Folklore: Did you mean...?

The term 'mythology' comes from the Greek mythos (story-of-the-people) and logos (word or speech), meaning the spoken story of a people. Every civilization of the ancient world developed a...

The celebration of Juneteenth – originally known as "Freedom Day" – began on 1 January 1866 in Texas and, since then, a number of myths have grown up around the event it commemorates: the issuance of General Order No. 3 in...

Childbirth in ancient Rome was considered the main purpose of marriage. Roman girls married in their early teens, and in elite society, some married before they reached puberty. The legal age for marriage was 12 for a...

The Nûñnĕ′hĭ are the Cherokee "spirit people", similar to the fairy as sometimes depicted in European medieval folklore, and The Nûñnĕ′hĭ and Other Spirit Folk is a collection of anecdotes about them compiled by...

The Penobscot are a Native American nation of the modern-day State of Maine, also recognized as a First Nation of Canada. Along with the Abenaki, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Wolastoqiyik, they form the Wabanaki...

In Scandinavia, Christianity spread due to the support and encouragement of political rulers at the top of the society above all else. Conversion, defined here as the actions taken by kings or clerics to...

The Origin of Game and Corn is a Cherokee origin myth explaining how wild game first began to run free and corn came to be cultivated. The central figures of Kenati (also given as Kana'ti) and Selu are the embodiment...

The youth of George Washington (1732-1799), the first President of the United States, remains the least understood chapter of his life, shrouded in folklore and myths. Yet the experiences of his youth, and the bond he...

The Glooscap tales are legends of the Eastern Algonquin nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy – the Abenaki, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Wolastoqiyik – featuring the supernatural entity Glooscap, who is depicted sometimes...

Ghosts (obake or yurei) appear in ancient Japanese folklore and literature, usually in moral tales designed to both warn and entertain but they were also an important element of ancestor worship. If the deceased members...