Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

The Pissing Boy – Brussels

Nationality: Belgian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/4/23
Primary Language: English
Language: Flemish

Context: MG is my friend at school and let me know he thought he had a good addition to the folklore archives. He is from Ghent, Belgium and told me this story is popular for parents to tell their children as a cautionary tale.

Performance:
MG: I have a folktale to tell you about a boy named Manneken Pis. This is the Flemish way of saying “The Boy Who Pisses”. Its a little statue in the center of Brussels, very much also a tourist attraction… a niche tourist attraction, but a tourist attraction… of a little boy, it a little fountain and he just continues on pissing. And so that little statue’s got a story behind it, um its a very old statue – I’d have to look up, I don’t know exactly how old but its been around for a while. And so the story is that, um the… the mayor of Brussels put up that statue in Brussels and spread the story in the newspaper that it was a boy outside who was pissing outside, urinating outside in the city, like polluting the city streets, and a witch who wanders around the city, in the shadows of the city, turned him into stone because he was pissing ehhh publicly. And so now this is the eternal boy who pisses. And so he said boys if you don’t want to be turned into stone, if you don’t want to be caught by the wizard, or the sorceress, or whatever mystical force, then you can’t publicly urinate.
And so that became a folktale that was told because mothers would love it as well, they don’t want their little boys pissing publicly, so they would tell their boys at home don’t piss publicly or you will be turned into stone. And yeah, that is a Belgian folktale that has been told for hundreds of years.

Analysis:

This narrative tale is telling about Belgian attitudes towards treating the environment/city right. It is made clear that public urination is frowned upon, even to the extent where the supernatural gets involved in enforcing the societal norms of Belgium. This story also represents Belgian parenting attitudes well. Parents are willing to scare their children with fake stories of the supernatural in order to get their children to behave, which is a common folkloric practice.

The Puppy in the Basement

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: University of Michigan
Performance Date: 4/4/23
Primary Language: English

Context: KC is a friend of a friend who volunteered to share her story with me when she found out I was interested in hearing people’s stories. She heard this story at her summer camp, although she failed to tell me where it is located.

Performance:

KC: This story is called the puppy and the basement, I heard it from summer camp.

Mommy told me never to go in the basement, but I wanted to see what was making that noise. It sounded like a puppy, and I wanted to see the puppy, so I opened the basement door and tip toed down a bit. I didn’t see a puppy, and Mommy yanked me out of the basement and yelled at me. Mommy had never yelled at me before, and that made me sad and I cried. Then Mommy told me never to go in the basement again, and gave me a cookie. That made me feel better, so I didn’t ask why the boy in the basement was making noises like a puppy, or why he had no hands or feet.

Analysis:

This is a short story but it still reveals much about cultural ideas of the sick and twisted. The story plays upon the childhood innocence of the narrator and the presence of a puppy to subvert the listeners expectations of what would be normal to have in ones basement. Upon the reveal that the thing in the basement is actually a mutilated boy it becomes clear that the horror aspect of the story comes from the fact that a seemingly normal suburban home, common in American culture, could house something so deranged and sick.

Tale of Two Brothers – Tale

Nationality: Korean American
Age: 18
Occupation: Hotel Clerk/Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 28 March 2023
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Context:

G is a Korean American freshman studying Computer Science at USC. She has heard this story from her mother, who was born and raised in Korea but moved to Hawaii. That’s where G lived before she came to USC. According to G, her mom has told her this story countless times, and it is a very popular and well-known story.

Text:

There were two brothers, Heungbu and Nolbu, and they were both from a rich family. Nolbu is the older brother, he’s very greedy. The younger brother is Heungbu and he’s very kind. When their father died and it was time to split the fortune he left behind, the older brother takes everything. But, Heungbu is nice, so he doesn’t fight back or anything. He just accepts it.

There was a baby bird, a swallow. There was a snake trying to eat the swallow. Heungbu chased the snake away, saving the swallow. The baby bird had a broken leg, and Heungbu treated it for him. Three days later, the swallow got better, left, and came back with pumpkin seeds. So, Heungbu plants it in his backyard and when it was time to harvest, the pumpkin was full of treasure and gold.

The rumor spread that Heungbu became wealthy. His brother, the greedy one, asks him how he got so wealthy. Heungbu tells his brother. When Nolbu sees a swallow, he purposefully breaks the swallow’s leg and then heals it. The swallow comes back with pumpkin see, and when it was time to harvest, goblins came out of the pumpkin beating up his children and taking his fortune away.

