Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

The Brooks Mansion Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Boston, MA
Performance Date: 3/15/17
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s comments are denoted through initials JK, while the interviewee’s responses are denoted through initials MJ.

 

JK:  Got any stories weird stories from your past growing up in the suburbs around Boston?

 

MJ:  Yea I’m from a town called Winchester about ten minutes north of the city.  I live across the street from these woods called the Brooks Parkhurst Forest.  So, there’s an old mansion called the “Brooks Mansion” in the middle of the forest close to this pond.  Apparently it was built at some point in the late 1800s.  The town tried to restore it and turn it into this kind of landmark at some point over the last 20 years, but people didn’t keep it in good shape and… so it kinda fell into ruin.  Anyway, me and some of my buddies had always heard it was haunted by the ghost of the lady that owned the house and died there sometime in the early 1900s.  Now, being normal people, ya know, we all thought this was bullshit….  We did not believe in ghosts.  In the past, I’d walked by the house with my dad.. but I’d never gone inside.  I’d heard stories about other kids going there to drink, but that was pretty much it.

 

JK:  Was there specific kind of story that you had heard about this ghost?

 

MJ:  Yea, a couple kids who were a few grades ahead of us told us they went in the house one night in the early fall.. had heard a bunch of weird noises, got freaked out, and left.  They mentioned they had heard the front door slam while they were upstairs in the mansion, and that made them freak and run out one of the back doors.  I told them it was probably the wind, but they all said it was a super calm night with no breeze at all.  So anyway, like a year later, me and two of my friends are smoking a spliff out in the woods and we start talking about the mansion and how some people think it has a ghost.  We all decide to take the 10-15 minute walk through the woods to get to it.  It was a mid September night, probably around 60 degrees– and get this– no wind.  Like none.  It was a wicked nice night, that’s why we were out there smoking in the first place.  So basically, we get to the mansion, open the front door and roll inside.  At this point we were definitely all a little high, but no one was stoned.  The inside was pretty run down.  The floors creaked, the walls were a mess.  A lot of windows broken, some graffiti on the walls.  It was all typical abandoned house stuff.  So we walk around taking it all in and head up stairs.  As soon as we get to the top we hear this noise that sounds exactly like wind blowing through an empty house…. But there’s no wind at all.  The night is dead still.  We look outside and none of the trees are blowing around.  This starts to get us scared.  Maybe we were higher than we thought.  After like 15 seconds of this, we hear the door slam, like loudly slam, beneath us.  We all let out a couple swears and bolt down the stairs and out one of the back doors.  Freaky stuff.  I’ve never gone back in the house.

 

Conclusion:

This sounded like a classic old haunted house story:  old lady dies in her mansion and then her spirit stands guard over it for the rest of time.  When I asked the kid if he now believes in ghosts, he said, “Uh well before I didn’t but now I don’t really know what to think.  Maybe I was higher than I thought, but that door definitely slammed and there was no wind– or other people around– to do it.  Definitely makes you think.”  From this response, it is clear the interviewee is still unsure about the existence of the supernatural, but– if I had to bet– I would say he is slightly leaning towards believing in ghosts.  

 

The Beaver, the Duck, and the Frog

Nationality: African American
Age: 6
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/17/17
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s comments are denoted through initials GM, while the interviewee’s responses are denoted by a PO.

PO: “One time my Grandma told me this funny story. It’s this beaver that is a friend of a duck and this frog that’s a bully… it’s this poisonous frog that’s a bully. And then the frog says he’s more than the duck and beaver because the beaver has stick out teeth.”

GM: “Buck teeth?”

PO: “Yeah, like that. And then the frog says ‘Oh yeah, look at me I don’t have buck teeth like you.” And then the duck says, ‘Hey, stop being a bully.’ And then this day, the beaver was at school and he didn’t have any friends at school because his buck teeth keeps sticking out more and more and keeps growing every day and night. And so, it was all the way down and he could walk with his teeth.”

