Some survey results about the change of gods in myths to gods in the fairy tales of Vietnamese ethnic minorities

Abstract

Gods appear in a wide variety of myths and fairy tales around nations in the world. This is one of the central images, showing a multidimensional awareness of the ancients on the nature and society. Understanding the transformation of the system of god characters in a process of sequences, the system from the myths to the fairy tales of ethnic minorities in Vietnam, we will see the development of awareness levels in thinking, in the spiritual life of the society and of Vietnamese people. From there, we see the development in the thought process and artistic performances of the ancients which were romantic and high-soaring. We also see the similarities and differences in the art of character building in ethnic minorities' myths and legends. The research outcome is to understand the origin, the way to reflect the world, the people, the process of changing according to the thought and the art process of the divine character from myth to fairy tales of the Vietnamese ethnic minorities through the following steps: 1) Describing and surveying the divine characters in 181 myths of ethnic minorities in Vietnam; 2) Describing and surveying god characters in 150 fairy tales of typical Vietnamese ethnic minorities; and 3) Giving comment , evaluating the transformation of mythical characters from myths to fairy tales through the survey results.