Tag Archives: moth folklore

Mothman

Age: 19


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: English


Nationality: British American


Occupation: Full-Time Student


Primary Language: English


Residence: United States

Text:

The Mothman is a cryptid described to be dark and significantly big winged figure.

Context:

Located in West Virginia, there was a bridge built that the people adored, the Silver bridge in Mason County to be exact. So when the bridge collapsed into the river, theories begun to spur. Individuals, speculated that a cryptid known as the Mothman was to blame, claiming to have seen and heard the creature moments before the incident. Some even claimed to have been told by the Mothman himself that he was gonna take down the bridge.

Growing up, my informant heard a joke about Mothman, unaware of the cryptid until he asked his dad about the legend.

My informant doesn’t inherently believe the Mothman exists, but is intrigued about the amount of stories brought forth by the community that made it feel so real and almost believable.

Analysis:

I believe that the Mothman sightings are an interesting concept that can be perceived as real to those mislead by some of the stories spread around by it. The abundance of it all can be seen as overwhelming to those new to the cryptid, which I would be inevitable due to all of the person statements declaring his presence

Moroccan: Tino Moths and Rebirth

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/9/19
Primary Language: English

Informant (AH) Is a 22 Year old USC Narrative Studies student interested in user research for games, we traded stories over a podcast we record together.
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Interviewer(MW): You said you had folklore from your grandmother?
AH: Yeah, so my grandma is from morocco, there’s a lot of folklore culturey stuff and I didn’t realize it was like that until I moved away from her and was like “oh you guys don’t do that here?”
AH: But like one thing in particular is you know Tino Moths
MW: Like the plant? (Interviewer thinks AH has said Tino Moss)
AH: No the bug
MW: OHhhh Moths
AH: yeah, some people when they get into their house you think “Oh I gotta kill it or take it out of the house” but at my grandma’s house you don’t touch the moth you just admire it…because in her culture moths are kind of like ghosts when one of your family members dies they come back to you as a moth, so that was yeah.
MW: We don’t have that in my religion, but that rules
AH: Yeah, it’s sort of comforting you know, to think that the people you love are still around and stuff
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Analysis
Insect rebirth symbolism allows the departed agency and a fleeting return to the lives of their loved ones, this is reflected in the chance, almost random nature by which the moth ends up in your home. This belief offers a comfort in the wake of loss and serves to temporarily sate the low-level pain that comes with the loss of a loved one, that stays for the rest of your life. Likewise the respect for the moth constitutes a respect for the dead, because those two beings are intertwined. Likewise this piece of folklore serves to connect AH to his grandmother, so that every time he sees a moth he sees her, allowing her to transcend death and remain with him, a part of his life, as her loved ones did when the story lived with her.Thus here, the moth becomes a symbol for death, it’s ephemeral nature makes contact with it fleeting and therefore more valuable, as it carries the soul of the departed onward to wherever it goes next.