The characters always live happily ever after. There are themes in the book that might not be stated directly. These themes are the values of those that created the stories. The geographic location of the setting is vague. The time the stories took place is unidentified.
Folktales are a category of folklore.
There are some different ideas of the origins of folklore. Because of the similarity of folklore throughout the world, people originally believed that stories originated from one source and went with people as they migrated. As folklorists have studied tales from many different cultures, they realized that some of these stories must have originated in many different places. Today, it is believed that both theories are correct.