Learning about Poetry (part 7): "Dream Flows" poem and comparison of Poetry to Myths or Fables

While the urge to do something with "go" rhyming words, I want to take several of my freewriting sentence words and create something simple by altering it. I also want to do something by making some phrases little more descriptive.

This will be my first entirely original rhyming poem.

Dream Flows

©2020 by Ken Wickham

All rights reserved.

This urgent hope could go. 

Where do peaceful dreams flow. 

You're not my mortal foe. 

In the moment will never know. 

So, I add this new simple 4 line rhyming poem to that one that I created through imitation several posts ago. Here is that first imitation poem for comparison.

Plague Across the Land

©2020 by Ken Wickham based on Emily Dickenson's "Hope is a thing with feathers"

All rights reserved.

I've seen across the entire land,

All victims of the plague,

In a world looking strange and vague,

No, I don't want to beg.

I now have 2 poems written: "Dream Flows" and "Plague Across the Land".

Poetry writing it is fairly strange and unfamiliar. In 2nd grade, I remember doing a few poems for classroom activity, but those are now long forgotten to time.

Writing these poems are as unfamiliar to me as creating those 2 myths and 1 fable back in 2017 in the mythology series. It does give me a greater sense of breadth with writing styles although my skill level with poetry is only beginning.

Poetry is the art of sharing experience. In these two brief and little poems, it does feel like "Dream Flows" and "Plague Across the Land" do share some sort of experience. The mythology was more of a fictional creating experience than when I created "Blood and Water - Begin", "From them all become", and "Bird takes Snake to the Moons". Very little of me are included in those myths and fable. Instead of including any emotion or evaluations, my myths were more logically constructed.

Fables part 5: add magic

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin

Myth #2: From them, all become

Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1

Fable part 2: bird symbolism

Myths and Fables: ponderings  & decisions
Fable part 3: snake symbolism
Fables part 4: building a basic action & reaction 
Fables part 5: add magic

Possible magic for the creatures

Beyond the meaning found in various cultures, there is obvious magic powers that could be assigned to bird and snake.

Elemental Powers

A.) The bird flies in the air. Air elemental powers are obvious powers that a bird may have.

An offensive air power is some sort of air, wind, tornado, hurricane, gust or blast of air.

Defensively, air might redirect some sort of threat - like a defensive wall of air.

Utility wise, air is important for breathing. Lack of air leads to death.

B.) Snakes slither on the earth and sometimes hide in holes, cracks, and under logs or rocks.

Elemental wise, snakes are closer maybe to earth powers.

Many snakes are known to be venomous.  Snake poison and toxins may weaken, make sick, paralyze, or kill prey.

Powers not normally associated with the animal
Sometimes powers not normally associated in natural animals may be assigned to the animals.

Mythology reveals the fiery phoenix and firebird, electric thunderbird, winged feathered serpent.

One site shows snakes with clairvoyance, shape shifting, and hypnosis.

So whether or not I go with more obvious powers or powers extending the natural snake abilities, powers have and do get assigned to birds and snakes.

Fable part 3: snake symbolism

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin

Myth #2: From them, all become

Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1

Fable part 2: bird symbolism

Myths and Fables: ponderings  & decisions

What have snakes symbolized?

For Native Americans, the snake can symbolize healing and rebirth. For Pueblo, the snake may mean storm bringer.  

For the Pueblo, Avanyu - the Horned Serpent - is benevolent but fearful. It is the companion of the trickster god Kokopelli. The antlers or horns represent spiritual power. The Horned Serpent normally symbolizes rain, thunder, and waterways. 

for the Hopi, they perform an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of the Sky and the Underworld and renew the fertility of nature. The hopes is that rain will fall upon the crops

For Mississippians, the the horned serpent was normally benign or benevolent. However the Great Serpent was normally malevolent. 

The Choctaw Horned Serpent is a source of inspiration.

The Feathered Serpent is more prominent in Mississippi, Aztec, and Mayan cultures revered much similar to the Horned Serpent of other cultures.

Southeast Asia and Australia

Rainbow Serpent has played a significant role as creator for the original people of this area.

Past Fables

Aesop, Greek fable storyteller, has several snake related fables.

In "The Laborer and the Snake", the snake killed the cottager's son. And then the cottager wounds the snake. The cottager then tries to make peace, but the snake warns that there will never be peace because of what each other did.

