Welcome! Thanks for clicking. Is this a bad time to mention that this post is NOT about the Taylor Swift album? Though we do support an iconic queen, this post is about International Folklore Day celebrated across the world on August 22nd every year (the term was first coined on August 22, 1846).
What is folklore? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, folklore is “the traditional legends, beliefs, culture, etc., shared by a group of people, esp. a rural or pre-industrial society; the study of these”. A subgenre of this would be urban folklore which is “The folklore of contemporary industrialized societies; (now usually) urban legends collectively”. Most of us today are probably familiar with urban legends thanks to the mass media and television industry. But these definitions sound an awful lot like the definition of mythology as well, so...what’s the difference?
The difference is that mythology is usually rooted in religious aspects that many deem to be true or mostly true and folklore has more fictitious connotations. Some people might believe they have a bit of truth (for instance those who are superstitious), but on the whole, folklore is agreed to be made up and laughed at or shrugged off.
Examples of mythology include Egyptian gods (Isis, Osiris, Horace, etc.) and the Greek Pantheon (Zeus, Hera, Hades, etc.). Many myths center around origin and how we as a people came into being.
Examples of folklore include fables & folktales (Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, the Ant and the Spider), folk songs (O Danny Boy, Waltzing Matilda), fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel).
Though they are separate ideas, the areas of mythology and folklore can overlap into different gray areas. Some consider mythology to be a subset of folklore, others consider them to be two completely different things. And while a lot of folklore encompasses stories and narratives, there are physical/material aspects to it as well. There is folk art (Russian Nesting Dolls & American Quilting), folk dance (the Tarantella from Southern Italy & the Square Dance from America), as well as proverbs and idioms that reflect a society's morals and values (“It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” - proverb about community with African origins).
Folklore is so fun and interesting because it can refer to the ways and practices of an entire nation, an individual state, a region, town, community, family, or even a group of close-minded individuals. There are things that you probably do and say daily that are a reflection of folklore. It’s about having a shared culture.
For example, my family has passed down the story that my great-great (maybe three greats?) grandfather smuggled himself to America from Germany in a pickle barrel because he couldn’t afford the fare. Then, after disembarking, he walked all the way to St. Louis, and that is why the family settled there so many generations back. How much of this is true? It’s hard to say. Do we really believe he stayed in a pickle barrel the entire way? No. Was there even a pickle barrel involved? Maybe. The point the story reflects is the hardship of immigration and the beginnings of our family origin. It’s the “started from nothing and now we are here” story that many families have experienced but which is told in our own way.
Local/Missouri Folklore:
Glenn House Being Haunted
The Cape Girardeau UFO of 1941
Zombie Road (Near Meramec Caverns)
The Missouri Monster (Momo)
The Ozark Howler (more towards Arkansas)
The Bald Knobbers
Beaman Monster
For more information on the folk habits of Missouri, check out the State Historical Society Webpage! They have a lot of great information and articles on the history of folk living in Missouri. You can also check out the Missouri Folklore Society as well if you are interested in learning more about folklore in Missouri or if you want to get involved.
And if you want to check out what the library has on the subject, have no fear! We have included a list of folklore books for you to check out:
Tales From the French Folk-Lore of Missouri by Joseph Medard Carriere
Seventy-three stories collected from the Old Mines area in the Missouri French dialect - From WorldCat
A Treasury of Mississippi River Folklore by B.A. Botkin
More than five hundred stories and thirty songs tell much about the colorful history of the river and the ways of the river folk. - Goodreads
Great American Folklore: Legends, Tales, Ballads and Superstitions from All Across America by Kemp Battle
Great American Folklore gathers together nearly three hundred of the most entertaining legends, tall tales, and ballads from America's distinctive oral heritage. In these pages you'll find old favorites like Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and Johnny Appleseed, and legendary historic figures such as Annie Oakley, Wyatt Earp, and Davy Crockett, not to mention a host of less familiar folk heroes and heroines from all across the nation.
This is a book that will make you laugh and remember. It's filled with outrageously colorful characters: explorers and wayfarers, gamblers and boasters, cowboys and outlaws, preachers and politicians. In page after page we get an exhilarating look at pioneer life, at love and marriage, at gunslingers, Indian legends, ghosts, and witches. Perhaps you will find the riddles and rhymes of your own childhood, and you are certain to find all the old, familiar superstitions.
And finally, Great American Folklore is a compendium of those American tall tales, those exuberant whoppers, that folks love to tell around the warmth of a country stove. Here is a volume that will appeal to all ages and will give the whole family hours of reading pleasure. It's an unparalleled collection of much-loved Americana. - Goodreads
The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales by Paul Delarue
Here is that brilliant country of the imagination where devils and giants, princes and kings, fairies and dragons work their sorcery and sortilege; good and evil is reduced to its simplest terms; and the stories, whether of the supernatural, animals or human fallibility, have an enduring enchantment for all ages. Some 54 have been selected from their often many variants and in the foot-notes their affinity with Grimm, Perrault and other legendary sources is traced. - Google Books
A Treasury of Jewish Folklore by Nathan Ausubel
Author of The Jewish Book of Knowledge and The Pictorial History of the Jewish People . "A must for everyone, Christians and Jews alike." -- New York Times . This classic collection of more than 800 traditions, legends, parables, and songs, with a glossary of Yiddish and Hebrew words, has remained a favorite gift-giving item and a family treasure for decades. 12 pieces of sheet music. - Goodreads
Folktales of Ireland by Sean O'Sullivan
Few countries can boast such a plentitude of traditional folktales as Ireland. In 1935, the creation of The Irish Folklore Commission set in motion the first organized efforts of collecting and studying a multitude of folktales, both written as well as those of the Irish oral tradition. The Commission has collected well over a million pages of manuscripts. Folktales of Ireland offers chief archivist Sean O'Sullivan's representation of this awe-inspiring collection. These tales represent the first English language collection of Gaelic folktales."Without doubt the finest group of Irish tales that has yet been published in English."—The Guardian"O'Sullivan writes out of an intimacy with his subject and an instinctive grasp of the language of the originals. He tells us that his archives contain more than a million and a half pages of manuscript. If Mr. O'Sullivan translates them, I'll read them."—Seamus Heaney, New Statesman"The stories have an authentic folktale flavor and will satisfy both the student of folklore and the general reader."—Booklist
A Treasury of African Folklore by Harold Courlander
A collection of African folklore from the Sub-Saharan region that reflects the diversity of cultures and traditions in the area. - Google Books
Folktales of Germany by Kurt Ranke
This collection represents the first major collection of German folktales to appears in English since the translation of the stories gathered by the brothers Grimm. - Google Books