Popular legends of the world. Interesting legend
The deeds of the most famous kings remain in history for centuries. But the description of their reign is invariably accompanied by rumors and legends. The most interesting legends about five famous personalities are further in the review.
English King Richard I the Lionheart
The English king Richard I the Lionheart was repeatedly sung in ballads and legends. The troubadours praised his courage and bravery. But the king received his nickname thanks not to bravery, as it may seem, but to cruelty. During the Crusade English king captured Acre. He wanted to make an exchange of prisoners with the Muslim leader Saladin, but for some reason an agreement was not reached. Richard ordered everyone to be executed. At the hands of the crusaders, 2,700 people died, including women and children. Then Richard was nicknamed “Lionheart”. It is noteworthy that the Arabs dubbed it the “Heart of Stone.”
When the peace treaty with Saladin had already been signed, Richard ordered the execution of another 2,000 people just because the Muslim was in no hurry to implement all the points of the treaty. The king was cruel and ruthless, but he was also easily influenced by others. For this, the ruler was called Richard “both Yes and No.”
Roman Emperor Commodus
The Roman Emperor Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus has been compared to Caligula. When he received power, he immediately gave himself up to entertainment and debauchery. Historians believe that Commodus lived in his imaginary world, where his toys were people, and his favorites were in charge of governing the country. Commodus put feces in guests' dishes, or dressed up as a doctor and dissected living people.
But Commodus's favorite pastime was gladiatorial combat. He not only observed the progress of the action, but also took an active part in the fights. It was considered shameful free man fight in the arena, but Commodus, who compared himself to Hercules, was not particularly bothered by this, especially since he was a master of the sword.
In total, Commodus fought 735 fights, of which, of course, he emerged victorious. To be fair, it should be said that the ruler’s opponents were not always the strongest gladiators. There were also wounded and disabled people. But, after each victory, the public had to deify Commodus, shouting: “You are the first, you are god, you are the winner!”
Norwegian King Harald Fairhair
Harald Fairhair is the first king of Norway. He became the founder of the Horfager dynasty, which ruled the country from the 10th to the 14th centuries. The facts of Harald's biography are known from the records of skalds (Old Scandinavian singers). So, in particular, there is a detailed description of how the king got his nickname.
In an attempt to unite the lands of Norway, Harald had to marry Gida from Hordaland. The king made a promise that he would not cut his hair until he won her heart. Those around him soon began to call the ruler Harald Shaggy. When Gida finally became one of the king’s wives, and the unification of Norway took place, then, according to legend, Harald partially cut his hair, but in history he remained Harald the Fair-haired.
Russian Emperor Alexander I
The poet Peter Vyazemsky called the Russian Emperor Alexander I “a sphinx unsolved to the grave.” The most common legend about the monarch relates to his sudden death. Contemporaries recalled that Alexander I last years throughout his life he said that he would like to abdicate the throne and “remove himself from the world.” Therefore, when it became known about the sudden death of the emperor from typhoid fever in 1825 in Taganrog, the legend of Elder Kuzmich was born. Allegedly, Alexander I became a hermit in the Urals. There were few witnesses to the death of Alexander I, but they later claimed that the deceased was completely different from the emperor. And Elder Kuzmich, who outwardly resembled the monarch and had the same handwriting, died in a cave on the banks of the Sim River in 1864.
Khan of the Mongol Empire Genghis Khan
According to legend, being a glorified great conqueror, Genghis Khan felt that he was getting old and his strength was no longer the same. Then he sent messengers to different ends of his lands in search of sages who would reveal to him the elixir of youth. Many healers came to the Great Khan, claiming that they knew the secret eternal youth. Wanting to check whether the sages were lying or not, Genghis Khan forced them to drink the prepared potion and beheaded them. The head was then sewn back on. Khan believed that if a person did not come to life, then the elixir was not real.
This continued until one Chinese sage told Genghis Khan that “the immortality of the body does not exist, only the deeds of the deceased are immortal.” The Khan released the sage.
The reign of the Great Khan lasted almost 30 years. Here .
