types of folk literature

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Tale-Types & Motifs

The aarne-thompson-uther index, atu tale-type classification, how to read an atu index entry, the motif-index of folk literature, the motif-index of folk literature classification, how to read a motif-index entry, tale type and motif indices to worldwide traditions, fable indices, online resources for motifs, tale types, propp functions, fables, & mythemes.

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Tales are composed of elements called “motifs,” which are combined in any number of ways to create a plot. Many tales have the same patterns of motifs. These patterns are called “tale-types.” Identifying the building-blocks and patterns of narratives is helpful in studying, comparing, and analyzing them. For a very brief overview of this process, see: Motif Index, What it Is and What it Does  from the British Columbia Folklore Society. Below are a few important definitions:

A Function  or  mytheme  is a plot point which directs the course of the tale and appears in set orders.  

A motif is the smallest definite element of a tale.

A Tale type  (or tale-type) is a recurring, self-sufficient plot or group of motifs.

The Finnish scholar, Antti Aarne, compiled the first major tale-type index in 1910. The work was limited to European tales and was later expanded by, first, Stith Thompson, and, then, Hans-Jörg Uther. Stith Thompson translated and expanded Aarne’s tale-type index. His work categorized mostly European tales, with a selection of Near Eastern tales, into different general, abstracted types. His and Aarne’s work are collectively referred to as the “AT number system.” Each tale type is assigned a number identifier and a title (e.g. 510A Cinderella tale-type). In 2004, Aarne and Thompson’s tale-type system was expanded by Hans-Jörg Uther. Known as the “ATU tale-type index”, or “the ATU index” for short, this index is a standard reference in folklore studies.

The ATU index  (and here ) allows researchers to identify the underlying structure of a tale and to cross-reference it with other tales from all around the world which share the same elements or themes. Each tale-type entry describes which themes and motifs comprise a specific tale-type. Motifs each have an identifying number, which can be cross-referenced with Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature . In this way, researchers can identify similar story plots, and even vastly different tales which share motifs.  

The Aaarne-Thompson-Uther tale-type index (ATU index) classifies story plots into seven broad categories. Each category is assigned a group of numbers. For example, tale-types which are “Tales of Magic” are tale-types 300 to 749. All tale-types in the index are prefaced with either “AT” or “ATU” to indicate whether they are an original tale-type outlined in Aarne and Thompson’s 1928 or 1961 index or whether they have been re-organized or created by Uther in the new 2004 index, respectively.  

1-299             Animal Tales 300-749         Tales of Magic 750-849         Religious Tales 850-999         Realistic Tales 1000-1199     Tales of the Stupid Ogre (Giant, Devil) 1200-1999     Anecdotes and Jokes 2000-2399     Formula Tales

If a researcher were studying the tale  Cinderella , they would find it cataloged under “Tales of Magic” in the ATU index. The story is tale-type 510 (ATU 510) or “The Persecuted Heroine”. This tale type has two variant types, ATU 510A “Cinderella” tale-type and ATU 510B “Catskin” tale-type. Each ATU index entry contains:

• Tale-type title
• Summary of plot
• Motif references
• Other tale-types with which it is often combined
• Bibliography of relevant scholarship

How To Read an ATU Entry

Stith Thompson compiled a massive index of motifs found in European and Eastern folktales between 1932 and 1958. His work,  The Motif-Index of Folk Literature  (and here  or try  this online version .), is used by folklorists to identify the elements or “building blocks” which make up a tale. The index assigns a number to each motif and lists tales in which it appears. This allows researchers to identify different tales which contain the same motif, as well as the range of functions of a certain motif in tales, and is useful for comparative analysis. The limits of the index are its geographical range; it is mainly restricted to Europe, though it does recognize a number of Eastern tales. Subsequently, various scholars have created cultural or regional specific indexes to supplement and expand Thompson’s work.

The  Motif-Index of Folk Literature   organizes motifs into twenty-six different classes, lettered A to Z. Each motif, then, is given a letter to designate its type and a number to identify it.  

