Genres & Forms
Folk Tale
The folk tale is a prose folklore genre oriented toward invention, built on established plots, images, and formulas. There are animal tales, magic (heroic-fantastic) tales, and social-domestic ones. A tale's composition has a traditional opening ('Once there was…'), threefold repetitions, magic numbers (three, seven), and a closing formula. The morphology of the magic tale was described by Volodymyr Propp in 'Morphology of the Folktale' (1928), which isolated the fixed functions of the dramatis personae. The Ukrainian tale epos was collected by Ivan Rudchenko, Borys Hrinchenko, and Pavlo Chubynsky; literary reworkings were made by Ivan Franko ('When the Animals Could Still Talk') and Natalena Koroleva. Classic Ukrainian tales include 'Kotyhoroshko' and 'Kyrylo Kozhumiaka.'
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Compare “Folk Tale” with another term
Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Both are prose folklore genres but with a different orientation to truth. The tale is oriented toward INVENTION: both teller and listener know the depicted is artistic fantasy, with fixed opening and closing formulas. The legend is presented as a plausibly TRUE narrative of fantastic or religious-didactic content, tied to a concrete place, saint or phenomenon, and inclining to explanation and moral. A tale is told for delight; a legend, on faith.
