Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

The White Lady

Nationality: Asian
Age: 56
Occupation: Businessman
Residence: Honolulu, HI
Performance Date: 4/23/21
Primary Language: English

Background

Informant is college educated and has lived on Oahu, Hawaii for their whole life. Informant was dating the Interviewer’s mother for around a year. 

Context

Informant discusses the urban legend of Pele, the goddess attributed to making the Hawaiian islands. Informant speaks on how the encounter will go, what Pele will look like, and what will happen if you disrespect her.

Transcript

Informant: “Ooo, what about the white lady?”

Interviewer: “The what lady?”

Informant: “The white lady, if you see the white lady, you have to pick her up. If you don’t pick her up-”

Interviewer: “Oh, Pele!”

Informant: “Yeah, so she comes out as either a young beautiful woman, or whatever, but if you don’t pick her up she’ll end up in the back seat of your car.”

Interviewer: “What happens then? I heard that-”

Informant: “I think she’ll either stay there until you go to where she wants to go or when you notice that she’s there, you’ll turn around and she’ll be gone. But after you see her you gotta make offerings, like food and drinks so you don’t make her mad.”

Thoughts

    The story of the white lady is an incredibly common myth in Hawaii. Even though Pele is supposed to only live on the Big Island, tales of encountering her on all islands are a relatively common affair. I personally have never encountered the white lady while driving alone, but I have family members who swear to have seen her. Nobody I know says she has gotten into their vehicle though. While I respect this story and the culture it comes from, In my mind I chalk most of these up to just seeing a random woman wearing white while driving, as that is not an uncommon outfit on Oahu by any means.

Huldra- Scandinavian Folktale

Nationality: American
Age: 53
Occupation: Doctor

Main Story:

“My father immigrated from Sweden when he was twelve years old after his parents died a few years earlier. He came with five dollars in his pocket but a very strong work ethic.  Growing up he lived with family members that often told him folklore so I’m glad you asked me! One of the main ones I heard was about The huldre or Huldra? I believe it was huldra, but she was a very beautiful troll who lived in the woods. She would seduce unmarried men and take them into the forest where she would not let them leave unless they married her. She had a tale of a cow so if she was married, in a church, her tale would go away.”

Context:

The interviewee’s father told him these stories as a boy. I had remembered my girlfriend telling me that her grandfather had immigrated from Sweden. He, unfortunately, passed away a few years ago. I asked her father if he had heard any folk stories from Sweden. Luckily he remembers a few his father told him as a boy.

Analysis:

I had not heard many Scandinavian folk stories so I enjoyed learning about this one. I was interested that Scandinavian folk stories often portray trolls. It seems like a unique theme that carries through quite a few folklore stories. 

Baba Yaga

Nationality: American
Age: 52
Occupation: Realtor
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/9/21
Primary Language: English

Main Story:

“I heard this story from your great grandparents who were from Ukraine. It’s famous it’s called Baba Yaga, I was also told it was called The Witch. But pretty much… If I misbehaved as a kid my great grandparents would say the Baba Yaga or Witch will find me and capture me and take me to her hut in the woods. They also told me when I was behaving well that the Baba Yaga would bring me, sweets. Today, I heard Baba Yaga is a witch in the woods who eats people, but I had never heard that as a kid. It was pretty much if I was good Baba Yaga would reward me and if I was bad she would capture me. Luckily I was never taken away to her hut in the woods.” 

Context:

I asked my father about stories that had been orally passed down to him from his parents or grandparents.

Analysis:

I had heard of Baba Yaga before I asked my father, I was interested in the fact that his grandparents used Baba Yaga in a very different way than most people. They used it as an incentive rather than a scary story to tell children. 

Children’s Folk Tales in Estonia

Nationality: Estonia
Age: 48
Occupation: Property Manager
Residence: Costa Mesa, California
Performance Date: 4/23/2021
Language: Estonian, English

Background: The informant is a 48-year-old woman who was born in Estonia and immigrated to the United States, and currently lives in California. She still participates in Estonian traditions by attending the “Estonian House” which is an Estonian community located in Los Angeles.