A. Mythological Motifs B. Animal Motifs C. Motifs of Tabu D. Magic E. The Dead F. Marvels G. Ogres H. Tests J. The Wise and the Foolish K. Deceptions L. Reversals of Fortune M. Ordaining the Future N. Chance and Fate P. Society Q. Rewards and Punishments R. Captives and Fugitives S. Unnatural Cruelty T. Sex U. The Nature of Life V. Religion W. Traits of Character X. Humor Z. Miscellaneous Groups of Motifs

If a researcher were trying to find the slipper motif in  Cinderella , they should search for “slipper” or “shoe” in the subject index which accompanies Thompson’s  Motif-Index.  According to the index, the word “slipper” is relevant to the H36 motif. Each entry contains:

• Motif number
• Motif title (and description)
• Culture(s) and text(s) in which motif is found
• Related motifs  

How to Read a  Motif-Index  Entry

• Tale Type & Motif Indexes (hard copy)
• Tale Type & Motif Indexes (online)
• Collected Tales

ATU, or, The Types of International Folktales: a Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson (Hans-Jörg Uther and Folklore Fellows, 2004)  [or see alternative HOLLIS record ] Allows researchers to identify the underlying structure of a tale and to cross-reference it with other tales from all around the world which share the same elements or themes. Each tale-type entry describes which themes and motifs comprise a specific tale-type. Motifs each have an identifying number, which can be cross-referenced with Thompson’s  Motif-Index of Folk-Literature . In this way, researchers can identify similar story plots, and even vastly different tales which share motifs. 

Motif-Index of Folk-Literature; a Classification of Narrative Elements in Folk-Tales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends (Stith Thompson, 1932)  [or see alternative HOLLIS record ] Used by folklorists to identify the elements or “building blocks” which make up a tale. The index assigns a number to each motif and lists tales in which it appears. This allows researchers to identify different tales which contain the same motif, as well as the range of functions of a certain motif in tales, and is useful for comparative analysis. The limits of the index are its geographical range; it is mainly restricted to Europe, though it does recognize a number of Eastern tales. Subsequently, various scholars have created cultural or regional specific indexes to supplement and expand Thompson’s work. Note: Some of these volumes are available online via HathiTrust's record for Indiana University Studies (wherein a copy was printed); specifically, see IUS volume no. 96-97 which is available online and contains the following volumes of the Motif Index: v. 1 (A–C: Mythological, Animal, Tabu), v. 2 (D–E: Magic, The Dead) and v. 3 (F–H: Marvels, Ogres, Tests). The following IUS volumes containing Motif Index volumes are available via search-only: 100-101, 105-106, 108-112.

African Folktales with Foreign Analogues (compiled by May Augusta Klipple, 1992)

ATU-AT-Motif guide   Although incomplete, a great portion of the AT and ATU classification schemes can be found on this site curated by academic librarian Michael Muchow. He has linked many of them to tales stored on the Internet Archive website.

Folk Tales Online A helpful guide to finding folk tales online, created by academic librarian Michael Muchow.

Unpacking World Folk-literature: Thompson's Motif Index, ATU's Tale Type Index, Propp's Functions and Lévi-Strauss's Structural Analysis for Folk Tales Found Around the World   This site is curated by Shawn Urban and hosted at the University of Alberta. It has some overlap with Muchow's resource, above, but includes some unique items. It links to the Multilingual Folk Tale Database (MFTD). Neither is exhaustive.  Note:  When you see an abbreviated reference to a collection where a published tale can be found that illustrates one of Thompson's motifs, look it up in the detailed Bibliography and Abbreviations section on p. 31 (#45) of Thompson's Motif Index of Folk-Literature as published in Indiana University Studies no. 96–97, via HathiTrust.

Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts This site is provided by retired professor D.L. Ashliman and hosted at the University of Pittsburgh. Again, there is some overlap with the other sources listed above, but some entries are unique. It is not exhaustive.

Motif-Index of Folk-Literature; a Classification of Narrative Elements in Folk-Tales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends (Stith Thompson, 1932) Used by folklorists to identify the elements or “building blocks” which make up a tale. The index assigns a number to each motif and lists tales in which it appears. This allows researchers to identify different tales which contain the same motif, as well as the range of functions of a certain motif in tales, and is useful for comparative analysis. The limits of the index are its geographical range; it is mainly restricted to Europe, though it does recognize a number of Eastern tales. Subsequently, various scholars have created cultural or regional specific indexes to supplement and expand Thompson’s work. Note: Some of these volumes are available online via HathiTrust's record for Indiana University Studies (wherein a copy was printed); specifically, see IUS volume no. 96-97 which is available online and contains the following volumes of the Motif Index: v. 1 (A–C: Mythological, Animal, Tabu), v. 2 (D–E: Magic, The Dead) and v. 3 (F–H: Marvels, Ogres, Tests). The following IUS volumes containing Motif Index volumes are available via search-only: 100-101, 105-106, 108-112.  Or try this link .

