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
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, or what they feel about it,
becomes of greater historical significance than the facts, which
become less important.
 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 tell us a
great deal about how people in the past saw, and understood, the
world around them. There are many reasons why stories are told and
passed down the generations. Here are just a few of them:
 To strengthen a community and provide a common understanding.
 Stories often reflect the beliefs of the people who tell them. The
popularity of any story depends on whether those listening approve
of the values underlying it.
 By telling and listening to stories, people confirmed their ideas about
the world around them.
 Things that people found 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
along the same lines.
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)
Camelot
…but there were many
other
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 feudal
manors, strict allegiance to the King,
magnificent religious festivals, and brilliant
pageantry.
It was also a time of great magic.