Origins Of Lore

“Lore” specifically, is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, as:

lore, n. Accumulated facts, traditions, or beliefs, about a specific subject.

Which means that fact and fiction both play their parts to describe certain subjects; lore can be songs, or ritual storytelling, of a famous folk hero, or political figure from the medieval era, and lore can also be modern beliefs about certain groups, or cultures, including our own. Lore is not quite synonymous with folklore, because generally, folklore is oral traditions, because throughout the early ages of humanity, writing and reading were not practiced among all cultures. Later, in the medieval eras, only nobility could read, and in some countries, it was illegal for peasantry to read, write, or own books.

Folklore is defined by the same source:

Folklore, n. The traditional beliefs, legends, and practices of a people passed down orally.

As time went on, into later ages, however, folklore was recorded, and it became “lore”. Though the facts were just as diluted as they might have been in any literary form. The idea that because there are ancient records, that the oral records should be dismissed, is perhaps a bit unfair. Often, those who wrote the records weren’t exactly the most honest people, and also often enough, folklore and oral tradition were a way for villagers to tell the future generations, “what really happened”. As lands and the families living on them were often passed from nobility to the next, it became imperative to keep an oral record, because it’s natural for a successor to the land to assert that he is the better master, one after the other, and so on.

Folklore is generally not given the benefit of containing any fact, despite that it comes from a more honest source. On the other hand, lore is also a most general term, which most likely, does contain folklore in its possible synonyms. This series of articles will mostly explore different kinds of folklore.