Multilingual Folk Tale Database Folk tales from all over this world are provided on this site, in their original language or in translation. To organize the stories and make it easier to find and compare them, the stories have been classified along the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification, which is the established standard for folk tales. Although the database contains over 10,000 stories and translations, it contains stories exemplifying only a limited portion of the ATU classes.

See the Collections of Folktales and Worldwide Folktale Collections sub-pages of this guide (under "Books").

Perry's Index This invaluable index to fables in the Aesopic tradition is to be found in the "Indices" section of Babrius, Phaedrus. Fables. Translated by Ben Edwin Perry in the Loeb Classical Library, volume 436 (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1965) .

Aesopica Posteriora: Medieval and Modern Versions of Greek and Latin Fables Aims to encompass the entire European tradition of the fable by guiding the scholar topically to ancient, Medieval, and modern fables. By Gert-Jan van Dijk. With a preface by Prof. Francisco Rodríguez Adrados and an elaborate Index Fabularum at the end of the book. Many of the fables referenced can be found in Early English Books Online.

History of the Graeco-Latin Fable See volume 3 (book no. 236) of this work by Francisco Rodríguez Adrados, Gert-Jan van Dijk, and Leslie A. Ray. Volume III (book no. 236) is an Inventory and Documentation of the Graeco-Latin Fable. 

Fables   This 1960 edition of the 1927 translation of Aesop's fables by Emile Chambry is written in French and Ancient Greek. 

Motif-Index of Folk-Literature; a Classification of Narrative Elements in Folk-Tales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends (Stith Thompson, 1932) Used by folklorists to identify the elements or “building blocks” which make up a tale. The index assigns a number to each motif and lists tales in which it appears. This allows researchers to identify different tales which contain the same motif, as well as the range of functions of a certain motif in tales, and is useful for comparative analysis. The limits of the index are its geographical range; it is mainly restricted to Europe, though it does recognize a number of Eastern tales. Subsequently, various scholars have created cultural or regional specific indexes to supplement and expand Thompson’s work. Note: Some of these volumes are available online via HathiTrust's record for Indiana University Studies (wherein a copy was printed); specifically, see IUS volume no. 96-97 which is available online and contains the following volumes of the Motif Index: v. 1 (A–C: Mythological, Animal, Tabu), v. 2 (D–E: Magic, The Dead) and v. 3 (F–H: Marvels, Ogres, Tests). The following IUS volumes containing Motif Index volumes are available via search-only: 100-101, 105-106, 108-112.

MythFolklore.net Online resources compiled by Laura Gibbs, a professor of mythology & folklore at the University of Oklahoma. She earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature: Latin, Greek, Polish. It includes an index to Aesop's Fables that she translated. (See also, Perry's Index, above).

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Definition of Folklore

Folklore is a collection of fictional stories about animals and people, of cultural myths , jokes, songs, tales, and even quotes. It is a description of culture, which has been passed down verbally from generation to generation, though many are now in written form. Folklore is also known as “folk literature,” or “oral traditions.”

Folklore depicts the way main characters manage their everyday life events, including conflicts or crises. Simply, folk literature is about individual experiences from a particular society. The study of folk tradition and knowledge is called folkloristics. Although some folklores depict universal truths, unfounded beliefs and superstitions are also basic elements of folklore tradition.

Types of Folklore

Following are the major forms of folklore:

• Fairy Tales
• Folk dramas
• Proverbs , charms, and riddles
• Use of Folklore by Children

Examples of Folklore in Literature

Example #1: rudyard kipling.

Rudyard Kipling was keenly interested in folklore, as he has written many English works based on folklore such as, Rewards and Fairies and Puck of Pook’s Hill . His experiences in Indian environment have led him to create several works about Indian themes and tradition. Since Kipling has lived a great deal of life in Indian regions, he was much familiar with the Indian languages.

Kipling’s popular work, The Jungle Book , consists of plenty of stories about traditional folktales. He also has Indian themes in his work, Just So Stories, in which he has given many characters recognizable names related to Indian languages. Helen Bannerman has also penned an Indian themed folktale, Little Black Sambo, during the same period.

