Folklore Every Good American Should Know - Paul Bunyan

Happy 4^th of July Everyone!

On this beautiful if soggy Independence Day I would like to highlight a few tall tales and legends that make up the folklore of the United States of America.  The U.S.A. has a rich and spirited folklore that unfortunately and much to my chagrin many Americans are completely unaware of.  They may get a small taste of a watered down version in school which hardly does justice to the rich tales that sprung up in the exciting times and events that built our own great country, amazing tales with a spirit that’s larger than life.  One of my favorites is of Paul Bunyan and his Blue ox, Babe.  Larger than life characters that work hard and play harder!

Now as I said, Paul Bunyan was larger than life, he was the biggest baby you ever saw and when he grew to be a man he took to combing his beard with a pine tree.  Most accounts say that Paul Bunyan hails from Maine although I the oldest account I found of Paul Bunyan he seemed to come from Canada and he was quiet the snazzy dresser, “He wore a yellow muffler this morning under his virile curly beard.  His mackinaw coat was of huge orange and purple checks.  His mackinaw pants were sober-seeming, having tan and light gray checks, but some small crimson dots and crosses to brighten them.  Green wool socks showed above his black boots, which had buckskin laces and big brass eyelets and hooks.  And he wore striped mittens of white and plum color” (Stevens 235).  However all accounts agree that Paul discovered his dear friend Babe during the Winter of the Blue Snow, a winter so cold that even the snow turned blue.  And while he was walking Paul came upon a little ox calf whose fur and eyes were as blue as the snow.  Those eyes were so big and soft it just melted Paul Bunyan and nothing ever warmed his heart so much.  Paul named the ox calf Babe and Babe grew big and strong, strong enough to straighten out the most twisted road until it was good and straight.  Sometimes Babe would butt Paul and they’d start to wrestle which made Paul laugh mightily and some folks say that where they stomped and wrestled left such great holes that filled up with water and became the great lakes.  Paul Bunyan was a lumberjack by trade, in fact, he invented the industry.  He could fell 10 trees in a single chop and Babe would haul them away to the mill.  Pretty soon Paul Bunyan had a great crew of lumberjacks working for him, men from Ireland and France and Scandanavia (Stevens).  He set up a home camp near the Big Rock Candy Mountain where the rivers were lemonade and tobacco grew in plugs and there were fields of parsnips for Babe.  The cook would bake hot cakes for all of Paul’s hard working crew.  There were so many men working for Paul Bunyan that he had to build a bunk house that reached near to the moon just to house them all.  The cook had to mix the batter for the hotcakes that the men ate in a cement mixer and the griddle to cook them on was so big it took three men with slabs of bacon on their feet to grease it.  According to one story the King of Sweden wrote to Paul saying that Sweden was getting crowded and could he use some more workers?  “Send ‘em over!” said Paul and thousands of Swedes joined Paul’s crew of lumberjacks and they worked all through the Dakotas and Minnesota, clearing the land for the frontiers making their way out West. The men cut down the trees and Babe hauled the woods and Paul Bunyan personally pounded every last stump into the ground (Zorn).  After clearing out those states Paul Bunyan and Babe retired heading further north into untouched wilderness for even more adventures.

Resources:

Paul Bunyan:

Kellog, Steven. Paul Bunyan. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1984. Print.

“Paul Bunyan Stories”. Stevens, James. Ed. Rachel Field.  American Folk and Fairy Tales. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957. Print.

Sullivan, Charles. American Folk: Classic Tales Retold. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998. Print.

Zorn, Steven.  Classic American Folktales. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Courage Books, 1992.  Print.

Paul Bunyan. Rabbit Ears American Tall Tales. Vol. 3. Read by Jonathan Winters. Audio CD.