folk memory

noun2

1. •
   The collective lore, beliefs, and traditional stories which help to define a society, culture, or nation.

   • That leisured past . . . is insistently evoked in Mr. Kiely's new collection. A compendium of folk memory, it features great bursts of balladry and doggerel. — 1988
2. •
   A belief, traditional story, or the like, which is common to the people of a particular culture; especially, such a belief or piece of knowledge that is not consciously held but is nonetheless known.

   • But behind these folk-memories of national history, extending over more than a thousand years, there is, in the popular consciousness, a dim background of a far earlier period. — 1898