Pre-colonial Philippine literature included oral traditions like folktales, fables, legends, and myths that were passed down from generation to generation. These stories taught lessons, explained natural phenomena, and depicted Philippine culture and traditions. For example, one Igorot myth describes how the Great Spirit Lumawig created the first people out of reeds and established different languages, while a Tagalog folktale warns of the consequences of mischief through the story of Juan gathering guavas. Philippine folktales served important functions in pre-colonial society.

1. 21ST CENTURY
LITERATURE
Various dimensions of Philippine
literary history from pre-colonial to
contemporary

2. At the end of this lesson,
you should be able to
identify the characteristics
of pre-colonial literature of
the Philippines.

3. • What textsare
considered pre-
colonial
literature?

4. • The pre colonial literature includes
all literature produced before the
Spanish colonization like chants,
proverbs, songs,
passed down from
generation
and folk narratives. These were
all
to
generation by word of mouth.
• Philippine folk narratives are varied
and distinct. They depict the people’s
livelihood, customs, and traditions.

5. What’s the word! That’s the
word!
1.oltakfel
-
2.bleaf -
3.endleg
- 4.thym
- 5.pcie

6. • Folktale – This is a
characteristically anonymous,
timeless, and placeless tale
circulated orally among a
people.
• Fable – This features animal
characters or inanimate objects
that behave like people.
• Legend – This is presented as

7. • Myth – This is told to explain a
belief, a practice, or a natural
phenomenon.
• Epic – This narrative poem
celebrates the adventures and
achievements of a hero.

8. • Folktal
es
emphasize certain
virtues,
• Folktales about Juan are very popular.
Some
and some serve as
warning about behavior. Also, some are for the
reader’s amusement.
• Example 1:
• Juan Gathers Guavas (A Tagalog Folktale)
• One day several neighbors came to
Juan’s home to visit. His father
wanted to give the guests something
to eat, so he sent Juan to get some
ripe guavas for them.

9. • Full of mischief, Juan decided to play
a joke on his father’s guests. He went
to get the guavas and ate all of them
while thinking of a good joke. Then
he saw a wasp’s nest hung nearby.
With some difficulty he managed to
take it down and put it into a tight
basket. He hastened home and gave
the basket to his father. Quickly he
left the room where the guests were
and closed the door and fastened it.

10. • As soon as Juan’s father opened the
basket, the wasps flew over the
room. With the door locked, the
people fought to get out of the
windows. After a while Juan opened
the door. When he saw the swollen
faces of the people, he cried.
• “What fine, rich guavas you must
have had! They have made you all
so fat!”

11. • Juan Pusong and His Father’s Cows (A
Visayan Folktale)
• One day Juan Pusong's father put his
cows out to pasture. Juan slipped away
from home and took the cows into the
forest and tied
them there. When his father found out
that the cows were missing, he looked
around for them. While looking, he ran
into his son.
• “Where did you come from?” he asked.
• “I just came from school, Father. How

12. • “You don’t say!" said Juan.
• By that time, everybody knew
about Juan’s power as a seer.
So, he took a
little book from his pocket and
looked into it. He said, “Our cows
are tied together in the forest.” So,
his father went to the forest and
found the cows.
• Later on, people would discover that
Juan could not read even his own

13. • Fable
• The monkey is a common animal character in
Philippine fables. It is often depicted as a cunning
animal.
• The Monkey and the Crocodile (A Tagalog
Fable)
• One day, a monkey saw a tall macopa
tree laden with ripe fruits, which stood
by a wide river. It was hungry, so it
climbed the tree and ate all of the fruits.
When it climbed down, it could find no
means by which to cross the river. Then
it saw a young crocodile who had just
woken up from its siesta. It said to the
crocodile in a friendly way, “My dear

14. • The crocodile was greatly surprised
by the monkey’s amicable
salutation. So, it answered humbly,
“Oh, yes! If there is anything I can
do for you, I shall be glad to do it.”
The monkey then told the crocodile
that it wanted to get to the other
side of the river. Then the crocodile
said, “I’ll take you there with all my
heart. Just sit on my back, and we’ll
go at once.”

