Some good collections are: Æsop; La Fontaine; “Fables and Folk Stories,” H. E. Scudder; “Fairy Stories and Fables,” Baldwin.
6. MYTHS
Myths have their origin in primitive man’s personification of the forces and objects of nature, as gods, demons, giants, dwarfs, light-elves, spirits of darkness, trolls, and hideous monsters. Interpreting nature in poetic imagery and language, primitive races came to believe in these myths as their religion. The Greek myths, which are largely personifications of the beauty of nature, are especially pleasing to children who love stories of flowers, trees, fountains, and sudden transformations, as the natural response to their inherent love of nature. The Norse myths are personifications of the awe-inspiring natural phenomena of the cold and rugged northland. Such stories picture stalwart courage, manliness, and heroic virtue, qualities that appeal to later childhood and youth. The myths of the American Indian, such as Longfellow’s “Hiawatha,” treating of the spirit of the wild woods and free out-of-door life, are well adapted to the child’s love of nature.
“Myth is not a goal. It is a means by which the goal is reached. The race grew out of the myth-making period of its development, and the child will grow out of the myth-loving stage in its religious development, unless hindered by parents or teachers who unwisely withhold this childhood religious material from him.”[3]
Some of the best collections of myths are Hawthorne’s “Wonder-Tales”; Kingsley’s “Greek Heroes”; “Norse Stories Retold,” Mabie; “Stories of the Red Children,” Dorothy Brooks.
7. LEGENDS
Both myths and legends belong to folk-lore literature and to the idealistic type of story. The difference between them is that the myth is a personification of nature, while the legend is an idealization of a person or place. “The myth is a creation of fancy from ideas. The legend is the perception of an idea from a basis in fact. The myth is a creation of pure and absolute imagination. The legend is a story based on historical fact, but enlarged, abridged, or modified at pleasure. Both myths and legends express the imagination, emotion, and spirit of early man, and, for this reason, make a strong appeal to the same qualities in the soul of those who are in the early years of life to-day.” As all races have their legends, the list of them is long. Not one-thousandth part of them can be told. Among legends that age after age has loved and treasured, are those of India, brought together in the “Jataka Tales,” those of Greece and Rome, of the Middle Ages, of the Northmen, of King Arthur and the Round Table, and of the American Indian. Some of the best collections are: “Juventus Mundi,” Gladstone; “Famous Legends,” Crommelin (legends of all countries); “Legends of Greece and Rome,” Kupper; “Book of Legends,” Scudder; “Child’s Book of Saints,” Canton.
8. NATURE STORIES
Stories of animals, birds, pets, trees, plants, flowers, mountains, seas, and other expressions of nature are very popular with children from their earliest years. But these stories need adaptation and strengthening with the growing years. They may be used to teach the habits of animals or the laws of plant life, thus stimulating scientific interest in the animal and plant world. Their best use is simply to please and delight the child’s fancy. How children revel in a story that begins, “Once there was a bear,” or “There was once a little, furry rabbit.” Such stories are the first steps, in curiosity and imagination, into the feelings and fortunes of creatures different from themselves, preparing for a sympathetic interest in the lives of others, not only of animals, but of human beings. In the early years, fanciful animal stories may be given. But later, only true stories of animals have value. Some good nature stories are: “Nature Myths and Stories,” Cooke; “True Tales of Birds and Beasts,” Jordan; “Door-yard Stories,” Pierson; “True Bird Stories,” Miller.