Activity One  More discussions: What is myth? What is folklore? What is legend? Give examples

在傳統的敘事類型中，神話(myth)、傳說(legend)、與民間故事(folktale)是最典型的三種型，也是一般人最容易將之混淆的論述形式，就是將傳說與民間故事等同於神話

 

神話：神話是散文的敘述，被認為是發生於遙遠的過去的真實可信的事情。它們被忠實地接受，並被認為是可信的，它們也被作為權威加以引述，用來解答無知、懷疑與不信任。神話是教條的具現，並總是與神學和宗教儀式相結合。它們的主要角色並非經常是人類，但卻常具有人類的特性，它們是動物、神明或文化英雄。神話講述的是世界、人類、死亡的起源，或是鳥獸的習性、地理特徵以及大自然的現象。它們也會提到神明的活動，他們之間的愛情事件、家庭關係、友情與仇恨、勝利與失敗。

myths are stories thatare told as if they are a fact, myths usually have goals or goddesses andsupernatural powers myths often deal with the creation of the world and naturalevents and myths provide lessons about good and bad behavior/ atraditional or legendary story usually concerning some being or hero or eventwith or without a determinable basis of fact or a nature; explanation,especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains somepractice, rite, or phenomenon of nature

 

傳說：傳說是如同神話一般的散文敘事，被講述者與其聽眾認定是真實的，但它們是發生的時間距現在並不是很遙遠，而其間的世界與今日很接近。傳說更是世俗而非神聖的，而主要的角色都是人類。它們論述的是遷徙、戰爭與勝利、昔日英雄的事蹟、還有首領與君王的行止，及其統治朝代的功蹟。在此，它們常成為與書寫歷史相對應的口傳傳統，但是，它們仍包含著埋寶藏、鬼、神仙、聖人等的地區性故事

a non-historical orunverified story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularlyaccepted as historical/ legends are fictional stories usually there is some historicaltruth at the heart of every legend, heroes perform great deeds with theirstrength and their intelligence, exaggeration is usually involved in retellingtheir deeds, and heroes often give up dreams of happiness to help others

民間故事：民間故事被當作是虛構的散文敘事。它們不能被視為教條或歷史，它們也許發生過、也或者沒有發生過，它們並不是嚴謹的。民間故事主要是在講述人類或者動物的冒險經歷。民間故事可以被置放在任意的時間和任意地點，它們也一直被稱作「育兒故事」

the traditionalbeliefs, legends, customs, etc. of a people/generally part of the oral tradition of a group, more frequently toldthan read, passed down from one generation to another, take on thecharacteristics of the time and place in which they are told sometimes take onthe personality of the storyteller speak to universal and timeless hemes try tomake sense of our existence help humans cope with the world they live in orexplain the origin of something, often about the common person, may containsupernatural elements and function to validate certain aspects of culture