Halloween is ahead of us all, and just recently Friday the 13th took place, so get ready for a new batch of creepy horror stories that have been frightening residents of many different cities around the world for many years.
Urban legends are passed down from generation to generation, just like good books or family traditions, so don’t be surprised if your children’s children also tell each other scary stories about black people and a coffin on wheels. And if Halloween is just around the corner and you're looking for inspiration for a new costume, check out this selection of horror movies right now!
10. El Silbon or Whistler
In Venezuela and Colombia there is a scary tale about a creature cursed to wander the Earth for eternity with a bag of bones on its back.
The mystical creature was once a little boy who lived with his parents in Venezuela. El Silbon was the only child in the family, and his parents spoiled him very much. As a result, the boy became a spoiled, capricious and mischievous young man.
One day, a child demanded that his parents cook him venison for dinner. The father was unable to obtain such meat, which greatly angered his demanding son. El Silbon stabbed his own father with a knife, pulled out his entrails and brought them to his mother so she could cook dinner from the offal.
The unsuspecting woman used the meat for cooking, although it seemed suspicious to her. Having finally realized what had happened, the mother was horrified and was so stricken with grief that she allowed the grandfather to punish the evil boy himself.
The grandfather beat the child half to death, and in his wounds he poured lemon juice and rubbed in the chili pepper. He then handed his grandson a bag full of his father's bones and set a pack of dogs on the little villain. Right before the animals tore the boy to pieces, his grandfather cursed him to wander forever. This is how a creature named El Silbon was born.
They say that he still wanders through forests, fields and villages, whistling a simple melody under his breath, and sneaking into other people's houses. There he throws the bag of bones on the floor and counts them right in the house. If no one notices the presence of the monster, one member of this family will die. However, if the household catches the Whistler (the second nickname of the cursed creature), no one will suffer, and, on the contrary, good luck is promised to the residents of the house.
9. Drawing of a suicide from Japan
Photo: urbanlegendsonline.com
The most disturbing and scary urban legends often appear in Asian countries, and many of them later even become the basis for famous horror films.
According to one such legend, a young Japanese woman painted a color portrait of a young girl who seemed to look straight into the viewer’s eyes. The talented artist published the drawing on the Internet and, for an unknown reason, soon committed suicide.
After the incident, netizens began to write comments on this drawing, and many said that they saw sadness and even anger in the eyes of the drawn girl. Others wrote that if you look at this portrait for too long, the stranger’s lips begin to curl into a grin, and a strange ring appears around her image. Some went even further - people began to spread rumors about poor souls who looked at the picture for more than 5 minutes in a row and then also committed suicide.
8. Nixes (Nykur)
Photo: kickassfacts.com
We are accustomed to horses being portrayed in films and pictures as beautiful creatures and noble animals. However, if you ever find yourself in Iceland and notice a gray horse standing on the shore of the sea or lake, do yourself a favor and take a closer look at the animal's hooves. If they look in reverse side, then you have problems - it looks like you met a nix...
They say that nyxes are monsters that live in the water, but sometimes come to the coast to lure unsuspecting people to the bottom of the reservoir. The skin of such a horse is sticky, so if a person, fascinated by a wild horse, wants to ride the animal, he will no longer be able to get off it and will be doomed to certain death, because the nyx will drag the rider to the bottom. There is a belief that if you shout the name of a mystical horse, it will get scared and run back into the water without harming anyone.
7. Child on a high chair
This city walks all over the world, but it most likely appeared in Norway. For many years, one Norwegian couple could not afford to go on vacation. Finally, everything fell into place - the couple found a reliable nanny for their grown-up baby and planned a trip.
When the day of departure arrived, the nanny still did not show up. She called and said she had problems with her car. However, the woman also said that she could call a mechanic and be there in 15 minutes because she was almost at the couple's house and was ready to walk.
Taking the nanny at her word, the parents sat their son in a highchair, fastened the child with special belts, kissed him goodbye and left the house. The couple was in a hurry to get on the plane. They left one of the doors open so the nanny could go inside.
One version of the legend says that the nurse was never able to get into the house because all the doors were closed (they were slammed by the wind), and she decided that the parents took the child with them. The woman went home without confirming whether this was true.
