Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

Blind Stallion

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: Dallas, TX
Performance Date: April 19, 2019
Primary Language: English

Text: So basically there was this cowboy, and when he was a little kid, he would go out onto the range with his father. And there was this wild herd of mustangs that was roaming at the time, and there was this one little foal. It was a black stallion foal, and he was like, “One day I’m going to get that horse, and I’m gonna ride that horse.” So he grows up and spends his adult life wandering the hills trying to find the same horse that he saw as child. He wants to capture it. So he finally finds the herd after like a year of wandering, and he starts following it around because he wants to figure out how to catch the stallion. He spent three days following the horse, and with each day, he figured out that the stallion what is the strongest horse, but it always stayed next to its mother. It stayed with the mother horse that the cowboy saw it with when he was little. So he’s like. “Okay, whatever, kind of weird.” But it keeps going. After the three days, he decides that the only way he’s going to catch this horse is if he shoots the mother horse. So that the stallion won’t follow her anymore. So he shoots the mother, which is obviously sad and awful, and horses start running away. But the black horse starts running in the opposite direction and acting wild and crazy and falls off of the edge of a cliff. And then that was when the cowboy realized that the horse was always blind, and that the only reason he was following the mother around is so he could get around. And when the cowboy shot the mother, the stallion couldn’t get around anymore, so he fell off a cliff.

Context: SH is a born and raised Texan studying psychology at USC. Her time in the south led her to be exposed to many different stories with western flairs while she was growing up. In regards to the tale above, she doesn’t remember who told her the story, but it has never left her mind due to the fact that, “It’s so fucking awful.” SH thinks its significance means, “To leave nature be because you don’t always know what is going on behind the scenes, and if you insert yourself into nature it might not go the way you wanted to because you just don’t know.” I was told this piece of folklore over lunch one afternoon.

Interpretation: Tales are recognized as fictional stories that are used as fun ways to entertain and teach lessons to one another. They can sometimes reflect values and teach important lessons on behavior and ethics, or they can simply be stories for stories sake. They are not supposed to be viewed as true and exist outside of the real world. They also like to use groups of threes in their plot structure, a definite tactic employed in the blind stallion. This tale seems to function completely as a way to teach lessons, for there is a lot to be learned from the horrible acts committed in the above story. I will note that the tale does remain entertaining despite the horrible ending, due solely to its shock value and ridiculous logic in how the main character goes about getting what it wants.

I think that SH was correct in that the blind stallion contains some commentary about nature and how people should leave it alone. I also think it has possible lessons rooted in the shying away from greed, impulsive action, and murder. This tale also contains the idea that SH brought up about things not always operating as they appear, and the ghastly consequences that can unfold when people convince themselves that they understand something that they really don’t.

 

Russian Little Red Riding Hood

Nationality: Russian
Age: 25
Occupation: USC Grad Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/17/19
Primary Language: Russian
Language: English

Main Piece

The point of this is if you’re a stranger in the forest, don’t just walk into someone’s house. The story is a guy is walking and traveling. He walked into this road in the middle of the forest because he is lost in the woods. At a certain point, he sees this house and it’s getting dark, so he walks into the house. The guy inside is actually very friendly. They had good conversation and he told him interesting things that happens in the forest. Here comes the night. The guy has been fed and that is good. They are happy. Then they both hear the sound of wolves howling. The host changes his face completely. The guest is wondering what happened. The host said, “My friends are hungry, we need to feed them.” He walks outside. The guest waits a little. Then he walks back in with a gun pointing at this guy and is like, “Alright, let’s go feed my friends.”

 

Context

This is a story my friend heard while he was on a camping trip in Russia. My friend specifically told me that this story is meant to teach people not to always trust strangers and to know where you are going. Also, going alone to places you don’t know is a dangerous thing to do.

 

Notes

Imagining someone telling this story to you in a Russian accent definitely makes it more fun to read – my friend who told me the story has a Russian accent. I personally like this play on version of Little Red Riding Hood the best because it is a little twisted and less expected.

Here is a link to many different versions of Little Red Riding Hood: https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html

The Golden Arm

Age: 47
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Palo Alto, California
Performance Date: March 20, 2019
Primary Language: English

The below folk story is a story my friend, who will be referred to as J, told me he had heard from his dad in Columbus, Ohio. J is a middle aged white man who heard this story when he was a young boy.

Text: There once as a woman who got hit by a car. In the car accident, she lost her arm. However, the man who hit her with his car was very rich, and feeling very guilty, he bought the woman a golden arm.

The woman’s husband was an evil man however, and felt tremendous greed that his wife had a golden arm, and begged his wife to sell her golden arm. However, the wife refused, and the thought of all the things the man could buy with the golden arm drove him insane. He ended up killing his wife, by strangling her in her sleep.

The man attended his wife’s funeral, pretending to be heartbroken, and watched her buried into the ground. That night however, the man snuck into the graveyard and dug up his wife, removing her arm from her dead body.

