Short reading recommendations, as you escape your house/office for a mug of joe on the porch–Sasquatch and Silver Lands folklore, a short story by Mark Twain, and a few comments about music. Sasquatch and the Bear American Folklore is a favorite website of mine for short reading. It is a whole library of stories fromContinue reading “Back Porch Reading #4”
Category Archives: folktales
Murder Ballads: Why I Did What I Did
Murder ballads lurk on the dark side of folklore. From The Twa Sisters, an old Northumbrian song, to The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, written and sung by Bob Dylan, murder ballads narrate what happens when selfishness, jealousy, abuse, and revenge come into play. Paul Slade describes murder ballads as “tabloid newspapers set to music,”Continue reading “Murder Ballads: Why I Did What I Did”
Emphatically a Bon-Bonist
Poe describes the devil as tall and skinny and wearing worn clothing made for a shorter person. Most of his head is bald except
The Devil Take Tom Walker
To escape his bargain with the devil, Tom “prayed loudly and strenuously, as if heaven were to be taken by force of lungs.” Do Tom’s prayers save him?
The Tale is a Lie 