English IV Summer Reading 2020  

Introduction:
A “folktale” is a story that originates in the popular culture and is orally transmitted from storyteller to listener. Who first
made them up? Nobody knows: by the time they are recorded they have been told and retold so many times that it’s usually
impossible to uncover their exact origins. It’s like asking who wrote the story of “The Three Bears;” someone may have written
a ​specific​ version, but the story itself is traditional. It has been passed down over the course of many, many years; even though
it was first ​written down​ in the nineteenth century, it was actually much older.

The other thing to understand about folktales is there is no “authentic” version. Because these stories have been told many
times before they are finally recorded in writing, there will always be variations of the same story circulating within the
culture. The basic outline of the story might be similar, but the details will differ. It might be because someone misremembers
what happens; it might be because someone adds elements to make it more interesting; or it might be because the teller
combines it with bits from other stories. Maybe it could be all of these (or more). The point is that the telling of a story is a
performance​, and no two performances are ​exactly​ the same. Written literature has one form-- but not storytelling.

Below, you will find several folktales from around the world. What they have in common is the idea of ​metamorphosis​-- the
transformation from one form to another. Specifically, the transformations will be between the human and the non-human. In
most of these stories, humans will become animals, but in one, a human will become a plant.

Folktales are like that; magic is real, and anything is possible.

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(all stories)