Norwegian Dessert and Prayer

Text: The one thing I can think of really is Lefsa. We always eat it with my Norwegian grandparents on holidays, like Christmastime. It’s like a dessert, like a more bitter tortilla and you put butter and sugar in it. Sometimes we make it, if we have time, but it takes a very long time to bake. You can buy it too. I never found a Swedish or Norwegian market in Atlanta, but most of my family we celebrate holidays with lives in Minnesota which is like where most of the Scandinavian population in the US lives. And there’s this famous Norwegian prayer my grandparents will always say on Christmas or other holidays before we eat it. It’s called I Jesu Navn.

Context: K grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, but currently attends USC. She is 22 years old, was raised Catholic, and her parents are of Scandinavian descent. The prayer K mentions, I Jesu Navn, translates to “In the name of the Lord” in English. I was able to find a version of the prayer online,

I Jesu navn går vi til bords

Spise og drikke på ditt ord

Deg Gud til ære oss til gavn

Så får vi mat i Jesu navn.

In the name of the Lord we sit down at the table 

To eat and to drink by the power of your blessing

In honor of the Lord, so we may prosper

We receive our food in the name of the Lord.

Analysis: Lefsa is a traditional Norwegian food usually made with potatoes, water, flour, salt and served with butter and sugar. It’s reminiscent of traditional flatbreads found in other cultures like tortillas as K compares them to, Greek pita bread, or Kenyan japati. It is interesting to see that there can be different oikotypes of food just like there can be with other folklore. It’s also interesting that K associates the prayer I Jesu Navn with holidays, given that it’s a simple table prayer, and could be said everyday. This is likely because K sees her grandparents most often on holidays and this is when they make the most effort to emphasize their culture. Something that might be considered a part of day-to-day life in Norway becomes a holiday tradition in the context of a new country.

Miracle Fountain

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

Text: “I don’t have a ton of specifics about what he was suffering from, but there was a kid in my class who had some rare leg-bone condition and he had to have surgery to walk. They thought he was going to die and he had leg casts for two years, and he went to this like font of naturally occurring holy water in Mexico. I don’t exactly know where it was, but he went there and went to mass and had a priest bless him and like fine now. He’s cured.”

Context: S is currently a twenty-year old student at USC. She grew up in Orange County, California and attended private, Catholic school for her education. 

Analysis: Water as a healing source is a common belief in many different cultures. In S myth it seems that the water is providing a contagious magic, and that by having proximity to the water or touching it, her classmate was able to be cured. In Mexico there are a few different fonts or fountains which S could be referring to, one is described in this LA Times Story: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-06-27-mn-838-story.html. Healing fountains are often located near or in connection to the Roman Catholic Church for example the In the 18th century it wasn’t uncommon for doctors to prescribe “going to the sea” as a cure for patients with various ailments. This article by the Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/the-historic-healing-power-of-the-beach/279175/, provides context about how proximity to water alone has been prescribed in many different medical capacities. S myth also relates to the story of the fountain of youth which dates back to the 5th century B.C. and is thought to provide eternal youth to anyone who drinks from it. However, maybe more applicable S’ myth is the healing power of water in the Bible. The Christian ritual of baptism is thought to cleanse “original sin.” Also, the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-14, in which a leper is healed in the Jordan waters.

Ghost of a Nun

Text: “Okay so, I went to an all-girls Catholic school that was apparently extremely haunted. I went to middle school there as well, and the middle school was on the third floor of this Catholic school and it used to be the old boarding school and the dorms used to be upstairs. The third floor is right next to the belltower. So, there’s this story that there was this nun in the 1900s who got pregnant, and because obviously when you’re a nun you’re not allowed to be pregnant, she jumped off the belltower. People would say they could see her shadow in the belltower at night and there were several girls who also saw another ghost who used to go to the school, and several people reported seeing penny loafers that just disappeared underneath the stall in the girl’s third floor bathroom.”

Context: A school in El Paso, Texas, but both her parents are Mexican and she grew up spending time in both El Paso and Mexico. She was raised Catholic and speaks both Spanish and English.

Analysis: A’s ghost story might be meant to serve as a cautionary tale for the young and impressionable girls that attended A’s school. Catholicism often preaches very strict views on homosexuality and female sexuality, specifically celebrating women who choose to wait until marriage to have sex. Catholic nuns and priests are thought to be in a covenant with God and when they take their vows become celibate. A’s school ghost did not follow her vows and faced the consequences. Moreover, those who commit suicide cannot technically be buried in a Catholic graveyard with their family where the land has been blessed by a priest. Therefore the nun in becoming pregnant set her fate, and in her suicide permanently separated herself from God, so she suffers in the form of a ghost. Ghosts are primarily outside of the canon of Catholicism, although it is common in many churches to light a candle for your ancestors or in the earlier days of the Catholic church to tithe or donate money in order to reduce your ancestors time in purgatory for your sins. 

