The informant is a high school student. She referenced a myth at her local university regarding the “Kissing Bench.” It’s said to give couples good luck if they embrace while sitting on the bench in the center of the university campus.
2. Context
“I heard this one from a friend when we were walking around the campus, actually not too long ago, probably a few months ago. They basically just said that both of their parents went here and they told them about this tradition on this bench but apparently, it can also be applied to friendships and if you hug on it you’re supposed to have good luck in your friendship too. I don’t know, it’s kind of wholesome, I like it.”
3. Analysis
This is a myth, in that, it is not subject to literal truth, but rather rooted in a playful, social commentary. It is a fun, light-hearted tradition to engage informants with the university campus and create tradition in the environment. We talked in lecture about the role of folklore in formulating tradition and how it shares culture through storytelling across generations. The Kissing Bench feels like a myth that transcends generations in that it can be applied to various points of time, and it involves a long-standing object, making it more applicable to multiple people.
The informant is a high school student. She referenced a legend from her summer camp as a kid, known as “Scary Aerie.” It was the name of an outdoor ropes course at the camp, with a legend about a girl who fell from the course into the lake below it. Her name was said to be Aerie, and legend has it– she haunted the course so that campers would hear her screams when they zip-lined over the lake.
2. Context
“Yeah Scary Aerie always freaked me out a bit because I was already afraid of the heights on the rope course and the tale they used to tell us honestly made it ten times worse.”
“I got told it my first year as a camper so I was probably seven years old or so. I don’t know, sometimes I felt like I could actually hear her screams but I might’ve just been in my head about it. Some of my friends said they would hear it and some said they didn’t so, yeah, I don’t know.”
3. Analysis
Scary Aerie is a legend, with questionable truth value located in the real world of the summer camp where it originated. It’s again, a social tool and example of folklore that bonds a community. They all share the knowledge of the legend and are impacted by it differently.
It seems a bit of a tactic to incite fear into the new members of the camp, a strategy for younger campers to have to learn their place in the community. It’s a common practice by many organizations– to inflict some hardship on new members before they can feel fully established in their new area. This seems to be the function of Scary Aerie.
The informant is a financial advisor and father. He referenced a myth called “13 Curves.” The informant told a story of a road just north of his hometown where a tragic car accident occurred over 60 years ago. The road is claimed to be haunted by the souls of those who died in the accident, with the informant saying he was warned of paranormal noises on the road as a kid.
2. Context
“I heard about this when I was a little kid. This terrified me. Sometimes I traveled on that road with my family to go see family friends of ours. I liked riding in the car through the curves during the day but at night I was terrified.”
“Always looking for ghosts in the forest on either side of the road. There was also a story that on Halloween these ghosts would travel over to my neighborhood which was scary to me.”
3. Analysis
“13 Curves” sounds like a myth dealing with natural phenomena, as most myths do. It seems like a coping strategy for a tragic event– a story the town has adopted to better understand a sad, horrific car accident that occurred in their area. Perhaps, there are noises or shadows on that road, and a logical explanation for the community to better understand the dark, eerie ambience of the area.
Given that myths are made to create meaning, and the informant was informed of this myth at a young age, perhaps also, the myth could be aimed to teach the informant a lesson. It could be intended to raise awareness for cautious driving, to learn from the accident. We learned in culture about how “our myths naturalize our culture and impact how we think.” in this scenario, the “13 Curves” myth impacts how the community approaches the road and helps them better understand a sad accident and environment of the road.
The informant is a financial advisor and father. He referenced a legend about the “Cardiff Giant” near where he grew up. He told a story about how the remains of a 10-foot-tall man were seemingly discovered by two men digging on a farm. It turns out the remains were a hoax by a scam artist, who was inspired by the idea of giants in the bible. He constructed a stone man and buried it in an area of much religious fervor. When the giant was uncovered, it became a legend about stone people that had used to live in the area, inspired by a local native tribes’ understanding of humans.
2. Context
“This one didn’t scare me but I was always interested in it. Each fall, my family would go apple picking in that area and I was always asking my dad about the giant. I found it interesting that someone would go through that length to create a hoax once I found out the giant wasn’t real.”
