Named Non-US Fictional Folk Heroes

[Stephen]

In the USA I was taught as a child that American pioneers created a number of folk tales about named characters (Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Davey Crockett, and Mike Fink etc.) Most of their exploits were made up but some were based on historical figures.

My Question...

Are there similar (named) characters in other countries cultures? (I'm guessing that there are) Can anyone recommend a good book about them? Hopefully a collection that spans countries.

Yet when I ask others, the only Non-US folk heroes who have names seem to be Hansel and Gretel and they're not exactly heroes with multiple stories.

Does anyone know of any, possibly collected in a book?

I DO know about a few that Rudyard Kipling put into his Just So Stories and of course there's King Arthur, but I'm hoping that there may be a book that surveys these characters around the world.

[Kaion]

Do you mean legendary figures? Mythical ones? Literary ones? (Crockett, Bunyan, Hansel belong to those three distinct categories, respectively)

Also, have you tried this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...

[Stephen]

Ah, thanks for that. I meant folk stories centered around a character that was primarily fictional. I've gone back and edited my original query to make that clearer.

[Rachel]

Well, there's Robin Hood, although opinions vary about whether he was based on someone real.

You might find Graham Seal's Encyclopedia Of Folk Heroes a good starting point, it seems to be fairly wide-ranging geographically.

[Stephen]

Rachel wrote: "Well, there's Robin Hood, although opinions vary about whether he was based on someone real.

You might find Graham Seal's Encyclopedia Of Folk Heroes a good starting point, ..."

Perfect! I've heard the name Stagolee but know nothing about him/her. Queen Mab I've heard of from Romeo & Juliet. Galloping Jones and Finn Mac Cumhal are completely new to me. Sounds like exactly what I was looking for.

[Tytti]

Stephen wrote: "Are there similar (named) characters in other countries cultures?"

I can't really think that many, most are real historical figures. Of course there is Lotta Svärd but it's mainly known for the later auxiliary movement and the women who served in it. The Kalevala has of course famous characters, but I'm not sure they are really folk heroes. I don't think there was need for them, and when there were, the "heroes" were real people.

[G.G.]

Would Pipi Longstocking be one of those?

[Kaion]

The Song of King Gesar
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts

[Stephen]

G.G. wrote: "Would Pipi Longstocking be one of those?"

I wasn't thinking of a character that was created by a single author, but more one that grew in the telling from narrator to narrator.

Wasn't Astrid Lindgren the creator of Pippi?

[stormhawk]

Baron Munchhausen is a German example

[Pamela]

There's Anansi the Spider. There are many stories about him. Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti There are numerous other books.

[Kimber]

Try American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The characters, for the most part, are all gods brought over from other cultures by immigrants to the Americas. Anansi, from above post, is a character as well as Odin, Loki, Cherzbog, Eostre, Queen of Sheba, WhiskeyJack and many others.

[Stephen]

Kimber wrote: "Try American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The characters, for the most part, are all gods brought over from other cultures by immigrants to the Americas. ..."

Thanks for that suggestion but I was hoping for stories about mortals. I am also aware of the heroes of Greek myths but am looking for folk characters that are post-classical. I am aware of the characters from Grimms' fairy tales but again, they're more archtypes and don't actually have names.

[Anna]

You mean folk heroes like Finnish Mikko Mieheläinen, Russian Ilja Muromiec, Polish Jan Twardowski or Slovakian Juraj Janosik, am I right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Mu...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juraj_J...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Twa...

[Stephen]

Anna wrote: "You mean folk heroes like Finnish Mikko Mieheläinen, Russian Ilja Muromiec, Polish Jan Twardowski or Slovakian Juraj Janosik, am I right? ..."

Yes! I'd never heard of any of these guys. As a product of a U.S. Public School education (I even went to a state college) I'm ignorant of many things that folks in other countries are exposed to. I'm just trying to fill in some gaps. Do you know of any book that collects tale of these folks?

Already got my public library digging up a copy of Encyclopedia Of Folk Heroes that an earlier poster suggested.

[Tytti]

I wouldn't call "Mikko Mieheläinen" a folk hero. For one thing he isn't exactly well known, just a character in an old tale, and I had never heard about him.

Lalli might be one, he is famous for killing a bishop. Did either of them ever exist, that's another thing. And there is probably no book about him in English. Jaakko Ilkka was a real person, he was a peasant leader and executed after the Cudgel War in 1597.

Then of course there is William Tell in Switzerland and Robin Hood, obviously, and also Faust. And many stories were told about Alexey Stakhanov in the Soviet Union.

