Folklore is not solely a European invention. All cultures from all nationalities have their own folklore. Even in the United States we find American folklore in the disguise of Tall Tales brimming with characters like Paul Bunyan, Babe the Blue Ox, Pecos Bill, Big Foot Wallace, Davy Crockett, Brer Rabbit and many more. Folklore can be found globally in each culture, each race, each continent, and each country. Each is important. Each teaches guidelines, moral codes, ethics, warnings, and gives the present a window into a past that no longer exists. It is a link for each generation into the wisdom of the folk soul of the people, traditions, and culture. Through folklore we can learn much about each culture, each tradition, and each nationality.
The Brothers Grimm felt German folklore was extremely important. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm felt by studying German folklore they could understand the Germanic languages better from an etymological point of view. After researching and compiling the German folk tales, they realized these were important because of their contents and messages from long ago found within them. The German folk soul spoke through the folk tales to Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. These brothers learned more about their German roots than they expected. The fairy tales not only helped them in their etymological research of the Germanic Languages. It gave them a window into ancient German traditions and German culture.
Folklore does not solely come in the form of folk or fairy tales. It can be a doll created for a specific spiritual significance or purpose (the voodoo doll for example), a traditional straw goat (like the Yule goat), a type of plant (in Ireland the Shamrock represents good luck), a set of runes made out of wood or stones, or like Stonehenge an ancient place of great historical folk significance. The traditional Scottish folk-wear (clan kilt included) is another example of a folklore. The folk-wear piece worn holds great traditional significance to the Scottish people and informs all which clan the wearer hails from. It is like wearing one’s ancestral lineage. Many nations have national costumes that constitute wearable folklore. Many examples of this type of folklore can be found in South America, Asia, and Japan. Even the hieroglyphics in Egypt are a type of folklore for they relate something even though they look more like a form of art, usually the story of a Pharaoh or deity. All of these things that comprise folklore have great historical, anthropological and archaeological importance. All of these types of folklore gives past knowledge, lifestyle, traditions, and a window into past cultures. Neither is more significant than the other, for each is very precious and endearing to the people who are descended from those who created the folklore. Folklore in its variety of forms can even be appreciated by those outside of the represented culture.
Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary defines folklore as “traditional customs, tales, sayings, dances, or art forms preserved among a people.” The American Indian folk dance known as the “Rain Dance” would fall into this category as a type of folklore for it is completed for the specific traditional purposes for calling upon rain and asking for a good harvest. Another good example would be the Hawaiian “Hula”. This song with a dance tells a story with specific hand movements to a traditional Hawaiian music. For the Hawaiian people the Hula is a traditional art expression of their culture. Aesop’s fables is another type of folklore that originated from Greece. The most famous of Aesop’s fables is “The Hare and The Tortoise”. Each fable from Aesop (lived 620 – 560 BC) has an important moral to learn. Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary further defines folklore as “a branch of knowledge that deals with folklore.” A good example of this would be the Norse Poetic Eddas or the elder mythological poems known as the Elder Edda. These writings comprise keys to the understanding and practice of the pre-Christian spiritual path for the Germanic people (Northern and Western Europe). Another good example of a folklore that shares a “branch of knowledge” would be the Hindu Vedic texts known as the Vedas. The Vedas contain hymns, incantations, and spiritual rituals. Very important and sacred to the Hindu people for these derived from their ancestors.
Whatever the type or form of the folklore, it is very important, more than the obvious historical, archaeological, or anthropological reasons. Folklore is extremely precious for those descended by its origination for it teaches what the past knew, shares much about the ancestry (our ancestors), and bestows ancient insight with wisdom. Folklore gives all a sense of belonging to a specific culture and allows people to learn their roots of heritage (where they came from) in a very uniquely special way. All types of folklore are very treasured gifts from yore. Folklore should be cherished, remembered and shared generationally. Folklore gives each of us the ability to know who our people were and are.
American Folklore website: http://www.americanfolklore.net/tt.html
Aesop’s Fables on-line link: http://www.aesopfables.com/aesopsel.html
Aesop, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop
The Eddas: The Keys to the Mysteries of the North, by James Allen Chisholm (aka The Chisholm Eddas): http://home.earthlink.net/~jordsvin/Norse%20Texts/The%20Eddas.htm
Fairy tale, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_tale
Folklore definition, Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary website: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/folklore
Folklore, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm aka Grimm Brothers, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Borders Classics, 2000
Sacred Texts of Hinduism (includes the Vedas), Internet Sacred Text Archive website: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/
Hula, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hula
National costume, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_costume
Rain Dancing, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_dancing
Yule goat, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Goat
