Category Archives: Narrative

The Mothman

Age: 57

Date of Performance: 04/03/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Overseer of Data Centers

Primary Language: English

Residence: Tokyo, Japan

Well, growing up in the woods [West Virginia], we always had fun stories to tell. When I was a kid, we always spooked each other with legends and monsters and the like. The big one we always heard about was the Mothman. It had like this stranglehold over us kids, man. Like you just couldn’t escape it. And someone was always claiming to have seen it, too. I even had some friends whose parents set curfews because of the Mothman. What’s interesting about it is that I grew up 20 minutes north of Point Pleasant, which is where the first sightings were. He was huge during the 70s.

He was big and tall. He had these beaming red eyes. That’s his defining feature. His eyes. You can look up photos of him and it’s the first thing you’ll notice about him. I know I’m using these ‘he’s and ‘him’s in reference to him, but I can’t help myself, haha.

Cultural significance? Umm, well, there’s something almost nostalgic and personally meaningful when I talk about these kinds of legends. It’s attached to the place I grew up in, you know? I know it’s probably not real, but that doesn’t really matter to me, at least.

…

Analysis:

I’ve heard of the Mothman before, a harbinger of doom and future disaster. He is like a regional spirit, a symbol of Appalachian weirdness, the gaping unknown that swallows the forest. It’s funny hearing that the informant has a personal attachment to the creature while all known canon and descriptions of the Mothman offer a more unsettling picture. Maybe to the informant, it’s a symbol of his childhood, when the world seemed much bigger, more fantastic, more exciting, than the monotony and reality of adulthood. When growing up with cryptids, they take on a more personal attachment and stick with the listener throughout their life.

The Backrooms

Age: 19

Date of Performance: 04/04/25

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: Irvine, California

How about the Backrooms? Yeah, everyone knows that. The Backrooms is this dimension you can ‘no-clip’ into at any point, And the room is yellow and goes off into infinity. The lore and canon of the Backrooms seems to keep building on itself since 2020. Some Backrooms have monsters, and there are apparently multiple levels of Backrooms. I can’t really describe the exact look of the Backrooms, but all of them have a mid-2000s feel to them. Things from our childhood, or spaces that remind of us of our childhood.

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Analysis:

The Backrooms are an example of a recent phenomenon and fascination of what are called ‘liminal spaces,’ spaces that have 2000s aesthetics and atmosphere. They are supposed to be unsettling, but nostalgic as well, many of which have their own associated stories, lore, monsters, etc. The conception and rise of the backrooms may be a reflection of a current desire to go back when the world was simpler, though filled with greater unknowns.

Haunted 4th Floor

Age: 21
Language: English

“I remember being told this story by my 9th-grade Spanish teacher. The story goes that sometime in the 80s or 90s there was a janitor who got super obsessed with one of the cheerleaders. He ended up stalking her and talking to her any time he saw her. After school one day, when she was alone, he asked her for help with something on the 4th floor. He ended up killing her, scalping her, then leaving her body on the 4th floor. Legend says that now it’s haunted because they left her body up there, which is why it was also boarded up and no one is allowed to go up there”. 

[Why would you hear this type of story from your Spanish teacher? Do you believe it?]

“It wasn’t just me she told it to, but the whole class during a kind of like Halloween storytime thing that she did every year. The scalping thing was something I heard from someone else. I’m not sure if it actually happened, but I could believe that someone could have died in our school at some point.” 

Analysis: 

Due to the inclusion of the years 80s/90s, we know that this particular story must have emerged from around that time or after (terminus ante quem), and that it could possibly have originated from this particular Spanish teacher. The legend is part of a larger, yearly ritual where she creates a more laid-back environment for her students during Halloween by telling stories. I think this story has succeeded in its purpose to have fun and bring students together due to the variation and addition of students creating their own theories and parts of the story (like the addition of the girl possibly being scalped). Besides this, in a more serious sense, it serves as a warning to incoming female students entering high school about the dangers that exist in the world.
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Duendes

[Do you have any myths or legends you would like to share?]

“I remember hearing a mythical story saying that when you see a small twister [whirlwind?], it’s invisible duendes (dwarfs), playing, holding hands, and running in circles. Every now and then you would see them in abandoned houses, but as soon as you would see them they would run and hide somewhere inside the walls. I heard it when I was 5 or 6 years old, told by my older brothers, and it was to stop me from running inside the twister. 

[Would they do anything besides playing? What would happen if you actually saw one?]

“Some would say that they would give you cookies or money, but only if they liked you or not. If not, they could take you with them and you will never see your parents again! So no one wanted to mess with them.”

[And what would cause them to dislike you? Like if you were a good or bad kid?]

“Mostly if you were disobedient to your parents!” 

Analysis: 

Duendes appear in many different cultures, and vary regionally. In this case, as my informant said, their purpose is to prevent children from going inside small whirlwinds. I think what makes this story different from other children’s legends is that these dudenes can be good (like giving cookies or money) depending on whether or not you were a “good child” or not. This makes me think that it would cause children to go looking for them. However, with the fear that they could take you from your parents, it probably scared off many children from seriously looking for them. I think this is really interesting, because it gives children the opportunity to weigh risk and reward at such a young age.

Nahuales/Nagual: “Shapeshifter”

Language: Spanish

“When I was younger, I remember hearing this story from older adults when I was an elementary student. Nahuales, who are people who have made a deal with the devil in order to become a shapeshifter. They shapeshift into animals or anything of their choosing in order to lure kids and cause harm. The first time I heard it was from a friend who said she heard of someone’s family who returned home to find a turkey standing in the middle of the room. The mother, sensing that something was off, smacked the turkey with a broom to try to get it out of the house, but to no avail, the turkey stayed. The daughter tried to pull the mom away from the turkey, and finally, when she did, the turkey left the house and shape-shifted back into its human form.”

Analysis:

Nauguals seem to serve 2 purposes: to warn children of dangers, and to warn them of the devil. This informant remarks that she heard this originally from older adults, but most commonly told stories between her friends. I think that this goes to show how folklore can range within a single community, dependent on your social groups: as a child, she was able to bond with her friends by telling these stories about this mutual creature they knew and feared, but the adults of her community more so used it as a way to try and keep their children safe.