Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Romulus and Remus

Nationality: Italian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/26/17

Subject: Folk Legend

Informant: Guido was born in Rome, Italy in a traditional Italian family. He currently studies business in California and plays rugby for his college team.

Original Script: Romulus and Remus were two brothers abandoned by their mother on the Tiber river and raised by a wolf. They are eventually adopted by a Shepard and go on to found Rome, the most prominent city in all of Italy.

Background information by informant: The story has many important themes of Roman culture, especially the theme of persistence which was extremely crucial for the cities development and impact in society during that period.

Context of performance: The two brothers and the wolf are a major symbol in Roman culture. Everyone knows their story and any gift shop has artifacts that symbolize the wolf mother and her children.

Thoughts: It is interesting to note how much impact a legend can have on a certain culture. The story of Romulus and Remus describes not only the incipience of Rome, but also the symbolic significance of the mother in Roman culture. It is not necessarily someone that is related to an individual by blood, but one that provides attention, love, and affection to their children. The legend personifies this through the character of the Shepard.

Wanda

Nationality: Polish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/26/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Polish, Mandarin

Informant IT is a sophomore studying Computer Science and Business Administration at the University of Southern California. She is of Polish descent and has lived in many parts of the world. She is fluent in several languages including Polish, English, and Mandarin, and she considers herself very good at learning languages. In this piece, she tells the interviewer (AK), about a Polish legend about a very beautiful Polish queen. This piece is not as well-known, but it is indicative of the Polish spirit.

IT: This story is interesting, because it gives an insight so I don’t know how much about the history or Poland, but it’s located to the east of germany, so it’s kind of the most western of easter Europe and it’s kind of the center of Eastern Europe with Germany and all of those countries. And it’s been fought over for many many centuries, the land itself. So there’s always been and the reason why it’s still stuck together for such a long time and still exists today through all these troubles is because people have always had a huge sense of nationalism and so the story is called Wanda. And it’s this story of this Polish Queen … who I don’t think, I doubt she ever existed. She might have. Who ruled Poland and she was a single young beautiful girl and she was living in a Polish castle. And the King of Germany… you know noticed this and he noticed how beautiful the lands of Poland were. And he was like well, it’s only this one girl ruling it and I could really take advantage of it. And I would love to take her as my wife, so he sent several soldiers over as messengers from Germany to the castle in Poland with the message to her saying that “either you marry me and give me the lands of Poland as the dowry, or I wage war against Poland.” And the Polish had been fighting many wars, so their army you know … was very down. They just couldn’t stand a match against Germany. In the end she had decided that she would drown herself and kill herself instead of giving over Poland to Germany and marrying this guy. So she killed herself and drowned herself in the Vistula River, which is like a big … also has a lot of historical significance. So she would have rather killed herself than give the German control of Poland.

AK: So is she like a memorialized figure and seen as a hero?

IT: Not really, because it’s kind of like a legend you know. I don’t know if it ever actually happened. This one I would say isn’t as well known as the other story I told you. Still most people would know it, but it’s more kind of just … I just don’t know if she was ever actually a queen.

AK: So I guess it’s just part of the Polish cultural identity.

IT: Yeah, and it invokes a huge sense of nationalism. Even in the Polish national anthem … umm (laughs) I have to remember it. As long as we are here and we love Poland and we love each other, Poland will still be here.

I found this piece of folklore to be very unique from most that I had heard. For one, this was one of the few folklore that featured a woman as the main protagonist and ruler of the land. I found this to be a very progressive stance for Poland, and I’m glad this story represents a part of their national fabric. I also found this story to be unique because it didn’t really portray Poland in the best light. It demonstrated that Poland couldn’t really stand up to Germany. Their only option was to pick between two terrible options. I guess the act of sacrificing herself is indicative of the bold spirit and courage Polish people probably seek to embody.