In "The Farmer and the Snake", the snake found frozen by the farmer is brought to the farmers body to try warming. The snake awakes and bites killing the farmer.

In "The Serpent and the Eagle", the eagle tries to capture and eat the snake. The snake fights back. The countryman frees the eagle from the snake. The snake spits venom into the guy's drinking horn. The eagle dumps the drinking horn before the countryman drinks the poison.

For all three Greek fables, the snake is untrustworthy, dangerous, and vengeful.

Christianity

In much of the New Testament, the serpent is Satan.

Chinese

In the chinese zodiac, the snake is intelligent though without morals.

Snakes in dreams

In dreams, snakes can refer to fear, hidden threats, the subconscious, sexual power, cold people, transformation, healing, or creativity.

Myths and Fables: ponderings & decisions

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin
Myth #2: From them, all become
Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1
Fable part 2: bird symbolism
Myths and Fables: ponderings  & decisions

With Character Generator released last week, time spent on 5e x 5 Future Mecha, and an Adjective Generator I didn't get time to look up the 'snake'.

Instead I'll spend a quick post mentioning one aspect of creating a fable that has entered my thoughts.

Do I create the moral lesson for a fable first?

Or do I create a situation of those involved and then construct the moral later.

My first instinct is to create the lesson that I want the fable to portray first. In that way, I would be more certain that the fable fits the message and the reason such fable would be told and retold down through generations.

In contrast to creating a moral lesson first would be creating an interesting story or situation first and then try figuring out what moral message could be extracted.

Another issue that I'm facing is trying to fit the three ingredients into a fable and yet create a specific moral message.

While I have said that I would like to use the bird, snake, and moon in a fable, I may not have the appropriate story to go with that moral lesson involving those individual parts.

Moral Lessons

Some of the moral lessons that come through my mind revolve around the use of powers, since Aioskoru is a world with supernatural beings as well as powers.

• The dangers of expending too much power (magic) when using powers.
• How powers can be used for both good and bad purposes.
• Powers can be used in unusual ways besides obvious purposes.

These are just three moral lessons that I had thought of that a fable can explain.

No one fable yet comes to mind to cover all three topics

The real issue to me is the moons of the world I haven't figured out how to included in any one fable. I may have to create several fables to cover the three topics.

I hope even though this post doesn't cover any creation of myth or fable that this has been a beneficial post that may help others.

Fable part 2: bird symbolism

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin
Myth #2: From them, all become
Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1
Fable part 2: bird symbolism

In the last post I discussed the desire to create my first fable. But first I wanted to research how others made fables.

First I look at the 'bird'.

What have birds symbolized?

Often, bird tracks symbolize good omens and authority for Native Americans. Crows that meant wisdom and eagles that meant courage and strength. The hawk might have meant natural forces or protection from evil spirits.

Past Fables

Aesop, Greek fable storyteller, has several bird related tales.

In "The Crow and the Pitcher," the crow unable to drink from the low sitting water uses stones put into the pitcher to bring the water up until it could drink.

In "The Farmer and the Nightingale," after being caged by the farmer, the bird tricks the farmer. The bird does this by promising things that seem more than what the farmer really receives.

In "The Ant and the Dove," the story shows a good karma effect where the dove saves the ant. The ant then saves the dove.

In "The Fox and the Crow," the story shows not to trust flatterers.

In most of the other tales listed, the either the bird's song, splendor, or wisdom - very similar to Native American beliefs.

Christianity

Christian bird symbols
In Christianity, the dove stood for one member of the trinity of gods.

The eagle is used as a symbol of Christ, John the baptist, and baptism.

The pelican is used as a symbol of atonement and redemption.

The phoenix has been used as a symbol of the resurrection.

Chinese

Chinese bird symbols
In Chinese tales, birds sometimes bring help or visit virtuous people. Owls may be a sign of ill omen.

The hen is one of the Chinese zodiac animals. It may represent wisdom, courage, loyalty, and determination.

The crane symbolizes longevity and wisdom. The crow is a symbol of filial piety. It's call can be considered an ill omen.

A dove is a symbol of long life and fidelity.

Ducks are symbols of happiness and the mandarin duck is loyalty.

An eagle symbolizes strength and lonely struggle.

The phoenix is a symbol of joy and peace.

Birds in dreams

birds in dreams
Birds in dreams can represent goals, aspirations, and hopes.

Next post

In the next post I'll look at the snake.

Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin
Myth #2: From them, all become
Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1

Earth Diver, Secretion, and Sacrifice type myths

Looking at Marta Weigle's creation type list, I try to categorize my two creation myths. She lists accretion/conjunction, secretion, sacrifice, division/consummation, earth diver, emergence, two creators, deus faber, ex nihilo as creation types.
Types of Creation Myths

If I categorized the first two myths, the blood and water is more like a mixture of creation types earth diver and secretion. Whereas the maggot myth is more like sacrifice creation because the maggots came from the ancient skeleton and had eaten away flesh - so both have been caused by parts of the god. After falling down to Aioskoru, powers morph them into new beings.

Beginning to attempt to create a fable.

After the first two creation myths which saw the creation of winged creatures and serpents, I wanted to create my first fable which includes the three moons of Aioskoru.

Story idea pieces
Winged beast
Serpent
Three moons

So i thought about making a fable of bird taking snake to the moons.

I write down these words, which I want to develop into a fable.

Bird takes snake to the moons

Bird takes snake to the moons
© 2017 Ken Wickham

I really want to do more than that summary sentence. But first, I want to look at a few fables in the next post. I want to see how people have created fables in the past.

So my next posts will look at fables, so that I can equip myself with some basic fable making knowledge using some of the knowledge of the past.

Myth #2: From them all become

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin
Myth #2: From them, all become

In this section, I join and differentiate the maggots from the blood & water..

Struggling maggots falling as well.

Flies soon emerge, ready to fly

Spreading across the great land.

Some eat from the ancient remnants.

Some begin to eat each other. 

From maggots, the first serpents form. 

And from the flies, winged beasts grow.

Feed by the powerful essence,

the hidden beast from blood & water,

to small to be of concern to the offspring of maggots,

multiply and live in secrecy.

They are the offspring of maggots.

They are the offspring of blood & water.

From them, all become.

From them, all become 
© 2017 Ken Wickham

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

This is a creation story somewhat similar to the Japanese creation story. It continues from the initial myth of the immense skeleton Hewhoshestes floating in the endless void. The maggots having consumed the ancient being's flesh crawl towards the world. The skeleton dips a quill into a bottle with the ink of life (blood) and and upon the scroll begins to create.

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin

Blood dripping from the sky.

Falling into a pool of water. Simmering and stirring.

Sparkling bubbles rising to air.

From within the pool, the blood condenses. 

Formless becomes form. Stillness into movement. 

The blood of the ancient one, grandfather bones.

Life awakes, or transforms, or becomes.

From blood and water, it begins.

Blood  and Water - Begin 
© 2017 Ken Wickham

Mythology: Why and how myths are created

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

In the first post, I looked at the definitions followed by quotes from the late scholar Joseph Cambell concerning myths. In the last post, I looked at several types of myths and how they function in societies. In this post I begin using a thread from the last posts concerning mythical heroes. How do heroes come to be.

There are explanations of how myths of great heroes come to be.

1. Based on a few truths and real experiences of real life people, whose stories are exaggerated (hyperbole) and change over time through oral retelling and alterations.
2. Mythical beings are allegories (metaphors, symbols) of real natural phenomena.
3. Mythical heroes are personifications of inanimate objects or forces.
4. Myths and rituals arise together. Myths explain and support rituals.

From a mythology stand point some heroes were real people, some are allegories, some personifications, and some arose in hand with rituals. Heroes play an important part in society as mentioned in the last post for helping to bring meaning to life, serve as examples, and justify cultural activities to name a few from the last post.

I assume that if there were no real people to serve as examples for the myths that fictional represented heroes can take the place of real people. Why did these myth stories become good mediums for ancient and modern people to transmit the stories?

Why are myths good mediums for transmitting knowledge?

1.Easy to remember in an illiterate society in which ideas cannot be written nor read.
2.Approachable and somewhat understandable by people of any level of intelligence, including people for whom a philosophical discourse would be incomprehensible.
3.Stimulating to the imagination and feelings, where the effect can be more profound and life-changing than that from intellectual comprehension.

http://www.mythome.org/mythII.html

In a time when books were rare or non-existent, stories preserve ancient knowledge. The mythical stories are many times entertaining and envoke feelings which may be understandable to less educated as well as highly educated people. The myths of old were the movies, TV shows, and dramas of the common people of the past. They were the comic and manga books.