Example #2: Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry was a politician, attorney and planter, who gained popularity as an orator when Americans were struggling for independence. He is well known for his speech in the House of Burgesses in 1775 in the church of Saint Joseph. The House was undecided about whether they need to mobilize and take military action against encroaching military forces of England. Henry gave his arguments in favor of American forces’ mobilization. After forty-two years, William Wirt, Henry’s first biographer, working from different oral histories and stories, reconstructed the sayings of Henry, outlining the folk traditions he inherited and passed on.

Example #3: A. K. Ramanujan

A. K. Ramanujan has written a lot about context sensitivity as a theme in many cultural essays, classical poetry, and Indian folklore. For example, in his works Three Hundred Ramayanas, and Where Mirrors are Windows , he talks about intertextual quality of written and oral Indian literature. His popular essay , Where Mirrors Are Windows: Toward an Anthology of Reflections, and commentaries done on Indian folktales, including Oral Tales from Twenty Indian Languages, and The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology, Present Perfect examples of Indian folk literature studies.

Example #4: Alan Garner

Alan Garner is a renowned English novelist popular for writing fantasy tales and retellings of traditional English folk tales. His works are mainly rooted in history, landscape, and folklore of his native country Cheshire. One of such children’s novels is, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen: A Tale of Alderley , which took a local legend from The Wizard of the Edge , and described landscapes and folklore of neighboring Alderley Edge, where Alan had grown up. The novel is set in Alderley Edge in Cheshire and Macclesfield. This is a very good example of the use of folktales in literature.

Function of Folklore

The main purpose of folklore is to convey a moral lesson and present useful information and everyday life lessons in an easy way for the common people to understand. Folk tales sugarcoat the lessons of hard life in order to give 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, lyric poems, and sermons. Folk literature is, however, not merely a carrier of cultural values; rather, 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, folklores and folktales are studied to understand ancient literature and civilizations.

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Private: Traditional Literature

1 Introduction to Traditional Literature

Traditional literature, including and especially folk and fairy tales, is an essential component in both the historical evolution of children’s literature and the modern canon. For previous generations, the folktale has often been a child’s first experience of story, the fairy tale often a young reader’s first foray into literature.

For generations of 21st century children, folk and fairy tales saturate the storytelling media that surrounds them, from early picture books to Disney movies to popular novels. Much of children’s entertainment across media engages with traditional tales, both in the forms of straightforward retellings or reiterations and in subversive or transformative shapes, like the “fractured” fairy tales exemplified by Shrek, the book by William Steig (1990) and the film developed by DreamWorks Animation (2001). Each successive iteration of a traditional tale, including those that twist and play with the reader or viewer’s expectations for typical content, adds to the cultural consciousness of the tale itself and to the overall presence and importance of traditional literature as a whole.

What makes traditional literature so significant? The answers to that question could fill this entire volume, but a few key ideas stand out:

Traditional literature embodies quintessential human experiences and often follows the pattern of human development, with protagonists who must learn lessons and achieve milestones or rites of passage in their lives. Many stories in the folklore category encode coming of age issues, such as learning to act independently, learning to overcome fear, and learning to solve problems or resolve conflict. Folk and fairy tales provide central characters who experience such lessons in exaggerated or entertaining ways, but under the surface they represent every reader who has encountered or will soon encounter similar challenges.

Perhaps the most common shared human experiences encoded into folktales are relationships, whether romantic or familial. The most famous fairy tales in the western world, particularly, focus on marriage as a central theme and a significant milestone for characters such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. While the modern reader might question the prioritization of romance in such tales, these stories encouraged social norms of relationships suited to their cultural contexts. Friendships and protective relationships, such as those central to the beast tales “Puss in Boots” and “Rikki-tikki-tavi”, also feature strongly in the folktale traditions of many cultures.

The cultural value of stories from different traditions cannot be overstated; human beings are above all storytellers and these elder tales are the substance from which all other literature evolves and so not just children’s literature but all genres, forms, and audiences owe a debt to stories like these. The level of engagement, which may result from structure or content or both, makes traditional stories both appealing to all ages and relatively easy to grasp for even the earliest readers. Repetitive patterns, archetypal characters, and straightforward plots typify traditional stories but should not be mistaken for oversimplification; often, these elements are holdovers from an ancient oral tradition intended for an audience of listeners.