In another version, on the way to the house, the nanny was hit by a truck, and in the third scenario, the nurse was actually an elderly relative of the family, and on the way she suffered a heart attack. In any case, she never made it into the house where a little boy was waiting for her in a high chair.
In all versions, the couple returns home to find the child dead and still strapped into his child seat...
6. The Girl from Studley Road
The scariest urban legends are the horror stories that take place closer to our own cities and homes, or when mention of them comes up again and more recently. Three years ago, a user of the social platform Reddit told a horror story that terrified him throughout his childhood and throughout his life. teenage years. The man lives in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and in the area of this town lies a winding road called Studley Road.
Several years ago, a family with an alcoholic father lived in a small house near this road. One evening the man became enraged and beat his wife and child to death and then committed suicide. The girl's jaw was broken, but she did not die immediately. In search of help, she managed to get to the road, where she fell dead, bleeding all over her pajamas.
Since then, on the twisting turns of Studley Road in the middle forest area some drivers see the glowing figure of a little girl wandering along the side of the road with her back to passing cars. Unsuspecting motorists, unfamiliar with the creepy legend, stop to help a child in his pajamas. The girl turns around and lets out an inhuman scream, showing the stunned travelers her hanging, bloody jaw. Sometimes she even tries to say something, but due to the blood flowing from her mouth, she can only make gurgling sounds.
5. Phantom Cart
South Africa also has its own urban myths, and the most famous among them are the story of the Flying Dutchman and the ghostly fellow traveler from Uniondale. However, the most terrible legend originated here back in 1887. Major Alfred Ellis related this a scary fairy tale in his “South African Sketches”, and since then the legend has terrified all local residents.
Four men - Lutterodt, Seururier, Anthony de Heer and an unnamed visitor from Cape Town - boarded a wagon and set out on a joint journey from Ceres to Beaufort West. This area has long been famous as a haunted place, which was even indicated on old South African maps. During the trip, one of the cart's wheels suddenly broke down, and it took until 3 a.m. to repair it. The company returned to the road again, but their horse suddenly rebelled, froze in place and refused to go further.
Out of nowhere, the men heard the sound of another cart approaching at high speed. When the travelers finally saw her, they realized that a team of 14 horses was rushing straight towards them, which the coachman was whipping with all his might. Frightened, Latterodt, Seruryi and the stranger from the capital jumped out of their carriage, and de Heer grabbed the reins and managed to move their vehicle out of the way. An angry de Heer shouted at the hurrying coachman: “Where are you going?”, to which he replied: “To hell.” With these words, the cart disappeared into thin air, as if it had never existed.
Lutterodt later learned that anyone who dared to talk to the ghostly coachman ended up very badly. A week after this incident, de Heer's body was found at the bottom of a rocky gorge, and the wreckage of his cart and the corpses of horses lay right next to its owner.
4. Blue Baby
Photo: urbanlegendsonline.com
Like Bloody Mary, the Blue Baby is a legend associated with a mirror, only in the case of a little boy, the story also includes a mad mother who killed her child with a piece of that same mirror. Naturally, after the birth of the terrible story, those who are trying to summon an innocent victim, nicknamed the blue child, appeared. The ritual for meeting the other world includes going to the bathroom at night. The cosmetic mirror needs to be fogged up so that “blue baby” can be written on it. The light should be turned off at this time, and the one who made the inscription should fold his hands as if he were lying on them. real child. The belief says that the spirit of the boy will certainly appear in the arms of the person who calls him. If for some reason you drop this baby on the floor, your mirror will break and you will die.
According to another version, a boy appears if you go into a dark bathroom, repeat “blue baby” 13 times, and all the while move your hands as if you were rocking a child. The ghost will not only make itself known, but will also scratch you. However, this time, do not be afraid to drop the child, because escaping from the bathroom will be the best way survive. They say that during such a seance, a distraught mother may appear in the mirror, and she will definitely want to kill you.
3. The woman who hanged herself on Delonix regalis
Photo: abc.net.au
One of Australia's creepiest urban myths is the story of a young woman from Darwin who was raped by a Japanese fisherman in the East Point area. When the girl realized that she was pregnant, she was horrified and hanged herself on the nearest tree, which turned out to be a royal delonix.
