Fakelore is a negative little word often applied to ideas within the Pagan Community that are generally unsupported by historical fact. Often mentioned examples of “fakelore”include: the Burning Times, a goddess-centered matriarchal prehistory, and Wicca as an unbroken chain stretching back centuries. For several decades these ideas were freely accepted and passed along in books and covens as holy writ. Starting in the 1990′s these ideas were re-evaluated, and often found wanting. However unlike other forms of “fakelore” those stories weren’t created to pass as genuinely traditional, they were accepted history in many disciplines for decades. No one sharing these ideas in Pagan circles was intentionally trying to deceive anybody.
Fakelore: imitation folklore (as tales or songs) created to pass as genuinely traditional from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
However, I think dismissing them as fakelore does a huge disservice to the truths found in these stories.
Source: Patheos
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