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Hi, all! I'd discussed this some time back off-wiki with admins, creating a new theme category Category:Folklore to cover folklore characters and stories. However, defining folklore and overlap with other areas sometimes gets complicated, so I'm listing some general guidelines to approaching it (and if anyone's not sure if something counts or should be included, please bring it up on this thread!)
1. Basically to be included, the story is rooted in oral tradition and passed on, even if a lot of what later becomes common comes from written accounts or retellings. If based on a real historical figure, the folklore version has to have overshadowed the original fully. So Johnny Appleseed would count while George Washington, Christopher Columbus, and various Old West figures (their tales usually stem from dime novels and pulp fiction) do not. Folk figures like King Arthur or Robin Hood, where historicity has always been extremely obscure, fully count. Davy Crockett, though often lumped in with folk heroes, the fiction was invented to sell novels and mass market "biographies."
Greek mythology and mythologies from other countries count. But for fairly obvious reasons to avoid becoming a target, Category:Religion items shouldn't be in folklore unless specifically more or less universally acknowledged as mythology with no serious modern day adherents (so Zeus and Thor could count, but it's less messy and debatable to leave everything else alone). Greek mythology in fact does not encompass any actual religious books, even though accepted Greek gods are usually prominent figures. (I'm not sure we really need the religion category on it anymore, but it
2. Category:Fairy Tales. Many but not all fairy tales are rooted in folk stories. So for practical purposes, please do not double categorize those in Folklore. There's probably a few items in fairy tales now though which really belong in folklore (I hadn't made a page for it yet, but the different "Stone Soup" variant tales are strictly speaking folk tales and not fairy tales). I'll recategorize when applicable. Creatures or types found in both fairy tales and folklore, I think we can discuss on a case by case basis. Fairies, by their presence, basically automatically make a folk tale qualify as a fairy tale, so they should stay in fairy tales. Elves likewise, I think. Giants, witches, and dragons span both, so I'm thinking they can be double categorized. Other mythical and legendary creatures, whether ancient (unicorns, griffins) or modern (Big Foot, Yeti, Loch Ness Monster) count. Mermaids, I'm honestly not sure. Most people now know them from the fairy tale versions rather than sailor's legends (some of which seem to be influenced by the Greek mythological sirens). The Muppet versions include both fairy tale mermaids and "depicted as a nautical symbol" kind. Right now, mermaids has no category anyway beyond Muppet Character Types, so we can decide that later. Any thoughts pro or con though, feel free to leave here!
3. Generally speaking, it only applies if the story or character arose as part of folk tradition and not stemming from a specific play or novel by a known author. So Ebenezer Scrooge is not a folk character, but Santa Claus is. Pecos Bill is kind of tricky since he was definitely invented by a known author and *presented* as being a folk legend, but by now most media depictions treat him as a genuine folk character. So it's easier to include him. (I actually had to edit Wikipedia's own American folklore page which inexplicably listed The Lone Ranger, created for the radio show).
4. At least for now, I'm not including folksongs, *unless* they specifically retall an established folk story, such as select ballads. That's because the vast majority of public domain songs used on Sesame Street and elsewhere began as folk songs. So, "Abiyoyo," a narrative retelling of a folk story in song, counts, but not "I've Been Working on the Railroad." We'd need dedicated folk music experts to try to handle a folk songs or folk music category, and many songs assumed to be folk in origin were invented but still often considered as part of the music genre, so it's just a subject of its own really.
5. There's some inevitable overlap with Category:Symbolic References too. Many of those items though aren't from folklore or folk tales so much as a specific motif or symbol which originated in art or elsewhere and was passed on. My take is if they featured as a *character* in folk legends and tales, like Jack Frost or The Sandman, they count. Those which are really just symbols and personifications, usually manifesting in art or just as an expression, don't (Mother Nature, Lady Justice, characters like Uncle Sam which mostly derived from political cartoons, etc). The Tooth Fairy, the *belief* is rooted in folklore and folk traditions (leaving a coin or present for a tooth) though the character (and equivalents in other countries) came later. But generally, there should be at least one known folk story tied to the character to count for it to be double categorized. And Death as a symbolic representation is simply too universal (much like The Devil), spanning religion, folk tales, fairy tales, art, almost everything.
Specific German folk legends, if not necessarily a specific story, about The Easter Bunny are confirmed, so he'd count. But Storks carrying babies is neither a specific character nor story and honestly way too messy to categorize beyond being a symbol (comes from a blending of Greek myths of cranes snatching babies, Catholic art with pelicans representing motherhood, and just an easy euphemism to avoid discussing sex, and the closest to a specific story was invented by Hans Christian Andersen).
6. Productions. Right now, my gut feeling is not to add any *yet*. All of The StoryTeller comes from folklore, and the spinoff versions, so if we were to categorize, it would make more sense only to categorize the parent series and not every episode, spinoff, book, etc. For now, I'm going to "see also." And as with issues we've had in Category:Themes, a lot of Sesame Street episodes and several Muppet Babies ones have characters at one point or another portraying a folklore character. So following precedents such as Food narratives, a "folklore narratives" list might work eventually, but overall it's too broad to get into. As it is, even episode inclusion in the Fairy Tales category are confusing and spotty (some but not all episodes with Rapunzel or Cinderella in street scenes are included, Prince Charming appearances mostly aren't, and it's a mess). That's a different topic again.
So that was a whole a lot of preliminary text, mostly so the category can link to this thread and thus simplify the definition. Any questions or suggestions for inclusion that don't clearly fit the definitions above (as I said, it can get tricky sometimes), please feel free to bring up below first so we can figure them out. Thanks! -- Andrew 
03:28, 23 September 2024 (UTC)