1. FOLK LITERATURE
Oral Tradition

2. FOLKLORE
• Folklore literally means “lore” or
knowledge of the “folk” or people.
• It referred chiefly to oral knowledge
preserved among the illiterate masses
elsewhere or the oral literature of all
people whether they have written
knowledge or not.

3. Classification of ethnic literature:
1. Folk narrative – this includes myths,
legends and folktales
2. Folk speech
3. Folk songs

4. Folk narratives
• Myths – these are prose narratives
explaining how the world came to be in
their form. Myths are considered to be
truthful accounts of what happened in the
remote past. They are often associated
with theology and rituals. The characters
in myths are not usually human beings,
but they often have human attributes.

5. Motifs in myths
• Various motifs are employed in myths that
explains the origin of plants and animals
and their characteristics. One of them is
the transformation motif. Former human
beings are transformed into animals,
usually the transformation as being a
punishment for human misconduct.
• Another motif in myth centers around the
fate of faithful lovers.

6. • Legends are prose narrative accounts of
an extraordinary happening believed to
have actually occurred. It may tell of an
encounter with marvelous creatures which
the folks still believe in – fairies, ghosts,
water spirits, the devil, and the like.

7. • Narrative accounts of the great deluge, a
universal theme in world mythology, are
also predominant in Philippine myths.
• Legends are believed to be about more
recent events and, like myths they may
also deal with stories which explain the
origin of things, places and their names,
plants, animals and others. They are also
used to teach lessons in life.

8. • Many supernatural beings are featured in
legends, such as the aswang (witch), the
engkanto (fairy), and the sirena (mermaid).
• One popular form of legend is the
typonymic, or that which explains the
origin of names of places.
• Religious legends narrate the miraculous
revelations of God and the Christian faith.

9. Folktales
• Folktales are prose narratives primarily
told for amusement and individual
entertainment and instructional value,
dealing with events set in an indefinite
time and space.
• Folktales (kwentong-bayan) are classified
into animal tales or fables, magic tales or
(numskull tales and trickster tales)
novelistic tales, religious and didactic
tales.

10. • Fables or animal tales are short tales
generally involving animals which convey
a message or virtue. The usual form is the
comparison between two animals to
emphasize the moral.

11. Humorous tales
• Numskull tales (or noodle-head tales)
recount the funny, amusing, odd,
occasionally heart-rending, clumsy acts of
a ridiculous person. In these tales, the
crowd is usually moved to sympathy or
annoyance or both over the antihero’s
misfortunes and follies, which bring
disaster upon himself.

12. • A flat or static character in numskull tales
presents the fool who takes things to the
letter.
• Sometimes a numskull may prove himself
to be a smart or shrewd character, or a
trickster.

13. • A trickster tale may narrate the foolishness
of a central character who cheats or plays
tricks on other people. The trickster may
be a human or an animal. To come out
victorious in every adventure, he may use
sweet talk, subterfuge, substitution, or
sleight-of-hand

14. • Juan Pusong of the Visayan, Pilandok of
the Maranao, and Juan Tamad of the
Tagalog are some of the well-known
tricksters.
• Oftentimes, the trickster hero is pictured
as a clever character, but acts like a
downright fool.

15. • Novelistic tales – Unlike magic tales or
fairy tales, human wit and common sense,
rather than magic powers make for the
male or female hero.
• Religious and didactic tales are called
miracle tales. They are mainly told to
illustrate the rewards of goodness and the
punishment for evil.
• A typical didactic tale centers on the
theme of inescapable or predestined fate.

16. • Another didactic tale patterns draws the
lesson of children’s love and respect for
parents especially in their old age.

17. Folk epics
• Folk epics or ethnoepics are long narrative
accounts of heroic exploits or events of a
hero under supernatural control. They are
less humorous, loftier. Very often these
ethnoepics were named after supernatural
heroes, except for a few with traditional
titles, like Darangen in Maranaw, Allim and
Hudhud in Ifugao, Hinilawod in Sulod,
Ibalon in Bicol, Ulalim in Kalinga.

18. • Other important epics are Indarapatra and
Sulayman of Maguindanao, Tuwaang of
the Manobo, Parang Sabil of the Tausug,
Lam-ang of the Ilocos, and Baybayan of
Bukidnon.
• These stories are called “old time history”
or stories of the first time because they
embody or validate the beliefs of our
ancestors, their customs, ideals, and
ways of living.

