FOLKTALES AND FABLES
More than learning resources geared to help children develop reading skills and habits, folktales and fables are gateways for young and old readers to discover a love for stories and, in the process, learn more about other cultures and worldviews.
Broadly defined as stories that’re told in the oral tradition – AKA, stories that people tell each other as opposed to those that’re written and read – folktales are closely related to different storytelling types and conventions – fables, myths, legends and fairy tales being four of many.
As such, it doesn’t come as strange that there’s a week devoted to celebrate folktales and fables.
Billed World Folktales and Fables Week and observed every third week of March (which runs from March 17 to 23 this year), this week-long event enjoins everyone to explore the lessons and cultural backgrounds of folktales, fables, myths and legends from all over the world.
Much like the stories that the week-long event celebrates, the event is poised to unite people from all over the world though tellings and retellings of the many stories that’ve became an intrinsic part of their culture and traditions.
Folktales VS Fables
Though widely used to interchangeably mean the same thing, the terms “folktales” and “fables” are different from each other. Folktales, by definition, are stories that’ve been passed down from the forebearers of a particular group of people to younger generations.
Fables, on the other hand, are stories that come with a moral lesson based on certain myths, and its key form entail the “short and sweet” mode in storytelling in that they are told in the most straightforward of tenses – bereft of complex similes and metaphors but rich in easy-to-understand analogies.
Fables are also notorious for implementations of anthropomorphism, which basically means that fables typically have animals as lead characters who are given human-like traits and characteristics.
Folktales and fables are not necessarily authored by one person, as they are “collectively made” by generations of storytellers. But in as much as they are traditionally passed on from one generation to another, certain versions of folktales and fables have been attributed to a specific author.
The classic story of Cinderella, for example, is noted to have more than 500 versions in Europe, but the most well-known would be the version of French author Charles Perrault, which was written in the 1690s.
“Aesop’s Fables” would be the best set of examples of fables that’re written by one author, as well as collections like “Arnold Lobel’s Fables” and Jams Thurber’s “Fables of Our Time”.
Variants and Fractured Versions of Traditional Tales
Beyond folktales and fables, the realm of stories from the oral tradition goes beyond tellings of the two. Myths are origin tales that often explain natural phenomena, emotions, or social occurrences, while legends are tales that have allegedly occurred and feature heroes and their triumphs.
Parables are meant to educate, often religious in nature, while tall tales are hyperbolic stories that’re occasionally sprinkled with truth. Urban Legends are essentially modern tall tales that’re typically cautionary in nature, while drolls (which are Japanese in origin) are usually funny “introductory tales” that are told before a longer story.
Apart from the oral tradition element that band these versions together, they also reveal various aspects of human behavior – attitudes, foibles and all – and it is this intrinsic storytelling nature of folktales, fables, myths and legends that earmarks why World Folktales and Fables Week matters.