Episode 155: American Folklore from Paul Bunyan to Johnny Appleseed

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Ian:  Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos”. I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today we're going to be talking about some commonly known American folktales. And so, folktales are basically stories that have both an element of truth and an element of myth. They’re kind of mixed between truth and fiction and these are stories that are passed down from generation to generation. They’re really traditional, usually, they've been around for a really long time and they end up becoming a really important part of history in certain places. And, like we mentioned, some of them, some of the parts are supernatural, some parts could never really be true, and that's what makes them sort of American legends or American folktales. And like we said, they have multiple authors—it's not just from one person. So, the stories change as they come down the line in history. So, we figured today that we would touch upon some pretty common ones that we hear, at least, in the US growing up and that are a part of our culture up there and really encourage our listeners to go find your own folktales in your own cultures. So, as always, listeners, make sure to go online and check out that audio guide and transcript at www.dynamicenglish.cl. So, Paige, American folktales—I can think of quite a few of them that growing up we learn them in school or you learn them reading books, you hear them from your parents or from your family. They just embed themselves in the culture and so, it will be fun to go over these today and bring back some of those stories, those memories, and hopefully enlighten our listeners on a part of the culture that maybe not a lot of people have heard of before. So, I'm going to go ahead and kick off with one of the biggest ones, one of the most common ones that we hear and this is the American folktale, the legend of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch. As I mentioned, this is a Canadian/North American part of folklore and this is sort of a hairy ape-like creature, also known in other words maybe as a yeti. Sort of a big animal that stands up on two feet that could look like a really giant man with a lot of hair, a mix between a gorilla and a bear, all these different things. And what's interesting is there have been many sightings over many years of seeing Bigfoot up in the forests, up in Oregon, up in Canada, and people have tried to take pictures. There have been people who tried to fabricate pictures where they wear a costume to say they’re Bigfoot. And so, I think this is just one of the big ones that we can think of and always gets talked about. There are TV shows in the US for Bigfoot hunters and people are always trying to find this legend and find out if it's true or not, so I'm sure you've heard of this one before.

Paige: Yeah, I mean honestly, I spent a lot of summers in the Maine woods and that was something that me and my cousins always made-up stories that if we heard noises in the woods, it was Bigfoot or if we saw a footprint that it was Bigfoot’s and he lived on the island at the lake and it was this legend that you would adapt in your own minds. He was a monster. It wasn't something that you were like, “Ooh let's go find him. He’s friendly.” At least in my childhood, it was definitely something that we were afraid of.

Ian: Yeah, definitely. Did you ever find him?

Paige: Luckily, no. But yeah, there was always “kids will be kids” where one of the cousins was like “Yeah, I definitely saw him.” You know, and all of those fake little games that we play in our heads. But yeah, that one was definitely a big one. Another one I remember that was really popular was Paul Bunyan. I think most people know Paul Bunyan that grew up in the US or Canada. It’s a very common folklore legend and it represents this idea of a rustic American or Canadian where it's this guy with a big beard, and he has a red and black flannel shirt and he's holding an ax. And you see it a lot in commercials like the Brawny man is this Paul Bunyan type character. Anyone that lives in the woods and from Canada or America has this Paul Bunyan persona and basically, Paul Bunyan, according to this folklore, which again, everyone has their own version of it, but one that I'm remembering from early days was that he was huge. He was this huge guy and that came to Earth from these five giant storks which are birds because he was so heavy, they needed five of them, and he was this huge baby and he always had this blue ox, which was just as big as him named Babe and basically because he was so large, the story, at least in America, was that he walked around the country. And because he was so large, he created all of these really famous landmarks like, one of his footprints is creating Minnesota's 10,000 lakes where he was just walking around in Minnesota, being a giant and created these craters which formed lakes. The other story is that his shovel, as he was digging, created the Grand Canyon, which is in Arizona. These rocks that he used to extinguish a campfire created Mount Hood. So, it does all these funny mythical stories of this giant guy that's why we have the landscape we do in the US.

Ian: I totally remember the Paul Bunyan story and Babe the blue ox. I had this image in my head as a kid of reading the book that showed all of the different landmarks that you just mentioned and these bigger-than-life, larger-than-life characters walking around—the dynamic duo if you will. So yeah, I can never forget the image of those two together, explaining why we had these landmarks.

Paige: Hey, Ian. Did you know besides the podcast, Dynamic English offers one-on-one classes with native teachers from all over the world?

Ian: Really? But isn't it just a bunch of grammar lessons?

Paige: Nope, it's completely discussion-based and focuses on topics the student is interested in.

Ian: That's amazing. But what if I'm not living in Chile?

Paige: No problem. Dynamic does online classes so you can be living anywhere.

Ian: Great, but I'm a little intimidated to take the class alone. Can I join with a friend?

Paige: Of course. Dynamic offers group classes of up to four. Plus, for the next month, Coffee with Gringos listeners get 10% off individual or group classes. So go online to www.dynamicenglish.cl and mention that you are a listener and get your discount. 

Ian: Well, I'm sold. Sign me up.

