• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Fables and Tales

RayneOfDeath

New Member
In many of my worlds there are fables, tales, myths, legends, prophecies, and so on that weave into their modern culture I am in need of a lot more of these, so any help or ideas would be very useful. Stories, songs, rhymes, or tales/nursury rhymes/bedtime stories, or any other children's perspective on these (such as our 'ring around the rosie') would be great too.
Thank you for your help. it's much appreciated!
 

MineOwnKing

Maester
Ring around the rosie is a terrible example. Modern interpretations dealing with the plague are gruesome.

Perhaps some spin-offs of Norse mythology could send you in the right direction.

I don't know what age group you're aiming at, but for my 5 year old daughter, it's: fairies, fairies, fairies.

Yesterday she told me that she knows that Victoria's Secret model fairies are not real, but, she said, that didn't matter because she was going to grow real wings when she grew up, and everyone would pay to come see her, and everybody would love her, and she would be a pirate fairy, and grow up to be the ruler of the world.

And then I gave her an ice cream.
 

arbiter117

Minstrel
Ring around the rosie is a terrible example. Modern interpretations dealing with the plague are gruesome.

Perhaps some spin-offs of Norse mythology could send you in the right direction.

I don't know what age group you're aiming at, but for my 5 year old daughter, it's: fairies, fairies, fairies.

Yesterday she told me that she knows that Victoria's Secret model fairies are not real, but, she said, that didn't matter because she was going to grow real wings when she grew up, and everyone would pay to come see her, and everybody would love her, and she would be a pirate fairy, and grow up to be the ruler of the world.

And then I gave her an ice cream.
I will pay good money for a book about a pirate fairy! Hahaha

I'd say find some modern cultures (non English especially) and read their fairy tales.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 

trentonian7

Troubadour
In many of my worlds there are fables, tales, myths, legends, prophecies, and so on that weave into their modern culture I am in need of a lot more of these, so any help or ideas would be very useful. Stories, songs, rhymes, or tales/nursury rhymes/bedtime stories, or any other children's perspective on these (such as our 'ring around the rosie') would be great too.
Thank you for your help. it's much appreciated!

What is the geography of your world like? Or of the societies you're emphasizing. A culture that resides on an island chain in the ocean will have a different mythology than one that lives amid dense forest or barren desert. While there will be plenty of fairytales and happy stories, if you look back at historical fairytales, they were often very dark and even gory. Such stories were told by grandparents and passed among children to scare eachother, and many fables had a moral.
 

RayneOfDeath

New Member
That's awesome. XD 5 year olds planning to be ruler of the world. Ahh, good times, good times.

The settings are mostly countries that have little amounts of oceans around them. There are rivers, creeks, lakes and such, but there are few actual oceans. Depending on which world you look at it may be primarily jungle, forest, barren land, towns, or rubble. Some have kings, some only warring armies, some mostly lone or travelers (basically a nomadic world).

Most of them have fables of what lurks in the darkest* of places; epics of great warriors; superstitions of items, omens, and natural occurrences. Most of them also have a couple common 'unlikely love' or 'unlikely happiness' stories as to romanticise and damper the brutality of deadly species or 'evil' things. (ex. One of them is of a girl who was deathly sick and had blackouts often. In her blackouts she had dreams of a beast who was healthy and happy, traveling wherever it wanted. After she seemed to have reached her near end she mirically began to be able to use the simple brain functions that had been foreign to her since birth. That night she went missing. Soon a creature, her beast, with features mimicking that of the girl's was seen in front of the institution where she lived. From then on each night she would leave to roam and be free; free of being held back as well as sickness.) Many of them could end up dangerous for any who believed them. (ex. In one country there is a myth where a girl is kidnapped by a member of the brutal, womanizing, and trick-loving species known under many different names depending on who you asked. That girl found herself being still with him by night, the time this species is known to rap up its torture and kill/eat its victim. Instead she finds that by talking to this man he becomes intrigued and listens to her, in fact indulging in conversation. She is unaware of the danger as he has not chained her or anything, only lured. They talked and conversed together for days. He gave her food and a place to sleep; he was always gentlemanly. The creature couldn't find it in himself to torture and kill her or even merely trick her. He liked her. So, like a perfect fairy tale, they fell in love forever after in perfect unison.) This fable was, in fact, untrue. However, it did bring many women to seek these creatures at night. Most ended up dead, but some of these creatures seized this opportunity to keep this women to 'love', but little did the maidens know this meant torturing by drinking their blood over and over each night. This brought around the legend of vampires in this said world as well, which do not exist there.

*not actually darkest, but figuratively; the most evil or the most dastardly
 
Last edited:

Creed

Sage
You may want to look at the social norms of your society because these sorts of tales tend to reflect them in some way (though that more became common with the French bourgeois appropriating old tales or writing new ones in the Enlightenment). Also/instead, look at historical events and common/important natural phenomena in your world (plague, lunar storms, etc.)
The most important thing is to keep in mind who made the stories and what they wanted. Jack gets rich, Cinderella becomes a princess, the miller's son finds happiness and wealth. Most of these tales are about random peasants who, through luck/magic/special circumstance get to leave the squalor and serfdom, and poverty in general. Most agree that they told these tales because they wanted it to happen to them. What do your storytellers want? What do their audiences want?
 
Top