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