FOLKLORE: On the subject of folklore, according to Aurelio M. Espinosa: “folklore, or popular knowledge, is the accumulated store of what mankind has experienced, learned, and practiced across the ages as popular and traditional knowledge, as distinguished from so-called scientific knowledge.” Espinosa continues, “Specifically, folklore consists of the beliefs, customs, superstitions, proverbs, riddles, songs, myths, legends, tales, ritualistic ceremonies, magic, witchcraft, and all other manifestations and practices of primitive and illiterate peoples and of the ‘common’ people of civilized society.”

FAIRY TALE: By some, folklore and folktales are defined as being orally transmitted “by word of mouth for many generations.” In that vein, fairy tales are defined as the products, the literary works that are finally written down. (However, Hans-Jörg Uther notes that the assumption that literary fairy tales come from pure sources of oral transmission is false; some orally transmitted tales were themselves based on older forms of literature.) Fairy tales are closely linked with related genres, including mythology and legend. According to Stith Thompson, fairy tales are most often about characters that are not named, but are referred to as “a king” or “a queen”; when named, such as “Mary” or “Jack”, no effort is made to identify the individual. 

MYTH: By contrast, a myth is defined as “a story, presented as having actually occurred in a previous age, explaining the cosmological and supernatural traditions of a people, their gods, heroes, cultural traits, religious beliefs, etc.” 

LEGEND: Meanwhile, a legend: “has come to be used for a narrative supposedly based on fact, with an intermixture of traditional materials, told about a person, place, or incident.” Reportedly, “The line between myth and legend is often vague; the myth has as its principal actors the gods, and as its purpose explanation…. The legend is told as true; the myth’s veracity is based on the belief of its hearers in the gods who are its characters.”