GM: “So was the beaver still friends with the duck?”

PO: “Yeah, because the duck doesn’t care about teeth. He just cares about friends, cause the duck doesn’t have friends like beaver. So, the frog was keep on making fun of the beaver’s teeth and then, um… how can I say this. There’s this pig that has a spirit… it’s like god that takes care of the children because the children don’t have a mom or dad because they come out of eggs. So, the poisonous frog then had teeth sticking out and the beaver had more normal size teeth.”

GM: “So who made the frog have big teeth?”

PO: “Um, the spirit pig. And so the frog had more teeth sticking out, so the frog turned into a beaver and the beaver turned into a frog. The duck saw the frog that turned into a beaver and thought that was his friend. And the beaver that turned into the frog was like, ‘No I’m your friend!’ And the duck said, ‘If you were my friend you would look like beaver.’ And he said ‘No but I turned into a frog!’

GM: “So how did the story end?”

PO: “So they were arguing and the frog was nice and the beaver was mean. So, they just changed.”
Conclusion, written by the interviewer:

This story was told by second grader, _____, who heard it from her grandmother. The story is not literal, but has an underlying meaning. The frog symbolizes a bully that a child may encounter in school, while the beaver has a physical feature which makes him insecure. The duck stands by the beaver even though the beaver isn’t popular, showing an act of goodwill. The story ends with oppressed beaver’s teeth becoming “normal,” while the frog inherits the beaver’s buck teeth. The lesson value here is directed for a child audience. It relates themes of kindness to success, while intimidation is linked with defeat.

How the Tortoise Got Its Cracked Shell

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 20, 2017
Primary Language: English

Interviewee:

“There is a lot of animal folklore in Nigeria. I used to hear this one story all the time when I was little. It goes like this:

There was once a great drought in all the land. So the animals gathered to try and make a plan. It was decided that the tortoise, due to his charm and manner of speaking, would fly up to heaven with the birds in order to bring food down. As he flew, he told the birds that at such times it is important to change your name. So he told them his name was “all of you.” They got to heaven (and the feast) and God said the food was for “all of you.” The tortoise gorged himself. The birds got mad and left, but the tortoise begged them to tell his wife to put soft things by his house so that he could jump and fall from heaven safely. The birds told his wife the opposite and the tortoise jumped and broke his shell.

I’ve heard that one a million times. There are many Nigerian folktales about the cunning tortoise.”

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This story reminds me of many tales that revolve around how an animal or other natural phenomenon came to be. It is a way of explaining the world around us before science or other explanations came about to replace tales. The cunning tortoise is a recurring character in Nigerian folklore, representing craftiness and outsmarting others, often at his own expense.

The Young Man with the Small House

Nationality: Israeli
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Scottsdale, AZ
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

Shir Attias: So there’s this young man and he has a family and he has four kids and they live in this tiny little hut, err like a house, it’s like a small house and the man has all these kids in this very small house and he’s crowded and unhappy that he lives in such a small house so he goes to the old wise man and he tells him like pray to God for me, I need your prayers so that God will give me a bigger house and the wise man says, “Okay but do this first” and he says, “ take two goats and put them in your house” and the wise, err the young man thinks he’s like batshit crazy but he’s like “okay” and he like takes the two goats and puts them in his house so then a week passes, the house didn’t get any bigger. He goes back to the wise man, he’s like “It’s not getting any bigger and now there’s goat shit everywhere” he’s like “okay now take five rabbits put them in the house” so he goes back and he puts the five rabbits in his house and nothing changes and it’s only getting more crowded and there’s all these bunnies running around, the kids are so excited with the bunnies, and na na na, and he goes back to the wise man and this continues and the wise man tells him to put three cows in his house and he puts the cows in his house and then he tells him to put, to bring in more kids and host a party for everyone and he keeps telling him to bring more and more and more into the house and eventually one day the young man goes to the old wise man and he’s like “MY HOUSE IS SO SMALL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOUR PRAYERS AREN’T WORKING?!” and he says, “Okay alright now take everything I told you to put in your house and take it all out. So he goes back and he takes out the goats and the rabbits and the cows and everything and then he looks and he goes “OH MY GOODNESS, MY HOUSE IS SO BIG!” and he goes to the wise man and he’s like “OH IT’S SUCH A BIG HOUSE, what have you done, it’s a miracle you have performed, your prayers have worked!” And the young man is happy with all his children and that’s the end of the story.

