This article argues that discussions of folktales would be more meaningful if their brief existence as "ideal tales" in a narrative contract could be accepted. The article focuses on the concept of a folktale as an object of experience and of study, by a sustained discussion and charting of the tortuous ways by which so-called folktales wind their way from their original narration to a modern reader. The article suggests that they do so by passing through "filters," i.e., changes in terms of space, time, and media, and that one of the most important "filters" may be termed "orientations," i.e. deliberate, albeit perhaps not conscious or explicit, changes wrought because of a sender's relationship to an audience (e.g. a narrator's interplay with the listeners, or an editor's attitude towards the folktale concept). The article maintains that a folktale, having passed a filter, exists in a new dimension, i.e. print. It is no longer the same as before, and the concept of "sameness" is meaningless; yet there is an indisputable relationship between tales in different dimensions, as long as they derive from the same narration. The article, in 4 sections, deals with: (1) the fluid state of the folktale; (2) the ontological status of the "ideal tale"; (3) formative elements in the creation of an "ideal tale," including filters and orientations in the recording, in the transition from ideal tale to recording, in the editing of recordings, in scholars and editors, towards the narrator, towards the tale, towards the audience, and in translation; and (4) a conclusion. (SR)