Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Ghost Story–Surrey, England

Nationality: United States
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Great Neck, New York
Performance Date: 4/11/13
Primary Language: English

While the informant was studying abroad in London, he stayed with a host family who had family scattered across the area and other parts of England. While he was driving with his host family from London to Hampshire, they gave him an informal tour, telling stories of any landmarks they passed. Traveling on one winding stretch of road entering Surrey, he was told a story about a ghostly apparition that had happened there.

The legend goes that sometime in the early 2000’s, there was a report of a car seen swerving off the road and crashing. When the police responded to the report, they at first didn’t find anything. But they eventually found deep in ditch, covered in growth, an old car’s remains. It appeared to have been there for a while. This hypothesis was confirmed by a decomposed body found near the car. They determined that the body was five months old and identified it as the remains of a criminal who was on the run from the law. This has lead to much speculation as to what the people who called the police had witnessed days before, since there was no sign of a recent crash.

According to the informant’s host family, the ghost of the criminal is restless because his body was never found. They believe that what was seen on the highway was a ghostly reenactment of the incident meant to lead people towards his body. This seemed to be the consensus among the people of that area. There are also theories that the wreckage was disposed of by someone who wanted to cover it up. This legend comes from a need to explain what seems impossible. It captures interest and makes for a good story because  it naturally leads to speculation; whether you believe it be supernatural or otherwise, it is intriguing to think of possible explanations.

Notation:

This story was recently revisited in an online article by a Surrey news source because it was near the 10th anniversary of the crash. The article produces no conclusion and suggests that until one is reached, the story will continue to captivate travelers’ interests.

Bryant, Pete. “A3 ‘Ghost Crash’ Remembered 10 Years On.” GetSurrey. 14 12 2012: n. page. Print.  <http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2125720_a3_ghost_crash_remembered_10_years_on>.

“Paul Is Dead”

Nationality: United States
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/11/13
Primary Language: English

"Paul Is Dead" Magazine Cover

The informant is taking a class at USC on the Beatles and recently learned about an urban legend surrounding the group. The legend is that Paul died in a car crash somewhere between 1967 and 1969 and was replaced by a double so as not to stop the Beatles’ success. Because the Beatles were so popular at the time, this was a huge story and many devoted fans went hunting for clues to solve this supposed mystery. One radio DJ claimed to have found proof when he played the song “Revolution 9” backwards live on the air and it appeared to be saying “Turn me on, dead man”. This was taken by many to be definitive proof of the other Beatles subliminally hinting at Paul’s death. Still, there were other examples cited. For example, in the song “Strawberry Fields Forever”, John is heard saying something that sounds like, “I buried Paul”. Also, the iconic cover of their album Abbey Road, which came out right after these rumors were started, was thought to be a metaphor for Paul’s funeral. John is in front, dressed in white like a preacher, Ringo in black as the undertaker, Paul barefoot, symbolizing how he would be buried, and George in denim work clothes as the gravedigger.

Although the legend is now mostly defunct because it was proven that Paul is indeed with us, it is still talked about. Now, people joke about how ridiculous it was, but people took it very seriously. It seems that there are still rumors of celebrity deaths that turn out to be hoaxes fairly often. I believe this is somewhat fueled by our media-driven culture. Magazines, newspapers, and TV news are constantly looking for the most sensational story. Any time someone famous dies, it is in the news for weeks, if not months. Beyond that, if the legend were true, it would imply a very complex and high-ranking conspiracy on the part of the Beatles and their record company. I believe these two factors are why celebrity death stories, especially Paul McCartney’s, are so fascinating and lead to such a great deal of speculation.

Drug Smugglers

Nationality: White
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC - off campus housing
Performance Date: 05/1/2012
Primary Language: English

My grandma watches the news too much and comes up with these crazy stories. So this one time, I mentioned how some of my friends and me were thinking about going to Mexico for the summer for a quick vacation, and then she told me this story of these girls who went to Mexico for spring break together. And they were out one night partying, and on of their friends either went home with a boy, or just went missing. They tried to find her, but they couldn’t and so they drove home and as they were driving through border control, they looked over and noticed their friend I another car with sunglasses on. They tried to get her attention, but couldn’t so they flagged down one of the border control officers and told them that that was their friend and when the officer when to the other car to get their friend, he noticed that she was dead and that the people she was with were trying to smuggle drugs in inside her dead body.

