Folk Tales/Myths

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]silverblood wrote:
I like the local myths because you can go check them out. Root Doctors, Will o’ the Wisps, Mama Lous Bridge, Legend of Boggy Creek, Gurdon Light, Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. [/quote]
This too.[/quote]

Any favorites? I have nothing against American Folklore but, it seems that many of the stories read like urban legend tales told by kids (perhaps just the ones I have heard told). They seem so corny.

Also, anyone know of any tales about natural phenomenon like the Northern Lights?

One story is reported by the explorer Ernest W. Hawkes:

The ends of the land and sea are bounded by an immense abyss,
over which a narrow and dangerous pathway leads to the
heavenly regions. The sky is a great dome of hard material
arched over the Earth. There is a hole in it through which the
spirits pass to the true heavens. Only the spirits of those who
have died a voluntary or violent death, and the Raven, have been
over this pathway. The spirits who live there light torches to
guide the feet of new arrivals. This is the light of the aurora.
They can be seen there feasting and playing football with a
walrus skull.
The whistling crackling noise which sometimes accompanies the
aurora is the voices of these spirits trying to communicate
with the people of the Earth. They should always be answered
in a whispering voice. Youths dance to the aurora. The
heavenly spirits are called selamiut, “sky-dwellers,” those who
live in the sky.

[quote]maverick88 wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]silverblood wrote:
I like the local myths because you can go check them out. Root Doctors, Will o’ the Wisps, Mama Lous Bridge, Legend of Boggy Creek, Gurdon Light, Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. [/quote]
This too.[/quote]

Any favorites? I have nothing against American Folklore but, it seems that many of the stories read like urban legend tales told by kids (perhaps just the ones I have heard told). They seem so corny.[/quote]
Been working a lot lately and just woke up a little while ago, so I can’t really think of anything lol. I’ll just say Champ and Bigfoot/Dogman for right now.

Cuchulin, Gilgamesh, Dietrich von Bern

Nibelungensage…

[quote]orion wrote:
Nibelungensage…[/quote]
Nipple lick my what?

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Nibelungensage…[/quote]
Nipple lick my what?[/quote]

You Sir, are a barbarian.

1
To us in olden story / are wonders many told
Of heroes rich in glory, / of trials manifold:
Of joy and festive greeting, / of weeping and of woe,
Of keenest warriors meeting, / shall ye now many a wonder know.
2
There once grew up in Burgundy / a maid of noble birth,
Nor might there be a fairer / than she in all the earth:
Kriemhild hight the maiden, / and grew a dame full fair,
Through whom high thanes a many / to lose their lives soon doomed were.

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Nibelungensage…[/quote]
Nipple lick my what?[/quote]

You Sir, are a barbarian.

[/quote]

Barbarians rule. I have spoken. The End.

I wonder how much of mythology is actually true.

All of it.

[quote]orion wrote:
Nibelungensage…[/quote]

Sounds tasty. I love those spicy Bierwurst sausages too.

[quote]theBeth wrote:
I wonder how much of mythology is actually true.[/quote]

Every myth has been true to someone at sometime in history.

It would be fascinating to know the exact year that that the last person died who literally believed in Zeus, or Gilgamesh, or Baal-Zebur, or Osiris, or (I was about to say Cu Chullain, but we both know HE was real!)

At the point where nobody any longer believes it is or ever was true, religion becomes mythology.

[quote]theBeth wrote:
I wonder how much of mythology is actually true.[/quote]

Well, as far as the Nibelungenlied goes, Dietrich von Bern was most likely Theoderich the Great and Etzel Attila the Hun.

Johnny Appleseed.

Nicolas Chauvin - great theme: loyalty.

Grimms’ Fairy Tales

Some of Hans Christian Anderson’s mythological tales were good too. My favourite and the one that sticks in my mind is The Tinderbox. I had a colour illustrated copy as a kid and I remember the vivid and lifelike drawing of the dogs with glowing eyes and the hollowed out tree and the 18th century soldier.

[quote]maverick88 wrote:

[quote]spar4tee wrote:

[quote]silverblood wrote:
I like the local myths because you can go check them out. Root Doctors, Will o’ the Wisps, Mama Lous Bridge, Legend of Boggy Creek, Gurdon Light, Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. [/quote]
This too.[/quote]

Any favorites? I have nothing against American Folklore but, it seems that many of the stories read like urban legend tales told by kids (perhaps just the ones I have heard told). They seem so corny.[/quote]

Other names for Root Doctor are Witch Doctor or Shaman. Their “backwoods” remedies and cures that were ridiculed for years are suddenly the miracles of modern medicine.
Anyone that has spent any time in swamps or thick bayous at night has watched Will o’ the Wisps. I’ve had them dancing next to my boat when fishing at night. I’ve watched them dancing through the cypress trees from Mama Lou’s Bridge. I’ve never heard her calling. I have had some really weird feelings around 2am or so and I’ve watched dogs refuse to be led onto the bridge.
I’ve been to the Boggy Creek area. My father and his family lived near there. I’ve never went out there alone at night or without guns. Lots of cottonmouths and some serious woods that I was not familiar with. I never saw anything. I knew people that swore they saw the Fouke monster. My father, step-mother, and step-sister knew a family that the whatever it was tried to break into their home. I saw the destroyed storm door and windows and screens. Was it real? I don’t know but a lot of respectable people put their reputations on the line.
I have walked the tracks and the Gurdon Light is real.
I have no clue about the Lizard Man but I hope to check it out one day. Like most of South Carolina the mosquitoes there will be terrible and I’ve heard that the cottonmouths are thick as hell. Gators aren’t too bad unless it’s breeding season, food is scarce, or some dumbass tourist has been feeding them.
Before anyone dismisses legends and folklore get out there yourself. You might be surprised at the least.

[quote]CLUNK wrote:
Johnny Appleseed.[/quote]

The story of Johnny Appleseed was based on Brasky, except for the part about planting apple trees and not raping men.