Essay: Definition, characteristics, and types of folktales

Folktales were the primary source of knowledge to our ancestors and it is a huge part of every culture. They are stories that have been collected over thousands of years, passed down orally through generation to another and they are filled with symbolism, archetypes and spiritual truths. Folktales usually speak to the children and grown ups of an own culture at a deep level and teach them in many aspect what’s a culture value and see truth in.
This research will include the definition, characteristics, and types of folktales. As well as famous folktales from various regions and cultures around the world that have deep meaning and life lessons such as: Europe, Middle east, Africa, and America.
Here are some famous folkstories that was generally known between the people of the societies and countries in Europe region. Every story holds an aim for being created and passed through generation to transmit the wanted values that reflected their way of thinking back then.
 
The first folk tale is called: Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a 19th century folk tale. It all started in the town called Bristol located in the south west of England. Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one of many modern interpretations of the poet Robert Southey’s original story in which the main character was an old women. Later on, Joseph Cundall an English writer had a changed the character of the old women to a girl with a golden hair and the reason is to attract the children to the story because children admire good looking characters. Although it is labeled as Southey’s idea but this story was in circulation before the publication of Southey’s tale (Jacobs, Joseph, 1892).
This folktale become one of the most popular fairy tales in the English language and it is often used as a bedtime story. The summary of the story is that there is an attractive girl called Goldilocks who is naïve and rude, she once was kicked out of the her house and entered the three bears house when they were not in there and messed with all of their food, chairs, and beds.
The aim behind this folktale is that it shows how your actions might hurt others and also the illustration of the concept called trespassing which refers to entering or breaking. Goldilocks entered the house, eat the food, and sleep on the beds when she didn’t saw anyone in there and that is completely wrong and rude because it is not her house to do whatever she wants to. Moreover, Goldilocks is selfish when she tried every choice until she found whatever suited her and did not care about the mess she made. This folk tale was passed through generations in Europe and in many different interpretations but the aim of it is still the same and that is to teach the society of the west specially the children the main moral principals such as: respect and kindness for themselves and others Also the worth of having a safe shelter.
The second folktale is called boy who cried wolf, it is a famous folktale from the classical times, it was originally in circulation in Greek civilization. Later on, it was collected and translated by famous writers such as; Heinrich Steingowels, Hieronymus, and Francis Barlow. This folktale had many titles for example: A boy and false alarms, Of the herd boy and the farmers, and The boy who lied. All this titles tells the purpose of the story that refers to a concept called crying wolf in which it is used to describing a person who request help or complaining about something when help is not actually needed.
The story was about a shepherd little boy who repeatedly make tricks on the people of the nearby village into making them believe that there is a wolf attacking the sheep and when the wolf actually appears, the boy calls for help but the people thought it was just another lie and no one come to help so the sheep ends up eaten by the wolf. Moreover, in many other versions the boy ends up eaten too. The aim behind this story is to teach the people of the society back then a life lesson about avoiding telling lies and that lies breaks trust. Also, the liar will have an unfortunate ending for the lie that he kept making. Here the people of the village refused to help the boy because they thought it was just another trick they did not trust him for repeatedly fooling them and lying so they left him alone but in reality he needed their help this time.
The third folktale is an European fairy tale known nowadays by the title Little Red Riding hood. It was originally spreading in Italy by the 10th century and later was collected and written by an Italian famous later called Italo Calvino. The writers Charles Perrautlt and the Brother grimm wrote the newest known version of this folktale. There is different titles of the folktales were mainly consisting of Red riding hood which refers to the main character of the story who is the little girl and what she wear; the red hat (Zipes & Jack, 1993)
The story summary was about a little girl who grew in a small village. She was most loved by her dearest grandmother. The mother of the little girl told her daughter visit her grandmother who lived in the wood. The girl meets a wolf that later on ate her and her mother. In the end, the wolf got killed. The story behind it is to teach children and mainly the beautiful well dressed girls of the danger of talking to strangers because it can cause them their life. Also, to show the children and the young people the importance of listening to the elderly advice specially their parent because all the parents want is to protect their children from danger and keep them safe. Another life lesson for the children is to not wander alone in the forest because it will probably end up badly and that is a result of what they used to believe that the forest is a scary and horrible place to get lost into. They used to think that forest is where the scariest creatures on earth live in.
The Last folktale is called The goose girl. It is a German folk tale that was originally transmitted orally between people of their society. This folk tale appeared in 19th century in the folk stories collection of the Brother Grimms, a philologists, cultural researchers and authors. It was firstly translated in English language by Edar Tylor, a British solicitor and author. This folk story was famous by mainly this title in the society of German people back in time. It talks about a beautiful young princess that was send with her servant to marry the prince of an another country. In the trip the princesses’ servant made the princess take off her royal clothes and switched places with the princess to marry off the prince and become a queen. Later, the servant got caught by the prince dad and got punished to death. Lastly, the princess marry the prince.
The story main aim is to send warrant of not trusting the non-blood related people. Also, telling rich people to always keep an eye on their servants because they may stab them in the back and instead of serving them their main target is to destroy or steal their properties. Moreover, the story reflects their way of thinking back then about how that the beautiful things or good looking people always win in the end and the ugly or less appealing people should deserve less or lose. The story shows that people back then used to believe in some form of magic and that it can be used for both good or evil purposes.
In the conclusion, every folktale reflected how the ancestors of the culture used to believe and think. It shows what they wanted to transmit over the generation and the cultures form through it.
Although each folktale that we listed earlier belong to different cultures they mostly share common ideas and believes. We conclude that these folktales form some sort of connection between different cultures and regions. They transmit knowledge and life lesson not only through owns culture generation but also between various culture and regions.