Myths, Legends and Folktales

• Storytelling is common to every culture. Most people enjoy listening to stories. Storytellers have catered to the

need for a 'good story'

since the beginning of civilization. • Most people have their own favorite story from childhood and, often, these tales are both fascinating and frightening. These stories include legends, myths and folktales.

Merlin the Magician

What are legends?

• A legend is a

semi-true story

, which has been passed on from person-to-person and has

important meaning or symbolism for the culture in which it originates

.

• A legend usually includes an

element of truth,

or is based on historic facts, but with 'mythical qualities'. • Legends usually involve heroic characters or

fantastic places

and often encompass the spiritual beliefs of the culture in which they originate.

What are myths?

 A myth is a story based on tradition or legend, which has a

deep symbolic meaning

.

 A myth

'conveys a truth' to those

who tell it and hear it, rather than necessarily recording a true event. Although some myths can be accounts of actual events, they have become transformed by symbolic meaning or shifted in time or place.

 Myths are often used to explain universal and local beginnings and involve

supernatural

beings. The

great power of the meaning

of these stories, to the culture in which they developed, is a major reason why they survive as long as they do - sometimes for thousands of years.

What is the difference between legends, myths and folktales?

 Myths, legends and folktales are hard to classify and

often overlap

.  Imagine a line (

or continuum

) as illustrated below, with an historical account based

on facts at one end and myths

or cultural folktales at the other.

 As you progress towards the mythical/folktale end of the line, what an event

symbolizes to people becomes of greater historical significance than the facts,

become less important.

, or what they feel about it

,

which  By the time you reach the far end of the spectrum, the story has taken on a life of its own and the facts of the original event, if there ever was one, have become almost irrelevant.  It is the message that is important.

Why were the stories told?

• As well as making fascinating reading, these stories also

world around them.

passed down the generations. Here are just a few of them:

tell us a great deal about how people in the past saw, and understood, the

There are many reasons why stories are told and  To

strengthen a community and provide a common understanding.

 Stories often reflect the

beliefs popularity of any story depends on whether those listening approve of the values underlying it

.

of the people who tell them.

The

 By telling and listening to stories, people

the world

around them.

confirmed their ideas about

 Things that people found along the same lines.

scary, infuriating

, or

desirable

all found their way into the stories and they were passed on, because people wanted to be assured that other people around them were thinking

Continued

 As a way of

providing moral guidance

and showing people

how they should conduct

themselves, including the

consequences

of not doing so, myths and legends, like any good stories, often include a

moral

. Within the myth,

the hurt or embarrassment experienced by people is often due to their own stupidity, greed, dishonesty or negligence.

 To

explain how the world works,

for example why the seasons change, and to

explain strange happenings or phenomena

such as eclipses - the reasons for which were unknown in early times.

 For

entertainment

purposes, stories were told to amuse and enthrall an audience in the days before TV and other forms of mass entertainment.

King Arthur: HISTORY LEGEND MYTH

The Welsh Christian monk

Nennius

wrote around 800 A.D. the "Historia Brittanum,” which is the first publication to mention "

Arthur

" by name as

a hero

. Nennius was

probably

an early ninth century Welsh monk, and

probably

wrote it.

“Historia Brittonum” (History of the Britons) is a strange assortment of texts covering the ancestries of kings, geography, the lives of saints.

The “Historia Brittonum” has been controversial as to its date and origin. Nennius has been described as "unrestrainedly inventive" with this work. Nennius made mistakes with dating schemes, people's names and genealogical facts "Historia Brittanum" is drawn largely upon Celtic

legend

, written or oral.

The brief mention of

Arthur

by Nennius occurs when he describes him as being

the British leader who fought against the Anglo-Saxons.

The battle culminated in a victory for the Britons at the Battle of Mount Badon (Mons Badonicus). Nennius lists twelve battles with which

Arthur

was involved.

The Historia Brittonum (ca. 800),15 which was probably

compiled by,

rather than written by, Nennius, is the oldest work to record

legends of Arthur

. By the beginning of the ninth century,

Arthur

was known as both a dux bellorum and a miles ("soldier"), although the legends of Arthur being a king were apparently already in circulation, given the care with which

Nennius points out that Arthur was not a king.

King Arthur was said to be the son of Uther Pendragon and Ygraine of Cornwall.

Arthur is a near mythic figure in Celtic stories such as Culhwch and Olwen. In early chronicles he is presented as a

military leader

, the dux bellorum. In

later romance

he is a king and emperor. The

Tudor monarchs traced their lineage to King Arthur and used that connection as a justification for their occupation of the English throne.

Irrespective of whether

King Arthur

was real or mythical, it cannot be denied that King Arthur has been a major influence on literature, from the early Middle Ages to the present day. And although

if

King Arthur had been a "real" king,

he would have lived around the 5th or 6th centuries, it is more as a Middle Ages (1066-1400) knight that he is presented in literature.

The main impetus for

Arthurian stories

starts with

Geoffrey of Monmouth,

who records Arthur's birth, childhood, ascension to the throne, military conquests, and death. He places

King Arthur

as living from the

late fifth century to 542

, when the king was mortally wounded in his last battle.

This story became the basis of the Arthurian legend

, and was built on by

Chrétien de Troyes

and

Sir Thomas Malory

.

Other attempts to fill-out the above concept of King Arthur have focused on trying to

localize

this Arthur.

Arthur has been placed by

various researchers

as the war-leader in the North of Britain, the South, the Midlands, southern Scotland as well as Wales and Cornwall.

But these (researchers ) are not particularly successful at localizing King Arthur, as the early "historical" references are just too vague to tie him down.

But the

main source

of Arthurian myths did not come from British English writings. Rather from

French authors living in Brittany

about 300 years before

Malory's epic Arthurian tale

was published. They might well have based their tales on stories told by English Crusaders in the 11th century, but they

undoubtedly embroidered

these stories themselves. These

early romantic novelists

gave us most of the

myths

that were later further embroidered by Malory and Tennyson.

http://www.legendofkingarthur.co.uk/who-was-king-arthur.htm

Was Arthur a true, historical figure or only a hero of legend? This is truly up to each and every one of us to decide for ourselves.

Either way, the story behind King Arthur represents a man who was the epitome of struggles:

•

good against evil

•

light against darkness

•

right/wrong

King Arthur was NOT… …a Medieval King with knights in shining armor living in a magical castle called Camelot.

Many of us know only of Arthur and Gwenevere (Guinevere)

characters that were cornerstones to the legends and stories surrounding Camelot,

Merlin

Excalibur

and the Holy Grail

the Round Table,

Sir Lancelot

Sir Galahad

And many other knights

Of King Arthur’s famous Round Table.

These legends, real or imagined, recreate the history of the Medieval Period (1066 -1486) and teach the audience about valor and chivalry. The Medieval Period was a time of pageantry. feudal manors, strict allegiance to the King, magnificent religious festivals, and brilliant

It was also a time of great magic .