Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

Baba Yaga – A medicine woman

Name: Katya

Text: “Baba yaga is a slavic witch that lives in the woods and i heard about her growing up cuz i had a russian nanny.She lives in the woods and is known to have a house that has chicken legs on it which I always really loved as an image and she kind of represents this very powerful woman figure that I think a lot of people do fear but when you really dig into the fairy tales about her she really is a healing witch and I remember learning about her having like all these potions and what I didn’t realize at the time is that she’s basically like an herbal medicine practice practitioner so I feel like Baba Yaga is really cool and I heard since then that basically every Eastern European country has some version of Baba Yaga but she has like a bunch of different names so her reach is far and I feel like there’s something about her as a character that really resonates with people definitely really resonated with me . 

Context:

Where did u learn it from?

Like I feel like as a kid I don’t know exactly where but my nanny would read me Bedtime Stories and stuff like that so I must have been then 

where was your where is your Nanny from?

 She’s from Kazakhstan but her ancestry is Russian 

how do you think people use it? 

I feel like she’s a symbol for a very powerful mother figure “

Analysis:

This is a tale. This is because Baba Yaga has chicken feet and we understand as humans we cannot have that. This genre is often used to make things more child-like and fantasy related. There has been a history of labeling powerful women figures into negative connotations such as witches, and to this informant, represents the mother. Baba Yaga is feared, coming from the notion of a woman having power. Thus, they have created her into a tale that depicts her as fake and as something that is dangerous (as a traveling witch with chicken feet, who in other versions eat children). When my informant mentioned there is a version of her in every Eastern European country, it further emphasizes that this is a tale as it spreads easily.  It also proves to have had a great impact on individuals, especially children, as they pass it down when they grow up. In other tales, Baba Yaga was a donor figure, but in Katya’s telling she mentions how Baba Yaga had negative connotations to many. This highlights that despite what is widely known, the individual could have their own spin on it which illustrates the multiplicity and variation of meaning on the individual scale – i.e. instead of seeing a witch, she sees a positive alternate healing figure.

Haunted Clock Scary Folktale

Nationality: American
Primary language: English
Age: 18
Occupation: Canvasser
Residence: Echo Park, CA

Text

A little boy with a sister, two parents, and a dog just won a sports game. His parents take him out to get a gift to celebrate. They’re trying to pick out a toy for him to get at a toy store. The boy sees a doll with a clock in its stomach. It seems to wave, all five of its fingers up. The boy is strangely drawn to it, loving it, and wants it immediately. His parents ask him if he’s sure–it’s kind of creepy–but let the boy get it. The cashier warns them not to buy it because they’ll regret it, and the boy insists and asks why he can’t get it. The cashier says he can’t tell the boy why, but warns him again. The boy gets it anyway. He hangs the clock over his bed.
He goes to sleep each night for five nights, and each morning when he wakes, one member of his family is gone.
The first morning, his dog is missing. When the boy complains of this, his parents are confused: “What do you mean? We never had a dog.” When he looks at the clock, it only has four fingers up.
The second morning, his sister disappears. When the boy complains of this, his parents are confused: “What do you mean? You don’t have a sister.” When he looks at the clock, it only has three fingers up.
The third morning, his dad disappears. When the boy complains of this, his mom is confused: “What do you mean? I’m a single mom.” When he looks at the clock, it only has two fingers up.
The fourth morning, his mom disappears. When he looks at the clock, it only has one finger left.
The next morning, the boy is gone forever, and the clock has no fingers up.

Context

MM first heard this story at a summer camp when he was between 8 and 9 years old. He was a little scared of the story, but mostly enjoyed it, immediately thinking that it was “a really good, fun, spooky story.” He really enjoyed telling this story and did so numerous times at camp. He notes that he heard and shared different versions over the years: the little boy was sometimes a little girl; the order of the disappearance of family members changed sometimes; the boy’s actions each day after finding a member of his family missing were different, including days where he missed school or days where he tried to get rid of the clock and it mysteriously returned; and there was a version where the shopkeeper wanted to get rid of the clock and recommended that the boy take it. MM analyzes this as being a representation of a kid’s worst fear: being alone without their family. “It’s a little uniquely terrifying to be wiped from existence instead of dying.” He notes that “there’s also a perversion of the familiar–a toy (kids love toys) that kills your family.

