imagination for thousands of years.
People everywhere have told stories to
amuse, to teach, to remember, and just
to pass the time. People started telling
stories long before writing was invented.
Today stories are also written down in
books of fiction and acted out in movies,
television shows, and plays. But
people all over the world still tell one
another stories out loud. A person who
can tell a good story nearly always finds
an audience.
The Oral Tradition
Before people developed writing, storytelling
was the most important way to
pass along information. Anything a culture
wanted to preserve—its beliefs, its
history, and its traditions—had to be
told out loud. Each generation would
tell the culture’s stories to the next generation.
In this way the stories were
passed along. Knowledge passed on in
this method is called the oral, or spoken,
tradition. Even cultures that know how
to write still pass along some information
in this way.
In some cultures everyone would pass
along the stories. In other cultures only
special storytellers were entrusted with
this important job. A culture’s best storytellers
had good memories. They could
also make the tales very entertaining.
This helped ensure that people would
listen to their stories and remember
them. Sometimes people would sing the
stories or tell them in the form of poetry.
Melody, rhythm, and rhyme can all
make stories easier to remember.
Nevertheless, stories told aloud change
over time as different people tell them. A
storyteller might change a story on purpose
to make it better. Or a teller may
simply not remember all of a tale accurately.
Unlike written literature, the oral
tradition is not created by any one person.
Instead an entire culture helps
Many public libraries and museums invite
storytellers to entertain children with their
tales.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Storytelling 193
shape the changing stories across generations.
Sometimes the stories are collected
and written down long after they have
been created.
Types of Stories
Since ancient times stories have taken
many different forms. Cultures all over
the world tell traditional stories about
their gods and beliefs about life. These
legends, called myths, are related to religion.
Creation myths explain how a
culture believes, or once believed, the
world began. Other myths may explain
how people were created, why it rains,
or why there is evil in the world.
Folktales are another form of story common
to all cultures. They can be very
similar to myths. Folktales take many
forms. They may be funny, scary, or tell
of exciting adventures. Some folktales
tell about strong heroes. Other folktales
feature clever “tricksters” who fool other
characters. Other tales tell of witches,
thieves, ghosts, cowboys, talking animals,
or common villagers.
Fables, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes
are common types of folk stories. A fable
is a short folktale that teaches a lesson
about how people should behave. It usually
has animal characters that speak and
act like people. Fairy tales tell about
magical beings such as fairies, elves,
dragons, and trolls. Nursery rhymes tell
entertaining stories in short, clever
poems. People have told such stories to
children for centuries.
#More to explore
Fiction • Folktale • Literature
• Mythology • Nursery Rhyme • Poetry
Stowe, Harriet
Beecher
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a famous
book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin about the
difficult lives of slaves in the United
States. At the time, people argued over
whether or not slavery should be
allowed. Stowe worked to end slavery.
Harriet Beecher was born on June 14,
1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her
father was a preacher who did not
believe in slavery. The Beechers moved
to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1832. In Cincinnati,
Harriet married Calvin Stowe.
While living in Cincinnati, Stowe
learned more about slavery. She found
out that her servant was a runaway slave.
Stowe and her husband helped the servant
escape through the Underground
Railroad. This was a secret route that
helped runaway slaves escape to Canada
A storyteller sings tales about Australia with
a group of students. Singing a story makes
it easy to remember as well as fun to tell
and listen to.
194 Stowe, Harriet Beecher BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
from the Southern states. Stowe also
started writing articles and stories.
In 1852 Harriet published her most
famous book. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a
book about slave families. It described
the horrors slaves faced. Many people
say that Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped bring
about the American CivilWar. One of
the main reasons for the war between
the Northern and Southern states was
that people did not agree about slavery.
Some people in the Northern states
wanted slavery to be ended throughout
the United States. The Southern states
wanted to keep slavery. During the war
Stowe met President Abraham Lincoln.
He told her that he knew her book had
influenced many people.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s career as a
writer lasted more than 50 years. By the
end of her life, Stowe had written more
than 30 books and many articles. Stowe
died in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1896.
#More to explore