Context: The folklore was collected during a scheduled zoom meeting in which I interviewed two native Estonians who currently live in Los Angeles and who are close friends.

Main Piece: “A huge part of my growing up was ‘Eesti ennemuistsed jutud’ and in the Soviet Union we had the series ‘Saia rahva lood’ or ‘tales of a hundred nations’, I read them, we enjoyed them very much. But what the Estonians had was ‘Eesti ennemuistsed jutud’, Estonian ancient tales, and one very big part of it was a farmer called ‘Kaval Ants’ fighting an evil called ‘Vanapagan’. It’s not called Satan, but it’s, you know the one who came from down. And this witty farmer, poor witty farmer always outsmarted the evil ‘Vanapagan’. ‘Vanapagan’ is ‘old pagan’ but it actually means ‘devil’. So ‘Kaval Ants’ and ‘Vanapagan’, those are the tales of my childhood, we read them and it’s a big thick book of Estonian fairy tales, where always this poor boy or poor girl was working, slaving for a master and at the end he or she got justice. Not always, Estonian fairy tales are not always very happy endings, but not as grim as you may think. And many tales had animals, like instead of people. Usually there were foxes and wolves, and the foxes outsmarted them.”

Interpretation: The first thing that caught my attention was the distinction the informant made between Estonian folk tales and the more “official” stories that the Soviet authorities used that were called ‘Saia rahva lood’. While the informant did not go into too much detail about the narrative and plot points of these tales, many of the common themes in Estonian folk tales are made very clear here. Furthermore, this serves as further evidence that Estonian tales are completely different from what was seen in the more Western nations. Many tales from the West center around royalty and fantasy, whereas Estonian tales are very grounded and have a peasanty humbleness to them. The characters are often farmers or animals and they have to use their wits, not sheer strength, to outsmart their opponents. Another thing that really caught my eye was how ‘old pagan’ is synonymous with the devil in the tale of Kaval Ants. This provides some interesting insight into the more religious realm of Estonian culture and how pagans were seen as devils and evil doers in the eyes of the Orthodox Christian Estonians. There is a lot of interesting history surrounding Estonian religion that ties to many of the themes seen in these tales.

For another version of this tale read:

Kreutzwald, Friedrich Reinhold. Eesti rahva ennemuistsed jutud. Avita, 1996 (first published 1866).

‘Kalevipoeg’: Estonian National Tale

Nationality: Estonia
Age: 52
Occupation: Associate Professor at USC
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/20/2021
Language: Estonian, English, Russian

Background: My informant, HS, is a 52-year-old professor at USC. She was born and raised in Estonia and moved to the United States when she was twenty. Her mother and father were both physicians in Soviet Estonia. Even though she no longer lives in Estonia, she still stays connected with Estonian tradition through her involvement with the Los Angeles Estonian House and still speaks the Estonian language with family and friends. She also happens to be my mother.

Context: One lunch, during quarantine, I decided to sit down and interview my mother about interesting Estonian folklore she was aware of and has experienced.

Main Piece: “Our national epic, which is Kalevipoeg, which is this huge -y’know- larger than life, obviously oversized peasant. Um, who -y’know- tilled and toiled the earth so the mountains… or the, the hills, the rolling hills, that are in southern Estonia particularly are, like, his fields that he toiled. He was a simple peasant guy who warded off warriors and alien invaders from other lands, because we were always taken over by Germans, Swedes, Danes, and Russians”.

Interpretation: While my mother did not remember many of the more specific plot details of this  Estonian tale, it was clear to me what the significance of the tale is. Being part Estonian, I am very aware of the fact that Estonia has a long history of being conquered and subjugated by more powerful European nations such as the ones mentioned by my mother. The story of Kalevipoeg served as a symbol and a mascot for the Estonian peasantry who were resisting the rule of invaders. It is important to note that the hero of the story is not some kind of king or royal knight who saves the day, it is a simple farmer who fights to protect his land. It is a reflection of Estonian history and folk culture.

Annotation: For another version of this tale, refer to:

Kreutzwald, Friedrich Reinhold. Kalevipoeg. JiaHu Books, 2013.