Children’s Folklore Recent Titles in Greenwood Folklore Handbooks Myth: a handbook

Informant.
Someone who shares an item of folklore with a fieldworker.
Initiation.
The process by which someone becomes part of a group.
Legend.
A genre of folk narrative, usually “told as true,” featuring real-seeming characters 
and events.
Ludic.
Playful.
Memorate.
A first-person narrative based on individual experience.
Motif.
A small unit of folklore that can be studied cross-culturally.
Motif index.
Stith Thompson’s 
Motif-Index of Folk-Literature,
first published from 1955 
to 1958.
Narrative.
Prose that tells about sequential events; synonym for 
story.
Narrator.
Teller of a story.
Newell’s paradox.
As defined by Gary Alan Fine (1980), William Wells Newell’s assertion 
that children are both highly conservative and extremely creative.
Oral tradition.
Tradition transmitted primarily by word of mouth.
Ostension.
As defined by Linda Dégh and Andrew Vázsonyi, enactment of a legend or 
part of a legend in a serious, sometimes harmful way.
Parody.
A humorous imitation of a song, story, or other expressive form.
Prank.
An outrageous practical joke.
Psychoanalytic analysis.
Analysis of folklore narratives in relation to the theories of Sig-
mund Freud, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell, with particular attention to sexual 
symbolism.
Riddlee.
A person who tries to come up with the answer to a riddle.
Riddler.
A person who tells a riddle.
Ritual.
A repeated pattern of behavior.
Routine of victimization.
A relatively short interaction during which one child embar-
rasses another or causes brief pain or discomfort.
Rumor.
An unconfirmed statement, closely related to the legend.