Written by David Leeming & Jake Page
About the book:
Myths, Legends, & Folktales of America is an anthology that covers peculiar American stories and their significance from the United States. It reveals how waves of immigrants, encountering the United States for the first time, adapt their religions, beliefs, and folklore. Stories range from the creation stories of the first inhabitants, to the tall tales of the Western frontier, to the legendary outlaws of the 1920s, and beyond. Mr. Leeming introduces the astonishing breadth of mythology that immigrants have brought to America. Leeming & Page describe that the melting pot is a mixture of American identity that is unique to this country. The book covers stories from four main perspectives: Native Americans, European Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Some stories that I found interesting was Uncle Sam, Bigfoot, Johnny Appleseed, and Yeh-Shen.
Terms
What are the differences between myths, legends, tall tales, and folk tales?
- Mythology - are stories that can be a way of expressing the unknowns of a culture and show off their ways of thinking. As the English language evolves, the definition of myth has changed and is now more commonly known as a widely held belief that is simply not true.
- Legends - are another kind of story that are based on actual events, but get changed over time to express some sort of ideology. Some examples of legends are the stories of Davy Crockett and Robin Hood.
- Tall Tale - are stories that has harmless exaggeration added and is a very American. An example of tall tales is Paul Bunyan.
- Folk Tale - are a reflection of the reality of the American experience and is characterized by a lack of uniformity. Folk tales tend to mean more than just the definitions provided.
The Authors
David Leeming
About
Leeming is an American philologist who is a former professor at the University of Connecticut. He has written and edited numerous encyclopedias and dictionaries on mythology and is very fascinated about the subject.
He is the author of many books, including
The World of Myth, Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero, and
Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney. Academics Leeming received his A.B. in English from Princeton University in 1958 and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 1970 from New York University.
Jake Page
About
Page was an editor and at
Smithsonian magazine and
Natural History. His writings helped make science more understandable for the general audience in dozens of books. He also wrote numerous magazine articles and books on topics related to American Indian history, culture, and art.
Some of his most popular books are
In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians, The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology's Greatest Mystery, and
The Mythology of Native North America.
Stories
La Llorona
In American folklore, La Llorona, also known as "The Weeping Woman" is a ghost who roams the rivers looking for her drowned children. The myth originated in Mexico and is said that she murdered her own child and as penance must wander about looking for him.
Culture
La Llorona is very popular in Mexican culture, as her story is told to children to encourage them not to wander off after dark.
Movies have also been made about the myth.
Yankee Doodle
Yankee Doodle is a common patriotic icon and is a musical. According to one legend, the words were composed by a Revolutionary War-era English army doctor to make fun of the ragged Continental army. It was played when General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781.
My Thoughts/rating
There were some stories I really enjoyed and had fun exploring, such as
- A Karuk Myth of Coyote
- La Llorona
- Was familiar with the story from Spanish Class
Uncle Sam
Yankee Doodle 
The Iroquois Flying Head
Bigfoot
Abraham Lincoln - "Honest Abe,"
Pecos Bill - To me, the funniest thing about this story was the way he died, by laughing at a foreigner who dressed up like a cowboy.
Stagolee
Miners
Yeh-Shen
There were some stories that were confusing at times and made no sense at all to me. Most of the Native American creation myths were very abstract in nature. Moby Dick was also hard to decipher what was going on. There were also a couple "meh" stories that were just not as interesting to read.
FINAL SCORE: 6.7/10
Page Created by Michael Kennelly 2021