ARIMBAY’S VERBAL LORE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FOLKTALES

This is a descriptive ethno-literary research that documented, translated, classified, and analysed folktales from Barangay Arimbay, Legazpi City, Albay Province, Philippines. The ethnographic methods of data collection, as well as the vertical and horizontal tests of Manuel (1985) were employed in the validation of 74 diversified folktales gathered from the said locale. The Labovian and literary approaches for the structural and textual analysis were employed to identify structural patterns, themes, beliefs, values, cultural practices and traditions discernible from the texts. This study revealed that the environment plays a major influence in the creation, transmission and diffusion of varied types of folktales, while the life of a folktale largely depends upon its narrators and on its generational transmission. Said folktales mirror a belief system where the supernatural and paranormal outweigh religious influences. Arimbay folktales are well-springs of information about the people’s mythical, legendary, historical past and mainstream experiences which bridges