Ian: Another one that's really well known by most people in the US, I think at least, is the story of Johnny Appleseed, which is actually based off of a real person who was John Chapman, and he was an American pioneer actually up in your neck of the woods, Paige, from Massachusetts, who was a nurseryman—basically someone who took care of orchards or basically farms where fruit was grown. And so, he was known for introducing apple trees to a lot of different parts of the US—Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, parts of Canada, West Virginia. I mean, a big area of the country and he became a legend because when he was walking around the US, he didn't have nice clothes, sometimes didn't have shoes. He was a very basic, down-to-earth kind of guy who was walking around, being generous, and leading the way for conservation for plants and for apple trees. And he was also a religious missionary, so he went around spreading the seeds and also spreading the word of God, I guess in this case. And he was just known as this figure to be walking around the country happy, planting these trees, maybe sleeping under an apple tree. That's an image that comes to my mind. Maybe he didn't travel as far as the stories say and maybe he wasn't barefoot all the time, but he truly was someone who covered a lot of ground and a lot of really great things for conservation and really as forming as a legend for himself as kind of the “apple guy”—Johnny Appleseed.

Paige: No, it's definitely a legend that I think it’s hard to not have heard of him in the US. That's what's funny about these legends is you just don't know too much about them and there are so many variations. I didn't know it was a real guy and didn’t know he was from my area. It's funny. Speaking of that for the next one—Davy Crockett—I didn't know that he was a real guy either because I thought he was a legend because he was a real person, who was morphed into a legend. He was a storyteller and then his stories were embellished in folklore and in plays and in books and all of these in movies and all these things. And so, he actually was a real guy, he just didn't do probably most of the things that were talked about him and basically, he was this frontier man and people know of him because he was an image of a hunter and he had a coon hat, which is a raccoon that is made into a hat that has the raccoon tail and had a musket, and that was a famous image of someone in the frontier of America who would kill animals for a living. And so, he was this hunter who was notorious for having all these tall tales stories of hunting a bear and him versus the animal and how he had this adventure, and so that's where a lot of his stories became into movies and TV shows of this adventure hunter who would go around with all these stories. But in real life, he was a politician, he also fought in the Alamo and died, which is the big battle between Texas and Mexico. But what he's most known for, I think, is that wearing that hat and his adventures in the woods killing animals.

Ian: Totally, he's this larger-than-life figure that I think most people have always heard of for that legendary hat. I mean, I had a Davy Crockett coonskin hat when I was a kid running around. He’s just this emblematic figure, and I think there's also a legend that he killed his first bear when he was three years old, and so it's these kinds of stories that he just this rugged outdoorsman, killed his first wild bear when he was three, has knives and guns, fought off the Mexicans, died at the Alamo. I mean, just this huge icon, this big legend so I think this one's really well known as well for those reasons. And today we're going to wrap up with the last one, which is the American folklore tale of John Henry. And John Henry was an African-American man who was said to have worked as a steel driver. So, a steel driver was someone who worked with the steel pegs and all the materials needed to build railroads, which back in the, especially in the 1800s in the United States, there was a huge expansion of railroads, so there were lots of people working to build these rail tracks and what happened was there was a new invention made, which basically automated the nail driving. So, this meant that these workers weren't really needed anymore due to automation, and the tale goes that John Henry said, “I can beat this machine. I think a man-made work can be better than this machine.” And so, the legend has it, there was a race to see who could drive in the most nails either the machine or John Henry. And it said that he won the contest but it cost him his life. He actually worked himself to death and died on the rail track. There are different legends going around that he was a real person, perhaps with a different name, and that he died from lung infection due to working on the railroads instead of from exhaustion but still just a really big figure in African-American culture and just American culture in general as well.

Paige: Interesting. No, I haven't heard of that one and that's interesting that he won but it cost him his life. That’s a big price to pay.

Ian: Yeah, and we're seeing too that a lot of these stories they hold up, they last for a long time. We’re even seeing now in modern-day this tale of man versus machine as well so a lot of the messages that these stories carry, they carry generation to generation and century to century. So, they're really interested in that way as well whether if they're completely true or a bit of fiction involved also. So, as we mentioned here are just a few that we wanted to bring up today. There are some more so, we really recommend that you go and find your own culture's folktales, maybe there you'll find some that you've never even heard before, and so it can really enlighten you on your culture, and also have a good conversation topic. So, listeners as always check out that audio guide and transcript online at www.dynamicenglish.cl. As always, thanks for listening.

Paige: We'll see you next time.

Ian: “Coffee with Gringos” officially has over one hundred episodes and we are among the “Top Podcasts in Chile”. And that’s thanks to you. But we are always working to grow our audience so make sure to rate sure to rate, review and share us.  

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     to touch upon (phrasal verb): to discuss or explain something.

a.     Today we will touch upon some common folktales.

2.     to embed (verb): to become a part of something.

a.     These stories often embed themselves into history and culture.

3.     to enlighten (verb): to give someone greater knowledge and understanding about something.

a.     The professors enlightened us with their information and knowledge of physics.

4.     to kick off (phrasal verb): to begin; to start.

a.     We will kick off today’s lesson with a warm-up activity.

5.     to fabricate (verb): to invent or construct something that usually is fake.

a.     The men fabricated the photos of Bigfoot to appear to be real.

6.     landmark (noun): an object or feature of a place that is easily seen and recognized.

a.     Cerro San Cristobal is a main landmark of Santiago.

7.     to extinguish (verb): to stop a fire from burning.

a.     The firefighters extinguished the apartment fire last night.

8.     down-to-earth (adjective): relaxed; low-key; practical and realistic.

a.     It’s nice to have a friend who is so down-to-earth.

9.     to embellish (verb): to make something more attractive by adding interesting details or features that aren’t necessarily true.

a.     He is well known for embellishing his stories.

10.  to morph (verb): to gradually change into something else.

a.     The story has morphed many times over the years.

11.  musket (noun): an old-style long gun, usually used for hunting or war in previous centuries.

a.     The soldier carried a musket to the battlefield, ready to fight for his country.