THROUGH TALES AND LEGENDS:THE WORLDVIEW OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article analyzes the national worldview, values, and social consciousness of the British people through one of their richest examples of oral creativity — fairy tales and legends. The study explores the historical genesis of British folklore, its connections with Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman cultural layers, and its role in shaping public consciousness. The struggle between good and evil, courage, justice, diligence, respect for nature, and humanity reflected in these tales represent the moral ideals of the people. Furthermore, through their artistic structure and symbolic system, these stories express the spiritual world, historical memory, and cultural heritage of the nation.Examples such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Tom Thumb, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight were analyzed to reveal the semantic layers of folkloric motifs. Fairy tales not only reflect the worldview of the past but have also maintained their significance in modern culture. Contemporary works such as Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia demonstrate the continuity of ancient ideas and symbols from British folklore. The results show that British fairy tales and legends serve as a crucial spiritual source uniting national identity, cultural heritage, and social consciousness.
Downloads
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain the copyright of their manuscripts, and all Open Access articles are disseminated under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC-BY), which licenses unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is appropriately cited. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations.
How to Cite
References
1.Dégh, L. (1995). Narratives in Society: A Performer-Centered Study of Narration. Indiana University Press.
2.Dorson, R. M. (1968). The British Folklorists: A History. Routledge.
3.Green, T. (1997). Concepts of Arthur. Tempus Publishing.
4.Harris, J. (2008). Folklore and Social Expression in Britain. Oxford University Press.
5.Simpson, J. (1991). British Folklore and Mythology. Penguin Books.
6.Simpson, J. (2000). Folklore: Oral Memory of the Nation. Oxford University Press.
7.Tolkien, J.R.R. (1939). On Fairy-Stories. HarperCollins.
8.Warner, M. (1994). From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. Vintage.
9.Warner, M. (2018). Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale. Oxford University Press.
10.Wood, J. (2008). Fantastic Creatures in British Folklore. Cambridge University Press.