Tag Archives: legend

Don’t Let the Cucuy get you

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 24
Occupation: Custodian
Residence: Riverside, CA
Performance Date: 4/21/2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

SC: Whenever me or my siblings would act up, the nearest authority figure would say, “You better calm down or I’ll call the cucuy.” This happened often in the car, and my parents would knock on the windows. (Informant knocks on the table)

“YOU HEAR THAT? THE CUCUY’S COMING!” And I’d be all “…fffff.” Y-yeah. Didn’t spook me at all. Wasn’t like I thought I actually was going to get abducted when no one was looking.

Me: What’s a cucuy?

SC: It’s basically a Mexican boogeyman. Are you asking what I thought it looked like? Probably seven feet tall, ratty moss-green fur, bloodshot yellow eyes. Craggly coffee stained teeth. Like a giant baboon that lived in a sewer all its life.

The cucuy is also sometimes called the coco in Portugal and el cuco in Latin America, and the Coco Man in Hispanic communities in the states. Its appearance is different in each culture, ranging from a pumpkin-headed ghost to an anthropomorphic alligator. This legend is referenced in the last chapter of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, in which Don Quixote is referred to by this title on his epitaph.

Green Man of Portland

Nationality: American
Age: 25
Residence: Washington / Oregon
Performance Date: May 1 2014
Primary Language: English

Informant grew up and lives in a town neighboring Portland, OR. He now often travels for work, but has and continues to spend time in the titled city when possible. He has a degree in architecture and currently works as a surveyor’s assistant. He likes British television shows, reading, and exploring Portland’s restaurants.

 

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There exists a thing called The Green Man of Portland. It is in the Old Town area, and you can buy paraphernalia of the guy.

The informant previously thought it was like the area’s own private bigfoot and never knew the full details, but the idea is that you perpetuate it yourself.

The informant recalls, “My personal story is that I came to this spot, having not known about the whole Green Man thing for quite some time, and followed the circuit telling the whole story of the Green Man down 5th and 6th Avenue. And then participated in an even smaller tradition of getting a small Green Man knick-knack and hiding it in the area so that someone later can ‘discover,’ or have a sighting of the green man.”

“You can get ‘I have seen the green man’ items, or little sculptures you can hide so others can find the green man around Portland. I have hidden one. I don’t know if someone found it, but I have to imagine they did since it was still in downtown – that’s part of the charm, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leave a memento not to be found by you, and pass it off to somebody else.”

The informant has not since found a green man that others have hidden.

 

After checking up on the story, the informant found this description:

The legend goes like this: ever since Portland’s founding there have been sightings of small green archers. Whenever the archer hits someone her vision changes: flowers grow from the heads of passerby, a building called “The Greenwood” appears where there was no building before, and a giant tree towers over the city. On certain nights a great white celestial stag is spied in the skies over Portland. The piece has two components. There are two sculpture and eight “story markers” told as a poem over ten blocks of Old Town and Chinatown. The images in the panels combine the visual language of seventies horror comics and WPA posters. Pedestrians and riders come upon the story in fragments based on their routes through the neighborhood. The neighborhood has a layered, rich history. The legend encompasses all the varied, transitory communities that call that neighborhood home.

 

And here is a picture of the Green Man sculpture that the informant went to see:

 

 

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Upon further investigation, this shows to be a piece of fakelore – the conception of the story and the placing of the markers downtown is somewhat recent and by a particular artist. But it is working its way into the local folklore – the markers are becoming places of interest, and there is a built tradition of a form of hide-and-maybe-seek (with these objects) that visitors can participate in. Based on the kind of community that exists in Portland, I’m guessing there are already people who like to believe in the story at least a little bit. It fits in well with the eco-conscious attitude of the area.

Don’t Pluck the Red Lehua Blossom

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/24/14
Primary Language: English

This informant is Hawaiian and a freshman student at USC.  I asked him for any traditional Hawaiian stories and he gave me this story:

The Ohia tree is often the first plant to grow on new lava flows, but don’t ever pick its red Lehua blossom because both the tree and flower are rooted in Hawaiian legend. Ohia and Lehua were young lovers, he a handsome trickster and she the most beautiful and gentle girl on the island. But, one day Pele came across Ohia and wanted him for herself. When he refused her, she turned him into a twisted, ugly tree. Pele ignored Lehua’s pleas to change him back, but the other gods felt sorry for the young girl. They couldn’t reverse Pele’s magic, but they did turn Lehua into a beautiful red flower and placed her on the tree so that the two young lovers would never again be apart. It is said that as long as the flowers remain on the tree, the weather is sunny and fair. But when a flower is plucked from the tree, rain falls like tears since Lehua still cannot bear to be separated from her beloved husband Ohia.