The restless spirit of the victim began to haunt all the men who appeared in East Point. The girl appeared as an alluring figure in white. However, as soon as a man succumbed to the beauty’s charms, she turned into a terrible witch with long claws, tore her prey into pieces and ate the entrails of the unfortunate men.
The most intrepid adventurers can try to summon the spirit of suicide by visiting a local park on a moonless night. Turn around yourself three times and call the woman by name. An eerie scream will notify you that the seance was a success. Although in this case it is better not to hesitate and run without looking back if you value your own guts.
2. Devil's Toy Box
Photo: thoughtcatalog.com
It is said that the series of mystical films “The Hellraiser” was filmed under inspiration from a terrifying urban legend that is buzzing throughout America. According to rumors in Louisiana (Louisiana, USA) there is a one-room house, the walls of which are covered with mirrors from the floor to the ceiling. The place got the creepy name “Devil’s Toy Box”, and according to myth, if you go into this house and stay there too long, the devil appears in the room and takes the soul of the unfortunate person.
Experts in the field of supernatural phenomena have found that the mirrors facing the inside of the house form a hexagon, and according to rumors, it is almost impossible to stay in this room for more than 5 minutes. One person stood there for more than 4 minutes and went outside completely mute. From then on he never spoke again. One woman in this room even experienced cardiac arrest, and the teenager who entered the “devil’s box” was difficult to get out of there - he screamed and fought like a madman. Two weeks later the guy committed suicide.
1. Clack-clack
Photo: yokai.com
One scary Japanese legend says that a few years after World War II in Hokkaido, American soldiers raped and beat a local girl. The scolded Japanese woman jumped off a bridge that stood over the railroad tracks that same evening and was immediately hit by a train. The unfortunate woman's body was cut in half at the waist. The weather that evening was very frosty, and therefore the girl did not die immediately. Slowly bleeding, she (her upper half) crawled to the station, where a shocked station employee threw a piece of tarpaulin over the gruesome remains. The suicide died in terrible agony.
According to Japanese legend, 3 days after you hear or read this sad story, the ghost of a young woman will find you, and you will know about its approach by a characteristic clicking sound. If you think that escaping from a legless girl is easy, you are mistaken, because she can move at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour. No wonder this is a ghost...
After death, the suicide set herself the goal of capturing as many as possible more people. The ghost chases its victims in order to cut them in half, and takes the lower part of the body for itself. The only way to avoid a terrible fate is to correctly answer the monster's questions. The girl will ask if you need your legs. The answer is that you need them right now. And if the ghost asks who told you this story, feel free to say: “Kashima Reiko.”
Incredible facts
People have been making up legends and tales ever since they discovered communication. Despite some true facts, most of the terrible legends still remain fiction. However, chilling urban legends can often turn out to be true.
Sometimes turning a tragic event into a legend helps people cope with grief, as well as protect the younger generation from realizing the reality of what is happening.
In this article we have collected for you the creepiest urban legends based on real events.
City's legends
Faceless Charlie
Legend:
Children living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania love to tell the story of Faceless Charlie, also known as Green Man. It is believed that Charlie was a factory worker who was disfigured in a horrific accident, some say it was caused by acid, some say it was caused by a power line.
Some versions of the story claim that this incident caused his skin to turn green, but all versions have in common that Charlie's face was so disfigured that it lost all features. According to legend, he wanders in the dark through depressing places, such as the old abandoned train tunnel in South Park, also known as the Green Man's Tunnel.
Over the years, curious teenagers have visited this tunnel in search of traces of Faceless Charlie. Many claimed that they felt a slight electrical voltage and had trouble starting their car after calling No-Face. Others said they saw the slight glow of his green skin in a tunnel or along a country road at night.
Reality:
Unfortunately, in this tragic story lies the lion's share of truth. The legend of Faceless Charlie appeared due to the fact that he had quite real prototype– Raymond Robinson. In 1919, Robinson, who was 8 years old at the time, was playing with a friend near a bridge that carried high-voltage tram tracks.
