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The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological goals; only in the 20th century did ethnographers begin to attempt to record folklore objectively. The Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm, collected orally transmitted German tales and published the first series as Kinder- und Hausmärchen ("Children's and Household Tales") in 1812.

The term was coined in 1846 by an Englishman who wanted to use an Anglo-Saxon term for what was then called "popular antiquities". Johann Gottfried von Herder first advocated the deliberate recording and preservation of folklore to document the authentic spirit, tradition, and identity of the German people; the belief that there can be such authenticity is one of the tenets of the romantic nationalism which Herder developed.

While folklore can contain religious or mythic elements, it typically concerns itself with the mundane traditions of everyday life. Folklore frequently ties the practical and the esoteric into one narrative package. It has often been conflated with mythology, and vice versa, because it has been assumed that any figurative story that does not pertain to the dominant beliefs of the time is not of the same status as those dominant beliefs. Thus, RomanRome ( Italian and Latin Roma is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region. It is located on the lower Tiber river, near the Mediterranean Sea, at 41°50'N, 12°15'E. The Vatican City State, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman religion is called "myth" by ChristiansChristian cross and its many variations are widely recognized as an ancient Christian symbol. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. Although Christians generally chara. In that way, both myth and folklore have become catch-all terms for all figurative narratives which do not correspond with the dominant belief structure.

Sometimes "folklore" is religious in nature, like the tales of the WelshFor alternate meanings, see Wales (disambiguation Wales ( Welsh: Cymru pronounced /"k@mrI/ SAMPA, km IPA, 'Kumree' approximate pronunciation) is one of the four nations comprising the United Kingdom (the other three being England, Scotland and Northern Ir MabinogionThe Mabinogion is a collection of stories based on the oral tradition of the Welsh bards. They are partly based on early medieval historical events, but may hark back to older iron age traditions. Name Its name comes from a misunderstanding made by the Ma or those found in IcelandicThe Republic of Iceland is an island nation in the northern Atlantic Ocean, located between Greenland and Scotland, northwest of the Faroe Islands. Lydveldid Island ( In Detail) (Full size) National motto: none Official languageNone. Icelandic de facto''. skaldic poetry. Many of the tales in the Golden LegendThe Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine is a collection of fanciful hagiographies, lives of the saints, that became a late mediaeval best seller. It was probably compiled around 1260. Initially titled simply Legenda Sanctorum Latin for "Readings on the S of Jacob de Voragine also embody folklore elements in a Christian context: examples of such Christian mythology are the themes woven round Saint George or Saint Christopher. In this case, folklore is being used in a quasi-pejorative sense. That is, while the tales of Odin the Wanderer have a religious value to the Norse who wrote the stories, because it does not fit into a Christian configuration it is not "religious" per se. Instead it is "folklore."

On the other hand, folklore can be used to accurately describe a figurative narrative which has no theological or religious content, but instead pertains to useful mundane lore. This mundane lore may or may not have components of the fantastic (such as magic, ethereal beings or the personification of inanimate objects). These folktales may emerge from a religious tradition, but are essentially secular. "Hansel and Grethel" is a strong example of this fine line. While the element of witchcraft may possibly contain a religious subtext, or at least imply some early euro- pagan origin (like what Margaret Murray or The Golden Bough might describe), it can be said with some degree of certainty that the purpose of the tale is primarily one of mundane instruction regarding forest safety, as well as secondarily a cautionary tale about the dangers of famine to large families. There is moral scope to the work, but not necessarily a religious scope.

The modern Western folklore that we face today has been identified by some scholars as that of the urban legend and the conspiracy theory. Only time will tell what of that tradition is practical, what is ephemeral and what is religious. " Hansel and Gretel" lives on today in the tales that inspired the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. But UFO abduction narratives can be seen, in some sense, to refigure the tales of pre-Christian Europe, or even such tales in the Bible as the Ascent of Elijiah to Heaven in a spinning wheel. Are these "folktales"? Or is their religious dimension being purposefully, if unconsciously, ignored or suppressed?