Blog #5 (Two Types of Folklore)

Considering I've spent the better part of a week neck-deep in folklore I cannot even begin to explain how much I would really like to blog about a Caldecott book right now. *le sigh* But all whining aside, the two types of folklore I have selected for this post are: folktale and hero tale.

For the folktale I opted to read The Frog Prince retold by Chris Colfer in his companion book to The Land of Stories series titled The Land of Stories: A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tales. In this tale (adapted from The Brothers Grimm) two princess live in castle--one is sweet and kind and the other is mean and selfish. One day the mean and selfish princess drops her golden sphere into a small pond and laments how she will never be able to retrieve it; moments later a frog retrieves the sphere and requests a kiss from the princess as his reward. Disgusted, the princess refuses and tosses the frog against the garden wall. The sweet and kind princess (who had been watching the exchange from her tower) comes down and sweetly kisses the frog, apologizing for the behavior of her sister. And wouldn't you know it, the frog turned into a prince and the two rode off to his kingdom where the two would live happily ever after--unless you read The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka, that is. 

As with other folktales, the purehearted character (the princess) is rewarded for her actions over the mean and selfish character (her sister). Also present in the story are: royal characters, anthropomorphic creatures, nondescript time and setting (i.e., once upon a time), and magical elements.

For the hero tale I opted to read Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold by James Rumford. This succinct retelling of the original epic poem chronicles the hero Beowulf as he slays the ogre Grendal, the ogre's evil mother, and a fierce dragon.

As with other hero tales, the story centers on a hero of human origin who demonstrates the values of courage, friendship, and honor during his journeys. The setting is earthly (taking place in Scandinavia); and mixes real characters and events with stories of dragons and monsters.

While both stories differ in many aspects (characters, location, creatures), one uniting concept is that the hero/ine prevails.  And this, of course, is what ultimately defines folklore as genre: that no matter the odds, the good and righteous will prevail.