Raymond suffered horrific injuries after accidentally touching a power line. As a result of the blow, he lost his nose, both eyes and an arm, but survived. He spent the rest of his long life - 74 years - withdrawn into himself, and only went out for walks at night, but he reciprocated people's friendly calls to him.
Killer in the attic
Legend:
This chilling story appeared many years ago. It tells the story of a family who are unaware that a dangerous intruder has taken up residence in their home and has been secretly living in their attic for weeks. Things are lost or moved, and suspicious objects appear in the trash. They joke sweetly about the brownie until brutal killer who lives near them does not kill them in their sleep.
The worst thing about this legend is that it would seem to be quite possible - and this is in fact so.
Reality:
This story begins in March 1922 on a German farm called Hinterkaifeck. The owner, Andreas Gruber, began to notice that things in the house periodically disappeared and were not in their right place. His family heard footsteps in the house at night, and Andreas himself, on the eve of the tragedy, noticed other people’s footprints in the snow, but after examining the house and territory, he found no one.
At the end of March, the man who left these traces came down from the attic and brutally killed six inhabitants of the farm - the owner, his wife, their daughter, her two children aged 2 and 7 and their maid with a hoe. Their bodies were discovered only 4 days later, and it turned out that at that time someone was caring for livestock. The identity of the perpetrator has not yet been established.
Legends
Night doctors
Legend:
Stories about night doctors in the past were often heard from slave owners who used them to intimidate slaves so that they would not escape. The essence of the legend is that there were certain doctors who operated at night, kidnapping black workers to use them in their terrible experiments.
Night doctors caught people on the streets and took them to their medical institutions to torture, kill, dismember and cut out their organs.
Reality:
This terrible story has a very real continuation. Throughout the 19th century, grave robbing was a major problem, and the African American population was unable to protect either their deceased relatives or themselves. Additionally, medical students actually performed surgeries on living members of the African American community.
In 1932, the Alabama State Health Service and Tuskegee University launched a program to study syphilis. No matter how terrible it may sound, 600 African-American men were taken for the experiment. 399 of them already had syphilis, and 201 did not.
They were given free food and a guarantee to protect their grave after death, but the program lost funding without telling participants anything about their terrible illness. The researchers sought to study the mechanisms of the disease and continued to monitor patients. They were told that they were being treated for a minor blood disease.
The patients did not know they had syphilis or that they needed penicillin to treat it. The scientists refused to give any information about the medications or the condition of their patients.
This story, seasoned with slave owners riding horses at night in white clothes, has long instilled fear and awe of the legend in black people.
Alice Murders
Legend:
It's pretty young urban legend from Japan. It says that between 1999 and 2005, a series of brutal murders occurred in Japan. The bodies of the victims were mutilated, their limbs were torn off, and distinctive feature of all the murders was that next to each corpse the name “Alice” was written in the victim’s blood.
Police also found one playing card at each of the grisly crime scenes. The first victim was found in the forest, and parts of her body were strung on the branches of various trees. The second victim's vocal cords were torn out. The third victim, a teenage girl, had her skin severely burned, her mouth cut, her eyes torn out, and a crown sewn to her head. The killer's last victims were two little twins who were given lethal injections while they were sleeping.
It is alleged that in 2005, police arrested a man who was found wearing a jacket from one of the victims, but they were unable to link him to any of the murders. The man claimed that the jacket was given to him as a gift.
Reality:
In fact, such killings have never happened in Japan. However, shortly before the appearance of this legend, a maniac called the Card Killer was operating in Spain. In 2003, all the Madrid police forces were sent to catch the man responsible for 6 brutal murders and 3 attempted murders. Each time he left a playing card on the body of the murdered man. Authorities were at a loss - there was no connection between the victims or an obvious motive.
All that was known was that they were dealing with a psychopath who chose his victims at random. He would never have been caught if one day he himself had not confessed to the police. The card killer turned out to be Alfredo Galan Sotillo. During the trial, Alfredo changed his testimony several times, refusing to confess and claiming that the Nazis forced him to confess to the murders. Despite this, the killer was sentenced to 142 years in prison.
