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“I’m sure you’ve heard of the story of Noah and the Ark, the man God told to build a boat and bring two of every animal. From what I learned, God floods the world and only Noah and his family survive. As a catholic, I learned about this tale at a young age during my Sunday school. When I did deeper searching out of curiousity, I found an online story where Zeus floods the world, and an old husband and wife survive by holding onto chests with their belongings and repopulating the Earth by throwing their mother (earth) bones (rocks) behind them. I know there is also a native american story where two climbed to the top of the highest tree to survive a flood. Manu, who was a Hindi legent, survived a flood by following a fish avatar. Chickasaws made rafts to save themselves.”

Context

I would come across these different stories from books I read and things I saw in class, and it always brought me back to Noah and the Ark. I still remember these stories because they made me wonder if they all were somehow inspired by each other. As I got older, I got really interested in Greek Mythology through the book Percy Jackson in particular. My interest caused me to read more and I found stories similar to Noah and the Ark from different cultures.

Analysis

Each religion has their own story, and many are passed down through the generations. Religion is one of the most widespread topics studied from a folklorist perspective because it is informally passed down through stories, sayings, and rituals. The flood stories presented above share related myths but differ based on the values of the respecitve folk groups. In folklore, myths are used in outerwordly contexts to help folk understand their own world and existence. The beauty of folklore is that it is formed on the basis of shared belief and identity and does not focus on the legitmacy of it. Instead, as long as people believe and allow it to shape parts of their lives, it will spread and keep cultural values alive. The flood in all these represent the multiple forms and variation folklore can come in. Folklore often exists in patterns as seen with the flood, but each story is adapted to its culture’s values.