James Baquet

    Let’s distinguish three terms: myth, fairy tale, and legend.

    A myth is a story that once held great significance for a culture, containing that culture’s ideas of how the world was made, or explaining natural or cultural phenomena. They might tell where the rainbow came from, or why Chinese people wear red at New Year’s.

    Usually, gods are the “stars” of these stories. Most myths were once believed to be true, and were part of a living religion. They are usually located outside of historical time, e. g., “In the beginning.”

    Fairy tales are made up stories, often with a general lesson like “obey your parents” or “follow your heart.” Unlike myths, fairy tales are almost never thought to be literally true. They are passed on from generation to generation, like myths, but they may be changed by the storyteller quite freely. Being more serious, myths remained more stable over time.

    Fairy tales often feature human “stars,” though some may have magical powers. In fact, magic is a key element in fairy tales (a sort of degraded form of the gods’ powers). There may be imaginary creatures, and perhaps a struggle between clearly-defined “good” and “evil” powers.

    The fable is a special type of fairy tale, featuring talking animals and a clearly stated moral lesson.

    Somewhere between myths and fairy tales are legends. These are often based on the life of a real person. As such, they are often anchored in both space and time. But elements — sometimes fantastic ones — have been added that raise the story out of the realm of history.

    Legends and fairy tales, unlike myths, often come from the people, so they are called “folk tales.” Myths, though, are often created by the peoples’ religious leaders.

    These three types of stories may overlap. On a spectrum, with “history” at one end and “myth” on the other, legends would be closer to “history,” and fairy tales to “myth,” like this: history — legend — fairy tale — myth.

    We’ll start looking at some of the world’s legends next time.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. a range of related items forming a continuous series

    2. solid, not likely to change

    3. tell the difference between

    4. group of people born around the same time

    5. held fast, fixed

    6. belief actively followed by people

    7. things like dragons and unicorns

    8. sphere in which something happens

    9. highly unrealistic

    10. reduced in quality