Literary Criticism, Folklore Scholarship, and Ugaritic Literature
Sasson, Jack M.
:
1981
Abstract
"...folk tales as well as fairy tales do
create protagonists who never existed and do assign them tasks that have
no historical bases. More commonly however, we either find protagonists
with modest actual achievements matched with extraordinarily
heroic deeds or the reverse condition: actual deeds assigned to imaginary
heroes. Whatever the eventual mix, the tales are then, understandably,
loaded with 'historicizing' touches, such as interesting foreign locales,
worthy opponents, often drawn from neighboring cultures, and complicated
tribal affiliations. Because of their 'one-dimensionality' as well as
because of the paucity of confirmations from administrative texts, it
becomes hazardous to extract historical information from Ugaritic tales."