Lithuanian mythological tales

ENThe childhood of humanity would have been considerably poorer had it not met the legend, clad in homespun garments, alongside the more extravagantly dressed fairy tale. The typical beginning of a legend finds a person going against prevailing mythical traditions. A person may be doing laundry at night, traveling at night, looking through the crossed ears of a howling dog, and, consequently, meets a fairy, devil, or a dead person. A person telling a legend consciously does not smile, (like a fairy tale teller) and sits in a serious, collected, and even somewhat worried manner. How can one laugh if this is "not a story, but a true event"? Most narrators describe legends they relate thus. It was believed that events described in legends really happened to neighbors, acquaintances, and to people living elsewhere. The legends were told not only to entertain, but also to teach people how to act when faced with supernatural beings, to acquaint people with the ways and fancies of the beings of the other world. This particular function of mythological legends was by far the most prevalent when they first came into existence. This largely determined their artistic texture, their relation with reality, and, hence, the effect on the listener or reader. In fairy tales, real-life experiences are transformed in such a way as to look fantastic, unusual, and magical, which is not so in real-life. Legends transform elements of everyday life while retaining a sense of reality. [...].