Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Ned Kelly (1854 – 1880)

The Informant

R.F. born and raised in Australia provides the following narrative of a bandit well known in Australia pop culture and folklore.

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Ned Kelly was a legendary (and one of the last) outlaw bush ranger in Australia with a long history of crime and banditry. His most famous heist was planned on a police train where his gang would derail the train and kill all survivors as revenge against the authority and enable further heists on banks with the police were out of the picture.

Conceived and wore a suit of bullet proof armor into battle.

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(The alleged armor made in an improvised bush forge with metal taken from farming equipment, circa 1879)

In the shootout that followed, he was the last one standing with police reporting Ned Kelly’s durability, comparing him to the devil or a ghost, surviving multiple gun shots and seemingly unkillable.

After the last stand, Ned Kelly was brought to trial for execution.

The judge after sentencing Kelly to death by hanging: “May God have mercy on your soul.”

Ned Kelly: “I will see you there where I go.”

Kelly’s mother told him to “die like a Kelly” before his hanging.

“Ah well, I suppose it’s come to this. Such is life.” – Last words at the gallows.

The judge died 12 days later.

Analysis

This urban legend euhemerizes a likely real figure in history by exaggerating his last stand to legendary proportions. It’s particularly interesting that a criminal is being glorified and continues the theme of opposing authority in Australia as exemplified in the ScoMo urban legend. While Australia is sometimes referred to as the wild west of the commonwealth [citation needed], it’s not exactly surprising to see outlaws romanticized in a way similar to America’s Western’s, take Bonnie and Clyde for one cross-cultural example. In a sense, these outlaw figures are also antiheroes representing anti-establishmentarianism, embellished by their spirit of independence and comparable to the trickster who exists on the liminal space between good and evil. Even as the authority figure of the judge sentenced Ned Kelly to death after his valorous last stand, his last legendary deed was taking the judge with him in a single sentence. These traits akin to the trickster likely won the bushranger popularity amongst the folk in Australia.

Australian ScoMo Prime Minister

The Informant

R.F. was born and raised in Australia and is politically active and involved with his local democracy as well as the nation’s news.

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A long-standing “rumor,” since it technically can’t be proven, but everyone says it happened. Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison (ScoMo) shat himself in a Macca’s (McDonald’s) in Engadine. According to the informant, ScoMo went to watch his favorte rugby team play, and after they left, he went to a Maccas where he [allegedly] shit himself.

Analysis

This particular urban legend stands out to me as it was not the only urban legend Australia has on their prime ministers, the other being that one simply disappeared into the ocean one day never to be seen again. Although most embarrassing folk narratives about political leaders come from people of other nations, recent years have seen a rise in counterhegemonic distrust of authority and those in power. This is particularly reflected by these Australian urban legends, which combined with the laidback culture of Australia as illustrated by the dropbears and other quirky and humorous Australian slang, culminates into this urban legend regarding Prime Minister ScoMo having the reputation of having defecated into his own undergarments while at a public fast food restaurant.

The Devil’s Tramping Ground

The Informant

The informant (AW) lives in an adjacent county to the Harper’s Crossroad in North Carolina in Bear’s Creek where this legend is reported to be.

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A circle that looks like it has been scorched with a burning fire in a park. Nothing grows in this ring, and allegedly, Satan paces around it at night while in contemplation of his evil plans. Objects left in the ring will disappear, and dogs always bark and yowl when they’re nearby, often expressing distress or anxiety and a desire to leave the vicinity. Some say that it was an ancient meeting place for Native Americans.

Analysis

As North Carolina is a fairly Christian state, it’s not surprising that a superstitious area associated with Satan would be Native Americans as settlers displaced them over time. The informant also reported that their state’s history education lacked any details about its history with the indigenous people, but upon further research, I found that there was, of course, violent conflicts between the settlers and the natives. The superstition associating dark magic and satanic phenomenons with “ancient” Native American significance likely reflects a general xenophobic attitude toward the unfamiliar outgroup from the occupants of this colonized land. Just as it’s common for ghost haunting stories to take place on slave plantations and indigenous cemeteries, this likely explains why the largely Christian population associated this location with both the Native Americans and satan.

Dropbears in Australia

The Informant

RF is an Australian young adult born and raised in New South Wales.

The Text

Dropbears are known to only attack foreigners, ambush those standing under indigenous Australian trees, falls from branches and grab onto the victim’s neck. Said to attack based on accent, especially Yanks, when foreigners are speaking badly about Australian food. Deterred by putting a fork in your hair or smearing vegemite behind your ears or both. It’s considered every Australian’s duty to warn foreigners of these dangers.

