genres and genre classification systems provide a blueprint or outline for a piece of writing in advance. Of course, it’s easy to create a perfect classification system. The difficult part is making all those square pegs fit into perfectly round holes, which is why theorists start making exceptions and giving long-winded explanations. With almost everything in language, there is no perfect classification system. Language is created by people trying to communicate in effective, innovative, and interesting ways. It takes just one innovator who creates a masterpiece to ruin all those perfect classification systems. And we have had many of those throughout history.
In the real world, people combine genres, reinvent genres, build on genres, and transcend genres. Genre is not static.
Five Genres of Folklore Stories
Later, we will define 16 different genres of folklore stories. But here, I put forth five types of folklore story. Each is based on a specific purpose. As you can see, I also list all of the similar types of folklore stories that have a similar purpose. So in a sense, the purpose is the genre. By the way, we don’t need to learn anything about #5 False Stories, but it’s a helpful term.
| Folklore Genre | Genres of the Genre / Similar Purpose | Purpose |
| 1. Tales | 1) Folktales, 2) Tall Tales, 3) Fairy Tales, 4) Hero Tales, 5) Animal Tales, 6) Ballads | Entertain then Teach. |
| 2. Fables | 1) Parables, 2) Allegories | Teach then Entertain. |
| 3. Myths | 1) Epics, 2) Sagas | Deals with beliefs, values, and explanations of existence. |
| 4. Legends | 1) Epics, 2) Sagas | Deals with history, geologic, or natural phenomena, e.g., what lives in the cave on the side of the mountain; people who lived or could have lived. |
| 5. False Stories | 1) Rumors, 2) Urban Legends, 3) Old Wives’ Tales, 4) Conspiracy Theories, 5) Myths – popular informal term. | People do their best to explain things or simply lie, and others believe them because they are excellent stories that seem to make sense. Sometimes people take a story literally when the teller was just telling a good story. |
Sixteen Types of Folklore Stories Defined
The following sixteen definitions are not creative or inspired definitions. In fact, they are primarily objective, concrete dictionary definitions (1= Google/Oxford Dictionary; 2 = Wikipedia). Understanding a dictionary definition is an excellent beginning for understanding the genre. The next step is to learn the commonly accepted characteristics and qualities of the genre and the techniques and strategies used in the genre.
1. Tale: “a fictitious or true narrative or story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted.” (1)
2. Folk Tale: “a story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth.” (1)
3. Tall Tale: “A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual.” (2)
4. Fairy Tales: “1) a children’s story about magical and imaginary beings and lands; 2) denoting something regarded as resembling a fairy story in being magical, idealized, or extremely happy.” (1)
5. Hero Tale: An epic tale about a hero accomplishing amazing feats, possibly on an amazing journey.
6. Animal Tale: “An animal tale or beast fable generally consists of a short story or poem in which animals talk. It is a traditional form of allegorical writing.” (2)
7. Fable: “a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.” (1)
8. Parable: “a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.” (1)
9. Allegory: “a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.” (1)
10. Ballad: “a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture.” (1)
11. Myth: “a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.” (1)
12. Legend: “a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.” (1)
13. Epic: “a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation.” (1)
14. Epic Tale: “An epic tale is a literary work about a hero, amazing adventures or an otherwise intense or amazing story. Often, an epic tale involves a hero on an adventurous quest to rescue another main character, to save the world in some manner, or to defend his community against a rival or enemy.” – Neil Kokemuller – SeattlePI
15. Saga: “a long story of heroic achievement, especially a medieval prose narrative in Old Norse or Old Icelandic.” (1)
16. False Stories: Stories that are presented as true or are rumored to be true, but they aren’t true. (1)
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Building on Folklore Stories: Modern Fables, Fairy Tales, Legends, and Myths
Rigid categories are a hindrance to understanding. The reality of writing and literary analysis is that we take many rigid categories and use them to help us understand a story. This is why we so often hear analysis like this: “It’s a post-modern coming-of-age fable.” To understand that statement, one must understand three genres: 1) post-modern, 2) coming-of-age stories, and 3) fables.
Point being: The old stories are important stories, and they contribute to the important stories of today. Many famous folklore stories have been passed down for centuries or even millennia. These stories are important, fascinating, meaningful stories that communicate something about the human experience. These stories are relevant today for that reason alone, but they are also relevant for additional reasons.
In modern times, we still tell many of these old folklore stories. But equally important, these stories serve as models for our brand new stories. J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is certainly a well-written, impressive work. However, a surprising amount of the mythology is based on world mythology. The magic ring itself is straight out of Norse mythology.
Star Wars is built upon Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, which is a story model based on his study of world mythology. In reality, many incredibly successful movies are properly and commonly classified as fables, fairy tales, legends, and myths. Of course, when these stories are brought into the modern world, people tend to add the word modern to the genre name.
Whether it’s modern or traditional, whether one is reading or writing—a sound understanding of the qualities and characteristics of folklore stories helps one understand most every story.
