Over the years, the researchers have told us that it is indeed difficult to define the term folklore which envelops various types of narratives, poems, plays, games, 
beliefs and allied areas linked to the subject. As one Professor Francis Utley once pointed out, almost everybody who has heard the word folklore knows instinctively what it is, just as everybody who has seriously read poetry knows what it is.
Yet both these words are hard to define with clarity. Though a strict clear definition is unwanted or unanticipated, volumes of folk material come to be printed year after year in all the countries around the globe. It is calculated that the largest number of printed material include folktales and folk poems especially as a learning tradition on the part of the colonial rulers.
Village folktales
As such, even during the postcolonial period of several countries, the indigenous folktales have been written in English which eventually come back in translations. One good example comes from the three-volume English collections of Sinhala folktales compiled by Henry Parker, titled as Folktales of Village Ceylon.
Followed by the trend set by Parker, quite a number of folk materials came to be written down by others. Though our own poet and painter George Keyt had nothing to do with the colonial rulers, he had the chance of compiling a collection o folk stories which came to be printed in 1974. In a short introduction to his collection of 17 Sri Lankan folk stories blended with his fascinating paintings for each creation, Keyt states that he had a sensitive intention in the compilation of the collection. He says: The following selection of folk stories was from those related to me in Sinhala by some rural people, students of village schools and ladies of the gentry in the Kandy district.
According to Keyt, the attempt in itself is a clear-cut creative exercise in communication. His attempt is, to some extent, to put down in English as they were created in Sinhala. Keyt observes some key characteristics of these stories. The local names occur rarely, thus eliminating any indication of caste groups and other social discriminative factors. Keyt too sees that the culture is the same everywhere, and the same polite language is spoken whether there is literacy or not.
His statement of aesthetic judgment is that the illiterate are spiritual literate. What a profound aesthetic sense from a modernistic point of view? As such, before the 17 folk stories were written in English, carrying an original painting created by the compiler Keyt. The aspects that cover the folk stories range from the rulers sail as the kings, ministers, noblemen to those who toil the land such as farmers. The very first story titled as The Golden Cucumber which perhaps is a rare tale which presumably is not recorded in any other collection revolved around the nature of cruelty all the way to get rid of it. There are a few folktales which capture the attitudes and behaviour patterns of the local devils and demons, which in the end transport as tales of spiritual value. One good example is the second story titled as The Jewel Bird.
Pandora’s legend
The folk stories are sometimes compared in order to gauge the human content as they are passed down the centuries. A story that resembles the world known legend of Pandora’s Box is found in the collection titled as The Two Jewel Boxes. But there are apparent similarities as well as dissimilarities. This shows the extent to which folk narratives are culturally and spiritually linked to each other. The story of Amal Biso is one of the well known Sinhala legends. This collection too envelops a version that provides a wide depth.
A reader may feel that the story of Amal Biso is an example of the essential spiritual harmony anticipated by a family, in order to bring about better living. Folk sayings, folk idiom, proverbs that transfer folk wisdom are the main factors one sees in the study of folk narratives. The two folk stories titled as Kalu Hami and The Wicked Daughter in Law as compiled in this anthology have been transformed into modern playlets by Ediriweera Srachchandra titled as Elova Gihin Melova Ava and Rattaran respectively.
The stories of the court jester Andare are known both as tales of wit and wisdom Keyt in his compilation selected four significant Andare tales titled as Stories of a court jester. All in all, it is good to rediscover the collection in the light of new vistas in literary studies.
Each of the stories in the collection is blissfully well illustrated preserving a local visual tradition as seen in the Buddhist village temples. This alone paves the way to feel that George Keyt retains two traditions namely the oral narrative tradition into printed word and a verbal tradition to a visual tradition of his own.
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