Analysis

The “dropbear” is a rather interesting cultural phenomenon where the entirety of a nation agrees to gaslight any and all foreigners about Australian wildlife as a practical joke. For the fooled foreigners, the “dropbear” appears to be a plausible urban legend until they realize it’s a practical joke. The specificity of accents seems to reflect a sense of pride Australians may have about their uniquely recognizable accent, and similarly, the utilization of an animal may reflect a pride or at least a sense of self-aware humor surrounding the reputation of Australia’s native wildlife, which is required for the victim to believe in the joke. Additionally, the specificity of “Yanks” indicates a tongue-in-cheek distaste of Americans, particularly with an association that they’re loud and annoying and complain too much whenever they visit. This practical joke may have been more effective before the age of the internet when the victim could not simply fact check the existence of this “dropbear,” and given that it’s “every Australian’s duty” to uphold this urban legend to foreigners, several have likely worn forks in their hair in public for the amusement of all the locals around. As with the nature of most practical jokes, once the victim has been played for the fool and realized the prank, everyone has a good laugh with no real hostility as the foreigner now becomes in on the joke and take up the “duty” of warning other foreigners of this danger.

A Ghost at SUNY Buffalo

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Tell me your ghost story:

Was in pharmacy school, in the early 90s, 1994ish. I had just rented a very small apt, in an old house. I was in the upstairs apartment. My room was really small, had space to walk in, my bed, inches, and then the window and the wall. There was no room between the bed and the window for people. One night early in my time there I was sleeping but then I woke up in the middle of the night. I look toward the window side of my room and there is somebody standing there, so real to me that I sat up and said “Hey!” The person was a very small in stature woman, dressed in black mid 1800s mourning garb with a veil, lacy, everything. She was standing there, regarding me. The feeling was like she understood I was a new tenant and she was taking my measure. After a little she disappeared, maybe a minute or so.

Were you paralyzed in fear?

To me it felt like a realization it wasn’t an intruder was positive, and then I had a few moments of getting that feeling. She wasn’t threatening, wasn’t there to scare me, it just felt like she was seeing who she was sharing her apartment with.

Part B:

At the time I had two cats, Punky and Sophie. I was sitting in my couch studying one afternoon. I had put a bag on a chair, and it had been there for a while. All of a sudden it starts to crinkle, and it could’ve been plastic fatigue or something but I was looking at it, and I said out loud “Please don’t do that, you’re scaring me.” Immediately after, it stopped.

Was there anything else that happened in the apartment?

It sometimes felt like the cats were watching something that wasn’t there.

Your version of the house in the 80s:

That house had bad spirits in it, evil ones for sure. Always had a not good feeling. There were two incidencies I remember. I used to have a big typewriter and I must’ve been home from college in my freshman year, my mom and dad were divorced. My dad stayed in that house. One night, middle of the night, the typewriter gets pushed over and clunks against the wall. The feeling was, “Something did that.” It was just “Woah,” and I was wide awake and then eventually I went back to sleep.

There was another night when my dad was dating Kathy and my brother Jason wasn’t there, so I was home alone, my dad and Kathy had gone to the movies. I went to bed. Sometime in the night I’m in bed and I hear distinct footsteps coming up the stairs. I thought, “Oh they came here.” I get out of bed, flip on the lights, and there’s nobody and nothing. There was a pit in my stomach. I remember feeling such relief at the thought of them being home, I hated that house alone, and that is how sure I was I heard someone home.

There was no fear with the spirit you saw, but one felt malevolent?

I never thought about that, but really it’s because you get a feeling. It’s like when you meet someone and the sense you get as to whether they’re positive or not, and maybe it’s the same with spirits.

Context

This is my mother’s story about a spirit she saw while in pharmacy school. Interestingly enough, she had a similar ghostly experience, that being a figure in old clothes standing over her while she was sleeping, to the one her mom had ten years earlier. While doing this interview I realized they had never discussed that, so they didn’t realize there was a throughline to both of them. My mother’s interpretation of the events we got into during the questions, but suffice to say the experience wasn’t negative for her with the ghost in pharmacy school. Her story about the malevolent spirit in the 80s absolutely was negative, but I only snuck that in as a matter of recordkeeping.

My interpretation

The similarities between this story and her mother’s story of ghostly encounters (especially when they had never discussed it) is fascinating. The collection of this folklore and the theorizing of its origins makes it important, but more than anything, the multiple perspectives of the same event is important as well. I was careful to not ask leading questions to either of them about the experiences they both shared, which made it all the more interesting when they would bring up similar details in stories they hadn’t discussed with one another. I think my mother truly did see something hovering next to her bed that night, and that it is plausibly unexplainable. I think she did hear footsteps clamping up the stairs while home alone and see nothing once she opened that door. The world of spirits and apparitions is not one usually discussed, which makes the collections of these stories have all the more value.