folklores
Passed-down tales
Folklores is the plural of folklore, referring to multiple distinct bodies of traditional beliefs, customs, and stories.
While folklore as a mass noun typically needs no plural, folklores appears when distinguishing separate traditions: the folklores of West Africa, comparing the folklores of Ireland and Scotland.
The form emphasizes that different cultures maintain their own discrete folk traditions.
Traditional magical children's stories
- tall talesFantastical exaggerated stories
- ghost storiesTales of the supernatural
- trickster talesFolklore of cunning characters
- creation mythsTraditional origin-of-everything tales
animal fables · cautionary tales · epic sagas · ballads · nursery rhymes · riddles · morality tales · adventure stories
Traditional stories or icons
- mythsTraditional untrue narratives
- oral traditionsCulture transmitted through speech
- customsTraditional practices or import taxes
- heritageInherited cultural legacy
storytelling · superstitions · rituals · ancestral tales · cultural practices · old wives tales · proverbs · fables
Systematic study of peoples
- folkloristsScholars of traditional culture
- oral historyRecorded interviews about the past
- cultural anthropologyStudy of human societies
- documentationWritten proof or instructions
preservation · field research · archives · collection · ethnology · cultural heritage · authenticity · transmission
Folklorist brothers' surname
- AnansiWest African spider deity
- Baba YagaSlavic witch of legend
- CoyoteNamed trickster deity
- LeprechaunHorror film franchise
Br'er Rabbit · Raven · Maui · Scheherazade · Paul Bunyan · Robin Hood · Aesop · Norse sagas
fairy tales
Traditional magical children's stories
- tall talesFantastical exaggerated stories
- ghost storiesTales of the supernatural
- trickster talesFolklore of cunning characters
creation myths · animal fables · cautionary tales · epic sagas · ballads · nursery rhymes · riddles · morality tales · adventure stories · supernatural tales
legends
Traditional stories or icons
- mythsTraditional untrue narratives
- oral traditionsCulture transmitted through speech
- customsTraditional practices or import taxes
heritage · storytelling · superstitions · rituals · ancestral tales · cultural practices · old wives tales · proverbs · fables · parables
ethnography
Systematic study of peoples
- folkloristsScholars of traditional culture
- oral historyRecorded interviews about the past
- cultural anthropologyStudy of human societies
documentation · preservation · field research · archives · collection · ethnology · cultural heritage · authenticity · transmission · variants
Grimm
Folklorist brothers' surname
Br'er Rabbit · Leprechaun · Raven · Maui · Scheherazade · Paul Bunyan · Robin Hood · Aesop · Norse sagas · Celtic myths
folkloresrecorded history
Past preserved through documentation
historical records · archival records · chronicles · historiography · academic history
folkloresoriginal compositions
Freshly created musical works
literary fiction · modern inventions · personal memoirs · avant-garde art
folkloresscientific knowledge
Facts established through research
empirical data · hard science · clinical studies · objective reality
- British folkloreTraditional tales from Britain
- medieval folkloreTales from feudal times
- folklore traditionsInherited cultural practices and stories
- local folkloreA community's traditional tales
- Japanese folkloreTraditional myths of Japan
- folklore heroTraditional story's celebrated figure