Text: Below is the performance describing the Brazilian Headless Mule legend.

Interviewer: Do you have any stories of legendary figures?

Interviewee: Yeah, so in Brazil we have, uh, I used to be really, like deathly scared of this one mythological creature, in Portuguese the name is Mula sem Cabeca. In English, it, uh, the Headless Mule, and it’s basically a mule, headless mule, but in the place of its head, it’s, uh, it’s like a bunch of flames. So, uh, when I used to, when someone read to me that story and showed me, like, a picture, I was like always scared of, like, going to my Grandmother’s farm, where there were like horses and stuff, so I was just, like, very scared of horses, but, uh, it’s like a cool little Folklore. I don’t know the story behind it, but I think there is, like, an origin story.

Context:

The interviewee is a 22 year-old college student who grew up in São Paulo, Brazil. At first he could not recall any legends from his childhood, and then he remembered the figure above. He learned about the legend from a family member reading him a story about the figure from a children’s book.

Analysis:

This mythical creature exemplifies how folklore interacts with published media. The widespread Brazilian folkloric legend of the Headless Mule was incorporated by a children’s book publisher as a folklorism, which helped further disseminate the story. The interviewee’s own life experience affected how he interacted with the legend, as growing up around a farm made him worry that this legendary animal might attack him around his grandmother’s farm animals. The legend of the Headless Mule is a clear example of the frightening effect of the uncanny. The familiar sight of farm animals was made scary by its alteration. This folkloric belief is similar to that of the evil headless horseman, but this time, it is the evil farm animal that is headless, not its rider, showcasing how across cultures, headless entities are folk figures of horror.