It is World Folk Tales and Fables Week and we can celebrate those stories that have been told and retold thousands of times in every country in the world.
The classifications for a folk tale or fable are:
Animal Tales.
Tales of Magic/ Wonder Tales.
Religious Tales.
Realistic/ Romantic Tales.
Tales of the Stupid Ogre.
We are all familiar with the ‘main’ stories, they are part of our childhoods. Obviously, there are cultural differences but the basis plots are similar.
Goldilocks
Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Little Red Riding Hood.
The Sisters Grimm
Cinderella.
Anansi and the Magic Stick
The Ugly Duckling
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
Which are your favorite?
I think mine is The Ugly Ducking because of the transformation aspect. We can all become something we want, and are always better being our true selves.
I am currently reading The Golem and the Jinni – a wonderful book I would recommend if you like fantasy fiction. I have not come across a golem before so did a little research.
I am sure most of us will think of Gollum, the Lord of the Rings character. However, a golem is a different kind of creature all together.
Firstly, the spelling is different, but also the creature itself comes from Jewish folklore. It is an animated anthropomorphic being created entirely from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). In the Psalms and medieval writings, the word golem was used as a term for an amorphous, unformed material.
As I have always been fascinated in folklore, fairy tales and mystical creatures, I was surprised I had not come across this particular creature before. So it has been added to my collection of great creatures and myths.
I have a couple of books I treasure, which include wonderful creatures. One is Gnomes and the other Fairies.
There are many creatures that can be helpful or harmful to gnomes & fairies, one is a Snotgurgle. Even the name conjures up an image! Yes, he is a nasty beastie.
Do you have a folklore character you would like to share?
Have you discovered a previously unknown fantasy character in a book?
Folk literature is the culmination of folktales passed down through generations and then written down. It includes myths, legends, epics, fables, ballads and folktales. The authors of the traditional literatureare usually unknown or unidentifiable.
These tales are largely about animals and people, of cultural myths, jokes, songs, tales, and even quotes and often take on the characteristics of the time and place in which they are set. In short they describe a culture, which has been preserved by verbal telling. Folklore is also known as “folk literature,” or “oral traditions.”
The main purpose of folklore was to convey in an easy way a moral lesson, present useful information and everyday life lessons for common people, who were illiterate. The tales tended to sugarcoat hard life lessons giving the audience pointers about how they should behave. It is one of the best mediums to pass on living culture or traditions to future generations.
Currently, many forms of folk literature have been transformed into books and manuscripts, which we see in the forms of novels, histories, dramas, stories, lyrical poems, and sermons. Folk literature is not merely a carrier of cultural values, it is also an expression of self-reflection. It serves as a platform to hold high moral ground without any relevance to present day reality. Instead, writers use it as a commentary or satire on current political and social reality. In the modern academic world, folklore’s and folktales are studied to understand ancient literature and civilizations.
For example, Rudyard Kipling was keenly interested in folklore, he wrote many English works based on folklore such as, Rewards and Fairies and Puck of Pook’s Hill. His experiences in the Indian environment led him to create several works about Indian themes and tradition. His most popular work, The Jungle Book, consists of plenty of stories about traditional folktales.
To be honest this was an easy prompt for me as the character written about, Petal Soft, is one from my children’s chapter book.
Petal Soft flew in and out of the long grass in the meadow, stopping occasionally to inspect a flower, one here, and one there. Her fairy wings glistened in the sunshine. She was looking for the perfect hat. The snowdrop hat she wore was tattered and worn now and it was time to replace it. With the warmth of spring sunshine and gentle showers the meadow grew lush. The green grass was dotted with all the colours of the rainbow by beautiful flowers opening their petals to the sky.
Should she choose yellow, which was a bright cheerful colour or red to be more dramatic at the fairy dance? As she flew back and forth, Petal Soft considered each flower and its colour carefully. The dance was a special one not only to celebrate spring but also to mingle with fairies from far and wide. Petal wanted to meet a certain fairy whose magic was said to be more powerful than any other. If Petal could learn just one of those extraordinary spells she would be so happy.
Along the edge of the meadow grazing contently stood three deer, they glanced up as Petal passed by but were not alarmed. She smiled and flew forward and gasped in surprise when she saw the most beautiful flower. It was a woodland orchid almost hidden in the shade of a birch tree. Its soft cream colour was splashed with bright pink it was perfect.
Bowing low, Petal asked the flower if she could take it. A whisper of wind was the only answer needed. Plucking the flower from the stem, Petal turned the petals this way and that appreciating their beauty.
On the night of the dance, Petal Soft adorned her head with the stunning orchid and wore a cream dress so as not to detract from its beauty. When she flew into the gathering place all heads turned to admire her hat.
She met the elder that night and became her apprentice learning special spells all because her orchid hat was the most beautiful.
Fantasical creatures are not only fun but excellent sources for works of fiction. Whether you still hold the childlike wonder of fairies, elves, mermaids or unicorns in your imagination or utilize myths and legends in history, there is a delight in bringing such creatures alive within your narrative.
I will admit to loving the fantasy world and wish the inhabitants of such classics as Alice in Wonderland, Stig of the Dump, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Wind in the Willows and the like, were indeed real.
Can you imagine what the world would be like if they walked among us?
We can immerse ourselves in these kind of worlds through books and movies and many have become ‘lifelike’ to many, such as the werewolves and vampires in the current popular genre.
As writers we spend a lot of time in make believe and that is perfectly fine. There may even be a fine line between our two worlds, where our characters and their setting become real to us. Upon finishing a project there is a sadness to the leaving that world behind. (Unless you are writing a series!)
No matter your device to telling your story, fantasy is a large part of it no matter which genre you are writing because we create everything within our narrative from stratch. Although, inspiration can come from a line, a character we love and want to develop or from a memory. Our imagination is our most important tool.
Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers 