Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

A Little More than a Prank

Nationality: American
Age: 51
Occupation: Restaurant Manager
Residence: Temecula
Performance Date: 4/8/18
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: SR: In high school, there was another girl that was in band… and we used to toilet paper everyone’s houses, but she didn’t have any trees in her front yard, so we went and stole a tree out of the ground, and went to her front yard and dug a hole and planted her tree, and then toilet papered the tree! And today, you can drive by and the tree is still in her front yard. We then wanted everyone to see the new tree, so her best friend lived across the street and had a circular driveway, and then we toilet papered their house and thought it would be super fun if everyone had to drive through her driveway to get to school to see it! So we spent the night driving around stealing traffic cones and detour signs and then made it so that every road going to school was blocked off, and anyone who wanted to get to high school that morning had to drive through her driveway.

CR (wife): I can attest to this, because I didn’t even know him and I remember having to drive through her driveway to get to school! I remember when he told me this story the first time, I said “That was you!”

 

Context: This practical joke, alongside many others, was done while SR was in high school.

 

Background: SR was a huge prankster in high school: he did this, he stole street signs, he painted someone’s car without them knowing… SR has always loved jokes and pranks, and even in retelling this story he was cracking up.

 

Analysis: Toilet papering someone’s house is a widespread high school tradition throughout America. Everyone has either toilet papered or been toilet papered. SR’s version gets much more unique, because not only did he literally plant a fully grown tree in someone’s yard, but in order to have people see his handiwork, he toilet papered a neighboring house and forced everyone at their high school to drive past it. This practical joke is a large variation on the standard joke of toilet papering, but in SR’s family this story in itself has become a tale– SR has told it, his wife has told it, even his daughter has told it to friends whenever pranks come up.

 

Mary Queen of Scotts is in my House!

Nationality: American and British
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Monica
Performance Date: 4/2/18
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: KC: So basically… (looks at phone), my grandparents live in this house called Hipper Hall in this tiny tiny town called Holymoorside in England and its the main farmhouse, it has one tiny town hall thats just one room and then there used to be the village post office and the local village shop and a local school, but my grandparents house was the farm house– it has barns and fields and a slaughterhouse and a pigsty all made out of stone. Growing up… my family is completely logical and doesn’t believe in ghost stories, we’re very scientific, but it was always known that there were two things to look out for: bats that were in the barn, but apparently you could only hear them until you were 14… I remember my grandfather asking if i could still hear the bats, but basically there was always a story my grandfather told me that I believe was passed down from previous owners and there’s a ghost! There’s also supposedly a tunnel between our house and the biggest house of the neighboring village. She’s apparently a female ghost and is very friendly, and even my grandfather has seen her which freaks me out the most bc he’s a normal straight-shooting guy. She comes out on the full moon of November which is close to my birthday! She just kinda closes doors and stuff but only on this once specific night… I don’t think I’ve actually been there during this night but it has been a source of horror in my childhood. (looks up Hipper Hall Ghost on google) It’s on the internet! People have reported seeing hooded figures walk through barbed fences and a woman disappearing out of nowhere– oh yeah here it is! The supposed ghost of Mary Queen of Scotts has been reportedly seen at the barn door of Hipper Hall! Love my life. Wow.

 

Context: This story has been passed down her family for years– she has always known about the Hipper Hall ghost.

 

Background: KC’s family is very logical and scientific, to where they have so few superstitions and folk practices that it was difficult to collect form her. The fact that her entire family believes in this ghost helps make it more real for her.

 

Analysis: This was such a cool story! KC was doing research on her computer as she was telling me about the ghost, and at the end she found two articles online about this ghost in her grandparents’ house. It’s super interesting, because this is her family home, not just some random place or some famous home in Hollywood, but there is so much information done by other people on this topic that it makes it real. KC was also so skeptical about it at first, playing it off as just a family legend, but when she started doing more research and found other people who were talking about it, she became scared and even said “I can’t imagine my literal grandfather just hanging around with his ghost buddy, Mary of Scotts.”

 

Rockin, Rollin, Ridin!

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/7/18
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: KK: My mom used to sing this song to us, when we were falling asleep and stuff, and for the life of me I can’t ever figure out where it came from. She went: “Tommy’s at the engine, someone rings the bell, Sarah holds the lantern, to show that all is well, rockin rollin ridin, all along the rails, heading for morning town, many miles away.” It’s about a train, if you couldn’t tell, but I have no idea where she got that song, but she used to sing it!

 

Context: This song was sung as a lullaby when KK and her sister were young.

 

Background: KK’s mother learned this from her grandmother, who probably heard the version sung by The Seekers and turned it into a lullaby, much akin to “A Bushel and a Peck”, which is often used as lullabies as well.

 

Analysis: Turns out, upon research, this song is by The Seekers, and is called Morningtown Ride! So many people I saw said that their mother used to sing this song to them as a lullaby, so somewhere along the way this song turned into a typical lullaby. It is interesting to think about this alongside the issue of Simon and Garfunkel and their “folk” music, because even though this song was authored and created by a band and publicized, the fact that culture has taken it and turned it into a lullaby has changed it into a piece of folklore.

 

Shirin and Farhad

Nationality: Persian
Age: 22
Occupation: University Student
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 4/11/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Farsi

The following informant is a 22-year-old Persian-American women from Southern California. In this account she is describing a tale her parents and family used to tell her when she was little. This is a transcription of our conversation, she is identified as S and I am identified as K:

S: So, my name, um because it means sweet, there used to be this fairy tale in Iran, that basically every old person, in their entire life, and basically everyone has been told this story.

So basically, there was this princess and her name was Shirin, and there was a King and his name was Farhad. So basically, Shirin lived in this Castle… and… um… and she was just like this princess of like Persia. And he like… well… it’s kind of like a Rapunzel type of situation and basically Farhad came and like saved her and took her outside the castle and like gave her a new life. He was basically… he was just like her prince, but like she was the main focal point of the story as opposed to that guy. But like yeah, the story is not like too-in depth, it’s pretty short. It’s basically… just like… there is a prince and a princess and it’s like bada bing bada boom

S: But umm… yeah, my parents told me that, and basically most people who name their kids Shirin, or Shireen, will tell their children that story. It’s kind of like Rapunzel, because she is just like stuck in the castle and he like comes and saves her, but like the Persian version, haha.

K: Who is told this story?

S: Well like any Persian over the age of 45 knows it cause it’s like a children’s tale, but they always tell it to kids named Shirin

K: Do you like the story?

S: Well, yeah, because there was not a story, like growing up in America, the princesses were not named Shirin, so when I heard about a princess with my name and she was rescued by a knight in shining armor, I was like very there for it… because like yes… it was not Cinderella, aurora, or whatever the fuck and now there was finally a Shirin

K: What does it mean to you?

S: Um, I think when I was like a child, I thought that your name … actually no when I was a child I did not give a shit about that, I just thought it was so cool that I had a princess and other people didn’t. But as an adult it makes me feel better, that my name has meaning and history behind it.

Context:

The informant told this retelling while we were at a café by her school. The conversation was recorded and transcribed.

Thoughts:

First of all I love her retelling of the story, I thought it was great. But I also think that her not knowing the specifics of the story and only knowing the main ideas is okay because her take away from being told this story was that her name means something. It makes me think of the Oral-Formulaic Theory, how if she were to tell her child the story, she will probably keep the plot the same because that is what she knows, but the formulaic speech (little details) she could change up. In addition, which is what I find most interesting, is that she explained that this is a popular fairy tale, that is about a Persian princess, tell young Persian children. After doing some research, this story is actually based on a poem, which was based on a real event, of an Armenian princess named Shirin falling in love with the Kind of Persia. So, in the original story, the princess was not Persian, but to the informant its more about the name of the princess than her origins.

Here are two links to look at the original poetic version and historical version that inspired this tale. (These are not links to the absolute original version, as I don’t understand Farsi, I had difficulty procuring it):

https://www.peopleofar.com/2015/11/08/before-romeo-and-juliet-there-was-khosrow-and-shirin/

http://nazykaviani.blogspot.com/2007/08/story-of-khosrow-and-shirin-i.html

The Boy and the Devil

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 55
Occupation: Stay At Home Mother
Residence: Upland
Performance Date: 4/13/2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The following informant is a stay at home mom from Upland. Here she is telling a tale her grandmother used to tell her when she was a young girl. This is a transcription of our conversation, she is identified as KA and I am identified as K:

KA: This is a story that I heard from my grandmother, it happened in Mexico and it was about a little boy, that he was out, like in the ranch area and he had… sorry, was walking and he came across this man on a horse! And the boy asked him hey can you give me a ride? and the man said yeah I’ll give you a ride! So he got on the horse, and he started riding on the horse, and then he is talking to the man, and the man starts telling him “oh” … I don’t exactly remember, it’s been a while, but he he just… actually he did not really talk to him too much, but he started noticing that his head was changing like a horse, and his feet were dragging and his legs, well… it was the devil, it was the devil. so, the boy just jumped off and ran. So, it was kind of like, you know, he came close to the devil.

K: how old where you when you heard this story?

KA : um, i must have been maybe like 10,

K: Do you know why she was telling you the story, was there a take away?

 

KA: Well its saying that because the devil comes in different forms, he could come as anything, he could come as a friend, he could come as like you know a human being, which in the story he was like a human being, and it turned out to be the devil, because the head started to enlarge like a horse and then that is when he noticed that he got all scared and took off. and also like you don’t go with strangers you know

Context: this informant told me this tale while I was at her house, she sat down on the couch and started to tell us a story

Thoughts:

I think this is meant to be a cautionary tale, as evidenced by what KA said about don’t go with strangers. I think it could possibly be an appropriate way to address these issues with young children, without introducing them to all of the harsh realities of the world.