Prose Narratives

Myths, legends, and folktales are narratives in prose – referred to as prose narratives. This distinguishes them from proverbs, riddles, ballads, poems, and other verbal forms.

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Myths 

Myths are prose narratives which, in the society in which they are told, are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past.

Characteristics of Myths

• Accepted on faith, taught to be believed, and can be cited as authority in answer to ignorance, doubt, or disbelief.
• Embodiment of dogma, usually sacred, and often associated with theology and ritual.
• Main characters are usually not humans, but they often have human attributes – they are animals, deities, or cultural heroes, whose actions are set in an earlier world, when the earth was different than it is today.
• Account for the origin of the world, of mankind, of death, or for characteristics of birds, geographic features, and phenomena of nature.
• Recount the activities of deities – including their love affairs, family relationships, their friendships and enemies, their victories and defeats.

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Legends

Legends are prose narratives which, like myths, are regarded as true by the narrator and his audience, but they are set in a period considered less remote, when the world was much as it is today.

Characteristics of Legends

• More often secular than sacred.
• Principal characters are human.
• Tell of migrations, wars and victories, deeds of past heroes, chiefs, and kings, and succession in ruling dynasties.
• Include local tales of buried treasure, ghosts, fairies, and saints.

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Folktales

Folktales are prose narratives which are regarded as fiction.

Characteristics of Folktales

• Not considered as dogma or history, may or may not have happened, and are not to be taken seriously.
• Though they are often told only for amusement, they may present moral truths.
• May be set in any time and any place, and in this sense they are almost timeless and placeless.
• Fairies, ogres, and even deities may appear, but folktales usually recount the adventures of animal or human characters.
• Have been called “nursery tales” or “fairy tales.”

Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth

Edited by Alan Dundes

Sacred Narrative

“In the beginning” is how many myths start their story. And, simply put, a myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and man came to be in their present form. That myths are sacred means that all forms of religion incorporate myths of some kind. There is nothing disparaging about the term myth. The term mythos means word or story. It is only the modern usage of the word myth as “error” that has led to the notion of myth as something negative.

Metaphorical Guise

In common parlance, the term myth is often used as a mere synonym for error or fallacy. “That’s just a myth!” one may exclaim to label a statement or assertion as untrue. But untrue statements are not myths in the formal sense – nor are myths necessarily untrue statements. For myth may constitute the highest form of truth, albeit in metaphorical guise. If one keeps in mind that a myth must refer minimally to a narrative, then one can easily eliminate most of the books and articles employing myth in their titles.

Study of Myth

The study of myth is an international and an interdisciplinary venture. Scholars from around the world have contributed to the analysis of myth, and this includes scholars of anthropology, classics, comparative religion, folklore, psychology, and theology, among others areas of specialization.

Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth

Edited by Alan Dundes