A folktale is a story that has been passed down orally through generations within a community. It has no single identifiable author and exists in multiple variants.

Folktales include fairy tales, animal tales, legends, and jests. They often feature stock characters, magical helpers or adversaries, and clear moral or practical outcomes. Because they were shaped by repeated telling, they tend toward strong plots, memorable motifs, and language that is easy to remember and perform. Collectors such as the Brothers Grimm wrote down versions that then entered literary culture, sometimes fixing a once-fluid tradition into a standard text.

Folktales differ from myths by focusing less on gods and cosmic origins and more on human or animal protagonists in a world that resembles the tellers’ own, however enchanted. They continue to be adapted into children’s literature, film, and literary fiction. Studying them reveals both universal narrative patterns and culturally specific values.

A story that belongs to a people rather than to a single writer and that has been shaped by many tongues is a folktale.