Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Zhou Chu Eradicates the Three Scourges (周處除三害)

This is a folktale about the origins of Zhou Chu (周處) a famous Chinese general. I heard it from a Chinese international student (T.C.) currently studying in Stanford.

Text

“When Zhou Chu was a young man, he was a really violent and unruly person. He terrified the villagers in his hometown so much that he was known as one of the ‘three scourges’ to them alongside a tiger and a dragon. One day, a villager taunted him and suggested that he tried killing the tiger and the dragon even though they were stronger than him. Zhou Chu was arrogant and so he agreed. He went to fight them and the battle took two days. When he returned to the village he saw the villagers celebrating the deaths of the ‘two scourges’, and he realized that he himself was the third scourge. He never really realized just how deeply his actions had impacted his hometown and wanted to redeem himself, so he went to two famous generals, Lu Ji and Lu Yun, for advice. From them he learned how to be a better person and became a general himself and earned the admiration of the people in his town.”

Context

“I learned this tale in middle school. In Chinese schools, you’re required to learn a lot of ancient texts and stories for Chinese literature class, and in some cases, you have to memorize them. The amount of stories that you have to learn and memorize is so tedious and long that it often feels insufferable, but I remember liking this story a lot because it really humanized Zhou Chu. Usually these generals are so heroic and larger-than-life that it’s hard to believe that they were people, but Zhou Chu’s imperfect background (even though dragons are not real) made him feel more relatable and likable.”

Interpretation

I think there’s a lot of stories about heroic figures (kings, generals, gods, etc.) who started off as malevolent or incompetent people and matured into admirable role models. As seen from the stories of King Alfred and Daquwanga that I recorded previously, it seems that this story structure exists across a variety of different cultures and has universal appeal. Maybe the fact that such larger-than-life figures come from ordinary and imperfect backgrounds make them seem even more awe inspiring. I thought this story structure was pretty similar to the hero’s journey because the hero starts off as an ordinary person in the ordinary world before they are irreversibly changed by an inciting event. Often, these protagonists have to mature like how Zhou Chu did to rise to the occasion and become heroes.

The Lady of The Lake

‘ In the late 1800s, in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, there were what were called great Adirondack camps which were these big, elaborate, retreat type of things for wealthy families from New York City and they would spend a few months here during the summers. In one of these families at the campsites, there was a woman who went out onto Lake Placid to go kayaking. Legend has it that she never came back, and the family never found her or solved the mystery of where she was. But, in the late 1900s, at the base of Pulpit Rock, which is now a cliff jumping site, it is also the deepest part of Lake Placid, a team of divers were exploring this area. In the gloom of Lake Placid, there’s no sunlight that reaches the bottom in this part. It was completely dark, and the pair of divers had reached the bottom and found what seemed to be a mannequin… until they realized, there was a chain and anchor strapped to the “mannequin’s” legs, making them aware that this was in fact a real person. At the time, they didn’t know this was the woman who went kayaking decades before and never returned. But they found this woman at the bottom of Pulpit Rock… so, one of the divers went back up to the boat to call for help while the other stayed behind to keep the location of the body. Essentially, because there was no sunlight, and the mineral content of the water at that depth and temperature was just right, such that the skin was preserved almost perfectly, looking like a wax sculpture… But it freaked out the second diver so much that he decided to bring the body back to the surface because he didn’t want to stay there in the dark with this horrifying figure. When he starts bringing the woman up to the surface, the sunlight coming in, the temperature of the water growing warmer, and the changing mineral content caused her body to melt away in his arms… it disintegrates and falls apart. It fades into nothingness right in his hands. So now, in today’s world, when you are climbing out of the lake after cliff jumping, many people say they can feel the lady of the lake grabbing at their feet as they step onto their boats.’ – NZ

This story was told to NZ by his father, during their first family trip to his favorite place on earth, Lake Placid. He and his family went to their cottage up in the Adirondack Mountains and decided to spend their summer day cliff jumping at Pulpit Rock. As they hiked towards the rock his dad shared with him and his brother this legend of the Lady of the Lake. As a little boy, he was horrified of this ghost that lives beneath the water, but also curious as to wether or not he would feel the Lady of the Lake pulling at his ankles when he got back onto his boat. His curiosity got the best of him and nothing could hold him back from cliff jumping. Even to this day, every time NZ goes back he jumps in to try and feel the Lady of the Lake grabbing at him as he escapes the cold water. Now, whenever he takes his friends or family to this spot, he never fails to share and pass this legend onto them to add to their folklore repertoire.

I had never heard of this specific legend, but I have heard many similar ones in the area I grew up in. This piece of folklore offers a legendary tale, a ghost story meant to capture the imagination of those who heard it, a “enter if you dare” tale. It also follows the supernatural elements read in many folklore myths and legends, something that while you can’t prove that it exists, its been told and passed down so many times, there is no reason not to believe it. This legend allows for the local superstition to become tradition and a ritual storytelling experience for those who visit and families who are raised in this area. This story originated as an oral piece of folklore, one can imagine that it was even acted out around campfires in Lake Placid, in which performance is a key aspect of folklore. NZ also noted that he has heard multiple variations of this tale, as when they are passed down orally, they are often changed or even misremembered, thus altering the story for those who continue to share it. The Adirondacks have many myths and legends, and this tale only adds to the mysterious environment the Adirondacks have to many.

La Llorona

Context: 

My informant is a sibling of a friend.

La Llorona (also known as the weeping woman) is a very old legend that is a part of Mexican culture.

