Oral literatures that you know?

[linnie]

In class today, we had a new lesson about the native americans. And we got to discuss about oral literature since they didn't have written form of writing. Well, I'm sure we have heard some of it from somewhere. The one Ms. Boyd told me, I think it was about how baby on the branch falls and die, shocked me. It was all related to history! It was about King Richard whatever, and he made two boys locked in the tower and disappear them.

The oral literature I know is ring around the rosy. I learnt this song when I was young and I understood the whole meaning when I was 6th grade, studying about black death. AKA bubonic plague nearly killed 1/3 of Europe population! Ring around the rosy is a red spot that you get when you get plague. And there is sneezing part, which is one of the symptoms of black death, and all fall down refers to people dying. The full meaning shocked me!

Do you know some of them like mine? Any oral literature you know!

[JustinK.]

The one that i can remember doesn't explain about the birth of the Earth and Humans, but it mainly focuses on family and the culture of Chinese daily life. The story is about a mother who is very ill. The son of her's knows that his mom loves a certain kind of fish that exists only in a special pond. It was in the middle of winter and the pond is frozen. The son took his shirt off, and lied on the frozen pond, tried to melt the ice to get to the fish. Instead of freezing to death, he survived and caught a fish for his mom. This story is very well known and is passed down since it reflects the importance of family in the Chinese Culture.

[nadiraamalina]

We mentioned the Ramayana in class, since Deeksha did it for her book project. But I also remember it because it's a popular folk tale back in Indonesia, especially Bali since there are a lot of Hindus there. However, I can't really remember what it was about. I'll try and list the things I know:
1. Rama was the hero, and Sita was his wife. They were both incredibly good and attractive and utterly boring like the heroes of most ancient epics.
2. He got exiled from his kingdom before being crowned king.
3. The rest of the story is him getting his right to the throne back (featuring awesome monkey-human).
The most interesting part for me was that there was this awesome monkey-human who did pretty much everything important in the story.

[yeajinchoi]

I think all creation myths are oral literature since they probably didn't have a writing system back then. I think I mentioned this in class but the other one that I know was a creation myth from the Cherokee people. I studied it in World History class.
I kind of forgot how it went exactly, but I remember the basic story.
I think there were all these animals living in the sky but they ran out of room. So the water beetle went down to the sea and scooped up mud from the ground. And that mud became the land and other animals came down from life and humans came and they reproduced. Then the humans and the animals had to live in balance so they don't make the other one extinct. I think that's what it was about.

[woojongpark]

I've listened to so many oral literatures when I was young because I liked old stories very much. Many of them were Korean folktales, like how the tiger got its black stripes on back and why the sea is salty.
Some epics were originally oral literature, such as Homer's the Odyssey.
Since oral literature is passed onto next generation by mouth, there are variations and changes in story. But I like that nature of oral literature, since it is interesting for me to see the differences.

[junilee26]

Yeajin! i agree with you! haha.
I believe all creation myths are oral literature because they are being told by a person and it is passed down by generations to generations.

[mirim002]

i agree with lin. about the oral literatures being songs, such as ring around the rosy, & i guess london bridge is falling down? and about the sneezing part, about if u sneeze, some person dies. I was shocked too that these nursery rhymes are actually about scary history.

[JustinK.]

I remember another one. For this one, the author or speaker described Earth as an egg. The clear part rose and became the sky and Heaven and the heavier part sank and formed the land. The main character "Pangu" lived in between and often hit on the egg, which caused it the grow larger. After Pangu died, his breath became the wind, his sound became the thunder, his eyes became the sun and moon, his hair turned into the stars and the flowers and trees from his skin.

[munisa]

I dont know any Oral literatures, I think that its because Im a bad listener, like I need to create this image in my head in order to pay attention t the speaker, but that takes a long time, and I loose my concentration, even though the speaker has good intonations and all, I suck at listening to people speaking

[sazad100]

I don't know any oral literatures frankly.
I can only tell one thing though, creation myths oral literaures as they were told long time ago and people had no other ways but to tell the stories from generation to generation.

[sergeyfen]

I dont know any Oral literatures except the ones that ms.Boyd went over in the class, but i agree with yeajin that creation myths are oral literature because such stories were told from generation to generation, from parents to kids. So that way creation myths were past on and on.

[jooyoungpark]

Well the hung bu and nol bu, bunny and the tortoise, bunny and the turtle. i know alot of korean folk tales that are passed through generations, and i think they are oral literature, since they are passed down through generations.

[woori]

hi

[agneslianaputri99]

hello