Oral literature represents the oldest form of literary and artistic work. We divide it into: lyrical poems, epic poems, stories (novellas, traditions, fairy tales, fables, anecdotes and legends), drama, rhetorical forms, proverbs and riddles. This work describes two forms of stories: traditions and legends. Furthermore, traditions are divided into historical, etiological, mythical, demonological, eschatological and life stories. The content of both traditions and legends is believed in, but the difference is that the content of legends is of a religious nature. This work, aside from the theoretical analysis of the above-mentioned literary forms, is also accompanied by relevant examples. Since time immemorial people have used their own imagination to explain phenomena from nature that they couldn't find a better answer for. They made up stories about saints and their supernatural powers, witches, fairies, werewolves, floods, creations of lakes, rivers, lives of famous historical people, conspiracies and others which are preserved to this day thanks to our ancestors. It is up to us to accept the role of preserving said stories because without tradition and customs there is no people.