19. • Epics are either sung or chanted during
communal affairs such as harvests,
funerals, weddings, by bards chosen for
their wisdom or age.
• In different epics, supernatural beings
such as diwata (nature spirits), and anito
(ancestral spirits) appear, and natural
objects like water, trees, rocks, fire
animals, and fruits, especially the betel
nut acquire magical powers. They often
aid the heroes in their exploits.

20. • Biag ni Lam-ang, the Ilocano epic is the
oldest recorded Philippine folk epic and he
only complete epic to come down to us
from the Christian Filipino groups.

21. • Tuwaang, the Manuvu epic, consists of
two songs: Tuwaang and the Maiden of
the Buhong Sky and Tuwaang Attends a
Wedding.
• In the first song, Tuwaang saves a
maiden from her gigantic, jilted suitor, the
young man from Pangumanon. With his
spittle or salive, Tuwaang revives the
persons the giant killed. He brings the
maiden to his homeland and there fights
another enemy.

22. Folk speech
• They are the shortest form of folk
literature.
• Folk speech includes proverbs, riddles,
and short poems.

23. • Proverbs, also called salawikain, use
metaphors drawn from the surrounding
nature and every day life. They embody
general truths or observations on human
nature, rules of conduct or moral. Proverbs
have didactic value.
• Generally, in form, Philippine proverbs are
brief prose statements. They appear as
rhyming couplets from five to twelve
syllables.

24. • Longer Tagalog proverbs employ the
quatrain, and less frequently, the three-line
and flve-line stanzas.
• The proverbs of any people are expressive
of their perspective of life.

25. Riddles (Bugtong)
• Riddles are the most amusing form of folk
speech. Riddles use one or more images
as metaphor to refer to an object to be
guessed. They enrich the imagination and
sharpen the senses.
• Riddles are generally poetic in form and
come in one, two, three, or four lines.

26. • The use of nonsense words or phrases is
another style used in Philippine riddles. In
Tagalog riddles, these nonsense or
obscure words have been invented for
purposes of rhyme and meter and
onomatopoeic effect.
• The nonsense words appear as proper
names, fictitious names of animals, also
meet the need of rhyme.

27. • Sometimes, the riddle may be in the form
of a direct question.
• The themes of riddles are drawn form the
surrounding flora and fauna, the human
body, dwellings, tools and toys, clothing,
food and food processing equipment, and
many other known sources.

28. Short poems (folk poetry)
• They are generally quatrains consisting of
5-12 syllables per line and which are used
to be chanted. An example is the Tagalog
bulong which is an invocation to
environmental spirits or animals believed
to possess magic powers.
• Tanaga – it is a Tagalog folk poetry which
is consisted of four lines, full of metaphors,
and the consistent use of seven sylllables
in every line.

29. • The Mangyan ambahan is a poem with
seven syllables per line, with the end
syllables following a rime scheme. It
presents a human experience or a
situation by means of a metaphor. It
employs a language different from that
which is ordinarily used in conversations.

30. • The Mangyan use the ambahan to
communicate with others, using plants,
animals, and nature symbols allegorically
to convey their thoughts and emotions
about all aspects of life. They carve or
engrave ambahan on bamboo beams of a
house, bolo sheats, violin, guitar and all
handy items.

31. Folk songs
• Folk songs are songs that have been
handed down orally through generations.
They embody the faith, joy, the varied
hopes and odds of life; they reflect the
various aspects of life and activities of the
people. They are spontaneous outbursts
of the lyric feeling from the soul of the
people.

32. Classification of folk songs
• Cycle songs
• Work and activity songs
• Ritual and religious songs
• Songs about nature
• Humorous songs

33. • Songs related to infancy are lullabies, also
called oyayi by the Tagalog, songs sung to
hush babies to sleep. Most lyrics of
lullabies show the nature of family life.
• Songs of childhood consists of happy life
of the child, of fun and laughter, of games
and other activities.

34. • Work and activity songs describe how
people earn their livelihood – farming,
fishing, tuba gathering, pottery making,
and many other activities. They are sung
during work or after a day’s work.
• There are songs about family life which
expresses the emotions that bind the
family together.
• The greatest number of folk songs are
courtship and love songs.

35. • Many love songs express praises for the
Filipina woman.
• Some other folk songs are religious in
character and moralistic in tone.

36. Source
• Enriquez, Delia C. (2006). Philippine
Literature A Regional Approach. Second
Edition.