Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

The Stony House

Nationality: Italian
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bologna
Performance Date: 04/23/2021
Primary Language: Italian

Main piece:

M.P.: Outside the center of Monghidoro, there is a beautiful big stony house which is constantly in renovation, even if never inhabited. And I’ve never understood why such a beautiful house, which is also in a good position, has always been abandoned. So one day I asked my grandfather, who used to live in a neighboring town, which is something like…I don’t know, something like 3 kilometers away from the village in which the house is found. I asked him if he knew why. He told me that basically that house was a military command occupied by the Nazis during the War and which served as a sort of prison, for people to be “interrogated” [does gestures of quote citation with her hands] by German Soldiers. Obviously, this interrogations were not spoken questionings, but soldiers used to do everything they could to extort confessions from prisoners. And my grand-father told me that he remembers hearing screams from his house, which was located some kilometers away. And everyone knew. So basically this house after the war was never inhabited again, because even if it was restructured etcetera etcetera [does gestures with her hands], no-one has ever wanted to live there. It is said that screams can still be heard inside of it. Besides, people do not want to talk about this. If you ask questions, no one knows anything about it, no one remembers it. Still, even if they claim of not knowing anything, they do not want to go inside of it, so obviously they know. 

Background:

My informant is a 23 years old girl who was born in Bologna, Italy, and whose paternal grandfather was born in a village on the Tosco-Emilian Apennines-where the mentioned town of Monghidoro is located-, which was, during World War 2, one of the major Italian war fronts. As a matter of fact, many towns and villages ‘hosted’, or better, were occupied both by German and American troops, and many are the legends, memories, beliefs and events related to war times people of the place remember. 

Context:

My grandmother as well was born in those areas, so I got to know some  war-times’ stories myself as well. However, I had never knew about this particular legend, which my informant told me over a lunch.

Thoughts:

This legend surly holds a significant value, both historically and folkloristic-ally speaking. It is in my opinion the perfect example of something taken from history and later transomed, for a reason or another, into a folk-piece. The aesthetic of belief plays, here as well, a significant role, it being the engine which makes the legend propagate through time: when people -even people coming from other cities- hear this story and its legendary value from residents of the place or from the surrounding area, they are immediately indirectly warned against buying that house, and this is the reason why it has never been inhabited since the disastrous events of World War 2. Many are, in fact, the people who search vacation houses in that area, and this would be a perfect, beautiful and convenient choice. Yet, still there is, with to tenets or occupants. 

In second place, another interesting point is the emphasis my informant puts on the fact that no one wants to talk about it: there is a sort of code of slice related to it, which, somehow, recalls the concept of homeopathic magic, in the sense that, if you do not talk about this and you completely dissociate yourself from it, you cannot be touched or affected from the bad energies the place emits. Plus, it is also a form of protection against the bed memories the people of the place have related to the war and specifically the Nazi occupation of the territory. 

Never light up a cigarette from a candle

Nationality: Italian
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Bologna
Performance Date: 04/23/2021
Primary Language: Italian

Main piece:

M.P.: If I am not wrong, my grandmother was the one who told me this. So we were in her house and I lighted up a cigarette from a candle. My grandmother basically turned white and told me “No, you don’t light cigarettes from candles”. Whereupon, I didn’t know the reason why. Wait how was it. [pauses in a monument of reflection]. Ah Yes. My grandma said “you don’t light up cigarette from candles because every time you do so a sailor dies”. 
From what I understood there is some sort of historical reason behind this belief, but I am not sure about the specific origin.

Background:

My informant is a 23 years old girl who was born in Bologna, Italy, and whose paternal grandmother is now in her 80s. She mentioned this piece to me, because she remembered being particularly surprised by it, especially considering that, despite having been a smoker for quite a bit now, she had never heard it before her grandma advised her against doing such thing. She also added that, even if she does’t consider herself superstitious, she has never done it after the mentioned episode.

Context:

My informant told me this folk-belief while she was smoking a cigaret between a course and the next one during a lunch. 

Thoughts:

Many are the folk-belief and folk-superstitions which are somehow related to history and historical events. In this case, -despite the multiple assumptions made- this particular saying, mostly diffused in Eastern and Northern Europe, is said to derive from the period in which sailors, after working on sea, used to top up their profits by making and selling matches. Consequently, lighting up a cigarette from a candle, instead of using a match, implied less earnings for sailors, who, left without money, could have eventually starved to death.

In my opinion, two are the things worth of mention. First, it is interesting to notice the process of diffusion the belief underwent, considering that from Eastern and Northern Europe -where the superstition is though to be originated-, it was, someway, propagated in other parts of the continent (if not the world) as well.

Secondly, the aesthetic of belief is, here, one of the principle sources of appeal, as my informant pointed out that, despite her lack of “faith” in superstitions, she has never lighted up a cigaret from a candle never again. This was, probably, due to the fact that it was her grandmother who told her this and, as often happens, older people are perceived as wiser, and, at the same time, the absence of explanation -and the almost mystical curiosity which from it derives- made it more mysteriously fascinating. 

-https://people.howstuffworks.com/does-lighting-cigarette-with-candle-cause-sailor-to-die.htm

Melon Heads

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Residence: Oxford, Connecticut
Performance Date: 04/23/2021
Primary Language: English

Main Text: 

Melon Heads 

Background on Informant: 

My informant is a current student who has shared with me his experiences of childhood folklore and traditions that he grew up with. In a series of interviews he has shared with me his knowledge. 

