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{{Short description|Type of hero}}

A '''folk hero''' is type of [[hero]], real or in [[mythology]], who is loathed by the rich and powerful but idolized by the common person, often stealing from the former to make life better for the latter.

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{{One source|date=February 2020}}

{{Original research|date=February 2020}}

{{Disputed|date=October 2020}}

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A '''folk hero''' or '''national hero''' is a type of [[hero]] – real, fictional or [[mythology|mythological]] – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a [[people]], mentioned frequently in [[Folk music|folk songs]], folk tales and other [[folklore]]; and with modern [[trope (literature)|trope]] status in literature, art and films.

== Overview ==

The folk hero generally starts off as a regular person, but is transformed into someone extraordinary by their rebellion against oppression upon their own lives.

Although some folk heroes are historical public figures, many are not. The lives of folk heroes are generally fictional, their characteristics and deeds often exaggerated to mythic proportions.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

The folk hero often begins life as a normal person, but is transformed into someone extraordinary by significant life events, often in response to social injustice, and sometimes in response to natural disasters.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

In modern times, many criminals have been mythologised as folk heroes.

One major category of folk hero is the defender of the common people against the oppression or corruption of the established power structure. Members of this category of folk hero often, but not necessarily, live [[outlaw|outside the law]] in some way.

==List of folk heroes==

*[[El Cid]]

*[[Skanderbeg|George Castriota Scanderbeg]]

*[[Johnny Appleseed]]

*[[Billy the Kid]]

*[[Jim Bowie]]

*[[Paul Bunyan (lumberjack)|Paul Bunyan]]

*[[Bonnie and Clyde]]

*[[Davy Crockett]]

*[[Butch Cassidy]]

*[[John Dillinger]]

*[[Michał Drzymała]]

*[[Owen Glendower|Owain Glyndŵr]]

*[[Ishikawa Goemon]]

*[[Grey Owl]]

*[[Che Guevara]]

*[[Piet Pieterszoon Hein]]

*[[John Henry (folklore)|John Henry]]

*[[Joe Hill]]

*[[Robin Hood]]

*[[Jesse James]]

*[[Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson]]

*[[Ned Kelly]]

*[[Koba (folk hero)|Koba]]

*[[Kudeyar]]

*[[Robert Roy MacGregor]]

*[http://www.allthingswilliam.com/willynilly/billy-miner.html Bill Miner]

*[[Big Joe Mufferaw]]

*[[Louis Riel]]

*[[William Tell]]

*[[Sundance Kid]]

*[[Pancho Villa]]

*[[Hong Kiltong]]

*[[Karl of Tait]]

{{Gallery

{{culture-stub}}

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|File:Jeanne d'Arc - Les vies des femmes célèbres.jpg|[[Joan of Arc]] depicted on [[horseback]] in an illustration from a 1505 manuscript. The martyr and saint Joan of Arc is a national hero in France.

|File:Giuseppe Garibaldi 1861.jpg|[[Giuseppe Garibaldi]], one of [[Italy]]'s "fathers of the fatherland", is celebrated as one of the greatest generals of modern times,<ref name="scholar and patriot">{{Cite web |title=Scholar and Patriot |url={{Google books|iWK7AAAAIAAJ|page=PA133|keywords=Garibaldi+one+of+the+greatest+generals+of+modern+time|text=|plainurl=yes}} |publisher=Manchester University Press |via=Google Books}}</ref> and as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe.<ref name="Garibaldi on Encyclopædia Britannica">{{Cite web |title=Giuseppe Garibaldi (Italian revolutionary) |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225978/Giuseppe-Garibaldi |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226091529/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225978/Giuseppe-Garibaldi |archive-date=26 February 2014 |access-date=6 March 2014}}</ref> He fought in numerous military campaigns that led to the [[Italian unification]]

|File:Portrait of Davy Crockett.jpg|[[Davy Crockett]], an American folk hero

|File:Grotepier TN.JPG|Statue of [[Pier Gerlofs Donia]], a Frisian folk hero

|File:Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.png|[[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]], a [[Turkey|Turkish]] national hero

|File:100 años del natalicio del Santo -i---i- (36184746106) (cropped).jpg|[[El Santo]], a Mexican folk hero

|Ned Kelly in 1880.png|[[Ned Kelly]], an Australian folk hero

|File:Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Edward Mason Eggleston.jpg|[[Paul Revere]], American folk hero depicted in his famous [[Paul Revere's Midnight Ride|Midnight Ride]]

|File:Otger cataló.png|[[Otger Cataló]], A fictional Catalan folk hero who legend credits with resisting the [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula|Moorish conquerors]] of [[Catalonia]].

|File:Honoring Scanderbeg.png|''Honoring the Albanian National Hero, [[Scanderbeg]]. Albanians at the Tomb of Scanderbeg on His Death Day''. Drawn by [[Richard Caton Woodville Jr.|R. Caton Woodville]], 17 January 1908.

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==See also==

* [[simple:FolkCulture hero]]

[[Category:Mythology]]

==* [[List of folk heroes==]]

[[Category:Folklore]]

== Citations ==

{{Reflist}}

== General and cited references ==

* Seal, Graham. ''[https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/29134 Encyclopedia of Folk Heroes]''. ABC-CLIO, 2001.

== External links ==

* {{Wiktionary inline}}

{{Stock characters}}

[[Category:Folklore characters]]

[[Category:MythologyHeroes]]

[[Category:Mythological archetypes]]