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

Screenname.
A name chosen for use online; in many cases, this name differs from the 
individual’s actual name.
Subversion.
An attempt to undermine the authority of dominant individuals, such as 
parents or teachers, or of the dominant culture.
Tale.
A short narrative with a fictional plot.
Taunt.
A malicious verbal assault, sometimes called a jeer.
Taw.
An object thrown on the ground to play Hopscotch.
Tease.
A playful form of verbal criticism.
Tradition.
Material that is passed along from one person to another and from one genera-
tion to the next.
Transmission.
The process of sharing folklore, either orally or by example.
Triviality barrier.
As defined by Gary Alan Fine, adults’ failure to pay attention to chil-
dren’s folklore because they perceive it as trivial.
Type.
A pattern of episodes that stays together in a folktale.
Type index.
Antti Aarne’s and Stith Thompson’s 
Th
e Types of the Folktale,
first published 
in 1928.

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Glossary 151
Urban legend.
Often but not always found in urban areas, the urban legend recounts 
sensational, shocking, and amazing events; this term entered common usage in the 
early 1980s.
Variant.
A text that represents a certain kind of folk narrative (or of another genre of 
folklore).
Version.
Generally synonymous with 
variant.
YouTube.
Internet technology that makes it possible for individuals to share their own 
videos with a large audience online.

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Bibliography
REFERENCE WORKS
Aarne, Antti, and Stith Thompson. 
The Types of the Folktale: A Classifi cation and Bibliography.
1928. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1961. The original type index, Antti 
Aarne’s 
Verzeichnis der Märchentypen,
was published in 1910.
Brown, Mary Ellen, and Bruce Rosenberg, eds. 
Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature.
Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1998.
Brunvand, Jan H. 
American Folklore: An Encyclopedia.
New York: Garland, 1996.
———.
Encyclopedia of Urban Legends.
Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2001.
Christiansen, Reidar T. 
The Migratory Legends.
Folklore Fellows Communications 175. 
Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1958.
Leach, Maria, ed., and Jerome Fried, assoc. ed. 
Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of 
Folklore, Mythology, and Legend.
San Francisco: Harper, 1984.
MacDonald, Margaret Read. 
The Storyteller’s Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and Motif Index 
to Folklore Collections for Children.
Detroit: Neal-Schuman, 1982.
MacDonald, Margaret Read, Barre Toelken, Linda Dégh, and John Holmes McDowell, eds. 
Traditional Storytelling Today: An International Sourcebook.
London: Taylor and Francis, 
1998.
Opie, Iona, and Peter Opie. 
The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes.
1951. Oxford: 
Clarendon, 1973.
Thompson, Stith. 
Motif-Index of Folk Literature: A Classifi cation of Narrative Elements in 
Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and 
Local Legends.
Rev. and enl. ed. 6 vols. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2000.