3. Analysis
This legend is a testament to the power of ‘belief’ in human nature, a concept we talked about in class. Legends go in hand often with what people believe– this legend represents a creator of the legend taking advantage of the human obsession with spectacle, and the desire to be engaged with anything out of the ordinary or seemingly obsurd.
This legend could be classified as a historical legend, a story about the history of a giant and its attachment to native tribes that has not been accepted as true, but is set in the real world. Through the practice of ostension, in this case, the two men digging up the giant, the legend became “true” in a way, and real to the community it involved.
For the informant, it was simply a playful legend, a chance to poke fun at the environment he was in and engage further with his community. This is representative of how legends are very social, and often a part of peer groups. It allowed the informant to socialize with his family and have a deeper understanding of his community.
Between the ages of 2-5 I lived in Bohn with my parents and sister. My grandparents, moved to live in Bohn with us. They lived a few blocks down close to the Rhine river across from the Drachenfelse. The Drachenfelse ruins where visible from their apartment window and anytime we would drive in, out and across town. When we would drive across town I would get glimpses of it on the cross streets that led up to the Rhine. When we drove out of town it was clearly visible once the buildings faded away and the same when we would return from trip out of town.
Though they were, of course, just ruins, my grandfather and father used to tell me the tales of the dragon the lived on that hill and was slain or perhaps was just slumbering on it.
The “best” was on foggy mornings. With the clouds and fog moving across it, it gave the impression of the dragon breath or steam from the fire and even more so of the dragon moving.
I remember them telling me stories about the battle with the dragon and how it was killed.
(After asked to tell the story)
Sigfried worked for a king who had a lot of treasure and at some point found out that the king was stealing and hiding all the treasure from the people. When Sigfried confronted the king he first sent a giant to kill him but Sigfried beat the giant. He then sent a dragon to kill him being sure that it would do the trick, but Sigfried defeated the dragon as well. The legend was that the dragon wasn’t killed though and could come back.
(Photo attached from linked Google street view)
Context
The informant heard this story from their father and grandfather as a kid around three to four years old. At the time, they completely believed it and never even considered that it was just a story. Their parents did not do anything to change this and let them believe it was true. They found the hill to be scary but also fascinating and said that “I wanted to look and I didn’t want to look…fascination, fear combined with awe and excitement.” They particularly remember thinking “about “what was it like when it was alive? Would it wake up?” They also said that they were too scared to climb it whenever their father and grandfather would suggest it. They didn’t specify whether they believed it now or not but from their writing, it seemed likely they didn’t anymore.
Analysis
This story is one of many that explains a natural occurrence by creating a narrative around it. This hill, Drachenfels (meaning Dragon Rock), looks like a dragon lying down and can easily be explained with a story about a legendary person who beat the dragon. Natural formations are a good storytelling tool because everyone hearing it can see the exact thing that is being referenced. This can make the story even more real to the people who are listening and possibly help to convince them of the truth.
The story is about dragons which are very common in older legends, especially in Europe which has a long list of legends about the mythical creature. The use of dragons reflects the local culture which likely already emphasized belief in dragons when this was originally told. Other areas might have chosen a different legendary creature that was more important to their culture. The character Sigfried is known as The Dragon Slayer and appears in other Germanic legends, so his inclusion in this story about a slain dragon makes sense.
The fact that the story specifies that the dragon is not dead might play a role in why this legend was told to the informant as a child. Dragons are large and scary creatures and by telling a child, who is more likely to believe the story, you warn them against going near the hill. The hill is large, forested, and dangerous so a parent could use this story to prevent a child from going there alone. The fact that it is the parents telling the child the story would influence them more than just reading it because they would be hearing it from a trusted source. The believability of this story could also be influenced by other factors such as the time of day, proximity to the hill, and, as the informant mentioned, the presence of fog that creates the illusion of smoke and movement. In the informant’s case, the story was extremely successful as they were too scared to go on the hill, even with their parents.