For another version of this legend, see  http://www.anglik.net/polish_legends_wanda.htm

Two Friends

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 56
Occupation: Film Director
Residence: Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/13/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main piece: There were once two neighbour towns that were separated by a canyon, and from each town there was a person that went to the canyon to hang around. These two people did this for many years and they saw each other every day, but didn’t utter a word to each other. One day one of them started singing a song at the top of his lungs, and the other one followed him. They discovered they could talk to each other if the talked loud enough, so the started talking to each other every day. The years passed and they became best friends by talking about their days to each other, and they always hoped that one day the towns would be united so that they could hug. Anyways, the years went by and they remained best friends until they were old, and when they both died they buried them on their ends of the canyon so that they would always be facing each other. One day many years later, they built a bridge that united the two towns, and at the ends of the bridge are the graves of the two friends.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Simon claims to have learned this story from locals while he was in a trip to the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The locals told him that the towns were real and near the city, but they had no specific names to give.

Context on the performance: This story was told to Simon in a restaurant where everyone seemed to know the story, which suggests that it is popular in that region of Mexico.

Thoughts on the piece: The tale shows a way to make connections with people without the need for physical closeness. Not only that, but the two friends were from completely separated towns, figuratively and literally, which send an inclusive message that says anyone can form bonds with someone that isn’t part of his in-group.

Oklahoma ghost story

Nationality: African American
Age: 51
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/20/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: My dad told me about how my grandfather and his brother had an encounter with a ghost.

Original Script: “In the 50’s, in Oklahoma, in the town my dad lived in it was a known fact in the town not to go across a property line because the land behind it was Native American land that was guarded by the spirit. The land had an old covered wagon on it so they towns people called it the spirit of the covered wagon. My grandad, his brother and their dates went on the land one night, and swore they saw the spirit and were chased away by it.”

Background: The haunted land were Native American grounds which is most common area of haunted spirits.

Thoughts: The story was a typical ghost story, that was cliche because most Native American grounds are claimed to be haunted. My grandfather swears he saw the spirit but I don’t necessarily believe him.

The nine-tailed fox Daji

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 51
Occupation: Banker
Residence: China
Performance Date: May 16, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese

My mom shared this fox story, easily the most famous fox legend in China. There were books and shows based on this legend. There was a TV show based on this played by her favorite actor when I was young, and that’s how she collected the details of this fox story. We interviewed in Chinese so the following is only rough translation of what she shared.

Story:

”

Daji of Su was taken by King Zhou when he invaded Su’s land and was brought back to the Capital. On the way back, she was possessed by the nine-tail fox [none-tail fox is believed to be the most powerful fox spirit in China or even East Asian culture].  Daji (now the fox) seduced King Zhou and had him became extremely obsessed with her. Zhou started to stick with Daji instead of dealing affairs of his own country. To please her, Zhou built a zoo of rare animals, constructed “pool of wine” and “forest of meat”, as well as all the other extravagant constructions by exploiting his people.

Daji also enjoyed to come up with various ideas of torture, and Zhou was more than happy to fulfill her desire. She invented the torture of Paolao – tying people to a heated metal cylinder and burn them to death, and the torture of Chaipen – throwing people in a pit full on poisonous snakes. Moreover, Daji once asked Zhou to cut off a farmer’s feet and open up a pregnant woman’s belly only to satisfy her curiosity. She even had Zhou to take out his uncle Bigan’s heart because Bigan disapproved Daji’s influence over Zhou. Finally, the revolution began. King Zhou and Shang Dynasty were overthrown, and Daji was executed with gods’ help [which is a whole other story].

”

Thoughts:

The most interesting part of this fox story is that, everything in the story is actually true. In Chinese history there really is a king named Zhou and this king did have a wife Daji. He was so lost in her beauty that he listened to everything she said and do everything she wanted to please her. He stopped dealing state affairs and became extremely brutal. This eventually led to revolution and a new Dynasty.

 

For another version of this legend, see:

Chew, Katherine Liang. Tales of the teahouse retold: investiture of the gods. New York: Writers Club Press, 2002. Print.