##### Here are some texts you could choose for one of the [[assignments for folklore]] (or to read just for your own enjoyment). First, some definitions (courtesy of Wikipedia). > [!info]- Folklore > [Folklore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore) is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also includes material culture, such as traditional building styles common to the group. Folklore also encompasses customary lore, taking actions for folk beliefs, including folk religion, and the forms and rituals of celebrations such as festivals, weddings, folk dances, and initiation rites. > [!info]- Folk tale > [Oral literature, orature, or folk literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_literature) is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used varying descriptions for oral literature or folk literature. A broad conceptualization refers to it as literature characterized by oral transmission and the absence of any fixed form. It includes the stories, legends, and history passed through generations in a spoken form. > [!info]- Fable > [Fable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable) is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphised, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson, which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying. > [!info]- Parable > A [parable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable) is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whereas parables have human characters. A parable is a type of metaphorical analogy. > [!info]- Fairy Tale > A [fairy tale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_tale) (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicit moral tales, including beast fables. Prevalent elements include dragons, dwarfs, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, griffins, merfolk, monsters, monarchy, pixies, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, witches, wizards, woodwoses, magic, and enchantments. ---- This is glorious: [Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts](https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html), edited and/or translated by D. L. Ashliman. Instead of a list of stories, it’s a list of *kinds* of stories (for example, stories where someone is “[abducted by aliens](https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/abduct.html)” or stories about people “[trading places](https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/tradingplaces.html)” and getting in trouble and/or learning something from the experience.) ---- Science fiction often has more or less overt folktale overtones or undertones. For example, “[The Silence of the Asonu](https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-silence-of-the-asonu/)” by Ursula K. Le Guin in [Lightspeed Magazine](https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/) <small>([backup copy](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eJipMAPx51OSZEpqsk6KGjtDAXQL-G2p/view?usp=drive_link))</small> ---- [The Aesop for Children](https://www.read.gov/aesop/001.html) is a fun collection. Almost all the stories feature animals, and there’s a lot of “ass” ones, including this one: [The Miller, His Son, & the Ass](https://www.read.gov/aesop/136.html) But did you know that Gaius Julius Phaedrus, [according to Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaedrus_(fabulist)), “was a 1st-century AD Roman fabulist and the first versifier of a collection of Aesop's fables into Latin”? Can you imagine being a “fabulist” by trade? Is that still a job you can have? I might have to revise my résumé! ---- Who hasn’t heard of [the Grimm Brothers](https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html)? “[The Fisherman and His Wife](https://benrmatthews.com/the-fisherman-and-his-wife-1857/)” is a great, slightly ominous example of another kind of animal wisdom story. <small>([backup copy](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eJipMAPx51OSZEpqsk6KGjtDAXQL-G2p/view?usp=drive_link))</small>