15. • The monkey sat firmly on the
crocodile’s back, and they began to
move. In a short while they reached
the middle of the stream. Then the
crocodile began to laugh aloud. “You
foolish monkey!” it said, “I’ll eat your
liver and kidneys, for I’m very
hungry.” The monkey became
nervous. Trying to conceal its anxiety,
it said,

16. • “I’m very glad that you mentioned the
matter. I thought myself that you
might be hungry, so I have prepared
my liver and kidneys for your dinner.
Unfortunately, in our haste to depart, I
left them hanging on the macopa
tree. Let us return, and I’ll get them
for you.”

17. • Convinced that the monkey was
telling the truth, the crocodile turned
around and swam back to the
direction of the macopa tree. When
they got near the riverbank, the
monkey nimbly jumped up onto the
land and scampered up the tree.
The crocodile came to realize what
happened and said, “I am a fool.”

18. • Legend
• There are different Filipino
legends of the great flood. The
story of Bukidnon, for instance,
tells that a huge crab caused the
water to rise by going into the
sea. On the other hand, the
Igorot story tells that the sons of
Lumawig the Great Spirit caused
the flood.

19. • The Flood Story (A Legend of Bukidnon)
• A long time ago there was a very
big
When it went in, it
crowded
crab which crawled into the
sea.
the
water out so that it ran all over the
earth and covered all the land.
Now about one moon before the
flood happened, a wise man had
told the people that they must
build a large raft.

20. • They did as he commanded and
cut many large trees until they
had enough to make three layers.
These they bound tightly
together; when it was done, they
fastened the raft with a long
rattan cord to a big pole in the
earth.

21. • Soon after the raft was done,
the flood came. White water
poured out of the hills, and
the sea rose
and
covere
d
mountains.
even the
highest
The people
and
animals on the raft were
safe, but all the
others drowned.

22. • Soon the waters went down,
and the raft was again on the
ground. It was near their old
home, for the rattan cord had
held.
• The people on the raft together
with the animals were the only
ones left on the whole earth.

23. • Example 2:
• The Flood Story (A Legend of the Igorot)
• Once upon a time, the world was flat,
and there were no mountains. There
lived two sons of Lumawig, the Great
Spirit. The brothers were fond of
hunting; since no mountains had
formed, there was no good place to
catch wild pig and deer. The older
brother said, “Let us cause water to
flow over all the world and cover it,
and then mountains will rise up.”

24. • So, the brothers caused water to flow
over all the earth. When it was
covered, they took the head-basket
of the town and set it for a trap. They
were very much pleased when they
went to look at their trap, for they had
caught not only many wild pigs and
deer but also many people.

25. • Lumawig looked down from his place in
the sky and saw that his sons had
flooded the earth. However, there was
just one spot which was not covered. All
the people in the world had been
drowned except a brother and a sister
who lived in Pokis.
• Then Lumawig descended, and he
called to the boy and girl, saying, “Oh,
you are still alive.”
• “Yes,” answered the boy, “we are still
alive, but we are very cold.”

26. • So, Lumawig commanded his
dog and deer to get fire for the
boy and girl. The dog and the
deer swam quickly away.
Lumawig waited a long time,
but the dog and the deer did
not return. All the time the boy
and girl were growing colder.

27. • Finally, Lumawig himself went
after the dog and the deer.
When he reached them, he
said, “Why are you so long in
bringing the fire to Pokis? Get
ready and come quickly while
I watch you, for the boy and
girl are very cold.”

28. • Then the dog and the deer took the fire
and started to swim through the flood.
When they had gone only a little way, the
fire was put out.
• Lumawig commanded the dog and the
deer to get more fire, and they did so.
However, they swam only a little way
again when that of the deer went out.
That of the dog would have been
extinguished also had not Lumawig gone
quickly to him and taken it.

29. • As soon as LumawigreachedPokis,
he
built a big fire which warmed
the brother and
sister. The
water
evaporatedso that the world was as it
was before, except that now there
were
married
an
d
mountains. The brother
had
children
,
and
siste
r and
thus
there cameto be many people on
the earth.

31. • Myth
• There are Philippine versions
of the creation myth. The
Igorot’s story tells that
Lumawig the Great Spirit
created people. On the other
hand, the Tagalog story
tells that the first man and
woman came from a bamboo.

