Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Alligators in the Sewers in New York City

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J: I believe there are alligators roaming around our sewers. And I think this because I know that there was a time when there were a lot of uh, kids that used to have alligators as pets. There used to be kids with alligators as pets. My mom’s cousin B— was one of those that used to get the little alligators down in Florida, they’d bring ‘em up, and they’d be tiny. Bring ‘em to New York, and they’d make cute little pets until they started to grow too big. And then, they would flush them down the toilet. Now this is exactly what cousin B— did this, actually flushed his down the toilet, and so-

Interviewer: And the idea is that they survive?

J: Yup, yup. And that they live in the sewers. And so-

Interviewer: And they get really big or they’re tiny?

J: No, they get big, so that there are big-that there are you know, adult sized alligators in the sewers in New York City and there’s a lot of food down there for them to eat because there’s a lot of rats and a lot of various things that people throw into the sewers and so, anyway, yeah, I think it’s totally possible and um there’s even uh, a statue that somebody made recently, um, that, uh represents the alligators in the sewers down near union square, so anyways, I think it’s a real thing. I think there’re alligators down there.

Context

The informant and his mother were both born and raised in New York City. He shared this story over dinner after I questioned a claim he made about there being alligators living in the sewers of New York City.

Analysis

This story is an example of a legend and the specific memorate of the informant. In this case, the story of the mother’s cousin receiving a small pet alligator as a gift from Florida and flushing it down the toilet is the memorate that connects the informant to the larger legend of the alligators that live in the sewers of New York City. Whether or not the events of the story are true, it is likely that other New York City residents have similar memorates to this one that make the legend more personal and pervasive.

The Backrooms

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C: “originally, I th- it was off of a seemingly random 4-chan post. I think it was a 4-chan post. Um… where it was an image of this oddly yellow, liminal space, seemingly going on forever, where it was captioned something along the lines of detailing these wet – these damp, musty floors, the flickering and the drone of the fluorescent lights. And this almost established a medium or a vessel for many many creatives to then come forth and expand on it in ways never thought imaginable. Um… there are – there is a highly expansive backrooms wiki, um, going across how this first yellow, um maze-like interior was the first level of the backrooms going areas such as um, tunnels with piping, hotels, uh, office buildings, pastures with houses, um, birthday parties, carnivals, any sort of environment where things are presented that are seemingly infinite and just not right, incredibly uncanny in their description and existence. Though beyond that, I feel the most interesting aspect of it is how um.. Esp– like beyond just the image or, uh, text-based creatives, how a lot of visual, how a lot of content creators have taken it to make games about it. I, being one of them myself. Um… Or cane pixels probably making the most, uh, kind of canonizing the backrooms in a way. Being a person to establish these foundations that explore the backrooms, the systems for which they operate aswell as now, later, making a movie about it aswell.

Amost related to it in a sense, before the backrooms were a thing, before they were massively popularized, the internet equivalent of it prior would definitely be the SCP archive or Secure, Contain and Protect where a completely open database or wiki where people, creatives, um… writers who’d effectively go into this archive, write a creature entry, a entity entry for any of these things, whether it’s safe, hard to contain, or incredibly dangerous, um, based off of like what it is, what it does, and all these within the lore of SCP have a place, have an existence because the binding agent is what brings it all together and similar to that, the backrooms — many people can go and make different levels, make level 666, make level 1, make level fun, all these different iterations off of the same start that then now have a breath of air to breath this kind of truth, which is fascinating that, in a way, this fictitious thing is a way for creative minds to bring about how they feel in a medium from back then to the present day”

Context

A fellow folklore scholar told me about their experience with the backrooms during a conversation about digital legends.

Analysis

Legends like this one that grown on the internet are unique in that the collaboration between contributors is recorded in great detail. This means that those who develop the folklore are able to take partial ownership over the role they played in “creating” a legend. You can even see in the informant’s language about “text-based creatives” and “content creators” that there is significantly more agency given to these performers of the legend than the storytellers of the past. On the internet, parts of folklore can be “authored” as the legend continues to grow and morph in new ways.

Spirit of the Woods

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KK: So, in high school, I used to live in a neighborhood that was known for having a soccer field, right? And the soccer field–I never did this, of course–in high school, a lot of people would go to the soccer field late at night to host these things that they would call “wood parties.” Basically, at the end of the soccer field there’s this long path, and you go straight into the woods from there. And people would go into the woods and they’d basically have this free-for-all where they’d drink, they’d do a lot of things, they’d hook up with people, whatever. Late at night, towards the end of my senior year, one of my friends went to one of these wood parties, and she said that there was this person in the woods that would follow the people who would stray from the group. And they could hear, like, the crunching of leaves, and they would hear, like–I don’t know what it was, but they would describe it as this wood spirit, or something, that would follow them if they were not in their group.”

Context:
KK: The context, I would think–I’m not saying she made it up, but– I’m pretty sure that, I think they were nervous cuz they would go pretty deep into the woods to hide from cops and stuff like that (laughs). So, I’m not sure if this wood spirit was maybe like, a manifestation of their fears towards getting caught by authority. But they would say that it would like, take their drinks and it would do certain things–but um, it was interesting cuz I think they were afraid of getting caught so they were very anxious. So people would say that they would notice certain things going on at their wood parties. You know, it was also a bunch of drunk teenagers, so. I don’t know.

Analysis: I think there’s definitely some value to KK’s theories about why this spirit was believed in. For high schoolers rebelling by drinking in the woods, it makes complete sense that superstitions surrounding a spirit of the forest would arise–it’s a very common set-up to spooky stories and horror movies, and the anxiety is understandable. I also think most forests and wooded areas tend to hold a bit of fear and/or mysticism for humans, and the idea of a spirit of the woods is also extremely common.

OCSA Symphony Hall Ghost

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CS: Miss Brown, who was my history teacher in 8th grade, she said that, like, the ghost of “Santa Ana,” one of the conquistadors who came through and, like claimed Santa Ana… She said that he lost his leg in battle and that it was buried under Symphony Hall. And that it’ll hop itself across the stage, um, when people aren’t looking.

Context: CS is a college student in Southern California who attended an arts high school in the city of Santa Ana. Symphony Hall was a remodeled church that had been turned into a school building & theatre on campus. Some classes were occasionally held in the basement library.

CS: I never had anything, like, weird happen, per se, at Symphony Hall. I think she just said that to scare the shit out of 13 year olds, but like… I don’t know why it’s specifically a leg, too, I don’t know how that works, exactly. “They’re going to build a church here, eventually, we need to bury your leg right here!”

Analysis: This is a hilarious legend. I attended this school & never heard this story, but I’m kind of endeared by the idea of a ghost story about a leg. I think an arts school is bound to breed creative myths and urban legends among its students and faculty–especially in a building that is possibly the oldest on campus, with something of a mystical air due to it formerly being a church. The idea of the “santa ana” conquistador with a missing leg, as far as I can find, is not based in any fact, but it makes sense that this would be a unifying, silly ghost story in a school full of storytellers and performers.

Razors in Halloween Candy

Text:

In the 80s, there was a belief and fear that children would unknowingly receive candy at Halloween that had razors or sharp pins in it.

Context:

The informant was a child in the 80s and experienced this fear from their parents firsthand. It was a common fear that children would be injured severely by accidentally swallowing ingesting sharp objects when eating their Halloween Candy.

Analysis:

This fear still prevails today. It is rooted in real events, where parents would find dangerous items and materials in their children’s candy. It shows a belief and a way of thinking that affected parents/guardians mostly.