The man was overjoyed and the next night he stayed up in bed holding the arm, and imagining all he could buy with it. However, that night he was startled by a sudden gust of wind that sounded like it was saying, “giveee mee my arrrrm.” The man fell asleep that night however, and had good dreams. The next night, the man heard another another gust of wind, this time definitely saying “giveee mee my arrrrm.” This continued for the next several nights, each night the sound got louder, clearer, and lasted longer. The man began to get very paranoid, locking all his doors and boarding all his windows, clinging to the arm ever tighter. Eventually, the man couldn’t take it anymore, and when he heard the voice saying “givee mee my arrrrm” that night, he shouted out, “Fine, I have your arm and will give it to you.” The voice of his wife responded, “Come outside and give it to me!” Timidly, the man walked outside, and seeing the ghost of his wife, he handed out the arm in payment to her. At that moment, a lightning bolt struck the arm, electrocuting the man. The ghost of his wife took the arm back, and returned to her grave happy and content.

Context: J told me this story when I was discussing folklore he had heard. He said this was a favorite story of his dad’s that his dad would tell this story to him and his sisters when they were young. J emphasized the importance of the oral telling of this story. He said that when he reads this story, it is not the same. What makes it a good story according to J is that there needs to be a talented storyteller, who can shout to scare his audience and keep them tense the entire story. J said his dad told this story primary because it entertained the children, but also because of the moral lessons it taught. J described how this story shows that being greedy will never make you successful, and how committing a crime will always come back to haunt you.

Analysis: I liked this story and found it interesting because when researching this story, I realized just how many variations of this story exist. The story emphasises the importance of oral storytelling to children. As J said, a story being said orally is a great way to entertain children and teach them lessons at the same time. Also, as J described, this story teaches moral such as not being greedy, a belief in Karma, and an emphasis of not taking something from the dead. It is well known not to mess with the dead, especially steal something from them. It plays into the idea that grave robbers are evil and will be cursed later in life, similar to the idea of how the man who open King Tut’s tomb was cursed and died shortly after. All in all this story is an excellent example of folklore because it has multiplicity and variation, is a way for adults to transfer knowledge to their children, and is also a way morals are spread to different generations.


For another version of this text, visit Joseph Jacobs‘s Collection, English Fairy Tales

Abiyoyo

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/23/19
Primary Language: English

IN: Okay, so far away in a village in Africa, uhm there was a giant by the name of Abiyoyo. For some reason, he got angry and started rampaging, like towards the village of people. Until this little boy decided to take this guitar and start singing, “abiyoyo, abiyoyo, abiyoyo..” and all of the villagers joined in and it started to make him get happy. The giant started dancing, and he and the boy walked into the sunset singing the song.

JJ: Does abiyoyo mean anything? Or did it start to mean anything after?

IN: No, as far as I know it was just kind of arbitrary, like a cool sounding word. It could mean something I guess.

Context: During a slow work shift I asked the informant if he remembered any folktales from his childhood.

Background: The informant is s South-African American. This was a story his father used to always tell him before bed. It is one of the few ways that his family actively passed down their African heritage to him in the States, so this was a significant story to him growing up.

Analysis: In this tale, we see music as a healing tool and important instrument in society. Music is a huge piece in African culture, and this story undoubtedly expresses that. Music has the ability to calm and tranquilize even a beastly giant, and gives reason for little kids to learn instruments and develop and explain interest in music.

 

Sacred Owls in Hawaii

Nationality: American
Age: 27
Occupation: Manager at Auxiliary Services
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/23/19
Primary Language: English

The informant is marked IN.

IN: There was this one myth about an owl that I kind of remember, like not exactly but I’ve heard it a couple times. So basically there was this kid, called Kapoi, who found some owl eggs, and he like, wanted to roast them to eat and stuff. And this all – by the way – kind of just relates back to how important owls are for Hawaiians. So like he’s about to cook these eggs and an owl comes down and tells him “hey, you can’t do that please give me my eggs” and the kid doesn’t really listen, but the owl asks again and the kid says “okay, come get them and they’re yours.” So the owl comes down and gets his eggs back, and he tells the kid to build a temple with an alter and everything and it ends up that on the same day, the king had set up a temple and he had already dedicated it, and basically just made up a rule on the spot that no one shall dedicate a temple on the same day as the king. So the king sends all these men to kill Kapoi, but the owls heard about this and they decide to intercept the kings men and attacked them all, just pecking and scratching and killing his men. So then like, the owls won, and like the king I guess acknowledged the God that Kapoi had dedicated the temple to, which was basically the owls, and since then owls have been seen as very divine, god-like birds and just show up a lot throughout Hawaiian sacred history and stuff. They just play a big role overall, in like, everyday life I guess and they have to be respected.

Context: I asked the informant during work if he had any Hawaiian folktales.

Background: The informant is a Hawaiian Japanese-American, who was raised hearing a lot of Hawaiian folklore around him. This is a story he heard less often but was an essential piece for understanding the importance of owls in Hawaiian legends.

Analysis: I thought that this was a really interesting piece because it gives the message that if you respect nature, nature will respect you. Treating animals kindly instead of stealing and roasting their eggs will lead to better karma and protection from those animals in the future. I also never knew that owls were prevalent in Hawaii so this surprised me.