Tag Archives: Monster

La Patasola

AGE: 21

Date_of_performance: April 10, 2025

Language: English

Nationality: Colombian

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: New York

Context: The story of La Patasola is a Colombian legend about this very beautiful woman who cries out for help at first, but if a man approaches she transforms into a creature with one leg and long claws, attacking them and eating them. Some say she used to be a beautiful woman that cheated on her husband and had her leg chopped off. Now, she targets men who are not loyal to their wives. L first heard this story from his cousin, who talked about the importance of faithfulness. L interprets it as a cautionary tale to not cheat on your partner.

Text: 

Interviewer is I. Subject is L.

I: What other legends have you heard?

L: My cousin told me the story of La Patasola, which is just a woman who turns into a monster and attacks men

I: Why does she do that?

L: I think it’s because she was killed for being unfaithful. But now she targets men who are trying to cheat apparently

I: What do you think the significance of the story is?

L: To be honest I don’t think it’s too deep aside from just telling people to stay loyal

Analysis:

The story of La Patasola does not seem as ambiguous of that of Urashimataro. It seems pretty straight-forward, she targets men who’ve cheat on their wives or any man that harms a woman. In a society where there is a lot of cheating and hook-up culture, I believe maybe some people should be reminded of La Patasola, and the dangers of cheating!

“Ogopogo”, Lake Monster in Lake Okanagan

Age: 19

Text

According to the story, there is a lake monster named Ogopogo in Lake Okanagan, with a snake-like or draconic form similar to that of the Loch Ness monster.

Context

According to the informant, Ogopogo is a well-known monster in Canadian folklore. It has become a mascot of the region, with merchandise depicting the creature on souvenir shirts and other memorabilia.

Learned from a tour guide during a tour to the UBC Okanagan campus near Kelowna.

Analysis

Due to the lack of information I had to work with for this legend, its exact origins are unclear. I have two theories.

The first theory is that this monster was fabricated solely to attract tourist attention to the region, inspired by the popularity of the Loch Ness monster. If this is true, Ogopogo would be defined as fakelore.

It is also possible that Ogopogo dates back to legends spread by the Native people of the region, and the similarity to stories of the Loch Ness Monster is either coincidence or a sign of folklorismus as a result of outside influence and marketing.

Reach Out and Grab ‘ya!

Nationality: American

Age: 19

Occupation: Retail

Residence: Raymore, MO

Performance Date: November 30, 2024

Primary Language: English

Language: English

MAIN DESCRIPTION

Q: “When’s a time you felt different? Outside of the ordinary? A strange occurrence?”

A: “When I was a kid, you know this already, that area right in front of the stairs. I’d get that feeling, almost like sleep paralysis, y’know? Like, um, where you can feel you’re awake but can’t move. I used to run by the stairs and something would reach out and grab me. I was a kid, I think it was nothing. But, y’know when you look up at a popcorn ceiling and can see pictures? When I looked at the carpet, in the shadows and all, I felt like I could see things. Figures and hands. And I could feel the hallway getting longer and pulling me in.”

INFORMANT’S OPINION

Q: “So, as you said, you don’t believe this was anything more than a dream?”

A: “I doubt it. I mean, it’s unsettling now but like, I was also a kid.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION

When analyzing his story, sleep paralysis seems most likely. Especially since he named it. Seeing things when he was awake could have just been the fear following the dreams. I suppose they could also have been some sort of sign the dreams were valid and there was danger near. An angry spirit would make sense, but isn’t a home-run conclusion because he grew out of these occurrences. The spirit could be unique to a child’s eyes. Regardless, he can’t say for sure whether it was a dream. The undecided nature of his response reveals the mystery and the possibility that this could be an angry spirit. However, spirits like this don’t just disappear unless something is done to them. So it feels unlikely he’d randomly stop experiencing paranormal activity and strange dreams forever while living in the same house to this day.

Beware The Douen

Douen are mythical creatures with backwards feet that live in the forest and are supposedly the lost souls of children. If a Douen learns a child’s name they are able to call out to the child in their parents voices to lure them into the forest. The backwards footprints confuse both the children and anyone looking for the children. The children are never seen again.

The informant told me this story while we were talking about working in the entertainment industry. C told me that he loved the industry because of its diversity and community. I originally asked about the folklore of the industry but once I said the word “folklore” his face lit up and he told me this story. While working on the show “Saint X”, one of the Dominican crew members told him this legend of the Douen. It stuck with C because of the physical description of the creature, with the backwards feet.

The Douen, although not well known in America, is a piece of Caribbean folklore that seemingly resonated with C. The only physical description that my informant gave me was the backwards feet, implying the rest of the creature is fairly humanoid. I believe this resonated with my informant because of the common proverb in American culture “stranger danger”. The danger of the Douen is directed towards children, emphasizing their ability to be easily manipulated or tricked, which echos the same warning as “stranger danger”. The detail of the Douen needing to know the child’s name is interesting because it serves as a warning against sharing personal information with anyone/anything. It also could stem from magical folklore, where using or knowing someones name can be considered powerful.

Korean story: The Leg Lump and the Monster

Nationality: Korean
Primary Language: Korean
Age: 68
Occupation: retired, former pastor
Residence: Seoul, South Korea
Performance Date: 24 March 2024

Tags: legs, lump, monster, greed, shrewd, lie

Text:

Once upon a time, there was a man with a huge lump on his leg. One night, he went out on a walk near the forests, singing a tune along the way. A monster came by, entranced by the man’s singing, and asked the man where the singing was coming from. The man, being keen and knowledgeable of the monster’s evil nature, knew that the monster just wanted the singing ability for himself, so the man lied and said that the singing was coming from the lump. The monster then magically took the lump away from his leg and scurried off. The man was very happy since he didn’t have a lump on his leg anymore, and news of the events traveled through the neighborhood. One particularly greedy neighbor also had a lump on his leg, and hearing the story made him mad and jealous, so he sought out to do the same thing so his lump would also be removed. Thus the following night, the greedy neighbor went out to the woods, singing his own tune. The same monster arrived and again asked where the singing was coming from, and the greedy neighbor lied that it was coming from his lump, just as the other man had done. The monster, however, had already realized the other man’s trickery, so in a rage, he cursed the greedy neighbor and gave him yet another lump on his leg that burdened him further.

Context:

H. is a born and raised South Korean citizen, and has had experience with telling stories through giving sermons in his church. This was simply one of the stories he told me when I was young in Korea.

Analysis:

This is a very typical aesop one would see in a Korean storybook for children, which is probably where H. got it from. The aspects of being shrewd and able to read a situation as well as not being greedy are pretty common lessons that still hold up in modern Korean society.