Folktales don't have any known authors. They have been handed down through the generations and changed by various storytellers. Talking beast tales have animals that talk to humans. Cumulative tales have repetitive lines that build on one another.
Folktales involve clear conflict between good and evil.
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.