 

I’m not sure where this urban legend stemmed from, but I’ve heard a variation on this where people say that drug smugglers use hollowed out dead babies to smuggle in the drugs. I do know that the drug war in Mexico is crazy right now, and it actually is a very dangerous place to go, but using dead people to smuggle in drugs doesn’t make any sense. I’m pretty sure a border patrol officer can tell the difference between a live human and a dead one. Additionally, that would just make matters way worse if they got caught cause then that’d mean that they’d have murder on their hands too.

 

So where did your grandma hear this story?

I think on of her neighbors. She’s very social and also pretty old so she tends to mix up what she hears on the news with what she hears from another person. But regardless of its source, she’s a very paranoid and overcautious person anyway, so anything she hears that’s bad just perpetuates this.

My reaction:

I’ve never heard of someone going through such crazy measures to smuggle drugs, but I’ve heard this before on the news.

Kuchisake Onna

Nationality: USA
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 3/04/12
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

Informant: In Japan, there’s this… I have to think about this. There’s a women who got her face slitted. Kuchisake Onna, that’s her name! It’s a Japanese urban legend. Apparently she was mutilated by her jealous husband and she returned as a vengeful spirit. She caused a lot of panic, like teachers would even take students home and police would patrol the area.

Informant: Children walking home at night would encounter a women with a mask, you know like those sick masks people wear to prevent germs… anyways she would ask the child “am I pretty” and if the child said no, she would cut the child in half. And if the child said “yes” she would rip off her mask and her face was slitted or scarred from ear to ear. “how about now?” and if the child said “no” she would cut the child in half and if the child said “yes” she would cut the child’s face like hers.

Me: Could you run?

Informant: There is no way to escape because if you tried to run she would just reappear in front of you. But you could confuse her by asking her “am I pretty?” and she would be confused. Or you could say, “You are average” when she asked you and she would also be confused. Then you could run.

Me: When did you hear about this?

Informant: When I was in Japan! People would just warn people against her.

Me: Are you scared of her?

Informant: Not really… but I think if I walked alone at night I’d be scared.

Analysis: It is interesting how while the general consensus is that this story is merely another ghost tale, the stir that the caused in Japan was huge. Especially in 1979, there were reports of extra police around schools at night, and children being sent home because the streets were thought to be unsafe with this story around.

This is relatable to the story of the boogieman in Western culture, in the way that both entities seem to target children. However while the boogieman targets naughty children, research did not show whether Kuchisake-onna had a preference for how well-behaved her victims were. Perhaps the most terrifying part of the story is that the woman looks like a normal person, for many people in Japan wear sick masks.

Annotation: This story was a made into a Japanese horror film in 1996. Kuchisake-onna (Video,1996)

Why the Roussillon rocks are red

Nationality: USA, France
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Irvine, California
Performance Date: 4/29/13
Primary Language: English

Informant: “This Lord and Lady  lived in the castle in Roussillon, which is like this canyon area in France, right? There was this pageboy that came to hang out at the castle and stuff. The Lord was away a lot and didn’t like to spend time at home. So the pageboy and the Lady spent time together and like, fell in love and started to have an affair. The servants started to notice and a jealous maid reported the incident to the Lord. One day, the pageboy sang a song of his love for the Lady, and hearing the truth, the Lord was so mad he decided to take revenge. He took the pageboy hunting, and when the pageboy wasn’t looking, he stabbed him in the back and cut out his heart. Then he went back to the castle with the heart and had his cook prepare it with a spicy sauce. The Lady thought the dish was delicious, until her husband informed her that she had just eaten the heart of her lover. She said, “You have given me such a good meal, that I never want to taste anything else again”. Then she  fled out of the castle to the edge of the cliff, and jumped off the cliff. Her blood spilled over the land and turned it red, and that is why the Roussillon rocks are red.”

My informant first heard this story from a tour guide when he was visiting Roussillon.

Analysis: According to my research, this is the story of Raymond d’Avignon and Lady Sermonde. It is interesting because while this is story is called a legend, it has the quality of a myth because it tells a story of how the earth came to be, and why the rocks are red.

The Roussillon cliffs are a unique shade of rust-red, therefore it makes sense that someone came up with a story to explain why they were the color they are. This is due to the “ochre” color in the clay of the sand, which is a rose-pigment that is often used in the coloring of textiles.

This story does not appear to be very well known, and is only present in tour-guide websites across the Internet. The story has an almost Shakesperean quality to it. The love, lust and tragedy might be due to the fact that France is known for being the romance capital of the world.