Connections to the Folk Tradition

I am currently taking an English seminar class entitled "From Folklore to Fiction," and many of the stories we are exposed to in the folk tradition were passed along orally as opposed to being written down.  The length, rhyming, and eloquence of some of the tales are truly admirable, and it amazes me that people created such intricate tales without ever putting pencil to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and that they memorized them as well.  It really makes me question my own techniques in crafting a story, whether for a creative writing assignment or for an academic paper, because I don't think I could actually verbalize my thoughts that well before organizing them in writing.

What is more, I found it particularly interesting that many of the folk tales were altered as they were retold, adding in the storyteller's own personal twist and sometimes their own experiences.  Now it is true that there were probably some storytellers that forgot some specifics of the stories and therefore improvised to fill those sections in, but it was a common practice for these tales to be altered in the ways that they were.  To me, this is one form of collaboration at its best.  To take a story you've heard and add or change some details to make it your own, to make it better...that's really cool.  So instead of having just one story that remains static over time, you have a living story, with dozens of contributors to deleted scenes and alternate endings that make the tale unique every single time.  If only it were that simple in academic writing...

"If a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen . . . A great lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar."
— John Steinbeck (East of Eden)