Traditional or folk literature falls into different types, each of which follows a loosely defined set of characteristics, and most of which originated within oral traditions across the world. This volume contains a few examples, from specific traditions, for each of the types defined here, but should also encourage students and readers to seek additional tales further afield, perhaps beginning with—but certainly not limited to—the list of Recommended Reading at the end of the section. The following types of traditional literature are featured in this section:

The earliest form of traditional literature, at least for the purposes of this volume, is the Myth . In the context of ancient societies, myths are stories that provide social, religious, or otherwise cultural lessons, carrying forward a particular culture’s ideas of how the world works, how one should act or believe, or how a society should be managed. Myths typically feature gods and other powerful beings interacting with larger-than-life heroic characters who achieve feats beyond the ordinary. Famous heroes of myth—like Perseus, from the Roman tradition, or Chi-Li, from China—fight monsters and rescue people in need, and are generally rewarded for their efforts with social or spiritual approval. Other types of myths include trickster tales, of which “Coyote” and “Anansi” are popular examples from Western North American indigenous cultures such as the Zuni and West African countries like Ghana, respectively, where the main character often is a being of substantial power, but with flexible loyalties, and those loyalties may be tested in humorous ways. Concepts of virtue rewarded, guidance through challenging tasks, and navigating an uncertain world have especial value for young readers beginning their own journeys in the world.

The mythic characteristic of explanation also manifests in the Pourquoi Tale , in which the purpose of the narrative is to provide an origin or explanation for animals, practices, or other cultural elements. In myth, pourquoi tales—like the story of Arachne—often present a supernatural origin for common beings, like spiders. In children’s literature, the pourquoi tale often emphasizes humor, making the seemingly fantastical both entertaining and accessible for a young reader, as Rudyard Kipling attempts to do in his Just-So Stories.

Another descendent of myth, Legend typically contains a small—sometimes very small—kernel of historical truth, encapsulating an individual for whom there is actual historical evidence or an event that factually happened. One variety of legend—the Tall Tale , so named for its tendency to exaggerate the ordinary into the extraordinary—has a strong American tradition that centers on stories of frontier days and eras of social or political change in the United States. Figures like Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and George Washington feature prominently in the American tall tale tradition, but other cultures have similar tales, going all the way back to King Arthur of Britain and beyond.

The most famous, but perhaps least “traditional” type of traditional literature is, of course, the Fairy Tale . Defined by an emphasis on unusual or magical events happening to well-intentioned main characters, the fairy tale typifies the stories that dominate children’s literature, especially in the Western canon. Many of the stories identified as famous fairy tales were, in fact, quite literary in origin. The story of “Beauty and the Beast”, for example, started in published form, as a 17th century meditation on arranged marriage. While the collectively identified “princess tales” like “Sleeping Beauty” or “Cinderella”—with their emphasis on class, romance, and reward for heroic behavior or even just good intentions—are perhaps the most popular and well known, the fairy tale category also includes darker tales of mayhem and rescue or even redemption. Fairy tales like “Bluebeard” speak as much to societal and individual fears as they do to our ambitions or desires, but the darker details of these types of stories are often softened in modern children’s collections and retellings, in order to make them more palatable for contemporary parents and their children.

Beast Tales , a category that overlaps with both folk and fairy tales in form and characteristic, focus their attention on animals as stand-ins for human characters. In these stories, animals frequently speak and sometimes dress and behave like humans, often demonstrating specific human personality traits in order to emphasize the point or lesson of the story. Some anthropomorphized animal characters, like Puss In Boots or Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, commonly save the humans with whom they are associated, while other beast tales, like “The Three Little Pigs,” feature no humans and no intersection between the animal and human worlds. In such stories, the child reader often identifies readily with the personified animal characters, especially those whose hard work or other virtues are rewarded, as happens in many of the kinds of traditional tales that inform children’s literature.

A more direct emphasis on virtue rewarded is found in the Fable , a specific type of beast tale that typically ends with a condensed lesson, often in rhyming form. Fables are an older category of traditional literature, ranging back to the 6th century BCE with the Greek tales of Aesop and forward to 17th century France, with tales like “The Grasshopper and the Ant” from La Fontaine. Their simple structure and evident message long made fable a popular choice for early children’s readers as well as modern picture books.

The Cumulative Tale , a type of traditional story in which repetition builds the ongoing narrative by adding a single element to each round, features rhythms that invite oral recitation or reading aloud, an essential component in the development of children as readers. Cumulative tales, such as “This Is the House that Jack Built”, have often formed the basis of songs and, in the modern era, feature strongly in picture book form as well.

