Author Archives: Shay Thiede

St. Patrick snakes legend

Text:

“The way I remember it is that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland and into the ocean while he was there converting people to Catholicism. This act supposedly convinced a lot of people to believe in God.”

Context:

E is nineteen years old and grew up in Southern California. She is Catholic and she originally heard this legend in her Catholic Elementary school. This story was widely believed to be fact amongst her peers until she was much older. She told this legend to me over the phone.

Analysis:

This is a particularly interesting legend because it centers around a well-known religious figure. Even those who did not grow up in or practice Catholicism, know of the figure St. Patrick, mostly due to St. Patrick’s Day. Therefore, many people in the United States have heard this legend before, religious or otherwise. This legend, although religious in origin would not be considered a myth because most older members of the religious community understand this to be story and not fact. It also centers around a very real historical figure (St. Patrick) in a real location (Ireland). Like my informant when she was a child, many do see this as potentially true, even into adulthood. It is also a legend that is somewhat guarded. My informant states: “even though I know that it is just a story, when people ask me if people really believe that, for some reason I always want to say, ‘yes because it’s true’ even though I know it is not.” This strong inclination to protect the legend likely stems from a protection of the religion. By discrediting a widely held legend, it makes practitioners of that religion feel guarded over other aspects of the religion as well.

Baptisms for the Dead and Spirits – ghost story

Text:

“You’re going to think I’m crazy, but ok so in my religion we have a practice called Baptisms for the dead. It’s not about like forcing anyone to join the religion, but it’s about giving people who have passed the opportunity to be saved if they accept it [the baptism]. So, I did one for my grandparents, and they were like very present. I don’t know how else to describe it. My grandma had the sweetest spirit when she was alive, and while performing the baptism, just this sweet presence come over me, I can’t really describe what it felt like, but I knew it was her.”

Context:

T is from Joshua Tree, California. She told me this story while we were in our dorm room together. She is Christian, along with the rest of her family. Baptisms for the Dead is a common practice at her church. This practice she learned from her church, but she experienced feeling the presence of her relatives herself.

Analysis:

This is an example of a personal narrative, specifically a ghost story. She does not use the word ghost, but instead utilizes the word spirit. This phrasing shows how this story is held close to her. Often when we are talking about ghosts, it is in a much less personal context and is discussed with less reverence. When we use the word spirit, it is often in relation to a family member or an important figure, however both are essentially referring to the same thing: some sort of apparition of someone who has died. This connotation can help distinguish how truthful and unbiased a personal narrative is. Every event a person experiences is influenced by their emotions and beliefs, especially one as personal as seeing/feeling family members who have passed. Personal narratives are an important part of folklore, because they often blend many aspects of a cultural group into the narrative. For example, if there is not an already strong held belief in spirits or the soul within the cultural group, then it is less likely someone will experience seeing a spirit.

Bloody Mary – ghost story origins

Text:

“This is the Bloody Mary legend that I learned when I was a kid. So, she was a woman who lived in this big beautiful Victorian house. A man was planning on marrying her and she was very very beautiful, and she always wore this ribbon around her neck. On the night of the wedding, he goes ‘can I take the ribbon off your neck?’ and she says ‘no.’ Every night she says no and then one night while she is sleeping, he pulls the ribbon off her neck and her head falls off. And because she was Bloody Mary, if you stand in the mirror and you spin around three times and say ‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, come and haunt me’ she’ll come and cut your head off.”

Context:

B is an informant from Southern California. This is a story she learned when she was a child from her friends. She never performed the described ritual because she was always too scared that it might actually happen. I gathered this story from her while we collected ghost stories from each other.

