by Judith Stafford | Jul 2, 2020 | Away with the Fairies
What is the difference between myths and fairy tales? Myths, legends, fables, folktales and fairy tales – it is hard to define exactly what they are. In this post I am going to look at the difference between a myth and a fairy tale and look at which stories belong to which label. I am going to show you why I think that all are interconnected to some degree. Note: For this article I have grouped myths and legends under the title of myths, and grouped fables, folktales and fairy tales under the fairy tale title. I have always been fascinated by these stories whether they are the long sprawling Greek myths of Homer or short fables of Aesop. They are the inspiration behind many fantasy and horror stories like those by Tolkien, Terry Pratchett and Stephen King. Where do these names come from? First to define what we mean by ‘myth’. The word is taken from the Greek ‘mythos’ meaning word of mouth, as this is how they would have originally been told before they were written down. These stories are usually quite complex and revolve around how the world was created or epic tales of events and achievements of nations or individuals. Fairy tales, on the other hand, come from the French ‘conte de fées’ first used by a group of 17th century writers. The word fairy in French is ‘fee’ or ‘feerie’ which means ‘ illusion’, also ‘fey’ was used to describe women who used magic. They are also known as folktales because they are about ‘folk’, ordinary common people. These stories are much more down to earth...
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