Folklore Comparison Essay

All countries’ have different cultures, and a countries’ culture usually defines the beliefs they are built on. Folklore is a perfect example of something that defines a countries’ culture. The building blocks of a countries’ folklore is what most of the population accepts to be true. I have recently examined three different folklore's from three different countries, and I must say that I am very surprised at how much alike they are. The three different folklore's are from Germany, England, and Mexico, and they all deal with some kind of ferocious monster.

The first folklore, “The Morback Monster” showed me that Germans don’t ignore their superstitions.  It starts out in a small town where they have this shrine that houses a candle that's never supposed to go out. For if the candles flame were ever to be doused, then werewolves would once again terrorize their lands. The villagers even post guards to guard the shrine; they must have really been listening when grandma was telling the family legend. As the story progresses the flame eventually goes out, and a wolf shows up to terrorize the land and proceeds to slaughter many people.

“The Soldier and the Vampire,” a story from England, is a little tricky, because the English version of a vampire is a dead warlock that has come back from the dead. Like the German folklore the warlock would only harm people if provoked. Eventually he was provoked by a soldier, and kills a newly wed couple by draining them of their blood, hence the title vampire. In the two folklore's that I have looked at so far, I can already see one major similarity. Danger could be easily avoided if people had heeded the warnings that they are given. But in both cases the warnings are ignored and people die because of it.

The final folklore, “The Spanish Werewolf,” is another werewolf story. In this story a man broke a deal with the devil, and the devil cursed him. Every full moon the man would morph into a vicious wolf and terrorize the land. If you were lucky enough to survive an attack , then the disease wold be transmitted to you. Soon a pack of the wolves were created and killed hundreds until they just disappeared. No one knows what happened to them , but the land was saved. This folklore is a little different from the others because there was no warning to adhere to. Non the less it still compares with the others, because innocent people die at the hands of monsters, all because one man was stupid enough to break his deal with the devil.

All three folklores from different countries are very similar. They all reek of death, and they all have a common lesson, a simple one really: always pay attention to the warnings given to you. Sure they were all different in origin, but the main similarity that they share is monsters spill innocent blood.