The Legend of Stoggoty Stu

Text: “This is called the legend of Stoggoty Stu, that’s literally what they call it. Every year my family for like the past three, four generations has gone to New Hampshire. We like to own the cabins on one part of the lake and then people on the houses on the other part of the lake. There was this myth that Charlie and this man named Stoggoty Stu were best friends. Stoggoty Stu lived across the lake and Charlie lived in the cabins where we were. We play volleyball every single night from like 10pm-1am there. Charlie would blow this huge horn and scream volleyball across the lake and then families, including Stoggoty Stu would come to play volleyball. Stoggoty Stu and Charli have passed on now because it’s been so many generations, but we still play volleyball and we don’t call across the lake, but everyone comes like when they know. And so, the myth is that after we all play volleyball and everyone is getting hammered, good vibes all around everyone goes to the lake to jump in. Everyone pretends if they’re drunk enough or if you believe it that you can hear Stoggoty Stu calling back across the lake especially when it’s windy and dark and foggy. Specifically at 12:12 when we all jump in.”

Context: M is nineteen years old and grew up in Seattle, Washington. She’s currently a Business major at USC. She says that she grew up hearing the Legend of Stoggy Stu, and her family and friends still tell it today. 

Analysis: Stoggoty Stu’s location and nature are both interesting in this story. Those who interact with ghosts are typically witnesses or victims, in this case M’s family is witnesses. Ghosts also often appear at a changing of location or ownership, in this case the ownership of the lake house is changing hands from one generation to the next. Stoggoty Stu is stationary, M says her family doesn’t tell or follow the legend when they are at home in Seattle, but rather when they enter the separate space of the lake property. Stoggoty Stu could also be considered an ancestral spirit, connecting M’s family to the property. By continuing to call for his friend to come play volleyball, Stoggoty Stu is expressing a desire for M and her family to stay connected to their community. M’s family’s imitation of his call, having their friend’s for volleyball every night, could be considered quasi-homeopathic ritual magic perhaps to bring back the spirit of the good times Stoggoty Stu represents.

Slenderman

Text: “Well we were all scared of Slenderman. Slenderman is a really really tall slender man, and when we were younger whenever kids were like especially malicious– so not if you were talking back to your dad or something, but like if you were severely bullying a friend. Then there would be an incident where you would be “slendermanned” and everyone knew that he was not real kind of, but like kids would make up other stories to tell kids he was real. Anytime that there’s like a sus murder in the news and no one could figure out what it was most people would just say it was him [slenderman]. It all started in 2014 I think when there was another kid who almost stabbed a 12 year old kid to death. Slenderman like he doesn’t kill you, but he gets someone else to do it for him pretty much. When slenderman is around you have this type of feeling, and you get really paranoid and you can’t get rid of him. We talked about that from a very young age as kids, like we were walking around talking about that. The whole idea was like the original kid that killed the girl was possessed like would do anything for slenderman. Anytime someone does something unexplainable like setting their house on fire or suicides all of that goes back to slenderman. There’s also the idea that he has a daughter and her name is skinny Sally, but I don’t know anything about that really.”

Context: M is a twenty one year old student who grew up in Chicago and went to school on the Southside. She currently attends USC, and says she doesn’t as frequently hear references to the story above anymore, but believes that’s more due to age than location. 
Analysis: I had heard of Slenderman before talking to M, but never any of the background on him or why he was considered so terrifying. Before researching, both M and myself were unaware that the story of Slenderman originated on the internet. He’s usually represented as M and his name describes: a tall, skinny man, but also as a faceless shadowy figure. Slenderman first surfaced in 2009 when he was posted under a photoshop contest thread. Since his inception countless threads and communities online surfaced building upon the original narrative into several different horror stories. Transferred from site to site there is no canon, or singular correct version of Slenderman instead there’s multiplicity and variation. Slenderman’s evolution continues today, and was adapted into a 2018 film. The folkloric quality of Slenderman is well documented and has been researched by Andrew Peck who considers its popularity to be due to its “collaborative nature.” Still in spite of this “collaborative nature” Slenderman has been copyrighted by Eric Knudsen the 2009 poster of the images that inspired the narrative.