Shir learned this story from her grandfather, who used to tell this tale to her when she was little and would complain about having a small bedroom. Shir’s grandfather is from Israel which is where her grandfather likely learned the story in the first place. The purpose of the tale was to make the listener feel grateful for what they had no matter how small their living space was. Shir performed this story in our room while she and  a friend were sharing some Jewish folk tales with me. I thought this peace was interesting. It was very simple and easy to understand. I felt like the animals in the story could have been replaced with anything that took up space in the house, and the message still would have come across.

The Woodsman’s Hatchet

Nationality: Korea
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/19/2017
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Subject:

Korean Fairy Tale

Informant:

Kyujin Sohn was born in Korea but moved to the United States as a young child. The majority of his family is from Korea, and many of them still live there. Although he has spent most of his life in the US, he has visited Korea often and identifies closely with Korean culture.

Original Script:

Essentially there’s a, there’s a… woodsman, and woodsmen in Korea are for some reason, like very traditionally like characterized as very pious people, like they work hard and like they’ll like, do the most to like get buy and survive, but, like they’ll never steal from people and they won’t do like bad – it’s just like, it’s this characterization that exists. But essentially this man was working, this woodsman was cutting down some tinder because he has to sell the wood so that people can have wood to burn flames with, right? Because it’s going to be winter soon. But anyway, he’s working next to a lake, and he accidentally tosses, like, the hatchet, and it falls into the lake. And this happened, this particular lake is imbued with like a spirit, so the spirit comes up, and he says ‘I think you dropped something.’ And he’s like ‘Yes I dropped my hatchet.’ So the spirit goes down, and comes up with a silver hatchet, and says ‘Is this your hatchet?’ and the woodsman says ‘no that is not my hatchet.’ And so the spirit says ‘Okay’ and so he goes down again, and brings up a gold hatchet, and he says ‘is this your hatchet?’ and so the woodsman says ‘no that’s not my hatchet, my hatchet is just a wood and iron hatchet.’ So the spirit goes down and brings up the actual hatchet and he says ‘Is this your hatchet?’ and the woodsman says ‘yes.’ And the spirit is confused because he’s like ‘I offered you a better hatchet, a more expensive hatchet, that you could have easily sold, and lived the rest of your life happily with.’ Right? Like a golden hatchet, that thing must weigh plenty, right? And so he’s like ‘why did not take the golden hatchet?’ and he was like, ‘because it’s not mine to take.’ And so the spirit, being so impressed with the piety of this man, gives him all three hatchets. Now the woodsman’s brother, who is a farmer, hears about this story, and wants his brother’s success so he goes into the woods, and intentionally drops the hatchet. But he doesn’t realize that, like, the reason that he got all three hatchets is because he chose not to take any of the hatchet. And so when the spirit comes up and provides the same test, he denies the silver one, but he accepts the gold one. And so, the spirit being angry at the greed of the man, curses him, and blinds him.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

It was the first Korean Story that kyujin ever learned. He learned it as a young boy from his grandmother on a visit to Korea.

Thoughts About the Piece:

Kyujin mentioned in the script that woodsmen are typically seen as very good, honest people in Korean culture. However, Kyujin’s grandma (who he learned it from) was a farmer, so I don’t believe that farmers are perceived as dishonest people. I would imagine that the farmer just represents the Korean average Joe, and so the story holds this moral lesson about how anybody could be tempted by such a trial, and that they could be punished for letting their greed make decisions for them.