Northern Ghost Research & Investigation Team - UK

What are myths, legends and folktales?

Human beings have been telling stories since they first learned to speak. And even before we could speak, we managed to tell stories by drawing and painting pictures on the walls of the caves we lived in.

Hundreds, even Thousands of years ago, before schools and teachers, there were ‘storytellers’ who’s stories have been passed down, retold, translated, adapted and written down. These stories include legends, myths and folktales. And the most popular of these have to be ‘Haunted’ tales.

What are legends?
A legend is usually based on a true event in the past. However, the story may have changed over time to take on some special 'mythical' features.
Legends will have been passed on from person to person and more often than not over a very long period of time. The fact that so many people have taken the trouble to keep the story alive, usually tells you that it has some basis and usually a important meaning for the culture or region in which the story was first told.

What are myths?
A myth is more often than not a story loosely based on a real event.

Myths were often used to explain the world and major events, which, at the time, people were not able to understand – great storms, lightning, thunder, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, even the rising and setting of the sun, illness and death.

What are folktales?
Folktales are usually stories that have been passed down from generation to generation in spoken form. Often told by a group leader or storyteller during the dark winter evenings while sat around a campfire. Nb: It is quite normal to discover that there are many versions of the tale. Many of the stories we call 'fairy tales' are actually folktales

Notes:
What we call legends are generally stories, which have an actual historical event or person as their starting point i.e Robin-Hood. Myths are sometimes based on legends but are altered in a way that makes them more exciting and fascinating to the listener but also useful to teach people how to behave or to give an explanation of the world around.
Folktales may also have started their life by being based on an event, but they are changed almost every time they are told and, as time passes, the story loses its connection to reality and the message or moral of the story becomes much more important.

It's not really so important to spot the difference between the three types. Just enjoy the stories for themselves and see if you can tell what the purpose of the story was originally. Why might the story have been told in the first place?