Analysis

I classify this as a folktale because, while it’s somewhat grounded in the real world, its truth value doesn’t appear to be up to date. There’s no piece of this in which “the clock is still out there,” or anything to imply that this might be a true story. Instead, it appears to be a scary folktale for children. Beyond its basic entertainment value, this story could mean several things. I’m inclined to agree with MM’s analysis that this folktale represents a child’s fear of being left alone without their family and of death. This view is supported through a psychoanalytical lens, which often views the subtext of a folk belief or narrative as a subconscious desire or fear. This story could be viewed in both lights. The fact that the boy in MM’s version of the tale ignored the warning of the shopkeeper (an adult) and got the toy he wanted anyway, then faced the consequences (his family disappearing), marks this as a potentially cautionary tale. Its moral might be, “children should listen to adults.” Of course, children fear being alone, but they also sometimes desire it. This story, scary as it may be, could also be a representation of the child’s subconscious desire to be rid of their parents. After all, the little boy is subconsciously drawn to the clock immediately. Perhaps he really does want his family gone so that he can have more independence, but the consequence of this is that he disappears, too. Either way, this story’s deeper meanings are fascinating through a psychoanalytical lens.

The Chief and the Singer

Main Piece

“It must’ve been before I was in 5th grade — over the course of a few nights, my dad told a story to me, my brother, and my sister. In hindsight, it was very obviously something completely made up on the spot, but I think we were too young to realize.

Back home — ‘home’ referencing Nigeria, where my dad is from — there was an evil village chief. He was a vicious conqueror that took people’s lands, stole from the poor, and amassed a massive amount of wealth. Accordingly, his house was gigantic, and sat on a huge plot of land. One day, the chief captured a princess.”

(Informant MN then noted that he forgot if there was a reason the chief captured the princess, and assumes the story had minimal exposition).

“The chief held the princess in another building on his property. He planned to have her killed the next day. That night, the king was in his bed when he heard the sound of someone singing. He was confused, unsure of where the sound could be coming from, but soon realized the sound was coming from the princess’ cell. While he usually would have put a stop to it, the king instead decided to listen to the song. In fact, he was so taken aback by her voice that when the next day came, he decided to delay the execution until the next morning.

Night falls, and the voice returns. The king, again, is obsessed with her voice–rizz god!–and the next day, delays the execution even further.

This goes on for a while, and to be honest, the details fall away past that point. I think the king ends up marrying the woman, and there’s a sort of ‘happily-ever-after’ ending.”

Interpretation

Informant Interpretation: MN notes that “Nigerian parents do this thing where they tell you nothing about their childhood” and have “no photos of their upbringing,” especially as it pertains to things that happened while they lived in Nigeria. Thus, “you end up forming this fantasy-like [imagination] of what home was like for them,” and stories like this “feed into the fantastical imagery I have of that time and place. As roughly patched-together and made up as that story is, it’s as real as most of the made-up details about my dad’s confusing ass life that I call true.”

Personal Interpretation: I drew connections between this story and “One Thousand and One Nights”–an anthology frame tale that I don’t know well, but I recall contains a similar story about a brutal king and a storyteller woman, who he permits to live night by night as she tells him stories. To me, MN’s story read as an oicotypical variation of this concept, underscored by the fact that he changed between referring to one of the primary figures as “chief” and “king,” and the other as “princess,” “singer,” and sometimes just “woman” (though some of these changes may be attributable to memory). I also think MN’s personal connection to the story, belief that it was entirely made up by his father, and its role in shaping his childhood understanding of Nigeria makes the story feel like more than a tale to me–not a myth as it’s not something he claimed to believe in, but something that shapes his beliefs about a place in the real world. In that sense, it felt somewhere in the gray area between tale and legend.

Background

Informant MN is a current student at USC studying Aerospace Engineering. He grew up in Redmond, Washington and lives at home with his siblings and Mom. He notes that this story was told to him a long time ago, and he has some “amount of amnesia about the particular details of [his] childhood.”

MN is Nigerian and male-presenting.

Churches and Ghosts

Nationality: Chinese/Vietnamese
Primary Language: English
Other language(s): Mandarin, Cheo Chow (Chinese Dialect)
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: LA, California
Performance Date: 3/16/2024

Context:

My informant, AC, is a friend of mine from my freshman year at USC from Los Angeles, California. I talked with her one day about crazy stories that any of us might have from our childhoods after talking about injuries and so on. After the injury stories I remembered a crazy ghost story of mine and told her about it. She then offered to reciprocate and told me about one of her ghost stories. It was pretty crazy and also interestingly not tied to her own culture, past, or beliefs. Here is what she said:

Text:

