What is a Myth/Fairy Tale/Legend/Folktale?

Hey guys!

Since I’m switching over for now from mythology to fairy tales, I thought it might be helpful to give an explanation of what falls into which categories. This was actually really interesting for me to take a closer look at; I hadn’t known all of the distinctions between the various terms.

Lets go ahead and start with mythology. Mythology is defined as a collection of stories explaining a culture, their history, and how they thought nature worked. To this end, you have stories about Zeus or Thor explaining the existence of lightning, and other gods that explain other aspects of nature. The story of Gilgamesh was how the later Mesopotamians explained the history of one of their kings. Most of what we know about the Mesopotamians actually comes from their mythology.

Fairy tales are vastly different from mythology, though they can seem just as fantastical at times. For starters, mythology is something that someone once believed in. Fairy tales (as much as we love to believe in them when we are young) are only stories. They generally feature some sort of magic or inhuman creature.  I'll talk a lot more about them in my next post!

Legends are interesting in that they generally have some sort of historical grounding. While they can be just as wild and imaginative as fairy tales, they have ties to history that make them seem somewhat plausible. The story of King Arthur is both a myth and a legend, given that it has some grounding in history. Another example of a legend would be the more modern story of the survival of Anastasia. Though there is precious little hope that such a thing is possible, the story has historical ties and is thus a legend.

Folktales are interesting in that they can include things from any of the other categories. At its most basic definition, folktales are stories that the people of a culture tell. There may be small amounts of truth to the story, or none at all. The culture may believe in the stories that they tell, or simply tell tall tales for the fun of it. Fairy tales and legends both fall into the category of folktales, amongst other things.  Folktales also have high similarities to mythology. Folktales are also sometimes called folklore.

I’m not sure if this has been any help, but I thought it was interesting to look at the distinctions (and crossovers!) between the different terms. There’s a lot more to each category, and if you’re interested I’d recommend looking it up! It’s a fascinating topic.

As a reminder, I am now on a once-a-week update schedule. I know this post was shorter than most of mine have been, but I’ll make it up to you next week. In that post, we’ll take a closer look at fairy tales - including some of the different stories, the types of characters, and the ties fairy tales have with mythology. I’ll see you then!