Urban Legend

Do you have an urban legend or have you heard of an urban legend from a friend? Mostly everyone has heard an urban legend during their life time.  Grandparents are the greatest urban legend tellers and as children we believe them.  Our curiosity during our childhood will take us to this urban legend location to see what fears lurk out there. We would then tell these stories to our friends during recess.

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale or more accurately a contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of apocryphal stories believed by their tellers to be true. As with all folklore and mythology, the designation suggests nothing about the story's factuality or falsehood, but merely that it is in non-institutional circulation, exhibits variation over time, and carries some significance that motivates the community in preserving and propagating it.

Despite its name, a typical urban legend does not necessarily originate in an urban area. Rather, the term is used to differentiate modern legend from traditional folklore in preindustrial times. For this reason, sociologists and folklorists prefer the term contemporary legend.

Urban legends are sometimes repeated in news stories and, in recent years, distributed by e-mail. People frequently allege that such tales happened to a "friend of a friend" so often, in fact, that "friend of a friend," has become a commonly used term when recounting this type of story.

With the help of Hollywood there are new shows that tell stories of these famous legends, but how much is true. Some urban legends have passed through the years with only minor changes to suit regional variations or just the teller forgot some key parts when telling the story and added some spice to it. Some urban legends have been passed down from generation to generation. One example is the story of a joules woman that killed her two children near the river.  Her cries are heard as she looks for her children by the river. Many travelers or campers in South America have claimed to hear these cries by the river under the full moon. This legend is very famous in Mexico and South America countries for many generations. The legend of the “La Llorona” (Crying Woman) has been heard for more than 300 years.  More recent legends tend to reflect modern circumstances, like the story of the lonely male traveler anesthetized, and waking up minus one kidney, which was surgically removed for transplantation.  Many claim that this urban legend happened in Las Vegas, many also claim it happened in Central America and Asia. No one really knows where this urban legend originated from.

The term “urban legend,” as used by folklorists, has appeared in print since at least 1968. Some scholars prefer the term contemporary legend to highlight those tales with relatively recent or modern origins. Of course, an eighteenth-century pamphlet alleging that a woman was tricked into eating the ashes of her lover's heart could be described as a contemporary legend with respect to the eighteenth century.

One must understand that legends and folklore do not occur exclusively in primitive or traditional societies. Another thing is that one could learn much about urban and modern culture by studying such tales. The term urban myth is also used. Story tellers feel that urban legend is less stigmatizing because myth is commonly used to describe things that are widely accepted as untrue. The more academic definitions of myth usually refer to a supernatural tale involving gods, spirits, the origin of the world, and other symbols that are usually capable of multiple meanings.

The term urban myth is preferred in some languages such as Mexican Spanish, where conventional coinage is "mito urbano" rather than "leyenda urbana.”  Every country and every society has their urban legend. One can trace some urban stories back to Ancient Greek.  There are also stories told by Native Americans like the “Lost Trail.”  The Irish are also well known for their urban legends that are told in America.

One must understand that urban legends are stories that are either funny or contain horrifying content that may or may not be true. They spread like wild fire, and often have many different variants. Most urban legends are false but some have truth to them.  Urban legends are part of our society and we all have told one our two as adults to our children. There will never be a shortage of urban legends.

Please don't copy. April