Folklore

Cultural knowledge that is spread through societies by means of oral traditions such as stories, songs, jokes, or sayings. Originally passed on through the spoken word, many of these traditions have now been collected and written down.

Sub-headings:

Folk Songs and Rhymes

The traditional verses of folk songs and rhymes are social rather than personal in nature and reflect something about the community they come from.

Folktales and Fairy Tales

A form of made-up folklore told primarily for entertainment and sometimes containing a message.

Incantations and Magic

Incantations come from a traditional belief that words have the magical power to control events or individuals. They include taboos, greetings, verbal wishes, and magical phrases.

Jokes and Riddles

Enigmatic expressions with an answer or a punch line. Whereas jokes have a humorous punch line usually revealed by the teller, riddles are meant to be solved by the listener.

Legends and Myths

Folklore stories that are told as true, but cannot be proven. Legends and myths are about people, local history and events, natural phenomena, or supernatural forces.

Proverbs and Sayings

Timeless statements or phrases that are repeated often and contain some insight about the world.

Superstitions

Folk beliefs that reveal cultural knowledge, convey traditions, and metaphorically address many elements of the human condition.

Resources in this category:

American Folk
http://www.americanfolk.com/

Created by the graduate students at the UCLA Folklore and Mythology Program, American Folk is an e-journal designed for the scholar and general reader . This site has articles on individual folk artists, craftspeople, folk performers, and other folk and popular culture genres written by academically trained students and professionals in folklore and popular culture. It also features a bookstore which offers selections of writings made available through alt.bookstore.com and regularly highlites a site--The Raving Toy Maniac in this issue--as well asproviding links to online folklore and popular culture journals, academic folklore and popular culture programs, and various popular culture pages such as the Drive-In Theatre Page and The Potato Museum.

Folklore
http://haldjas.folklore.ee/folklore/

The e-journal contains "articles about shamanism, urban legends, ethnomusicology, pareomiology, popular calendar data and folk belief ... The journal is intentionally academical. We are doing our best to use all the many-sided possibilities an Internet publication has... In Folklore, researches of all genres of folklore will be published, all articles on mythology, religion and customs, paremiology, narratives, poetic folklore, ethnomusicology, etc. are welcome."

Marvels and Tales - Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies
http://www.langlab.wayne.edu/MarvelsHome/Marvels_Tales.html

"Marvels & Tales is a peer-reviewed journal of fairy-tale studies. International and multidisciplinary in orientation, the journal publishes rigorous scholarly work dealing with the fairy tale in any of its diverse manifestations and contexts. Marvels & Tales recognizes that interest in the fairy tale crosses cultural as well as disciplinary boundaries. Accordingly, the journal addresses a multidisciplinary audience and provides a central forum for fairy-tale scholars in disciplines such as literary studies, folklore, psychology, gender studies, children's literature, social and cultural history, anthropology, film studies, ethnic studies, art and music history, and others." This web page contains information on subscribing, the journals contents, editorial policy, and a brief history of the journal. There are not links on this page.

NewFolk: New Directions in Folklore
http://www.temple.edu/isllc/newfolk/journal.html

NewFolk part of the New Directions in Folklore website. Articles are abstracted and contail fulline texts and deal with the cutting edge areas of the discipline such as post-modernism, popular culture, and reflexivity.