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This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Folklore

by Bruce E. Baker and Philip McFee, 2006
Additional research provided by Douglas J. McMillan and Shannon L. Reavis.

See also: Brown Mountain Lights; Conjure; Devil's Horse's Hoofprints; Devil's Tramping Ground; Folk Music; Ghosts; Maco Light; Madstones; Root Doctors; Southern Folklife Collection; Wampus.

Folklore- Part 1: Introduction; Folklore- Part 2: Types of Folklore and the North Carolina Folklore Society; Folklore- Part 3: North Carolina Folktales and Storytellers; Folklore- Part 4: Legends, Animal Tales, and Superstitions; Folklore- Part 5: References

Introduction

"Helen's Bridge, supposedly haunted, on the crest of Beaucatcher Mountain." Image courtesy of Flickr user Richard Butner.

In North Carolina, a state that puts great emphasis on oral traditions and family customs, the value of folklore and folktales is impossible to overstate. As the collected narrative culture of a group of people through many generations, North Carolina folklore is remarkably complex, representing a huge array of different narrative, traditional, and cultural styles. It may encompass such disparate forms as Cherokee legends, ballad singing among residents of a remote mountain valley, family ghost stories, religious messages on truck dashboards, or even modern-day jokes transmitted on the Internet. Folklore, unlike other cultural forms, usually circulates among members of a group or community in informal ways often not involving printing or other forms of recording. This informality emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships within the community, a key to the importance of folklore in creating and maintaining group identity. Sometimes seen as involving only "old-time" customs or stories, folklore is also the constant cultural interplay in the melting-pot environment of modern North Carolina, continuing to produce new folktales and folk customs that will exist for decades to come.

Keep reading  >> Folklore- Part 2: Types of Folklore and the North Carolina Folklore SocietyKeep reading

 

Image Credit:

"Helen's Bridge, supposedly haunted, on the crest of Beaucatcher Mountain." Image courtesy of Flickr user Richard Butner. Available from http://www.flickr.com/photos/giantsloth/3547418868/ (accessed May 29, 2012).

Subjects: 
Folklore and Legends
UNC Press
Authors: 
Baker, Bruce E.
McFee, Philip
McMillan, Douglas J.
Reavis, Shannon L.
From: 
Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 2006 | Baker, Bruce E.; McFee, Philip; McMillan, Douglas J.; Reavis, Shannon L.

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