Scary urban legends
The Legend of Cropsy
Legend:
Among the residents of Staten Island, the legend of Corpsey has been circulating for several decades. It's about a crazed ax murderer who escapes from an old hospital and is hiding in the tunnels underneath the abandoned Willbrook Public School. He comes out of hiding at night and hunts children: some say that he has a hook instead of a hand, and some say that he wields an ax. The weapon does not matter to him, the result is important to him - to lure the child into the ruins old school and cut him into pieces.
Reality:
As it turned out, the crazy killer was very real. Andre Rand was directly responsible for the abduction of two children. He worked as a janitor at this very school until it closed. There are children with disabilities they were kept in terrible conditions: they were beaten, insulted, they had neither normal food nor clothing. Homeless Rand returned to the tunnels under the school to continue the atrocities that previously reigned in this school.
Children began to go missing, and the body of 12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger was found in the woods near Rand's camp. He was accused of killing Jennifer and another missing child. It has not been fully proven that these murders were his doing, but the police were able to prove that he was involved in child abductions. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The whereabouts of the other missing children have still not been revealed.
The nanny and the killer on the second floor
Legend:
The story of the nanny and the killer hiding upstairs is undoubtedly a classic urban horror story. According to this legend, a girl working as a nanny for a rich family receives a creepy call. In almost all versions of the story, the caller asks the nanny if she has checked the children. The nanny calls the police, where it turns out that they are calling from the house where she and the children are. According to most versions, all three are found brutally murdered.
Reality:
The reason for the spread of this terrible story was the very real murder of a 12-year-old girl, Janet Christman, who was looking after three-year-old Gregory Romak. In March 1950, when this brutal crime occurred, there was a terrible thunderstorm in Columbia, Missouri. Janet had just put the child to bed when an unknown person entered the house and brutally raped and killed the girl.
For a long time, the main suspect was a certain Robert Mueller, also accused of another murder. Unfortunately, the evidence against Mueller was only circumstantial, but he was still accused of Janet's murder. After some time, he filed a lawsuit for illegal detention, the charges were dropped, and he left the city forever. After his departure, such crimes stopped.
Legends based on real events
Rabbit Man
Legend:
The story about the rabbit man appeared around the 70s of the last century and, like many urban legends, has several versions. The most common one concerns the events that occurred in 1904, when the local mental institution in Clifton, Virginia, closed and it became necessary to move patients to a new building. According to the classics of the genre, a transport with patients gets into a serious accident, most of them die, and the survivors break free. They are all successfully brought back...except for one - Douglas Griffin, sent to a mental hospital for the murder of his family on Easter Sunday.
Soon after his escape, exhausted and mutilated rabbit carcasses appear on the trees in the area. Some time later, local residents discover the body of Marcus Wallster hanging from the ceiling of a railroad underpass in the same terrible state as the rabbits before. The police tried to drive the madman into a corner, but he ran away and was hit by a train. Now his restless ghost wanders around and still hangs rabbit carcasses in the trees.
Some even claim to have seen the rabbit man himself, standing in the shadow of an underground passage. Locals believe that anyone who dares to enter the passage on Halloween night will be found dead the next morning.
Reality:
Fortunately, this creepy legend is just a legend, and there really was no crazy killer. There was no Douglas Griffin or Marcus Wallster. However, in Fairfax County there lived a man who had an unhealthy obsession with rabbits and terrorized local residents in the 70s of the last century.
He rushed at passers-by and chased them with a small hatchet in his hands. Some claimed that he once threw a hatchet through the window of a passing car. One incident occurred at the home of one of the local residents. The madman took an ax with a long handle and began to chop down the porch of the unfortunate man's house. He ran away before the police arrived and no one still knows who he is or what motivated him.
Hook
Legend:
The legend of Hook is perhaps the most common of all urban horror stories. It has several versions, each more terrible than the previous one, and the most famous one tells about a couple making love in a parked car. The radio broadcast is suddenly interrupted to inform listeners of terrible news - a brutal killer wielding a hook has escaped, and now he is hiding in the very park where the lovers are.
