Are folk tales just exciting or amusing stories, or do they contain lessons about how we lead our lives? According to some psychologists, a folk tale expresses the unconscious hopes and fears of the people who enjoy listening to that story. Let me give you an example.

There is a tale that the Inuit, the Eskimos of Canada, tell called 'The Magic Drum'. In this story a girl refuses to marry any of the young men who ask her. Her body is eaten by sea animals until only her bones are left and she becomes a walking skeleton. Everyone's afraid of her and runs away, except one useless old man. The skeleton girl and the old man become friends; she gets him to make a magic drum which has the power to give her body back to her, as well as to make the old man young again. Of course, the two become man and wife, and presumably no longer outsiders from their own people.

This could be interpreted as a lesson in family values. The girl doesn't want to be loved by any of the young men of her group. Because she refuses love, her beauty, her body, is destroyed. Only when someone loves her, and she accepts him, is she born again as a beautiful girl. And in turn her love gives back the old man his lost youth. For the Eskimos, the important lesson of this story is that a woman is not fully a woman without the love of a man. And a man will never grow old as long as he has the love of a woman.

Of course, you may want to interpret this story in a different way. That's the strength of these stories. The 'lesson' is not fixed. It can change to meet the needs of contemporary times, or to suit any individual's personal situation. And we can enjoy the tale just because of the fun and excitement of the story, without being aware that there's any lesson included!!