Among the texts prescribed for our readings, there is some of tales genre. These are the kind of passages we were often exposed to throughout our early days, may it be in written form or word of mouth. These stories often enthralled us then, and even to this day they still hold some wonderment at those times when we want to stop being a pragmatist and to be much of a romantics, to allow creativity and imagination to reign. Reading on these tales, made me realise that ignorance had always befriended me previously so as to stifle my curiosity from noting the difference between terms used to refer to this genre. For then to me myth, legend, fable, folk lore and fairy tale are equivalent and can be used interchangeably. However, upon my research, I found out that was not quite true, that tales is a great umbrella of genre under which dwell subcategories- myth, legend, folktale/fairytale and fables, that even though a tale may shift between each category, each category does have some distinctive characteristics.
Myth originated from Greek ‘muthos’ that means word of mouth, oft a narrative presumed to be factual that tries to describe origins of certain things or phenomenon by using characters that are superhuman, often come in form of celestial being- god and goddess at a distant past. Legends differed from myths, in that legends may sometimes be based on historical facts or persons, that later become distorted over a period of time. Normally, legend tends to enlarge the figure to heroic proportion. Legend can also be confined to a particular time and place. Therefore, I would say that in terms of local stories ‘Sang Gedembai’ is a myth and ‘Hang Tuah’ is a legend.
Fairy Tales on the other hand are short narratives featuring mythical beings such as fairies, elves, and sprites. However, not every fairy tales features fairies due to the history of the English term "fairy tale" which derives from the French phrase contes de fée. Stith Thompson and Carter once pointed out that talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be more common in fairytales J.R.R. Tolkien also agree on this defining fairy tales as stories about the adventures of men in Faërie, the land of fairies, fairytale princess dwarves, elves, and not only other magical species but many other marvels. Fairytales often contain archetypical characters- princesses and goose-girls; youngest sons and gallant princes; ogres, giants, dragons, and trolls; wicked stepmothers and false heroes; fairy godmothers and other magical helpers, often talking horses, or foxes, or birds; glass mountains; and prohibitions and breaking of prohibitions.
Upon reading some of the websites I gather that to make sense of myth and the other genres of tales one have to read them carefully. Let me quote what Italo Calvino once wrote:
‘…one should not be in a hurry. It is better to let them settle into the memory, to stop and dwell on every detail, to reflect on them without losing touch with their language of images. The lesson we can learn from a myth lies in the literal narrative, not in what we add to it from the outside…’
Thus, in making sense of myth it is better to learn how to read and interpret metaphors and symbol. We also have to compare and contrast significant characters, events and actions to look for motif. And since tales are often set in different culture, it is wise to learn about the culture that produced them.
Myth originated from Greek ‘muthos’ that means word of mouth, oft a narrative presumed to be factual that tries to describe origins of certain things or phenomenon by using characters that are superhuman, often come in form of celestial being- god and goddess at a distant past. Legends differed from myths, in that legends may sometimes be based on historical facts or persons, that later become distorted over a period of time. Normally, legend tends to enlarge the figure to heroic proportion. Legend can also be confined to a particular time and place. Therefore, I would say that in terms of local stories ‘Sang Gedembai’ is a myth and ‘Hang Tuah’ is a legend.
Fairy Tales on the other hand are short narratives featuring mythical beings such as fairies, elves, and sprites. However, not every fairy tales features fairies due to the history of the English term "fairy tale" which derives from the French phrase contes de fée. Stith Thompson and Carter once pointed out that talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be more common in fairytales J.R.R. Tolkien also agree on this defining fairy tales as stories about the adventures of men in Faërie, the land of fairies, fairytale princess dwarves, elves, and not only other magical species but many other marvels. Fairytales often contain archetypical characters- princesses and goose-girls; youngest sons and gallant princes; ogres, giants, dragons, and trolls; wicked stepmothers and false heroes; fairy godmothers and other magical helpers, often talking horses, or foxes, or birds; glass mountains; and prohibitions and breaking of prohibitions.
Upon reading some of the websites I gather that to make sense of myth and the other genres of tales one have to read them carefully. Let me quote what Italo Calvino once wrote:
‘…one should not be in a hurry. It is better to let them settle into the memory, to stop and dwell on every detail, to reflect on them without losing touch with their language of images. The lesson we can learn from a myth lies in the literal narrative, not in what we add to it from the outside…’
Thus, in making sense of myth it is better to learn how to read and interpret metaphors and symbol. We also have to compare and contrast significant characters, events and actions to look for motif. And since tales are often set in different culture, it is wise to learn about the culture that produced them.
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