[Monica]

Stephen wrote: " I'm just trying to fill in some gaps. Do you know of any book that collects tale of these folks?"

Check with your library (or a local university library) for "The Greenwood Library of Folktales"...it's a reference set I use quite often. It's a good starting place to discover new names and stories from around the world.

The Greenwood Library of World Folktales: Stories from the Great Collections gathers together a vast array of folktales and arranges them according to region or cultural group. Each volume of the set is devoted to a particular broad geographic region:

Volume 1: Africa, The Middle East, Australia and Oceania
Volume 2: Asia
Volume 3: Europe
Volume 4: North and South America

[Stephen]

Monica wrote: "...Check with your library (or a local university library) for "The Greenwood Library of Folktales"...it's a reference set I use quite often. It's a good starting place to discover new names and stories from around the world...."

Thanks. That sounds great.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Huon of the Horn? Orlando (aka Roland) El Cid? Any of those?

[Anna]

Tytti wrote: "I wouldn't call "Mikko Mieheläinen" a folk hero. For one thing he isn't exactly well known, just a character in an old tale, and I had never heard about him.

Lalli might be one, he is famous for k..."

I knew Mikko Mieheläinen from old folk tales book that was translated to Polish and (though that looks like kind of funny misunderstanding now) you could quite easily google him up on Polish sites as Finnish folk hero.

[Stephen]

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Huon of the Horn? Orlando (aka Roland) El Cid? Any of those?"

Those MAY be the thing. El Cid is not really a folk tale so much as a historical person/events that have been inflated a bit, no? Sort of like OUR George Washington stories.

[Tytti]

Anna wrote: "google him up on Polish sites as Finnish folk hero."

He isn't mentioned in Finnish at all. It might be an old tale but only one of many that we may or may not have been read as a child. Unlike Lalli who is well known, probably even mentioned in the history books, and a "hero", maybe. We don't particularly care for heroes.

I still think there are cultural differences, too, Americans like their heroes more than the rest of the world. You can even see it when it comes to movies. For example the French have Bluebeard but he had a habit of murdering wives...

[Pamela]

They're not exactly heroes, but there are many stories about the "Wise Men of Gotham", who aren't wise at all. The Wise Men Of Gotham

[Peter]

Wong Fei-Hung was a real person who is also a Chinese folk hero. He's had any number of movies made about him, but I don't know about books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wong_Fe...

[Pamela]

There's also a Turkish folk character who is sometimes wise, sometimes foolish, named Nasrettin Hoca (or some variation on that spelling). Probably his most famous story (in which he is wise) is The Hungry Coat. Here is one version: The Hungry Coat: A Tale from Turkey

[Krazykiwi]

Sweden's Bellman probably qualifies. Something of a generic trickster smartass dude. Unfortunately that page is in Swedish, but some of the references might help. There's also a small mention of him at the very end of the English Wikipedia entry for Carl Michael Bellman, who was a real person, although the folk character isn't really based on him.

Of course the swedes don't really need a trickster folk hero, who could measure up to Loke.

In NZ, there's Maui, not related to the island in Hawaii. He's generally considered a demigod by anthropologists, but treated rather more prosaically by my storytelling elders when I was little, in fact most of his stunts involved annoying the crap out of the actual gods. He did things like fishing up the North Island of NZ (it does look like a big fish, once you figure out the angle) from the south island - his canoe. He also slowed down the sun which was going much too fast, and stole fire from the gods who were hoarding it. Stories about Maui are probably a lot easier to find in English than Bellman too, and although all the really big ones are right on that Wikipedia page.

[Stephen]

Krazykiwi wrote: "Sweden's Bellman probably qualifies. Something of a generic trickster smartass dude. ...In NZ, there's Maui, not related to the island in Hawaii. He's generally considered a demigod by anthropologists, but treated rather more prosaically by my storytelling elders when I was little, in fact most of his stunts involved annoying the crap out of the actual gods.
"


Those sound great! I'm learning a lot. I'm glad I asked the original question.

[Pamela]

And more people like the Wise Men of Gotham are the Wise Men of Chelm. The Wise Men of Chelm

[Stephen]

Pamela wrote: "And more people like the Wise Men of Gotham are the Wise Men of Chelm. The Wise Men of Chelm"

Being a New Yorker I'd heard of the origins of the nickname Gotham for the Big Apple so I could understand there being a book called The Wise Men Of Gotham but I'd never heard of The Wise Men of Chelm

Only when I googled Chelm did I learn about the old jewish folk stories of Chelm so your suggestion has already taught me something.

Thanks