The word "folklore" (musical and literary oral folk art) is translated into Russian as "folk wisdom". The term “gave” to us the Old English language, which is the difference between this word and many others that are “obliged” to their origin in Latin and Greek. And, perhaps, no one will argue with the fact that this name is fully consistent with the content: folk traditions reflected the traditions, experience and views of our ancestors on the outside world, that is, in fact, centuries-old folk wisdom was collected and passed on to us, descendants.
Folklore - these are songs and dances, legends, epics and instrumental tunes that do not have an author: they lead an "oral lifestyle", being transmitted from one artist to another and often changing. And it happens that the variations of the same song, gleaned by collectors of folklore in different sources, are significantly different from each other.
Nevertheless, even a person who is not familiar with folklore will never confuse a Russian folk song, for example, with a Georgian or Kazakh one, because each of them was born to a certain people with only their usual way of life, history and rites. That is why folklore works are unique, for example, only in Russian folk art there are epics, in Ukrainian - thoughts, etc.
And now a little history. In the ancient world, verbal creativity was born from the religious and mythical views of man, was associated with his work and carried the origins of future scientific knowledge. The rites with the help of which our distant ancestors tried to influence the world around us and their fate, were carried out accompanied by spells and conspiracies, trees, water, wind and other "representatives" of nature through words transmitted requests or expressed threats against them. And gradually, verbal creativity stood out as an independent art form.
In the ancient and medieval world, a heroic epic appears, as well as legends and songs that carry religious beliefs. A little later, people begin to compose historical songs that tell about real events and glorify heroes. Social changes in public life and the development of industry entail the birth of new genres. So, in Russian folklore there appear soldier's, yamshchitsky, burlak songs, working, school and student folklore.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that some folklore genres “bring to light” new works, while others, although they continue to exist, do not. For example, today ditties, jokes and sayings sound, the author of which is the people. But new folk tales and epics do not appear, only old ones are told.
