Canadian Folklore, myths and legends
Folklore
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Myths, legends and folklore are cultural narratives that promote and share cultural identity. Folklore encompasses all areas of a culture’s stories, including folksongs, folktales, myth, epic, legend, riddles and proverbs. Folktales “are a core element of any culture and are the foundation of many literary traditions” (Sayed, 2011, n.p.)
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Myth
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The popular use of the word “myth” to denote something that is untrue is not the intended meaning when used in discussion of cultural myths. Myths are sacred narratives, stories of Truth that are used to interpret experiences and inform the worldview of a culture. The Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature defines myth as “an oral prose narrative regarded as sacred and true within the society that tells it, set in the remote past in a world unlike the present one” (Brown & Rosenberg, 1998, p. 432). Myths help answer questions of identity like “Where did we come from” and “how should we live”. They socialize children according to cultural norms (Dooley, 1994, p. 52). Existing in all cultures, myths feature the interactions of humans with the supernatural or divine, as well as universal plots and motifs. While this may make them unbelievable to some, it does not reduce the importance of the myth and its message.
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Legend
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The definition of legend varies slightly from that of myth. Legends are told as if they are true and are a “conversational narrative whose reported events are set in historical (as opposed to myth’s cosmological) time and whose telling makes possible debate concerning the ‘real world’ occurrence and/or efficacy of the events, characters, folk beliefs, and/or folk customs described” (Brown & Rosenberg, 1998, p. 376,). Legends have a dual purpose; they entertain and instruct.
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Created by Brooke McLean for Professor Gail de Vos,
University of Alberta, LIS 516
University of Alberta, LIS 516