Folklore codes define a set of characters that are associated with cultural archetypes and a complex of stereotypes in the minds of the people. Researchers argue that the concentration of national-cultural meanings reaches its maximum precisely in folklore texts, while the texts themselves are complexly encoded messages, which show the ability of folklore to accumulate national-cultural information. This encoded information is the key to understanding the traditional meanings embedded in the folklore text and allows to identify the main characteristics of the mentality of the ethnos. However, it should be noted that when comparing the results and conclusions reached by various scientists in the field under consideration, difficulties arise in the fact that researchers see the concept of a symbol in different ways. The ambiguity of this concept creates problems not only for ethnology and folklore, but also for other disciplines. Symbols in folklore do not always have unambiguous semantics. The coding mechanism has a number of components. This is because objects, phenomena, etc., can have several vivid signs and correlate with ideas that carry a dissimilar semantic load in different contexts.