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For other uses of the term, see fable (disambiguation).

In its strict sense a fable is a short story or folk tale embodying a moral, which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim. "Fable" comes from Latin fabula and shares a root with faber, "maker, artificer." Thus, though a fable may be conversational in tone, the understanding from the outset is that it is an invention, a fiction. A fable may be set in verse, though it is usually prose. In its pejorative sense, a fable is a deliberately invented or falsified account.

A fable often, but not necessarily, makes metaphorical use of an animal as its central character. Medieval French fabliaux might feature Reynard the fox, a trickster figure, and offer a subtext that was mildly subversive of the feudal order of society. A familiar theme in Slavic fables is an encounter between a wily peasant and the Devil.

In some usage, "fable" has been extended to include stories with mythical or legendary elements. The word fabulous strictly means "pertaining to fables", although in recent decades its metaphorical meanings have been taken to be literal meanings. An author of fables is called a fabulist.

Contents 1 History 2 Notable fabulists 3 Some modern fabulists 4 Notable fables 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

History

Epicharmus of Kos and Phormis have been reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables.¹

Notable fabulists

• Aesop
• Vishnu Sarma
• Phaedrus
• Hyginus, author of Fabulae.
• Berechiah ha-Nakdan (Berechiah the Punctuator, Jewish author, 1200s).
• Marie de France
• Biernat of Lublin (Polish, 1465? – after 1529).
• Jean de La Fontaine
• Ignacy Krasicki (Polish, 1735 – 1801).
• Hans Christian Andersen
• Ivan Krylov
• "Uncle Remus" (Joel Chandler Harris)

Some modern fabulists

• George Ade
• James Thurber (1894-1961), Fables For Our Time.
• Damon Runyon
• Sholem Aleichem

Notable fables

• Stone Soup
• The Little Engine that Could
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull
• Watership Down
• The Lion King
• Emperor's New Clothes (fable)
• Fables and Parables by Ignacy Krasicki

See also

• Allegory
• Apologue
• Fairy tale
• Ghost story
• Parable
• Urban Legend

References

• ¹ Philip Wentworth Buckham, Theatre of the Greeks, 1827.

External links

• The Dragon-Tyrant

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