Philippine Folk Literature: The Myths (Philippine Folk Literature Series, Vol. II)

Philippine Folk Literature: The Myths constitutes Volume II of the author's eight-volume Philippine Folk Literature Series. The present volume focuses on myths, simply defines as sacred narratives explaining how the world and man came to be in their present form. An "Introduction" distinguishes myth from legend, with which it is usually confused, and offers a system of classification of myths, which follows the arrangement of mythological motifs in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature. The myths in this collection are arranged according to the eight categories in the system of classification mentioned above: 1) the Gods: their Activities and Relationships; 2) Cosmology and Cosmogony; 3) Topographical Features of the Earth (water and land features); 4) World Calamities (The Great Flood); 5) Establishment of the Natural Order; 6) Creation and Ordering of Human Life; 7) Origin of Animal Life and Characteristics; and 8) Origin of Plant Life and Characteristics. Within each category, the myths are arranged by region -- Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao. Exceptions were made in the myths on the origin of animals and plants, which are arranged alphabetically. As with the other volumes in the series, the selections are given in English translation, in order to make them accessible to an international readership. As in the other volumes, also, 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 different types and sub-types of myths and that it represents as many Philippine ethnolinguistic groups as possible.