Exploring the Enduring Allure of Ancient Folklore Despite Our Digital Modern Culture
We have mastered the world, gone to space, and have almost every word of information that can help us in any situation just a few taps away in our pocket. So, why is it that tales created by people who had such a comparatively limited understanding of the world still manage to influence our incredibly digital modern culture?
People still go out of their way to indulge in the myths of thousands of years ago, even while the modern box office slate is loaded with stories and ideas of super-humans and science fiction. Yet, perhaps it’s because of these ties to the old days before screens and science dominated everyday life that myths and folklore remain a modern interest.
A Very Digital Experience for the Myths of Old
While there are many grand books offering intriguing accounts of various mythologies, legends, and folklore from around the world – with the series published by Thames & Hudson being the premier pick of the bunch – the way many of us enjoy these tales in the modern day is through digital means.
Epitomising this is the rise of podcasts and how they’ve shaped our absorption and understanding of myths. You can look to the popularity of the Myths and Legends podcast across Apple, Pocket Casts, and Spotify. To date, they have 416 episodes, letting them rival the many, many other myth podcasts out there, like The Faerie Folk and Spirits: Mythology, Legends, & Folklore.
Depictions drawn from the mythical tales also remain very popular across our digital consumption. After all, the massive libraries of slots online feature these in abundance, headlined by the Rainbow Riches bingo slot. The central focus here is the Irish folklore fairy known as the leprechaun. Drawing from this, the game offers a way to find the leprechaun and attempt to follow it to its pot of gold.
It’s not just slot games that delve into Celtic myths, or any others, for that matter. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice won global acclaim for its mixing of Norse mythology and Celtic culture with a very human story of dealing with psychosis. Elsewhere, you have Ōkami, God of War, Black Myth: Wukong, and Hades.
Why These Ancient Tales and Settings Continue to be Relevant
Modern storytelling – with that term being used loosely for a lot of big-budget entertainment media these days – can get lost in the spectacle. TV shows and films are the most accessible and commonplace forms of story enjoyment, but many suffer from a focus on special effects or sudden moments while forgetting about building a coherent story and character.
The myths that prevail today meet this mark many times over, and offer an additional bit of insight into our past that continues to resonate today. Tales of myth and folklore were devised to help people explain how the world works and to teach important lessons to the next generation in a palatable and even awe-inspiring way.
There may be fantastical battles and superhuman feats, but the core stories and character journeys remain relevant even when we can solve most problems with a smartphone. In the end, they let you connect with very human and grounded struggles and, as this BBC piece relays from Mark Twain, “there is no such thing as a new idea.”
Even with all of our gadgets and digital ways of experiencing the myths and legends of old, it’s the innate human stories that underpin them which keep us coming back for more millennia later.
