folktales were made up before writing was a common skill
the authors of folktales are not known
many folktales are a compilation of more than one story and can have slightly different variations
folktales were TOLD before they were written down and READ
folktales are usually from a time period before 1800
they were created to teach a lesson
The main characteristics of modern fantasy are:
they have a known author
they were WRITTEN down first
they were written since 1800 (modern does NOT mean 2009!)
they were created mainly for entertainment purposes, though they might have a lesson
They are usually longer than traditional folktales, often a full length novel