Folklore & Mythology: Home

Detail of Dante Gabriel Rossetti illustration from Christina Rossetti's poem, Goblin Market, 1862.

Scholars of folklore may use various citation formats.

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Additional information on research.

Folklore, according to scholar Lynne S. McNeill, is at its core, "informal, traditional culture. It’s all the cultural stuff—customs, stories, jokes, art—that we learn from each other, by word of mouth or observation, rather than through formal institutions like school or the media." As such folklore offers rich insight into human behavior, creativity, and belief systems. Folklore encompasses a wide range of genres that McNeill characterizes as:

• things we say (jokes, songs, folktales, myths, and legends)
• things we do (calendar customs, rituals, games, and rites of passage)
• things we make (handmade objects, collections and assemblages, and folk art)
• things we believe (superstitions, supernatural creatures, and folk religion)

For additional information on folklore genres, see the entries below in Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art :

The following research databases will help you identify scholarly articles related to folklore.