Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Century Apartments Ghost

Um, ok so, here in Century Apartments, um, there was a woman, who um – now this was heresay, told to me by someone at a pool party, uh when we first moved in, and my roommate and I looked it up, and there’s, reported in the newspaper, more specific details confirming that this was true, there was a woman who lived in this apartment and did not know she was pregnant, um…

ME: Wait this apartment?

Not this apartment, but this apartment complex, and she did not know she was pregnant, and the legend goes that she gave birth in her shower, um, and the legend goes she didn’t know she was pregnant, but she gave birth, and uh, I keep saying “as the legend goes” but the story is she strangled the baby, or like suffocated it, and then tossed it down the trash chute, um, but, there, there was a baby found by a custodial worker in the bottom of the trash chute, um, and uh, she definitely get in legal trouble for this, um, and now we believe there’s a ghost in this apartment building somewhere, um, my neighbors did a pendulum thingy to uh … I believe the ghost is named Melvin with she/her pronouns, that’s what I recall, that was the name and … but there’s allegedly a ghost in the building and it’s allegedly the baby.

Background: I was, admittedly, one of the people who had contacted the ghost via pendulum, prior to being aware of the death of the baby in my apartment complex – we connected our prior belief that there was a spirit in our apartment to the new knowledge that an infant had died there. My informant had heard about these happenings secondhand, and this was his recollection.

Context: This piece was collected during an in-person conversation in my informant’s apartment, which is in the Century apartment complex.

My thoughts: This piece is an excellent example of a memorate. A group of people (of which I am one) noticed unexplained things happening, such as doors slamming, things not being where they were placed, and other such phenomena. This group initially fit this into a framework of belief in which ghosts are often the cause of these things, going so far as to engage in a pendulum ritual to try and communicate with it. Upon learning about the death of a child in the same location they already believed a ghost inhabited, they group fit that death and their ghost belief together.

Mangkukulam

It’s definitely something that Filipinos, like would tell people about, um, because it’s like, witchcraft was a really big thing in the Philippines, or it still is a really big thing in the Philippines, so people who are like mangkukulam like are, people who like put hexes or curses on you, and like, sometimes these people are like shapeshifters or like, have like made deals with the devil and stuff, so. Still, there are like, there are people who will be like don’t go near her she’s like, a mangkukulam and it’s mostly people who are like clinically insane and like, have attacked people but like, literally like, entities who use their energies towards evil intentions, like karmic energy, things like that.

Background: My informant, as is their family, is Filipino, and they speak Tagalog often with their parents and siblings. They recall their family telling them this story, as well as TV shows in the Philippines that dramatized creatures of Filipino Legend, as well as other Filipino supernatural events.

Context: This piece was collected in an in-person conversation in my apartment.

My thoughts: Based on the accused mangkukulam usually being a woman, this legend may have a similar function as North American legends concerning witches; that being, to demonize and punish women who don’t fit into the patriarchal role set out for them.

Manananggal

Around like, Halloween time, like how they would do it, is like they’d literally just like, have, a bunch of like, scary movies of like these folklore creatures that have been like, told, throughout the years. It’s funny cause like the same, like, half floating demon lady with her guts floating out and like her, her wings, and she’s just like chasing people throughout school. Yeah, she’s called the Manananggal, she’s insane. My mom used to call me that. How I remember her… so, this like half lady, right, she’s like got, half a pair – she’s like this lady that’s like cut in half, she’s got wings, but like, so half of her is like flying, and then her other half is just like standing in one place, like just her legs. And her whole things, is like, she preys on like unborn kids, yeah, she’ll like prey on unborn pregnant women, like the only way to basically end her reign of terror is to find its legs, and then you put salt on its legs so it can’t recombine. Around like, Halloween time, or not even Halloween time, because Halloween’s not really big in the Philippines, so around Day of the Dead, is like when spirits are most active and stuff like that, so like, when you’re like in, like labor units, if you see like labor units in the Philippines like you’ll see a bunch of, like preachers and these like, shaman type people who are like blessing these pregnant women so they don’t get their unborn babies, like, deaded, because like, miscarriages were really popular and that’s just kind of how they would . . . because like modern medicine wasn’t really a thing until, like, recently, so Filipinos would have like shamans pray over them and their babies and hopefully not get murdered.

Background: My informant, as is their family, is Filipino, and they speak Tagalog often with their parents and siblings. They recall their family telling them this story, as well as TV shows in the Philippines that dramatized this creature. They also went to nursing school, which is the source of their knowledge of labor units. As they explain in the piece of folklore, they view the Manananggal as an explanation for the large quantity of miscarriages that occur in the Philippines.