“So I had this catholic friend who believed in all kinds of spirits and stuff from his catholic school, and while with him and a few other friends, most of whom believed in ghosts and spiritual stuff except me and another friend, because we were skeptics, experience the craziest and scariest thing we’ve dealt with in our lives. I’m a skeptic yes but in my culture, we don’t really have spooky scary ghosts, we have native spirits and more conceptual stuff so I didn’t think any of my friend’s’ ghost ideals were actually real. But all that skepticism kinda went away when my catholic friend jokingly asked us if we wanted to explore the church basement of his catholic school as a way to make us believe ghosts were real, as he’d claimed before that he’s seen and experienced ghost activity around that building. All of us were bored, (we were children at this point, maybe around 12 or 13), so we said yes and we went up there midday to check out this basement and well, stuff went down. We all went in, the basement was extremely dark, not even a phone flashlight, which we were using, could shine far enough to see ahead of us, only slightly though, plus, the basement was huge, like a large cellar, a sort of maze. As soon as we got in, the door slammed behind us and one of my friends sprinted over to open it and it seemingly locked itself shut. We then started hearing footsteps in the distant darkness coming from far away but seemingly getting closer. We all start to freak out, huddling next to the door, most of us trying to open it as fast as we can to escape but to no avail. Then suddenly we hear whispering noises and faint wind blowing all around us which is strange because there was and was no breeze in or outside previously. As this is happening, one of my skeptical friends said they saw something, like a silhouette in the distance and it’s they said that it was just standing there in the darkness staring at us. At this point I was probably crying out of fear and everyone was freaking out equally, which just made everything worse, until finally the door cracked open, seemingly without any of us touching it, and we all sprinted and fell out of the basement and onto the grass outside. The moment we got outside, the door slammed shut once again and we all ran home and never really spoke of that moment again.”

Analysis:

Wow, I mean, personally I’ve experienced some interesting seemingly ghostly tales but this one is crazy to explore and hear. First off, the connection between catholic churches and ghost hauntings goes way back, I mean seriously. The beliefs and folklore surrounding ghost hauntings in Catholic churches can be traced back to centuries ago, with stories and legends often rooted in historical events and cultural traditions dating back to medieval times and earlier. In my own research of this ideal, apparently, the connection between Catholic churches and ghost hauntings is often rooted in cultural beliefs, historical significance, and popular folklore rather than official Catholic doctrine. Many Catholic churches have a long history and rich cultural heritage, making them popular settings for ghost stories and legends. The presence of burial grounds or crypts within or near some churches, along with the religious symbols and rituals associated with Catholicism, can contribute to perceptions of spiritual or supernatural activity. Cultural beliefs about spirits and ghosts, as well as popular media portrayals of haunted locations, further shape public perceptions of ghost hauntings in Catholic churches. However, it’s important to note that Catholic doctrine does not specifically address ghost hauntings, and individual interpretations of such phenomena are influenced by personal experiences and cultural influences rather than official teachings of the Church. Now that this info is out of the way, I personally found this story and the acute history of ghosts and catholic churches to be extremely fascinating. I mean who really knows if this is real, but AC hinting at the fact that she doesn’t believe in ghosts and experiencing what seems to be a ghost encounter in a culture and religion that she doesn’t even follow is what interests me so much. The idea that ghosts aren’t really tied to a specific culture, but all cultures, where each one has their own interpretation of ghosts, and even so, the idea of hauntings, skepticism about said hauntings, sightings, and even experiences, all still managing to have no ground or real meaning when faced with unexplainable phenomenon and encounters with something mind blowing or scary and spooky like with AC’s story, is so awesome. It seems that no matter your belief, ghosts will always find some way of haunting your mind.

La Llorona – Tale/Legend

Text: La Llorona – Tale/ Legend

Context: The informant, JR, is of Mexican descent and shares his relation with the cautionary tale of “La Llorona” and how they heard and interpreted the tale.

Interview: The first tale I can remember learning about is the folklore tale/ Legend of La Llorona. La Llorona is a Mexican folklore tale/ Legend that many parents tell their children about and can be compared to bigfoot spoken about here in the United States. Growing up in a Hispanic household me and my siblings were told stories about La Llorona and learned about the folklore. The tale goes something like a woman named Maria who lived in Mexico drowned her children after learning of her husband’s infidelity and soon after drowned herself because of the guilt of drowning her children. It’s said that in Mexico she roams around at night yelling “mis hijos” (my sons) searching for her children. This story is told to children to fearmonger them into not staying out late at night because if they do La Llorona would come to kidnap them. Due to the story being told over and over, there are now many different versions of it but to me, the story isn’t what matters but rather the intent behind telling it to your children. While I don’t remember too well why my parents decided to tell us the story I can only guess that it was to keep us from going out at night, which might have worked since it took me a long time to become accustomed to the nighttime outside. The way I see it it’s just another popular folklore that has stuck around for a long time due to many generations still speaking about that has become immortalized through film and other media.

Analysis: From the interview, I can tell that despite the informant, JR, claiming they have a blurry memory of cautionary tale/ legend, they ultimately were affected by the tale/legend growing up as it impacted their ability to stay outside during the night time due to the fear instilled from the story. As for the significance, other than being scared of being outside in the dark, I can tell that the story of La Llorona also ties in with cultural fears and supernatural beliefs from their cultural descent. Because the tale/legend is told to many children of Hispanic descent, the story has likely been passed down from generation to generation, supporting the idea that it is a reminder of the thin veil between the living and the dead and the idea of guilt, grief, and the pain of losing loved ones in Latin American cultures. The interview connects deeply with Hispanic culture and the ideas of obeying elders and keeping cultural tales/ legends alive by passing them down.