Mit
Content
Myth is regarded variously across a wide spectrum of opinion spanning several centuries.
Introducing a recent issue of the journal Folklore Forum on “Myth”, the guest editor began by
noting “the variety inherent in our understanding of myth as we near the end of the
twentieth century,” and she named as “problematic terms” most of the characteristics myth
research had become comfortable with: narrative, genre, sacred, belief, performance, ritual,
interpretation, context, production, document, coding, and evidence. “Even taking the definition
wars of the past century or so into consideration, whose arguments centered largely on
descriptions of folklore’s long-acknowledged genres of legend, saga, epic, ballad, and folktale,”
Liz Locke noted, “it must be admitted that such a state of semantic disarray and/or ambiguity is
truly extraordinary”. (1998:1)
Introducing a recent issue of the journal Folklore Forum on “Myth”, the guest editor began by
noting “the variety inherent in our understanding of myth as we near the end of the
twentieth century,” and she named as “problematic terms” most of the characteristics myth
research had become comfortable with: narrative, genre, sacred, belief, performance, ritual,
interpretation, context, production, document, coding, and evidence. “Even taking the definition
wars of the past century or so into consideration, whose arguments centered largely on
descriptions of folklore’s long-acknowledged genres of legend, saga, epic, ballad, and folktale,”
Liz Locke noted, “it must be admitted that such a state of semantic disarray and/or ambiguity is
truly extraordinary”. (1998:1)
