Scary Aerie

Age: 17

Date of Performance: 4/01/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: United States

  1. Text

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.

13 Curves

Age: 50

Date of Performance: 3/31/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Financial Advisor

Primary Language: English

Residence: United States

  1. Text

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.

Cardiff Giant

Age: 50

Date of Performance: 3/31/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Financial Advisor

Primary Language: English

Residence: United States

  1. Text

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.

Drachenfelse – Legend

Nationality: Israeli/American
Age: 51
Occupation: Startup CEO
Residence: Bellevue, Washington
Language: English

Text

(Sent in an email)

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.

High School Theater Ghost – Legend

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Huntington Beach, California
Language: English

Text

Informant: So George was a student at Huntington Beach High and he was in the acting program and he was dating this girl, she was also in the acting program. And they were going to audition to be in Romeo and Juliet together. She got Juliet, he didn’t get Romeo, another guy got Romeo.

Me: What did he get though?

Informant: I don’t think he got in (laughter from Informant, me, and other person in the room)

Informant: What a loser. But um, anyway, so his girlfriend and this guy, they fell in love, and she broke up with George. So George (small laugh) hung himself in the theater and he became the ghost of the theater and so if you don’t put the ghost light out, he is going to come get you. Also he lives in the basement where all the props are so if you want to go get a prop, you have to have all the lights on and you’re going to hear… or OR George is going to take you away. AND we have a noose hanging (laughter) from the top of our theater backstage (more laughter) to commemorate him.

Me: Okay, okay, so, what would he do to you?

Informant: He would snatch you! (laughter)

Me: He would snatch you?

Other Person: He’d just grab you?

Informant: People would just talk about, like, “Beware of George” and that’s really it, not like, the specifics of what he was going to do to you, you know?

Me: Did you ever, like, try to find him?

Informant: No, but my friend, (NAME), said… oh my god, my friend (NAME) was convinced she looked like his ex-girlfriend, because these were real people.

Me: Right.

Informant: So she apparently thinks she looks like the girl and that George was like, George is always with her so whenever she goes to the basement alone, she always says that he’s right behind her like she can feel him… it’s like “okay girl.”

Me: Okay so you don’t believe her stories.

Informant: No, I don’t…but, like, it is kinda spooky in there without the ghost light because it’s a huge theater.

Context

The informant went to Huntington Beach High School in the early 2020s and heard this story from other students while going there. They were in the theater program and sharing this legend was mostly among theater students rather than the whole high school. The informant says that they never believed in the ghost or their friend’s story but they do believe that it is based on real people who existed. The informant added that there was also a ritual associated where everyone in the show would sign a playbill (booklet given at theater performances to give the audience some information about the show and cast as well as act as a place to put advertisements). This playbill was then thrown up into the ceiling and the idea was to appease George so that he would not ruin the show. The informant engaged in this tradition butt did it for the community bonding and fun part instead of actually believing in its power.

Analysis

Theater are a common place to find ghosts due to the way they are used. Theaters are spaces where a person doesn’t act like themselves and where death is commonly simulated. They are a liminal space where the boundary between reality and imaginary is pushed and the proscenium (frame around the stage that separates it from the audience) acts as the portal into a new world. This portal could just as well be a portal into a plane where ghosts exist. Furthermore, theaters are also the location of a lot of actual deaths due to many fires that destroyed theaters and killed thousands throughout history. All of these aspects of theater taken together make it a prime location for ghostly hauntings.

This story uses the idea that the theater is a place with lots of death and even follows the story of the play that was being put on. Romeo and Juliet is about two lovers that kill themselves when they can’t be together, directly reflected in the story as George (Romeo in this version) kills himself but his ex-girlfriend (the Juliet) does not follow suit. This results in George being left with unfinished business and the need to haunt the theater program that lead to his demise.

Theater ghost stories usually have a connection to that stage’s ghost light. This light is placed on stage at any time when the theater is dark and there isn’t a performance happening. There are two reasons that are commonly given for this. One is about ghosts and the idea that the ghost light is meant to appease or block any ghosts in the space. The second is likely more true and that is for safety. The stage can be very dangerous when dark and the ghost light provides a small amount of light that helps a person stay safer while navigating it. This story is an explanation for why the stage needs the ghost light. Although it is only a small portion of the story, the informant says that “if you don’t put the ghost light out, he’s going to get you.” This story plays into the ghost explanation but also works as a way to remind high schoolers to put out the safety device at the end of the show. High schoolers might not remember to turn on the ghost light given that, for many of them, this is their first time doing theater with more responsibility. The story can help them to remember to put it out at the end of a performance because it threatens consequences if they forget.

The ritualistic signing and throwing of the playbill first acts as community bonding between the whole cast and crew of a production before opening night (the first time the show has an audience). Secondly, it is a place where this story can be told to new students in the program as they engage in the act and story all together. This quickly brings any new student into the culture of the theater program by directly showing them the stories and rules of the group. Knowing this story becomes a sign of induction into the program as a whole.

Although the informant says they don’t believe in the story, they do believe in the existence of the people within it. These people may or may not have existed but because of the informant’s connection to the school and story, they might be more inclined to believe in part of it. Even if someone doesn’t believe in ghosts, they might find other parts of the legend that they think are more believable, like that these people were real at one point and the story was created around them. They might also engage in the rituals associated with the stories without the belief in their power such as signing and throwing the playbill even though they don’t believe George exists. The ritualized behavior still allows them to feel the connection to others without needing to change their beliefs to include ghosts.

The ritual resulting in a good show without any disasters is significant. Thespians can imagine nothing worse than their show going wrong or things breaking. Even if a person doesn’t believe that a ghost is the one doing the show harm, they would still take any luck they can get in preventing mistakes. If a person didn’t engage in the behavior and something did go wrong, they would be blamed because they didn’t do the ritual. This makes people who might not believe in any part of the story (ghost or luck) still engage in the ritual to excuse themselves from any fault.