For example, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley is based on the Arthurian legends (folktales about King Arthur and the Round Table), but focuses more on the female characters rather than the male ones. Often, such books will take a character or situation from the folk story and expand on it. Thousands of books have been written with folk stories as their inspiration. Nearly every culture has such stories, from Thor in Scandinavia to Hercules in Greece and the Hero Twins of Navajo mythology. This story is an example of the “monster-slayer” story, one of the most common story types in the world.
The story of Beowulf has no known author, and was almost certainly a popular Anglo-Saxon folk tale before it was eventually written down. Of course, the entire Lord of the Rings saga was heavily influenced by Nordic, Welsh, and Finnish folklore, so Tolkien had plenty of excellent source material to draw from. He wrote an entire book, The Silmarillion, giving the folklore/mythology of the Elves. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is a perfect example of an author making up folklore to enrich his fictional cultures. Examples of Folklore in Literature Example 1 How can we face such a world and not feel despair? Part of the answer is that we tell stories bout gods, heroes, and monsters – when the good guys win, we gain a psychological boost and learn valuable lessons about courage and perseverance. As we encounter the world, we see pain, loss, and emptiness everywhere. That is, folk tales speak to an innate psychological need shared by all human beings. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St George to kill the dragon. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of evil. Chesterton, the famous philosopher and author, explains the importance of folk tales in this way: do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly that is in the child already because it is in the world already. They see one sick puppy and decide to adopt him, but upon bringing him back home they soon discover that they’ve rescued a rat instead of a dog.
One common urban myth tells of a couple travelling to a foreign country where there are many stray dogs roaming the streets. Modern-day folklore often takes the form of “urban myths.” Although these stories are usually not actually myths (see §6), they are very popular. After showing kindness and love to the animal, the main characters are rewarded when the animal changes back into a human and reveals that their animal form was simply the result of a witch’s curse. For example, the story of the frog prince is of unknown western European origin but there are many other similar stories, such as the Finnish tale “Mouse Bride.” In these stories, someone is looking for a spouse, but only finds a small animal. It’s interesting to notice the way common themes run through the folklore of various cultures. These are all fairy tales, but they aren’t folklore, because they have specific authors. Such stories include Pinocchio, Hansel & Gretel, and Rapunzel. Some stories, such as the Grimm’s fairy tales, are mistakenly referred to as folklore, but actually they are not: they have a specific author, and therefore don’t fit the definition of folklore. The key here is that folklore has no author – it just emerges from the culture and is carried forward by constant retelling. Folklore is typically passed down by word of mouth, rather than being written in books (although sometimes people write down collections of folklore in order to preserve the stories of a particular community). Folklore refers to the tales people tell – folk stories, fairy tales, “tall tales,” and even urban legends.
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