The stories contained in this section each stand on their own, representing these key components of traditional literature, but also are commonly adapted or sourced in other works of the children’s literature canon. Familiarity with them is valuable, therefore, for beginning students and scholars in the field as well as teachers and others interested in children’s literature as a whole.

Children's Literature: A Tradition Copyright © by purvist. All Rights Reserved.

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Types of Traditional Tales: Fairy Tales, Folktales, Fables, Myths, and more

Is it a folktale, a fairy tale, a fable, or a myth? With all those different types of traditional tales, it’s no wonder you become confused. So let me clear things up.

First, I need to make one caveat: I am an oral storyteller, not a folklorist. There are a lot of finer points on this page that people could argue about for ages (and they do!).

That being what it is, I work a lot with older, traditional stories. It helps to have a working knowledge of the different types of traditional tales, both in searching for stories and telling them.

💡 As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I get a little percentage whenever you buy something after clicking one of my affiliate links. Thanks!

What are the most common types of traditional tales?

In a world of sunlight, stories are the shadows cast by humankind, for it is humans, of course, who are the storytellers. Jane Yolen, Favorite Folktales from Around the World

Types of traditional tales: definitions

Within what is called folklore , there is the genre of the folk(loric) narrative . Within that genre, you find all the different types of traditional tales.

What is a folktale?

A folktale (tale ‘of the folk’) is a fictional story passed down from generation to generation orally.

Examples of folktales collected by the Grimm Brothers:

💡 Not all the Brothers Grimm stories are fairy tales. Many of them are folktales, legends, fables, etcetera. I will give some examples below of each type of tale.

What is a fairy tale?

A fairy tale is a short fictional tale with human characters set in a magical fantasy realm. There are fairy tales that have been passed down orally from generation to generation and fairy tales that have been composed by a single writer.

Examples of fairy tales collected by the Grimm Brothers:

What is a fable?

A fable is a short fictional story about animal characters who speak and act like human beings. A fable usually has a clear moral point.

Examples of fables collected by the Grimm Brothers:

What is a myth?

A myth is a sacred story that took place long before most things took place. It explains part of the cosmos and how it came to be like it is. Myths usually feature deities.

In the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library , you find two excellent collections of myths:

• Greek myths : Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece, G. Schwab
• Norse myths : The Norse Myths, K. Crossley-Holland

What is a legend?

A legend is a story rooted in history, usually about a person that really existed. That does not mean that all parts of a legend really happened.

Examples of a legend collected by the Grimm Brothers:

What is a tall tale?

A tall tale is a hero story with fantastical elements, told as if it were true and factual.

Examples of tall tales collected by the Grimm Brothers:

I wrote a whole article about tall tales and how to tell them .

What is a ghost story?

A ghost story is a short, scary story. Ghost stories have become a synonym for scary stories, so a ghost story does not need to include ghosts.

Examples of ghost stories collected by the Grimm Brothers:

How to tell the different types of traditional tales

I hope the different types of traditional tales are clearer to you now. I work as a professional storyteller, and knowing which type of tale a story is, helps a lot.

Each type of tale asks for a slightly different way of telling.

Below I have added some specific questions that people often ask. I have tried to answer them in a concise yet complete way.

What is the difference between fairy tales, folktales, and fables?

Fairy tales, folktales, and fables are all folk narratives. Fairy tales are rooted in magic, while folktales are rooted in the real-world, human problems, and emotions. Fables have a clear moral and feature animals as the main characters.

Is a fairy tale fiction or non-fiction?

Fairy tales are fiction. Although fragments might be based on things that really happened, they seldom contain references to events or places in the real world.

What’s the difference between fairy tales, fantasy and science fiction?

Fantasy and science fiction are literary genres. Fairy tales are a specific kind of story, a subgenre of fantasy. Science fiction deals with the future, whereas fairy tales and fantasy are primarily in the past. Science fiction usually doesn’t contain magic, while fairy tales and fantasy do.

Type of traditional tales: Sources

For this article, I did a lot of research. I asked contacts in a Reddit community, searched the web, and dove into my dusty books. Some sources that I used:

• Wikipedia on the Traditional Story
• Amber Pepper, knowledgeable folklorist on Quora
• Masterclass article on folktales and fairy tales (with some obvious faults)
• Sur La Lune (great site) on the question ‘What is a fairy tale?’