32. The Creation (An Igorot
Myth)
In the beginning, there were
no
people on the earth. Lumawig, the
Great Spirit, came down from the sky
and cut many reeds. He divided the
reeds into pairs which he placed in
different parts of the world, and then
he said to them, “You must speak.”
Immediately the reeds became
people, and in each place was a man
and a woman who could talk.
However, the language of each couple

33. Then Lumawig commanded
each man and woman to marry,
which they did. By and by there
were many children, all
speaking the same language
as their parents. The children
married and had many children
of their own. In this way, there
came to be many people on the

34. Now, Lumawig saw that there were
several things which the people on the
earth needed to use, so he set to work
to supply them. He created salt and
told the inhabitants of one place to boil
it down and sell it to their neighbors.
However, the people could not
understand the directions. The next
time he visited them, they had not
touched the salt. So, he took the salt
away from them and gave it to the

35. The people of Mayinit did as Lumawig
directed. Because of their obedience, he
told them that they should always be
owners of the salt and that the other
peoples must buy of them.
Then Lumawig went to the people of
Bontoc and told them to get clay and make
pots. They got the clay, but they did not
understand the molding; the jars were not
well shaped. Because of their failure,
Lumawig told them that they would always
have to buy their jars, and he removed the

36. Lumawig told the people of
Samoki what to do, and they did
just as he said. Their jars were well
shaped and beautiful. Then
Lumawig saw that they were fit
owners of the pottery, and he told
them that they should always make
many jars to sell.
In this way, Lumawig taught the
people and brought to them all the

37. The Creation (A Tagalog
Myth)
When the world first began there was
no land. There were only the sea and the
sky, and between them was a kite. One
day the bird which had nowhere to light
grew tired of flying about, so she stirred
up the sea until it threw its waters against
the sky. The sky, in order to restrain the
sea, showered upon it many islands until
it could no longer rise, but ran back and
forth. Then the sky ordered the kite to
alight on one of the islands to build its
nest, and to leave the sea and the sky in

38. Now at this time the land
breeze and the sea breeze were
married, and they had a bamboo
as their child. One day when the
bamboo was floating about on the
water, it struck the feet of the kite
which was on the beach. The bird,
angry that anything should strike it,
pecked at the bamboo. Out of one
section came a man and from the

39. The earthquake called on all
the birds and fish to see what
should be done with the man
and the woman, and it was
decided that they should marry.
Many children were born to the
couple, and from them came all
the different races of people.

40. After a while the parents grew
very tired of having so many idle
and useless children around. They
wished to be rid of them, but they
knew of no place to send them to.
Time went on, and the children
became so numerous that the
parents enjoyed no peace. One
day, in desperation, the father
seized a stick and began beating

41. The beating frightened the
children so much that they fled
in different directions. Some
seek hidden rooms in the
house. Some concealed
themselves in the walls. Some
ran outside, while others hid in
the fireplace. Several fled to the
sea.

42. Now it happened that those who
went into the hidden rooms of the
house later became the chiefs of the
islands; and those who concealed
themselves in the walls became
slaves. Those who ran outside were
free men; and those who hid in the
fireplace became negroes; while those
who fled to the sea were gone many
years, and when their children came

43. • EPI
C Biag ni Lam-
ang
This Ilocano epic tells the
adventures of Lam-ang, a man with
supernatural powers. He goes to war
at nine-months- old and seeks the
killers of his father. He embarks on a
quest with his animal friends and
meets his future wife, Innes Kanoyan.
He is swallowed by a fish and
resurrected from death by his animal

44. Hinilawo
d
This epic is of the Sulod, a group
of people living in the mountains of
central Panay. It tells the story of
three very strong men, namely,
Labaw Donggon, Humadapnon, and
Dumalapdap. They are the sons of
Datu Paubari, the ruler of Halawod,
and the goddess Alunsina. The
exploits of each son concerns
beautiful women that he wants to

45. Darangan
This Maranao epic depicts the
adventures of a brave warrior
named Bantugan. He owns a
magical sword protected by a
spirit. After a battle, he rests and
accidentally falls into the water. A
crocodile finds him and brings him
to the enemies. He fights, regains
his strength, and wins the war.

46. • The pre colonial literature of
the Philippines includes all
literature
produced before the Spanish
colonization. It includes chants,
proverbs, songs, spells, and
different folk narratives like folk
tales, fables, legends, myths, and
epics that were all passed down
from generation to generation