Context: This piece was collected in an in-person conversation in my apartment.

My thoughts: My informant is likely correct as to the primary reason for this legend’s prevalence. Manananggal, as a creature who pursues pregnant women, is an obvious explanation for miscarriages, especially unusually common miscarriages. The reason for her separation from her legs isn’t entirely clear, but outside research suggests that she was once a woman left at the altar, and this is why her legs remain stationary. In light of this, it’s possible that she represents a warning against breaking a marital bond.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Background: The informant grew up in Sleepy Hollow, New York, home to the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Context: I asked him about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and he sent me a video telling it to the best of his memory.

“The story goes, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, there’s this place, like the pilgrims, ooo America, this undiscovered land, creepy, scary, lots of woods. There’s this one place called Sleepy Hollow, where it is now in New York. It’s haunted, there’s lots of ghosts there, it’s a quiet little grove, and then when you go in, there’s lots of spirits, it’s very scary. That’s the story.
That’s what’s happening there. But then scariest one of all, is supposedly there’s this guy called the Headless Horseman, who’s the ghost of a Hessian soldier during the Revolutionary War, whose head got shot off by a cannon, so at night he rides around looking for his lost head. And that’s the setting of the story. What happens is this guy named Ichabod Crane comes and he becomes a school teacher in Sleepy Hollow. He’s a very frail, skinny, skittish man, and after he teaches, he loves talking to the housewives about all the gossip, hearing all the gossip, and they start telling all these ghost stories. He is just so scared, he’s such a scared person- they really freak him out. He’s just living in Sleepy Hollow, hearing all these scary stories, being very scared.
He goes to this ball or something, or some town celebration, and he sees this girl who is the daughter of the wealthy family in town. I think her name is Katrina Von Tassel, and he instantly falls in love with her, I think wants to marry her, maybe he asks her to marry him and she’s like no. Whatever. So he’s beefing with this other guy, I don’t remember his name, he’s like the big man around town, he’s tall, strong, he’s like the manly man. They’re both fighting over Katrina. The other guy sees that Ichabod is into her and he doesn’t like that.
Later that night when Ichabod leaves the party to go home, he’s riding his old, slow, brown horse home through the dark woods at night in Sleepy Hollow. He hears a horse behind him. He’s looking, trying to see what it is, and then he sees this dark figure in the night. And it’s a black horse, and sitting on top of it is a man all covered in black with no head. He’s like ‘oh my god it’s the Headless Horseman!’ So he starts running, the horse is chasing him, he’s riding on his horse, the other horse is chasing him, they go over the famous Sleepy Hollow bridge, and then he’s like “aaa.”
The story ends and it’s basically up to you to decide whether that was the actual Headless Horseman chasing him or that was the guy who he was fighting with who also owns a black horse, who knows that Ichabod Crane is a scaredy cat, and was basically trying to intimidate him. “

Reflection: this legend reflects many of the values of the culture that produced and tells it. It tells that underdog stories are valuable–Ichabod is the protagonist, not the manly man. It also speaks to the fear of the unknown in Early America, and the nature of the Headless Horseman speaks to a trauma from war, in this case, the Revolutionary war. This legend is commonly known as an authored story written by Washington Irving. It has been told folklorically since it was written down, and it was likely inspired by folklore before it was penned.

For further reading, here is the text of Washington Irving’s story: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41/41-h/41-h.htm

The Jersey Devil

Background: the informant is a college student, originally from Central/Southern New Jersey. 

Context: we were goofing around, editing a film, and I asked if anyone had any folklore. The informant put on a dramatic, deepened, storytelling voice. 

“In the Great Pine Barrens of New Jersey, there once lay a woman, from whom borne the spawn of Satan. She lay eight children from her womb. One of them ate the rest. He stayed in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and became the Jersey Devil.”

Me: Is that why the hockey team is called [The Devils]?

Informant: Yeah. 

Reflection: this sounds a bit like an older, East Coast Puritanical legend. It reflects a culture that punishes women just for existing. I think all people like to think their home is a bit haunted in one way or another. That way, strange happenings can always be attributed to the devil, ghost or whomever it may be that is causing these strange happenings.

Further reading: https://pinelandsalliance.org/learn-about-the-pinelands/pinelands-history-and-culture/the-jersey-devil-and-folklore/