If you enjoyed this article, I think you will also enjoy my article on Pourquoi Tales .

Photo credits: OSPAN ALI on Unsplash

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What Is “Folk Literature”

• First Online: 29 October 2021

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• Zhenduo Zheng 3  

Part of the book series: Understanding China ((UNCHI))

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What is “folk literature”? It actually refers to popular literature, mass literature, and literary works rooted in folk society. In other words, folk literature is the very thing that cannot be regarded as elegant, the one not concerned by the literati but popularized in the folk. It is loved and enjoyed by the mass.

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Bianwen (变文): A popular form of narrative literature flourished in the Tang dynasty.

Tanci (弹词): A literary form featured with story-telling to the accompaniment of the stringed instruments.

Yuefu (乐府): Folk songs and ballads popularized in the Han dynasty.

Wazi (瓦子): Also was named as Wasi (瓦肆), Goulan (勾栏), a fixed place for entertainment. It was also the main place for drama performance in the cities in the Song and Yuan dynasties, which was equivalent to the theatre today.

Pinghua (评话): A style of story-telling popularized in the Song dynasty.

Huaben (话本): A kind of story-telling style popularized in the Song and Yuan dynasties.

You Minglu (《幽冥录》): Also was named as Youminglu (《幽明录》) or Youmingji (《幽冥记》), a collection of mythical stories written by Liu Yiqing and his followers in the Southern dynasties. It was consisted of 30 volumes, and the original tex was already lost.

Yinhualu (《因话录》): A kind of notes written by Zhao Lin in the Tang dynasty. It recorded the anecdotes of the Tang people.

Jiangshi (讲史, History telling ): A kind of oral literary form popularized in the ancient folk, mainly told the stories about the rises and falls of each dynasty and the wars.

Yujiaoli (《玉娇梨》): Also was named as Shuangmei Qiyuan (《双美奇缘》), the representative of “Scholar-Beauty Romances” written by the Han persons.

Kunshanqiang (昆山腔): Also was named as Kunqiang (昆腔), the melodies originated in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, in the Ming dynasty.

Zhugongdiao (诸宫调): A literary form featured with singing and saying and popularized in the Northern Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties.

Baojuan (宝卷): A literary form featured with story-telling and singing, developed from Bianwen in the Tang dynasty and the sermons given by the Song monks.

Guci (鼓词): A literary form popularized in the Northern China in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Temple literature (庙堂文学): Often referred to the odes and lyrical songs devoted to the court gatherings, sacrifice, and banquets. It also referred to the literary works sang the praises of the ruling class in general.

Shan’ge (山歌): Folk songs sung in the field during or after the work.

Preface to History of Vernacular Literature , p. 4.

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Zhenduo Zheng

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Zheng, Z. (2021). What Is “Folk Literature”. In: History of Chinese Folk Literature. Understanding China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5445-9_1

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Folklore & Mythology: Tale Types and Motif Indexes

Folklorists have created several tools unique to the discipline that allow for the cross-cultural and international study of folk narratives in particular:  tale type indexes and motif indexes.  The most well-known of these are Aarne and Thompson’s The Types of the Folktale (originally published by Aarne in 1910, and revised in 1928 and 1961 by Thompson, and in 2004 by Uther), and Thompson’s Motif Index of Folk-Literature (originally published 1922-1936; second edition 1955-1958).  Thompson’s Motif Index is also available online (see below).

Tale types refer recurring plot patterns in folk-tales.  Motifs are the building blocks within these plot-patterns, repeated story-elements.  The indexes serve as aids for interpretation and analysis. 

There are other tale type and motif indexes as well, with specific geographic or cultural foci.  A highlight of what is available is listed below.

Tale-type Indexes

Tikbalang , "the human horse," is a creature popular in Philippine folklore that is rumored to reside in the country's forests and mountains.

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Station 1: Traditional tales concentration

Students Match the scenario with the moral/lesson:

Students match the description of the type of literature with the definition or example.

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Station 4: Create a playlist for one of the characters in traditional literature.

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Look up some songs on the internet that would fit with your tale!

Six Types of Traditional literature

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Graffitti Walk

You have tons of books at your table with various examples of all the different types of traditional literature. (myths, folk and fairy tales, tall tales, legends, and fables)  

Station 3: Creating a Traditional Story on-line!

Station 6: this just in breaking news about some tradional literature.

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6ix types of traditional lit

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