THE rough mapping out for the purposes of our study of the whole area
from the Atlantic eastward to the farthest confines of India has suggested
that large differences may be found in the attitude of story-tellers toward
their traditional material. The clear-cut distinction made by the Irish between
legends supposed to be true and purely fictional tales would be very rare,
for example, in India. The student of the folktale therefore finds it very
difficult to arrive at valid definitions of the various forms which the tale
may assume. If he is dealing with the traditional fiction of a single country,
it is usually possible to work out some rather exact definitions, but when he
seeks to apply these to a distant area, all his sharp differentiations become
blurred and in many cases disappear entirely.

In the English language little attempt has ever been made to arrive at
sharp distinctions of this kind. The term "folktale" has always been used
loosely to cover the whole range of traditional oral narrative. Sometimes the
expression "wonder tale" or "fairy tale" is applied to stories filled with
incredible marvels, in contrast to legends, which are presumably based upon
fact. This general distinction between the legend ¹ and the fictional tale holds
good over a large part of this European-Asiatic area, but especially through-
out Europe, and is therefore of great practical value.

The various expressions for "folktale" or "fairy tale" in other lands than
England, though well established, are all vaguely and carelessly used. The
French conte populaire, the German Märchen, the Norwegian eventyr, the
Swedish saga, and the Russian skazka are certainly not always exactly the
same thing. The Germans have made a very special attempt to achieve

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