Analysis:

This tale outlines two very stark characters in close contrast to showcase a logical sequence of events that follow their lives. Tales travel along the supernatural and realistically impossible, operating on events and logic that do not apply in the real world. There is no pumpkin seed in the world that can summon treasure and gold, or goblins (goblins do not exist or been questioned to exist like a yeti would be in a legend). There is no animal (real world entity) that is magical enough to differentiate magical pumpkin seeds, like that swallow. The objects of the folktale on which the plot occurs and the characters are propelled are illogical and extraordinary, an irrefutable kind of “not real” that occurs in a world that is not our own. However, though the events and plot devices themselves are not real or rational, what is logical is the actions of the characters caused by the devices. According to Oring, a “tale’s climax is the logical result of an episodic sequence.” Heungbu’s kindness and benevolence is met with Nolbu’s greed and malevolence, earning both of them respective consequences based on the caliber of morality their distinctive personalities the real world’s principles hold them in. These characters are unchanging and idle to exaggerate those social noems. It is accepted that kindness earns respect and good fortune, and as Korean culture is mostly dictated by Confucian values, Heungbu’s loyalty to his family in spite of his brother’s mistakes makes him a template of good character for Korean culture. Nolbu is the opposite; insensitive to family, uncooperative, and endlessly greedy, hence a moral villain for his Korean audience. This tale engineers Korean culture values into a supernatural order of events that follow a logical reasoning, so that the resolution is not only predictable for the audience but inevitable and therefore applicable in metaphor in real life.

Rindercella

Nationality: American
Age: 21
  1. Text
    Rindercella is essentially the story of Cinderella, but with some letters mixed up in some of the words.  For example, “Rindercella lived with her mugly other and her two sad bisters, and there was a very prandsome hince.” and, “at the pancy farty, Rindercella slopped her dripper!”
  2. Context
    Rindercella is a story I first heard in 2021, told by a “camp dad” at the summer camp I work at.  He told this story at our “big campfire” assembly and it was a huge hit.  I had never heard of the concept before, let alone knew its origin, I just thought it was hilarious.  I would think that the context that this joke/story is told is similar to my experience; an adult telling it to a group of kids, or even other adults.  I would think it would be incredibly entertaining to anyone, as the words are ridiculous and if the storyteller knows it well, it’s very impressive.
  3. Interpretation
    My interpretation is that Rindercella is an extremely entertaining take/revival of a classic story.  There’s a slight uncomfortable feeling when you’re listening to the story being told, because it feels like the storyteller is on the verge of a slip-up and/or saying a nasty word.  Nevertheless, Rindercella has its listeners both on the edge of their seats and doubled over in laughter.  The storyteller from whom I encountered this story told it with such a straight face and lack of mistakes, that I left feeling entirely impressed.

Kolobok

Nationality: Georgian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 2/23/2023
Primary Language: English
Language: Russian

T is 18 years old and a student at USC. She grew up in Georgia and spent a few years in London as well, learning to speak Georgian, Russian, and English as a child.

T was in the room with me and one of our other roommates when we were talking about stories we remembered from our childhood, and told us about the story of Kolobok:

“There’s this pastry made of dough, and this old woman baked it and put it on the windowsill and then it rolled and rolled and rolled away and everyone threatened to eat it because it’s so tasty…and they thought it was so clever. It met a hare, a wolf, and a bear, but the kolobok was so smart that it escaped all of them and tricked them. It kept saying ‘I managed to escape from the old man, the old woman and the bear’ and thought it was so smart and then the kolobok met a fox and it outwitted it and ate it”

“It’s kind of a story about how you can’t be too cocky because…yeah. About pride and cockiness and that you shouldn’t be too prideful because you will get eaten. He had a lot of pride..the kolobok got a bit cocky with how he was outsmarting everybody and because he let his guard down the fox ate it. This story is very famous where I’m from [Georgia].”

“I learned them from a collection of stories and every night either my grandma or mom would read them to me..that’s for sure how I learned them. I had a book of fables, a book of short stories, and tiny books with hard covers…same style of Russian caricatures”

This story reminds me of a kind of mix of Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. It made me think about how many other variations of “fairytales” that I grew up hearing exist in other cultures, and more so what they mean to the people in those cultures.