Main Piece:

This is a conversation recorded from a participant and a friend. The participant is marked NH, the friend is marked ED.

NH: “Um so I live next to a mountain called Mount Tam, and there’s like this…I guess it might be classified as a legend…um, where the mountain was actually a woman sleeping”

ED: “That’s from Hawaii”

NH: “No, it wasn’t it was…”

ED: “Yeah”

NH: “I mean yeah that is from Moana, but like, it was also in our town and if you look at it you can kind of see… um, like the shape, like people like say like it’s because she’s like a woman, like a princess sleeping.”

ED: “Wow”

Context:

My friends and I were discussing the different legends from our hometowns while eating dinner one night, the participant shared this with us.

Background:

The participant was born and raised in Mill Valley, California and is currently a second semester freshman engineering student at the University of Southern California. This was a common legend in her hometown told to her by her family.

Analysis:

Many legends exist which refer to nature and the creation of it. In this case the mountain is formed by a sleeping lady, this is a common legend as many cases of this same story can be seen all across the world. Claiming the mountain to be a lady, adds a sacred value to the land and gives a more interesting history to the area.