Analysis:

Bloody Mary is a very interesting ghost story because the name always stays the same, but almost every single time I have heard the reason or story behind the name, it is different. Some are more involved, like this one, and sometimes the there is no story just the ritual on how to summon her. The legend of Bloody Mary is often utilized as a kind of dare amongst children to see who is brave enough to complete the ritual. However different the stories tend to be, many aspects are similar across the different versions, such as saying the name three times, standing in front of a mirror, and the fact that Bloody Mary will harm you in some way if you summon her. She is never perceived to be a nice spirit, so these reoccurring aspects likely appear in the original legend of the Bloody Mary ghost. This ghost story is considered a legend because of its wide proliferation, the potential truth factor, and its real world setting. Although many brush it off as a just silly game for children, many do believe in it. Some might claim to not believe in it, but still will not preform the ritual “just in case” or out of fear.

Baba Yaga – Russian tale

Text:

“My grandmother told me this legend when I was a little girl. I don’t remember all of it super well but this is pretty much what she told me. Baba Yaga is a woman-like creature who I think had chicken legs and she lives in the woods. She is very cruel and really quite ugly. She would scare children and eat them if the went near her home. I was always really quite scared that would happen to me when I was little. She really is very witch-like. But, she also was very knowledgeable, so if you needed something and you came to her with the right gifts she would help you. But you had to be careful because she would play tricks on people, so you had to think everything she said or did for you because you never know if she is playing a trick or not. I remember asking my grandmother one time what you had to bring to her to receive help and she wouldn’t tell me. I think she was scared I would go looking for her and get lost [laughs].”

Context:

I was told this story from L, my grandmother, over the phone. I knew she could tell me this story because she had told it to me also when I was very little. Her grandmother (my great-great grandmother) was the one who originally told it to L. L was born and raised in California, but her grandmother was born in Russia.

Analysis:

Although L categorized this story as a legend, it fits more succinctly as a tale. This is a relatively well known tale in Slavic countries. It teaches you to be wary of strangers and careful when receiving something from someone because their motives for helping you are not always clear. It is also used to teach and scare children away from wondering into the woods alone. L who never even lived near the woods, feared Baba Yaga when she was a child. Adults are not usually scared of Baba Yaga the way children are. It is shares similar qualities of other stories from the tale type index, such as the character Baba Yaga, who like many other tales, is a witch who lives in the woods. It is also interesting to note in the version L shared with me, there are no other characters, nor does it center around a plot. The whole tale is who Baba Yaga is and what she does, yet it is not told through the perspective of other characters, such specific children. Other versions might have more details, which might give a deeper look into the lessons behind the tale.

Girl Scout Camp ghost story

Text:

“So this is a ghost story that I heard when I was probably ten years old at girl scout summer camp. Basically, there was a little girl who went to the girl scout summer camp, and one night while she was sleeping, she heard a loud bang outside and it woke her up. Then she heard it again, and when nobody else woke up she took her flashlight and went outside to see what the noise was. Now, what she didn’t know was that there was an ax murder who had escaped from jail and had wandered into the same woods the camp was located. While she was wandering around outside, he found her and cut her up and threw her body parts in the lake. Ever since, she’s been stuck here and will try to lure girls out of their cabins at night so the ax murderer can cut them up too. I know it’s kind of dumb, but imagine hearing this when you’re like ten and staying in supposedly the exact cabin the dead girl stayed in. It scared me so bad I refused to go anywhere alone the rest of the week.”

Context:

E is a nineteen year old from Southern California. She, as mentioned above, heard this ghost story while at a weeklong summer camp designed for girl scouts. It was told to her while her bunkmates were telling ghosts stories before going to bed. She retold the story to me over the phone.

Analysis:

This ghost story was specifically generated to scare the audience. It is also important to note that the audience is essential in this narrative. It is a story about a girl scout told to other girl scouts. It would not hold nearly the same impact if it was told in a different location or to a different group of people, especially considering the role those elements play in the story. It is also important to note that no one claims to have seen the ghost, but just that she exists. She is also designed to be the same age and type of girl (a girl scout) as the audience. The performance of the story was strong enough to convince these girl scouts that the ghost was real. This piece of folklore is very contingent on the culture it was created in and is not as impactful outside of that culture. The narrative is also designed specifically to scare the teller’s peers, so it has a hoax-like element to it, told to scare than as a fact or honest belief in ghosts.