Quotes About Folklore

Behind every legend, strange to say, can be found a kernel of truth, a group of facts around which the legend was built.

And, before science had caught up with the legend, the legend had swallowed science and everything.

There were many more folk ditties, some mean, others filthy, all of them cruel. No one ever thought of questioning our right to do this; our mothers and parents generally approved, either actively or passively. To hold an attitude of antagonism or distrust toward Jews was bred in us from childhood; it was not merely racial prejudice, it was a part of our cultural heritage.

Fairy tales represent hundreds of years of stories based on thousands of years of stories told by hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of tellers.

Plain and simple, I hope, in a fairy tale way: in fairy tales it is often the humble to whom magic is revealed.

The dried yellow petals of St. John's wort, which Old Marie called 'chase-devil' for the way it could drive the megrims away. Gaudy calendula, bright as the sun. Sweet-smelling lemon balm, guaranteed to lift the spirits with its aroma alone.

Moonmaidens, whispered Magyar. Moonmaidens, those strange changeling fairies who lived in white birch trees and were never seen in the daylight; Moonmaidens who, if caught by the gray-hour of dawn, could never go back to fairyland again; Moonmaidens, who brought good luck to men.

We scarified a mosquito. I bet that's what did it. It was probably a virgin too.

It's because when we sneeze, our soul flies out our nose and if no one says 'bless you,' the devil can snatch it.

That's trouble. The pixies will sour your milk." "I thought it was hobgoblins who soured milk." "A dirty lie. Spread by the pixies, no doubt.

Ma and Pa had taught their sons to keep themselves fresh by bathing at least once a year.

We almost need another word for fairy, that's the thing. Once people get to see what fairies' real power is, then they understand.

Some folks swear, though not at all, that, using chains, he sliced his head off--derby and all--and that the head sailed like a cannon ball through the air a quarter mile, bounced another quarter mile, and still had enough steam to cripple a horse some fellow was riding into New Marsails.

All this was too much for Andrew Lang (1844–1912), a folklorist and disciple of E. B. Tylor, the best-known advocate of the evolution of religion. (We shall focus more on both Lang and Tylor later.) There are two aspects to Lang's reaction to Müller: the weakness of the philological method and the claim that an evolutionary theory can give a better explanation of the content of mythology than philology.

I'm aware that couples tend to embellish 'how we met' folklore with all kinds of detail and significance. We shape and sentimentalise these first encounters into creation myths to reassure ourselves and our offspring that it was somehow 'meant to be'.

The tooth fairy teaches children that they can sell body parts for money.

Legend is more historical than fact, because fact tells us about one man and legend tells us about a million men,

Trolls have to speand at least one hundred years of hteir lives in a cave; did you know that? It's a tradition. I've been here, oh, must be one undred and seventeen years now.

In addition to the rose stems, she'd stashed some stalks of yarrow---Fitch's yarrow, harp-song yarrow, as local people called it. They bought it for protection, healing or, often, a love charm. Lavender knew yarrow's other, more shadowy names: werewolf's tail, witch's weed, bad man's plaything.

Ty nejlepÅ¡í nové písnÄ› se zapíÅ¡ou do pamÄ›ti, budou putovat od jednoho zpÄ›váka k druhému, vylepÅ¡ovat se a dopl?ovat. A za sto let možná pÃ…â"¢ijde nÄ›jaký folklorista a nazve je folkovými písni?kami. NáÅ¡ prach proti tomu nebude nic namítat.

Thanks to you, the leaders of the University branch—Masters Greenleaf and Smith—are safely out of harm's way. As to the Northern branch—well, my agent currently describes it as an association of young men, young and unmarried, who gather in the woods from time to time to celebrate elaborate rituals that draw equally from local folklore and a youthful taste for mysticism and indiscriminate copulation. We're watching them closely.

Many forgotten things live still in children's tales.

Fairies weren't always pretty mites. That was just tales people told for babies.

Telling scary stories is something people have done for thousands of years, for most of us like being scared in that way. Since there isn't any danger, we think it is fun.