Actually these aren’t “folktales,” they are mythologies. The difference being that they are stories based on natural events caused through supernatural effect.
Now before anyone gets their boxers in a wad, this does not mean these stories aren’t literal. Mythology can be completely factual and literal, it’s simply a classification of the event as told in various writings or handed down through oral tradition. But you are completely right when you say there is wisdom to be gained here because it is the truth underlying the story that is the most important thing we are to learn from.
They are neither folk tales nor mythologies; they are history.
You are right of course :)