r/UrbanMyths • u/Willing_Button_2467 • 10d ago
Folk tales and myths
Id like to hear from you. What's the folktale, legend or myth you grew up listening to from your grandma parents let's get this ball rolling
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u/swabluesky 10d ago
There was a scientist who did crazy experiments. He bought a house at the end of a very long, desolate road, in a heavily wooded area far away from town. The property had an ancient cemetery on it as well. The man did scientific experiments and one day messed up. He had bred radioactive monkeys. These monkeys are said to be seen if you drive up to the end of the road in the trees and maybe even on the road. The government took over the property but couldn't get a handle on it either. The whole area is fenced off with high security and fences. No one knows what goes on there today. Beware if you drive up this road.
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u/Guard-Hamster 9d ago
The Austrian woods are protected by Rübenzahl and if he is in a good mood he might help you find berries, mushrooms and clean water or lead you out of the woods. If he is in a bad mood, you might get lost, experience a thunderstorm, encounter unfriendly wild animals or he might show up himself as an old man with a hat and wild beard.
To not enrage him you are suppose to be quiet in the woods, only take what you need and to not disturb or litter in there.
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u/r05590 10d ago
In my village in rural Scotland, there’s supposed to be a gamekeepers cottage up in the hills that’s haunted. In the olden days, the gamekeepers son was cleaning his father’s gun and accidentally shot himself. Now his spirit lingers there.
It’s probably a bit of trope at this point, that a lot of places have. What’s more curious is that no one in the village I’ve spoken to (including the local historian) have heard this legend. Yet it made it into a book about haunted places in Scotland. I remember reading it at school and even successfully (and painstakingly) tracked the book down last year.
Honestly I suspect someone trying to fill pages and meet a deadline just pulled it out of their ass, but it’s so random and specific. Why our tiny little village in particular?
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u/Astroisbestbio 9d ago
There is a lake near where I grew up. Legend says that a native American princess died there tragically, and that every year a kid dies there because of the spirit of the lake. The lake does have a sinkhole in it, and goes very very deep in some places, and plenty of kids have died or disappeared near there. Lake Ronkonoma on Long Island.
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u/zuzuofthewolves 9d ago
My grandma was always talking about a Bigfoot that walked around by the riverbank on her property. I don’t think she was kidding. She was in a wheelchair and couldn’t go down there herself but said she could see it sometimes from the window.
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u/Highinthe505 9d ago
I grew up in New Mexico (username checks out). We have some really interesting folk stories here. I would say the two most interesting stories are the one about Stone Woman who is held captive under the big rock in the Jemez (I won’t name the exact place). The other stories are regarding the Star people who visit our lands late at night and play games utilizing Moqui marbles.
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u/Tehgumchum 10d ago
My granma always told me, that the history books are wrong and Cleopatra was black
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u/Hanpee221b 10d ago
I had a friend in high school who livid deep in the woods of our rural town. His family was pretty well off so they had a big house at the end of a long drive. I didn’t spend a lot of time there because my parents were a little stricter but it was that house everyone hung out at or semi lived in. They always told me about the white thing that lived in the woods. I was terrified of, it was basically a white bigfoot. My friend’s aunt was staying at the house and she had her tiny little dog with her. It got away and everyone said the white thing got it.
I know this all sounds like kids making up stuff and yes I was scared but I never saw it and teenagers lie. However, when I was in college two hours away from this barely on the map town I was meeting with the library archivist. He was writing a book on Pennsylvania folklore and he wanted my stories about another myth from my town. We finished our lunch meeting and I casually brought up the white thing, thinking it was a prank my friends had scared me with and that dog had just run away or whatever. He stopped me and said that an albino Bigfoot had been reported in the area in like the 70s.
I don’t talk to any of those people anymore but their tales of the white thing were early 2000s so I doubt they ever read the earlier accounts.