He said that “she is a woman who caught her husband cheating on her and in anger and hysteria decided to drown her children in the village river. After realizing what she did, she felt immense guilt and killed herself. Her ghost appears in a long, white dress that’s wet and she lingers around rivers or passes by the roads at night, crying for her children to return by saying, “Ay, mis hijos!” or “Oh, my children!” If you hear her cries it’s said that death awaits you or if you’re a child she will come steal you away”

He first heard this story as a child from his dad. He said “Children typically get told it (in a less graphic way) as a means to behave, but my father just told it to me as a regular scary story because I would ask him to tell me stories like that”. Like previously mentioned, he thinks it’s just a scare tactic to make children behave or to keep them safe away from rivers and lakes if they were to sneak off to play.

He also mentioned that he has a connection to this story because he is ethnically Mexican and that his dad had passed down this very popular story that’s been told for many years in Mexican culture. He does not believe in La Llorona but as a child he was scared of her.

Analysis:

La Llorona is a popular legend in Mexican culture. The legend of La Llorona is of a woman who, out of anger and sorrow, kills her own children. This story shows the message of guilt and unresolved anger. The woman takes out her own misery onto the innocent, and her ghost still haunts the earth with this heavy burden. This story could resonate to a lot of people, as some may not find peace in their past sorrows and past mistakes in their lives. La Llorona may seem to serve as a message to people who do not know how to support themselves after tragedy or something traumatic. It could also be to think about your actions and the consequences. La Llorona regrets what she has done with her children, as a result she is eternally punished by never being able to see her children again.

As a ghost, La Llorona haunts places that are similar to where her children drowned. She searches for them despite being the one to have killed them. The fear that strikes from her story is that she will take children. I think that this part of her story also comes across as a message to be careful of strangers.

Water Babies of Pyramid Lake – Legend

Water Babies of Pyramid Lake

Text:

Long ago there was a Native American woman who had two children. She took her children down to the river to bathe them but they were dragged under the current. When she discovered her children’s death she took them to a burial sight to bury them. She cried so hard over her children’s grave that it filled with water and became pyramid lake. The woman then laid by the lake to watch her children where she turned to stone. To this day her babies can be heard in the lake and they drag unsuspecting victims down to drown them.

Context:

“I heard this story many times growing up as a kid and visiting the lake. Pyramid lake was on an Indian reservation so it always had some mysticism too it. I remember some of my uncles telling me the story while on a boat in the lake. After they told the story they threw me in to scare me. I guess I’m not much better than them now cause I use the story to scare my little cousins or brother whenever we visit.”

Analysis:

Pyramid Lake near Reno Nevada is often seen as a mysterious lake as it is a salt water lake with no outlets. The use of tears in the legend is used to describe why the lake is a salt water lake and its odd positioning without any outlets. The myth likely stems from the mysticism surrounding the Native American reservations that the lake lies on. Similar to the story of poltergeist and similar legends in which native Americans play a key role, the guilt of the actions taken by American settlers has led to stories of vengeful native spirits. Some state that the legend stems from the lake being used as a location where malformed native babies were drowned. All in all the legend of the pyramid lake water babies is another relic from the colonial Americans atrocities.

The Legend of Zapatwayél Fernandes the III

Nationality: Indian, Chinese, American

Primary Language: English

Other language(s): N/A

Age: 19 yrs

Occupation: Student

Residence: Plano, Texas

Performance Date: 10/20/2023

Text:

“In short, I had a great great great grandfather named Zapatwayél Fernandes III, he was a legend in my family, from my Dad’s side. He told me that Zapatwayél III was an Indian born Portuguese man who grew up in New Zealand and attempted a military coup in 1900. Apparently this coup was supposed to stop New Zealand from aiding the British in The Second Boer war, where New Zealand sent troops like Zapatwayél to aid the British in taking over South African territories of the Cape Colony for money. My dad said that British officials created the war to gain control of the gold and diamond deposits. Zapatwayél nearly succeeded though, but he was shut down, in part by his wife, who turned out to be a traitor, working against Zapatwayél and for the British government, who murdered him in his sleep during a mission of his to further unite a clan to complete the coup. After his death, she was left with a decent sum of money from the British government in order to help raise his 5 children alone and keep quiet. It’s a pretty crazy story, but my dad ensures it’s real, but I don’t really know that and nor does my mom, so we chalk it up to legend.”

Context:

My informant, TF, is a friend of mine from my freshman year at USC from Plano, Texas who then moved in late childhood to LA. I talked with him about a legendary figure in his life in the first semester of freshman year after asking him about his ethnic heritage as he is a racially and ethnically mixed/diverse guy. Though when I asked him about this story, he was barely able to recall the full thing. So over the course of around 3 months, I asked him to keep track of this legend and ask his parents about it over Christmas break. And so after break TF came back and finally was able to tell me about the great Zapatwayél The Third, his Great Great Great Grandfather.

Analysis:

I did a ton of research on Zapatwayél and found nothing based on the name. However, when I looked up the Boer war, which was a real war that happened in New Zealand from 1899-1902, and the events described by TF in Zapatwayél’s military coup attempt, were real. There was a military struggle within New Zealand’s forces around 1901 not 1900, and not a coup, but an internal conflict between New Zealand’s military forces, so it could be possible that this was started by Zapatwayél, but I don’t know for sure, and I don’t know the reasoning behind it either. The information TF gave about the war itself was historically accurate, even the places, reasons for British intervention, but, Zapatwayél himself, seemingly could not be found or identified in historical records. Maybe he was covered up by the British and New Zealand government, who knows. I loved this story though. The fact that Zapatwayél is known as a legend on TF’s dad’s side of the family is cool to me. Truly, the fact that Zapatwayél could have been real, even having evidence to back up the coup and war, but not enough information to confirm his existence and influence in the Boer war, thus making it a legend, is fascinating. It’s cool to see how TF’s family history can be tied back to The Boer War, a real war in world history. It’s interesting to see that this legend is being passed down from father to son in TF’s generation.