Home May 26, 1996
Folklore
The folklore stories we grew up with in America were often from Europe.
In school and at home we read stories from Aesop's Fables and fairy tales
from the brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson. On TV or at the movies
we would watch animated versions of stories such as Cinderella and
Snow White. Only a few folklore stories, such as some traditional
tales that Mark Twain adapted, were "Made in the USA."
One type of American folklore stories are tall tales (exaggerated stories). There are tall tales are about real people such as frontiersmen Daniel Boone and Wild Bill Hickock. Other stories concern the mythical lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his pet ox, Babe. By most accounts the Bunyan legend originated in lumber camps in Maine. As the logging industry moved westward, the stories moved too. Most of the stories that survive today are set in the upper Midwest.
Everything about Paul Bunyan was big. When he chuckled, it sounded like thunder. When he shouted, trees fell down. It took four cooks to make his breakfast; he drank from barrels instead of glasses. His feats were larger than life too: he could mow down trees with his scythe as if he was a farmer reaping wheat. One day his water tank broke and the resulting water flow became the Mississippi River. Another time he captured a school of whales and trained them to carry logs down a river. He could do anything! We were taught he was an example of the American spirit that tamed the wilderness.