Along with the functions and types of myths, how can I understand by interpreting myths? This sort of mixes up all of the proceeding lists and summarizes it 12 perspectives.

Ways to Interpret Myths

1.  As a belief system.
2.  As disguised history.
3.  As disguised philosophy or allegory.
4.  As fables illustrating moral truths.
5.  As allegories of natural events.
6.  As pre-scientific explanation.
7.  As charters for customs, institutions, or beliefs.
8.  As religious power, or metaphors for the unknown.
9.  As expressions of religious rituals.
10.  As examples of psychological archetypes.
11.  As stories.
12.  As embodying irreconcilable structural conflicts in social systems.

http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/ways.htm

Now knowing why myths are created, how can I create a myth?

I found a simple process found in wiki-how. These instructions give more specific keys into helping to craft a myth, together with all of the prior points kept in mind.

How to create mythology

1. Decide where you want your myth to be set.
2. Start to create your characters. 
3. Understand the conventions of myths in the culture you are created; most are passed down orally 'by speech' and this means they have features of speech, such as repetition 'Fee, Fi, Fo Fum...' or the rule of three
4. Come up with appropriate names.
5. Don't make it overly complicated, at least initially.
6. End your story with a solution to the question or problem, such as 'And that is how The God (BLANK) Created Rain.'

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Interesting-Mythology

Summary

I think that by now I have a good working frame to try creating a few experimental myths for Aioskoru. All the reading and study can't replace actually creating mythology. In my next posts I will revisit my initial creation myth which is very small.

I'll decide what limits that the mythology will keep and which cultural perspective to begin with initially.

Myths: Types and functions

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

In the last post, in Joseph Cambell's quotes, he brings up some interesting topics. Dreams vs myths, truth, poetry, symbols, and supernatural beings are a few of the topics he brings to the myth conversation.

Are there different types of myths?

I spend some of this post exploring this question

Types of Myths

(from In The Global Myths, by Alexander Eliot) 

1. Primitive myths which were generally stories about nature, as told by shamans. 
2. Pagan myths which were like the Greek and Roman tales of the interplay between deities and humans. 
3. Sacred myths as in the stories from current eastern and western religions such as Christianity and Hinduism. 
4. Scientific myths Credos, rather than hypothesis carefully tested for fit with empirical evidence. 

Okay so Eliot categorized these myths into four types. I've put in bold the key words that I find usesful: nature, deities & humans, religions, and science. I see these as broad categories. Myths cross the lines of science, nature, religion, and explanations of the powers of the universe.

Summarizing all of these, I could say that myths help explain the natural world in absence of science and explains religious and cultural deities relationships with humans.

and from David Adams Leeming's The World of Myth

1. Cosmic myths including narratives of the creation and end of the world. 
2. Theistic myths portraying the deities
3. Hero myths with accounts of individuals such as Achilles and Jesus
4. Place and object myths describing places such as Camelot, and objects such as the Golden Fleece

http://www.mythome.org/mythII.html

Leeming categorized myths into specific categories of creation & end of the world, deities, heroes, and place & objects. This categorization covers more the substance and content of the myths - the main cast, time, places, and objects of the myths. He uses 'narratives', 'portraying', 'accounts', and 'describing' all in similar ways for each of the content. Basically myths tell of imaginary people, events, places, things, or ideas. Imaginary in that there is no direct evidence that the accounts are correct or entirely true.

After looking at some types of myths I also want to look at another question. What are the functions of myths? Are they just stories? Or how do these stories bring meaning to our lives?

What are the functions of myths

1. Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture.
2. Myths present guidelines for living.
3. Myths justify a culture's activities.
4. Myths give meaning to life.
5. Myths explain the unexplained.
6. Myths offer role models.

http://www.mythome.org/mythII.html

Myths are cultural and useful to transmit knowledge on living. They help to bring meaning to cultural groups over a long period of time. They help to explain things that evidence cannot explain.

Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Next I will show some quotes from the famous mythology scholar Joseph Cambell.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

"In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dreams. "
― Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)

"Dream is personalized myth, myth is depersonalized dream; both myth and dream are symbolic in the same general way of the dynamics of the psyche. But in the dream the forms are quirked by the peculiar troubles of the dreamer, whereas in myth the problem and solutions shown are directly valid for all mankind."
― Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)

"Centuries of husbandry, decades of diligent culling, the work of numerous hearts and hands, have gone into the hackling, sorting, and spinning of this tightly twisted yarn. Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world."


― Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)

The Power of Myth

“Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.” 
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I've never met an ordinary man, woman or child.” 
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“Heaven and hell are within us, and all the gods are within us. This is the great realization of the Upanishads of India in the ninth Century B.C. All the gods, all the heavens, all the world, are within us. They are magnified dreams, and dreams are manifestations in image form of the energies of the body in conflict with each other. That is what myth is. Myth is a manifestation in symbolic images, in metaphorical images, of the energies of the organs of the body in conflict with each other. This organ wants this, that organ wants that. The brain is one of the organs.” 
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“Myth basically serves four functions. The first is the mystical function,... realizing what a wonder the universe is, and what a wonder you are, and experiencing awe before this mystery....The second is a cosmological dimension, the dimension with which science is concerned – showing you what shape the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through.... The third function is the sociological one – supporting and validating a certain social order.... It is the sociological function of myth that has taken over in our world – and it is out of date.... But there is a fourth function of myth, and this is the one that I think everyone must try today to relate to – and that is the pedagogical function, of how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances.” 
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't even a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off.... the experience of eternity right here and now, in all things, whether thought of as good or as evil, is the function of life.” 
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“The idea of the supernatural as being something over and above the natural is a killing idea. In the Middle Ages this was the idea that finally turned that world into something like a wasteland, a land where people were living inauthentic lives, never doing a think they truly wanted to because the supernatural laws required them to live as directed by their clergy. In a wasteland, people are fulfilling purposes that are not properly theirs but have been put upon them as inescapable laws. This is a killer.... The spirit is really the bouquet of life. It is not something breathed into life, it comes out of life. This is one of the glorious things about the mother-goddess religions, where the world is the body of the Goddess, divine in itself, and divinity isn't something ruling over and above a fallen nature.... Our story of the fall in the Garden sees nature as corrupt; and that myth corrupts the whole world for us. Because nature is thought of as corrupt, every spontaneous act is sinful and must not be yielded to. You get a totally different civilization and a totally different way of living according to whether your myth presents nature as fallen or whether nature is in itself a manifestation of divinity, and the spirit is the revelation of the divinity that is inherent in nature.” 
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

What are myths, legends, and folklore (fable)? Definitions (Quotes)

Myths
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)

I wanted to start with the dictionary definitions comparing myth, legend, and folklore. Also I look for other comments and a comparison of the terms.

Myth

by American Heritage - Myth
1. a. A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society.

https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=myth

By PBS - Myth
Myths are stories that are based on tradition. Some may have factual origins, while others are completely fictional. But myths are more than mere stories and they serve a more profound purpose in ancient and modern cultures. Myths are sacred tales that explain the world and man's experience.

In search of Myths & Heroes http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths_what.html

By wikipedia - Myth
The word "myth" is derived from the Greek word mythos (μῦθος), which simply means "story"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth

A myth is a story based on tradition or legend, which has a deep symbolic meaning. A myth 'conveys a truth' to those who tell it and hear it

http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/info311-what-are-myths-legends-and-folktales.html

Legend

by American Heritage - Legend
1.a. An unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical.

b. A body or collection of such stories.

https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=legend

A legend is a semi-true story, which has been passed on from person-to-person and has important meaning or symbolism for the culture in which it originates.

http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/info311-what-are-myths-legends-and-folktales.html

Folklore

by American Heritage - Folklore
1. The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally.
2. The comparative study of folk knowledge and culture. Also called folkloristics.

https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=folklore

A folktale is a popular story that was passed on in spoken form, from one generation to the next. Usually the author is unknown and there are often many versions of the tale. Folktales comprise fables, fairy tales, old legends and even 'urban legends'.

http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/info311-what-are-myths-legends-and-folktales.html

Fable

by American Heritage - Fable
1. A usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often employing as characters animals that speak and act like humans.

https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=fable

A fable's emphasis is on a "moral." Examples include Aesop's fables, such as the stories of the tortoise and the hare, and the fox who complained about "sour grapes."

http://www.mythome.org/mythII.html

Comparison

Fact to Meaning Continuum
Historical account      Legendary Occurrence      Mythical Event  Folktale based on cultural truth
Fact   <                            ----                                   >     Meaning

Myth vs Fable
Fable                                                                                   Myth
Morality  <                             ---                                   >  world issues and functions