Myth, Legend and Folklore: Difference between revisions

* Religious Tales: Superhuman/divine forces punish evil or foolish behavior and reward honest or morally exemplary behavior. In the West, they often took the form of "legends of Saints," but the type itself is not tied to any specific religion. See "[[Honest Axe]]"-type stories; even Perrault's comical "[[The Ludicrous Wishes (Literature)|The Ludicrous Wishes]]" is at its core a religious tale.

* [[Just So Story|Just So Stories]]: What it says. Can be moral in tone, funny, or both. Example: "How the Bear lost its Tail"

* Nursery Tales: Tales specifically intended for smaller children. They often take the form of a "chain tale" (or "cumulative tale") –- the same loop repeats over and over again (though with a little change each time). The plot is usually quite silly, as the fun is more in telling them lively, and they often contain verses that children can learn. Typical nursery tales are "[[The Gingerbread Man (Literature)|The Gingerbread Man]]" and "[[Goldilocks (Literature)|Goldilocks]]" (a.k.a. "The Three Bears").

* Tall Tales: Obvious absurdities for entertainment's sake. The name derives from a specific type of such stories about people or things that are improbably tall, such as the [[Paul Bunyan]] stories. But Tall Tales are not necessarily about tall things; the [[Tom Thumb (Literature)|Tom Thumb]] stories, about a hero that is impossibly ''small'', are (ironically) rooted in the Tall Tale genre too.

 

== Welsh ==

* ''[[The Mabinogion (Literature)|The Mabinogion]]''