Academic Scholars Institute
Summer 2002

Internet Sources

The Internet offers a vast range of materials: some good, some bad and some indifferent. These sites will help you navigate your way through the World Wide Web:

• Evaluation of Internet Resources (Ka-Neng Au, Rutgers University)
  Clear and to the point, with great links to other evaluation pages.
• Internet Searching Strategies (Rice University)
  Information about search engines, Web page evaluation, and citation of electronic resources.

Search engines

• Google
  A search engine that tries to cut through the noise by getting to the "most important" pages on a given subject. Not too good for complex searches, but dynamite for single words or phrases.
• Teoma
  Teoma tries to find authoritative pages by looking at how many times a given page is cited by other subject-specific pages. The site also gives suggestions on how to refine your search. For example, after entering "folklore" in the search box, the user gets a page of results plus additional terms such as "fairy tales" and "urban legends."

Style Manuals:

• A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities
  (Melvin E. Page, Humanities and Social Sciences Online)

• Citing Electronic Information in History Papers
  (Maurice Crouse, University of Memphis)

Webliography of folktale sites

Explore myths, legends and tales of cultures across the globe.

General folktale sites

Encyclopedia Mythica: A resource for basic definitions and descriptions.

Folklore and mythology electronic texts: Tales from A to Z, covering animals to witches and then some from cultures throughout the world. Compiled and indexed by D.L. Ashliman, formerly of the University of Pittsburgh.

Internet Public Library: Online texts: Folklore: Full-text collection of various books and stories. Includes many versions of old favorites such as "Little Red Riding Hood" as well as Native American, Japanese and Jewish tales.

Snowhawk's legends, lore and mythology gateway: Links to individual stories and sites devoted to mythology and legends of various cultures.

Tales from the Peace Corps: Twenty tales collected by Peace Corps volunteers in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Tales of wonder: Separated into regions, including central Asia, native America, Siberia, China, Scandinavia.

African-American folktales

Afro-American tales: More than 30 tales from the Afro-American Almanac.

Native American folktales

Myths and legends for American Indian Youth: Tales and links to different North American tribes broken down by region.

Native American lore index page: Really a table of contents for 150 tales from different North American tribes.

Raven: Native American tales of the Pacific Northwest: Several tales plus links to other sites about Pacific Northwest tribes and a bibliography.

Folktales from Asia

Ancient legends of Guam: Tales, with pictures, courtesy of the government of Guam.

Folk legends of Japan: From the Japan Information Network, site features the stories "that every Japanese kid grows up listening to."

Folktales from Japan: Selected and edited by D.L. Ashliman.

Historic legends and tales (China): More than 20 tales and legends concerning figures both historic and legendary.

Homepage of Korean folktales: Also includes information on traditional Korean beliefs. Created by Dr. Jason Namsik Joh to enhance multicultural understanding.

Myths and legends of ancient Korea: Concerned with the founding legends of Korea. Includes glossary of terms and bibliography.

Popular Cambodian folktales: Four tales collected by the Southeast Asia Outreach Program at Cornell University.

Folktales from Central and South America

Mayan folktales: From the Folk Art & Craft Exchange, these tales were told to Fernando Peñalosa by don Pedro Miguel Say, a famous Q'anjob'al storyteller from San Miguel Acátan, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Maya culture: Legends with hidden politics: Reprinted, with permission, from Tales and Legends of the Q'anjob'al Maya.

Puerto Rican folktales: Designed as a curriculum unit by a member of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Includes bibliography.

Folktales from Europe

19th-century German stories: Allows you to access the tales of the brothers Grimm, plus tales by Goethe, Hoffman and more in both English and German.

Celtic folklore: Tales from Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany in addition to tales from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Also includes Matthew Arnold's 1891 Study of Celtic Literature and an extensive bibliography.

German changeling legends: Hosts of stories, tales and legends about children left by fairies in exchange for ones stolen. Also links to "Scandinavian changeling legends" and "Changeling legends from the British Isles."

Hans Christian Andersen: Fairy tales and stories: Hypertext versions of 127 of Andersen's tales, with a complete list of all 168 tales in chronological order. Also includes webliography of works by and about Anderson.

Icelandic folktales: A few tales compiled by the creator of Virtually Virtual Iceland.

Norwegian fairy tales: A classics collection: Twenty-four Norse tales "retold for little ears," with links to commentary/interpretations.

Russian and Ukranian folktales: Forty-five tales and poems from a site dedicated to Russian crafts.

Russian folklore links: A webliography of Russian folklore sites.

Urban legends

Popular urban legends: Urban legends currently making the rounds on the Internet.

Urban legends reference pages: Legends are divided into categories including: Automobiles, Cokelore (legends about Coca-Cola), Food, Holidays, Toxin du jour and Weddings. Site tells the story, identifies its origins and labels it true, false or ambiguous.

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