After a few follow-up questions I figured out that Pele is the God of Fire, who has a short temper. The story didn’t really teach a lesson but it does exemplify how much emphasis the Hawaiian culture places on nature and the environment.

The Warrior and the Hawk

Nationality: USA
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/16/14
Primary Language: English

My dialogue with this informant started right after I finished collecting from another informant.  He was insistent that he had a story his dad had told him a few times when he was younger, and for some reason he always remembered it.  The informant is a freshman at USC and grew up in Southern California. This is what he told me.

Alright, so the story started out with this great warrior that had just finished a long and gruesome battle.  He was tired, hungry, and thirsty and wanted to get home as quickly as possible so he decided to separate from the group and take his own way home because he new the land very well.  But the warrior wasn’t traveling alone because he had his hawk with him that traveled with him everywhere.  After walking for a while the warrior found a stream and decided to stop and take a drink because he was so thirsty.  But the stream was moving super slow so the warrior could only get one drop at a time.  While the warrior was waiting to fill his cup his hawk flew above him, probably looking for prey.  Finally the warrior filled his cup, but as he raised it to his mouth his hawk swooped down and knocked it from his grasp.  This happened a second time and the warrior was so pissed he drew his sword and threatened to kill the hawk if it spilled his water again.  A third time the hawk knocked the cup free, only to be struck down and killed immediately by its master.  The warrior was so impatient, he decided to climb the rock and find the water source.  When he finally reached the top, he saw a poisonous snake lying dead in the water.  He realized that he had killed his best friend, when the hawk was only trying to save his life.  From then on he would never act out of rage.

After hearing this story I felt like I recognized it but couldn’t quite pin point where from.  I thought it was interesting that the number three showed up, which is so common in children stories.  Unfortunately the informant had no idea where his dad had heard it from so the origin is tough to trace.  However I did do a search online and found pretty much the exact same story but with Genghis Khan so maybe it originated there, or at least we know its at least that old.

Here is the link: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=baldwin&book=fifty&story=king

Legend of Lowenherz

Nationality: Austrian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 29, 2014
Primary Language: German
Language: English

Context:

I was talking with my Austrian roommate about national legends when she offered me this one, a piece of her friend’s hometown’s legendary history.

 

Legend:

Another Austrian legend that I know is one that is based in my friend’s hometown, which was once the last town to be occupied by Turkey. This fact is a very big part of her town’s history. They have signs and everything, as they were the only ones left standing during the Turkish invasion and occupation. And I remember this story. There was a king named Lowenerz, who was caught by someone and thrown in prison. Lowenherz began to sing a song that he used to sing with his friend. Lowenherz’s friend walked and walked and walked until he finally heard Lowenherz’s singing the song they always sang together, and rescued Lowenherz.

 

Analysis:

I did a bit of research, and found that the translation of Lowenherz is “Lionheart.” I was quite surprised when I found out that Lowenherz most likely referred to King Richard the Lionheart, the English King who went on the Crusades during the 12th century. Digging into his life, I found out that the Lionheart was imprisoned in Austria where he wrote a song that detailed his feelings on his capture. He was essentially ransomed by the European royalty to his brother King John. I find it interesting how the historical account of what happened to the Lionheart became changed, twisted, through the retellings of the story. Historically, the Austrians were the “bad guys” per se, the ones who had captured Lionheart and held him captive, but in my roommate’s version of the story, it is the Turkish who are the bad guys who captured Lionheart. To me, this shows how legends and stories can be created from factual events, of how the times changed. Lionheart was, while not overtly antagonistic of Leopold V, who was from Austria’s first ruling dynasty, was not exactly buddy-buddy with him either, and this story shows how the same story, simply told from a different tellers’ viewpoints,  can be twisted by the tellers into showing the teller’s people as being in the good, while another’s viewpoint shows them in the bad.