Context: 

He explains:

“Growing up in Connecticut, you hear legends and myths constantly especially when you’re young as the spread of information runs rampant among kids. The one I vividly remember is the legend of the Melon Heads. 

These melon heads are said to be these small humans with giant bulbous heads who hide out and attack people in the woods. Living in Southern Connecticut, where they are said to reside, always made me feel uneasy. 

I’d honestly rather take a ghost or witch than a melon head. But they are said to eat small animals and the flesh of teenagers (I know right how convenient). 

The story supposedly goes that there was this hospital or asylum (depends on who tells you the story), but it had a lot of criminally insane patients. Well in the 1960s, it burned down, resulting in the death of all of the workers and most of the patients, but a bunch escaped into the woods. In order to survive they resorted to cannibalism and inbreeding, which is the ‘melon head’ aspect of it due to deformities from the inbreeding. 

Every so often you hear the many stories of people seeing them. Like apparently in the 1980s, a group of girls from (I forget which high school) decided to drive around and look for melon heads, so they left their car and went into the woods. Then the engine of their car started and they ‘saw’ the melon heads drive off with the car. But there’s so many stories all over Southern Connecticut with people claiming to see and hear them. 

I’m not saying I believe they exist, but I’m also not saying they don’t. I don’t want to gamble with that. But it is interesting how you can’t escape Connecticut without hearing about the melon heads at least once in your life.” 

Analysis/Thoughts: 

As a believer of a many things, I can certainly say I too was left uneasy after hearing about the legend of the melon heads. I grew up hearing about them too but I was always too afraid to fully get to know the story but now I do. It’s fascinating to think how this story stays alive because of how elementary kids and high schoolers continue to tell it over and over again, even when it dates back to the 1960’s. It’s one of the few legends of Connecticut that has stayed alive and has thrived. I also love how there are so many different versions of the same story going around as it has evolved over the decades. Overall, I enjoyed learning more about this folklore of Connecticut, and observed that these stories go out as far as Ohio and Michigan, but next time I go for a drive I will definitely be on the lookout for any melon heads out there. 

CSU STADIUM BELL – Legend / Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Fort Collins
Performance Date: April 29
Primary Language: English

Transcript – Informant Speaking
“Outside of football stadium there is a bell – I will point it out when we check out CSU – that bell is from the original campus – the oval – and what ended up happening was the original building the bell presided on was burnt down in a fire and it was lost someone took the bell…then years and years later it was returned to the school before the stadium was finished being built it is thought the people who stole it buried it…now after every win the football team gets they ring the bell!”

Background
Here my friend is telling a story about the Colorado state university Bell. Said friend is a big sports guy, and is very into football games, giving him a big attachment to this ritual. The story about the school being burned seems relatively close to the truth (I cross checked on the schools main page). I’m not sure about the bell being stolen and returned though. Seems like a good speculation though. They likely learned this story from their other college classmates.

Context
I was on a zoom call asking about college legends with some of my old high school friends. Seeing as they all go to different schools around the country, I imagined it would give a wide array of different stories to share. This one was one of the first presented to me. It should be noted that said informant is a very passionate speaker. I’m pretty sure he told this whole story in a single sentence

Thoughts
I’m not too into sports stories. I never really liked football. But I thought that the bit about the bell being mysteriously returned was interesting. Almost got a more ghostly quality to it. Of course, Cameron explained it with a more logical sports centered explanation (it was obviously just a rival team who felt guilty) but it’s easy to see how it might be construed differently if it were an object or a bell not related to sports.

CAT GRAVEYARD – Legend / Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Cruz
Performance Date: April 29, 2021
Primary Language: English

Transcript – informant speaking
Informant 1: “There is a place at UCSC called the cat graveyard. They say that someone had a cat on campus once, and when that cat died they buried it in the backwoods of campus. As the years went on, that spot became a place for the burial of pets, as well as the site where the book of shadows of a local coven in buried. They say that that place is where one of the covens practice.”
Informant 2: “Did Steven king base his book pet cemetery on that?”
Informant 1: “Naw, none of the pets ever come to life. Some people just practice magic there.”
Informant 2: “Seems legit.”

Background
I couldn’t find any information online to confirm the existence of the burial sight. But said informant attends the school, so I find the existence of the burial ground to be a likely story. Assuming that at least the place itself is real, then it’s interesting how a certain legend spawned an actual burial ground which in turn spawned more legends. There’s no reason everyone else had to bury their cats in that location, but they did so off of one supposide story. Then by burying more pets, the land somehow took on a more mystical tone. It goes to show that even when it comes to animals, we seem to have an obsession with locations of burials. But what’s interesting is that opposed to human burial grounds, this story doesn’t contain any notion of the animals returning to life, as clarified by the informant.

Context
The story was provided during a zoom conversation about on campus college legends. The informant told the story till the end. Then afterward, a different person, who was a part of the conversation, asked if this location was related to the Steven King novel. It’s interesting how he immediately made the leap from a folk story to pop culture, even though the stories themselves are not related. After all, while the location for this story is in a graveyard, there is no notion of the undead.

Thoughts
I like ghost stories, so this one appealed to me. One thing I keep coming back to is the presence of magic within the story, but the absence of any undead. I wonder if this has anything to do with the way people view pets versus people. People might be less inclined to believe pets have souls as compared to humans, which might signify the lack of any resurrection among these animals. However, the location is still clearly classified as a place of magic. So the location of the animals resting place is still given power, but to a lesser extent than what might have been a human graveyard.