Folklore- The lore of the common people (often peasants in traditional societies) reflecting traditional beliefs customs or tales. Folklore is often used as a term synonymously with the oral tradition.

Myths - Narratives of traditional origin dealing with gods, demigods or culture heroes, the creation of the world, the origin of certain people, tribes, culture traits; or physical or geographical characteristics. In many cases, myths are based on an interaction among gods and men.

Legends - Traditional narratives about persons, places, or events that are partially based on history, and partially on folk beliefs. They often involve tales about certain localities a mysterious happening, a local disaster, or some extraordinary virtues or crimes of persons that may have lived or actually did exist. Legends are more rooted in “reality” than folktales.

Folk tales - Traditional narrative of anonymous origin, many of which were promoted by native peasant communities. They are not set in a particular place or time, although they are often associated with a country or region. They don’t “explain” things but rather tell brief stories that have a definite beginning, middle, and end.

Fairy tales are a subgenre of folk tales and almost always involve some element of magic and good triumphing over evil, in which there is a lesson to be learned. A good rule of thumb: if there's a fairy in the story, it's a fairy tale.

Fables - Short narratives which, in the form of analogies, depict human weaknesses. Often, animals are shown to display human characteristics. These tales usually express (implicitly or explicitly) some morals or principles. Some writers have considered Aesop’s fables as reflections of human “wisdom.”

Motif - A single narrative element of a tale (folktale, myth, legend or fable.) that may be isolated for closer study and for a possible comparison with motifs in other tales. 

Theme- The idea behind the plot; the characteristic aspects of a story in terms of its deeper significance.