ABOUT THE BOOK

Philippine Folk Literature: The Folktales is volume 4 in the eight-volume Philippine Folk Literature Series.

This present collection focuses on folktales, defined in this work as fictional folk narratives, which are not considered as dogma or history; they may or may not have happened and are not to be taken seriously. But though they are told mostly for amusement, they perform an important teaching function as well.

An introduction defines the folktale and distinguishes it from the myth and the legend; briefly surveys folktale-collecting activities in the Philippines; and gives a detailed discussion, with illustrative examples from the collection and elsewhere, of the different types and subtypes of Philippine folktales.

The tales are presented according to the following types and subtypes: animal tales; fables (animal and plant); märchen, or tales of magic; religious and didactic tales; novelistic tales; and jocular tales, subdivided into trickster tales, numskull tales, and other humorous anecdotes.

The tales are given in English translation, in order to make them accessible to an international readership.

As in the other volumes in the series, this collection is intended to be national in scope. Care was therefore taken to ensure that it contains as wide a representation as possible of the different types and subtypes of the folktale and that it represents as many Philippine ethnolinguistic groups as possible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Damiana L. Eugenio obtained her B.S.E degree, cum laude, from the University of the Philippines, her M.A. in English Literature from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles, where she also did her studies in folklore. Her doctoral dissertation on Philippine awits and corridos was subsequently published under the title, Awit and Corrido: Philippine Metrical Romances. She has received several awards for her works, among them: “Most Outstanding Novo Ecijano in the Field of Arts (Literature); “Ina ng Folklore ng Pilipinas (Mother of Philippine Folklore).”