Since the tales, legends, and epic and lyric songs discussed here are a part of the experience of a preliterate group or at least of the essentially unlettered, they differ in many ways from literary works addressed to a reading public. Long forgotten are the person or persons originally responsible for the tradition that has resulted in examples of folk literature. Only the tale or song remains to be repeated and often changed by subsequent storytellers, singers, or bards. In the course of its history it is listened to by generations of the unlettered, and its success and its very survival depend on how well it satisfies their emotional needs and intellectual interests.
Since in essence all folk literature is oral and subject to its survival in the human mind, it is full of devices to aid memory. Perhaps most common of all is mere repetition. Especially in folktales and epics it is common to hear the same episode repeated with little or no verbal change. As the hero encounters his successive adversaries the description changes only enough to indicate the increasing terror of the enemy, always leading to a climax and usually to the hero’s success. These long repeated passages often enable the teller of tales or the singer of an epic to extend his performance as much as he desires.
Aside from repetition of entire episodes, folk literature of all kinds is filled with formulaic expressions. It may be the beginning or the ending of a folktale—the “once upon a time” or the “married and lived happily ever after” or sometimes quite meaningless expressions—or standard epithets attached to certain persons or places. These formulas are so characteristic of oral literature that an abundance of such commonplaces seems to be a guarantee of authentic oral origins even of a great epic.
These formulas are matters not only of words but of structure. The storyteller or singer has at his disposal a large variety of conventional motifs and episodes and may use them freely. How appropriately they are made a part of his composition depends on his skill, but his listeners are not likely to be very critical so long as he keeps them interested. Indeed it is remarkable that in spite of this apparent freedom of improvisation so many rather well-articulated plots have lived for centuries retaining all their essential features. It is this combination of a basic narrative type with a freedom of treatment within traditional limits that makes it possible to identify hundreds of versions of the same tale or song as they appear over long stretches of time and space.
Though much of narrative folk literature is frankly fictional and filled with unrealistic events, the successful storyteller or epic singer gives his story credibility by the use of realistic details. Often these are merely homely touches linking the never-never land of the tale or song to everyday life or emotions. For the unlettered listeners such realistic details may allow a stretching of the imagination to embrace a larger world. Heaven or hell it may be or kingly palaces where the peasant hero rules with a splendour only known to those who have never seen a court. Often these details are given only to ensure that willing suspension of disbelief characteristic of all fiction, but sometimes a realistic touch, even in the midst of weak motivation and violence, may give nobility to a mediocre tale or song.
Repetition, formulas both in words and in structure, realism enough to support the marvelous in tale or song, violent actions and simple strong emotions—these qualities are generally found in all folk literature. The varying demands of the listeners are all-important influences. In some cultures this implies that actions should be well motivated so that listeners may identify themselves with certain characters. But in others, such as in many parts of India and in many preliterate cultures, motivation is often weak or entirely lacking.
For lyric songs, proverbs, riddles, and charms (and often legends), the relation of artist and audience is of little importance.
Regional and ethnic manifestations
In many particulars of form and substance there will be found great variations in the ways folk literature is manifested. The interests of people in one culture may differ profoundly from those of people in another. One group may enjoy singing folk songs, another listening to romantic folktales, and a neighbouring group may even be concerned only with legends and traditions. This difference is often geographic, so that the student of folk literature in the Pacific Islands who may later investigate a Central African tribe will find a completely different emphasis in the two areas. These differences may well depend upon the varieties of religious concepts held by the group or its natural environment, whether islands or jungle or cultivated farm lands, or its stability or mobility. These characteristics are likely to become especially deep-seated in groups that have been settled in one place over a long period of history. Frequently they may correspond to national frontiers, but more often they are aspects of the general culture of an area and may well be quite independent of political or linguistic boundaries.
The Russian epic songs are found only in Russia, but the wonder story such as Cinderella or Snow White is a part of the folk literature of a good portion of the world. The Navaho Indians of the Southwestern United States place great emphasis on their remarkable chants and lengthy folktales. Their neighbours throughout the Great Plains tell many well-constructed unified stories but confine their rituals largely to the dance. In Europe the Irish excel in storytelling, both of legends and fictional tales, so that even today it has been possible to record a prodigious number for their national archive. But in England and Wales the folktale is little cultivated, preference having been given to legends and ballads. As expected, there is a contrast between the abundance of oral saints’ legends in Spain and Italy and their rarity in Scandinavia. Finland, meeting place of Eastern and Western tradition, shows an abundance of nearly every kind of folklore. From eastern Europe to Central Asia the folk epic flourishes.
Tales and origin legends have been collected in great numbers from various parts of Oceania, where there is a common mythological background extending over enormous distances. Except for probable early contact by way of Indonesia, these folktales seem to show little Eurasian influence. In many parts of South America the merging of Iberian, Indian, and African materials seems almost complete.
The folk literature of the African Americans is in a state of continual change, reflecting their history. Much certainly goes back to Africa, usually by way of the West Indies, and much was borrowed long ago. But African Americans have themselves in a truly oral fashion developed songs and stories, and particular music styles. Of very special character is the folklore of modern Israel. Jews from various lands have brought together folk literature from all these countries. Assimilation of this is a long task, and, since divergent language backgrounds are unimportant for folktales, the problem is to absorb the great variety of forms.
Taken the world over, folk literature is found everywhere, though the emphasis differs from place to place.