Myths are tales used to explain events, such as death, earthquakes or the tides, in a way which makes little or no use of science, but nonetheless provides an easy-to-understand --- but fictional --- explanation of why things happen. Myths originated in bygone times, when people had little understanding of natural disasters or the human body for example and therefore needed to create a substitute explanation. Myths generally relate to important events and phenomena.
Similar to myths, legends are deeply rooted in the histories of particular places or cultures. Legends relate to the reader or listener a version of a true event which occurred long ago. Since legends are stories and are passed down from generation to generation, the actual truth may have been lost in time. Instead, each subsequent version of a legend is slightly modified by the teller but still retains its original meaning or message.
Stories which form part of folklore, folktales come in several different genres and can feature magical or supernatural elements. A popular type of folktale is the fairy tale, which typically concerns magic, enchanted creatures, characters such as witches, sorcerers and talking animals and a sense of good ultimately triumphing over evil. Beast tales place talking animals center-stage; these animal characters take on human traits and get into the kind of situations ordinary individuals do. Typically, this kind of folktale has a moral core, but the moral lesson is subtle.
Ballads are generally sung, but are actually poems with a strong narrative structure. A ballad can relay the history of a certain place or person or sung simply to provide entertainment. A traditional ballad tends to have a regular rhythm pattern and will likely include plenty of repetition, with some lines repeated word for word or in a slightly changed form. Variations exist across the ballad tradition, though, and not all ballads conform to these rules.
A form of short ballad that is associated with the oral traditions of England, many nursery rhymes can be traced back to the 16th to 18th centuries, as suggested by the ipl2 website. People commonly tell nursery rhymes to children, and the rhymes tend to be humorous in content, though early versions were aimed at adults. Some popular nursery rhymes have been collected and published during the 18th century and beyond; these include "Jack and Jill" and "Little Tom Tucker."