Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. The academic and usually ethnographic study of folklore is known as folkloristics.

History

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The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological goals; only in the 20th century did ethnographers begin to attempt to record folklore without overt political goals. The Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm, collected orally transmitted German tales and published the first series as Kinder- und Hausmärchen ("Children's and Household Tales") in 1812.

The term was coined in 1846 by an Englishman, William Thoms, who wanted to use an Anglo-Saxon term for what was then called "popular antiquities." Johann Gottfried von Herder first advocated the deliberate recording and preservation of folklore to document the authentic spirit, tradition, and identity of the German people; the belief that there can be such authenticity is one of the tenets of the romantic nationalism which Herder developed. The definition most widely accepted by current scholars of the field is "artistic communication in small groups," coined by Dan Ben-Amos a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, and the term, and the associated field of study, now include non-verbal art forms and customary practices.

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IRISH LITERATURE, MYTHOLOGY, FOLKLORE, AND DRAMA http://bit.ly/4OTWqa #twine
gaveedra (James Veber) Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:14:30 -0000
IRISH LITERATURE, MYTHOLOGY, FOLKLORE, AND DRAMA http://bit.ly/4OTWqa #twine
Dragon's: Chinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and folklore, with mythic counterparts... http://tinyurl.com/yzh8xoe
ADragonFan (Florence Graves) Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:13:48 -0000
Dragon's: Chinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and folklore, with mythic counterparts... http://tinyurl.com/yzh8xoe
http://tinyurl.com/3301 Folktexts: A library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology ...
onion_soup (onion_soup) Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:32:07 -0000
http://tinyurl.com/3301 Folktexts: A library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology ...
Los Angeles Public Library | Web Links | Philosophy & Religion: Philosophy & Religion. Mythology. Folklore and Myth... http://bit.ly/7fgh45
BeliefNut (Jane Brain) Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:53:59 -0000
Los Angeles Public Library | Web Links | Philosophy & Religion: Philosophy & Religion. Mythology. Folklore and Myth... http://bit.ly/7fgh45
RT @storytellin: Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts: Excellent site of international folktales arranged by type or motif, good ... ...
pierrepradal (Pierre Pradal) Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:14:54 -0000
RT @storytellin: Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts: Excellent site of international folktales arranged by type or motif, good ... ...
Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts: Excellent site of international folktales arranged by type or motif, good ... http://bit.ly/8hBWlU
storytellin (AWooldridge (storyt)) Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:28:48 -0000
Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts: Excellent site of international folktales arranged by type or motif, good ... http://bit.ly/8hBWlU

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