Main Topic: Folklore Defined
- What is Folklore by Ellen McHale: http://www.nyfolklore.org/resource/what.html
- Wikipedia - Folklore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore
- New York Folklore Society: http://www.nyfolklore.org/
- S.E. Schlosser: http://www.americanfolklore.net/
Music Provided by Jon Schmidt: http://www.jonschmidt.com/
Next Episode: Fairy Tales Defined
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Transcript
Welcome to the MythShow, where timeless stories are discussed and brought to life. I am your host, Gregory Lemon and this is Episode Two. This show is for those who would like to know more about the wide and fascinating field of mythology, folk lore, and fairy tales.
During this episode I’ll answer the question, “What is and what isn’t folklore?” This is a second in the four-episode introduction to the type of stories that this podcast will cover. During episode one, I defined mythology as it will be used during this podcast. In the episode three, I’ll talk about fairy tales.
The music for this podcast is provided by Jon Schmidt at jonschmidt.com
Main Topic: Folklore Defined
To answer our question: “What is folklore?” I’ll share a quote from Ellen McHale. I found it on the New York Folklore Society web page.
“Folklore and folklife [...] are cultural ways in which a group maintains and passes on a shared way of life. [(including traditional arts, belief, traditional ways of work and leisure, adornment and celebrations)]
“This ‘group identity’ may be defined by age, gender, ethnicity, avocation, region, occupation, religion, socioeconomic niche, or any other basis of association. As New York folklorist Ben Botkin wrote in 1938,
“’Every group bound together or by common interests and purposes, whether educated or uneducated, rural or urban, possesses a body of traditions which may be called its folklore. Into these traditions enter many elements, individual, popular, and even “literary,” but all are absorbed and assimilated through repetition and variation into a pattern which has value and continuity for the group as a whole.’
(Ellen McHale’s quote continues)
“These traditional forms of knowledge are learned informally within a one-to-one or small group exchange, through performance, or by example. In all cases, folklore and folklife are learned and perpetuated within the context of the “group,” for it is the shared experience which shapes and gives meaning to the exchange.”
(http://www.nyfolklore.org/resource/what.html)
As a disclaimer on the quote, I did reorder the sentences in the first paragraph for clarity. The “including” list was in the middle of the actual definition. As I said last episode, I’m not an English expert but I feel that this made reading the quote easier to understand. I beg a pardon from McHale. Anyway, it is the content of this quote that is most important.
According to McHale, folklore focuses on the culture of a specific group that can be defined in pretty much any manner. For example her quote used “age, gender, ethnicity, avocation, region, occupation, [or] religion”. While religion is one item that can distinguish one culture’s folklore from another, it is not the primary focus of the tale. Folklore is encompassing all aspects of that culture. The best part of the quote for me was how folklore is used to “[pass] on a shared way of life.” That is the one of my main goals for this podcast. Passing stories from one generation to another. However, I believe that there is so much to learn from other cultures, I will not focus on only one.
In the last episode, we talked about how mythology is a collection of myths. Myths can “[pass] on a shared way of life” just like folklore. However, mythology is passed on in a religious context, supported by a specific religion or a sect of that religion.
Similar to myths, folklore can have religious themes. But the characters in the lore is not supported as a deity or associated with religious practices by the local clergy. The line between this type of folklore and mythology can be very thin and may be based on the religious beliefs of the storyteller. Overtime and from generation-to-generation, slight changes can creep into the myth. If these changes build up enough, as to remove the religious significance out of the story, it becomes folklore or even a fairy tale.
Many stories in a culture’s folklore has no sacred or religious context. They may be a narrative with a moral. As stated by McHale earlier, folklore can pass on “traditional ways of work and leisure.” In this context, folklore can be used as a teaching tool for parents to use in the learning process with their children. For example, sharing the story of Pinocchio can teach the importance of honesty. Also, Hansel and Gretel could be a lesson on forest safety.
Wikipedia has a great article on the subject on folklore. (I put the link in the show notes.) The Wikipedia definition of folklore describes it as a “body of expressive culture.” This expressive culture can be expressed through oral history, tales, proverbs, and customs. Wikipedia goes beyond McHale to include music, dance, legends, jokes, and popular beliefs. Modern folklore is found in the urban legends. This show will focus on the more traditional McHale definition. I will limit the show scope to folklore that can be shared through story telling. I will leave folk dance and music to dancers and musicians.
Folklore Origins
The origins of folklore are more diverse than the origins of myths. As previously discussed, the origins of myths come from a religious belief system. It’s true that some folklore does come from religious origins. I believe that the tale of St. George and the Dragon could be an example of this.
However, many tales from folklore developed in 1800s and came about as a part of nationalism for the country of origin. These heroes have become larger than life. American Folklore usually focuses around real people and their probably not-so-real adventures. Characters from early American History include Washington and his cherry tree, Franklin and his inventions, Lincoln and his debates, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, Davy Crockett at the Alamo, and Daniel Boone and his coonskin cap. Notice that these characters come from the late 1700s and 1800s during times of great American nationalism. The more extreme folktales have become tall tales. These are stories where the factual elements have been pushed aside for the excitement of the story. Examples from American tall tales include Paul Bunyon, Pecos Bill, Jonny Appleseed and the Headless Horseman from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Modern Folklore
It does not seem that modern folklore is as prevalent as the examples that I talked about earlier. It could be that the craft of story telling around the hearth of a cabin, or campfire in the mountains has been replaced by TV, DVDs, and other electronic entertainment. Some believe that the urban legend is the folklore that is being written today.
Honestly, I don’t know where to draw the line between fiction and folklore. Who’s to say that the tales from a culture in a galaxy far, far away isn’t a real folklore because it takes it form in the Star Wars franchise? The fantastical adventures of Tolken’s Lord of the Rings, Rowling’s Harry Potter, and Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia each fit McHale’s definition of tales that pass on a culture’s shared way of life. Does it matter that the culture is created in a modern author’s mind before being written? Even Homer, the great storyteller of the Iliad and the Odyssey, had to have a contemporary audience to hear his tales. For me, I’m not going to wait thousands of years to enjoy, and share, the awesome stories that are out there by modern “Homers.” And please erase the image of Homer Simpson that is currently in your brain.
Folklore Resources
Thanks for listening to the show. Resource material for this episode came from many different web resources. The excellent definitions that were the focus of the show came from the New York Folklore Society (found at http://www.nyfolklore.org/) and Wikipedia’s folklore article found by searching for the term “folklore” as one word at http://wikipedia.org. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_lore) The exact link is in the show notes.
Future folklore based discussions will use information from Author S.E. Schlosser web site http://www.americanfolklore.net/ This web site contains lesson plans for parents and teachers. I really appreciate the humor of the web site that states “This site is best viewed while eating marshmallows around a campfire under a starry sky.”