The girl, having heard the news, asks her lover to leave there as quickly as possible. The guy is annoyed by this, but they get ready and he takes her home. When they arrive, they find a bloody hook hanging from the passenger side door handle.
Reality:
Whether the couple makes it home without incident, or the girl is horrified to hear her lover's fingers touching the roof of the car as his bloody body hangs from a tree, the story is not accidental. In the late 1940s, a small and peaceful town was rocked by a series of horrific murders. The culprit was dubbed the Moonlight Murder, but was never found.
At night he killed young people in parked cars. Frightened residents returned home long before the curfew announced by the authorities. The bloody crimes stopped as quickly as they began, and the Moon Killer disappeared into the night.
Dog boy
Legend:
In the town of Quitman, Arkansas, there has long been a legend about Dog Boy. Locals claimed that it was about an evil and very cruel little boy who loved to torture defenseless animals, and then completely turned on his parents. After the boy's death, his ghost haunted the house where he killed his parents, in the form of a half-man, half-dog, instilling horror and fear in people. People often notice his outline in the room where he kept the animals he abused.
Witnesses describe it as a large, furry creature that resembles a dog with glowing cat-like eyes. Those who pass by his house notice that he is closely watching them from the window of the house, and some even claim that an incomprehensible creature on all fours was chasing them down the street.
Reality:
Once upon a time, in an old house at 65 Mulberry Street, there lived an angry and cruel boy named Gerald Bettis. His favorite pastime was catching neighbors' animals. He had a separate room where he brought the unfortunate. There he tortured and brutally killed them. Over time, his cruelty began to manifest itself towards his elderly parents. He was huge and overweight.
They say that it was he who killed his father, but no one has been able to prove that he provoked his fall from the stairs. After his father's death, he continued to abuse his mother, keeping her locked up and starving her. Law enforcement agencies intervened and managed to save the unfortunate mother. Some time later, she testified against him for growing and using marijuana. He was sent to prison, where he died of an overdose.
Legends that turned out to be true
Black water
Legend:
This one is pretty famous story starts with what an ordinary family buys new house. Everything is fine with them until they open the tap and black, cloudy, foul-smelling water comes out. After checking the water tank, they discover a rotting body. It is unknown when this legend was born, but a similar story really took place.
Reality:
Elisa Lam's body was found in a water tank at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, California in 2013. Her death remains a mystery and her killer has not been found. By the time guests began complaining about spoiled water and her body was discovered, it had been decomposing in the tank for a week.
The most terrible legends
Bloody Mary
Legend:
According to the creepy folk belief about Bloody Mary, in order to summon her evil spirit, you need to light candles, turn off the lights and whisper her name while looking intently into the mirror. When she comes, she can do a number of harmless things and some terrible things.
Reality:
According to psychologists, if you look closely in the mirror for a long time, you can see someone else looking back at you, so most likely the legend of Bloody Mary did not appear out of nowhere. Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo calls this phenomenon the “illusion of someone else’s face.”
According to Caputo, if you stare long and hard at your reflection in a mirror, your field of vision will begin to distort and the outlines and edges will become blurred—your face will no longer look the same. The same illusion manifests itself when a person sees images and silhouettes in inanimate objects.
Slender Man, or Slenderman
According to legend, the Slender Man is a tall, thin man dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and black tie. He has long thin arms and legs, and his face is completely featureless.
His arms can stretch, and tentacles grow from his back.
When the Slender Man appears, his victim loses memory, experiences insomnia, paranoia, a coughing fit, and blood flows from the nose.
If Slenderman is spotted in the area, it means that children will soon disappear. He lures them into the forest, deprives them of their minds and takes them away with him. Those children who were carried away by the Slender Man were never seen again.
In 1983, 14 children disappeared in Stirling City, USA. Their disappearance was linked to the Slender Man. Later, in the city library they found a photograph taken by an unknown photographer that day, and it allegedly showed a monster.
Both girls ended up in a psychiatric hospital: one for 25 years, the other for 40.
Black Dog of Meriden
The Meriden Black Dog, from the U.S. state of Connecticut, is a small ghost dog that leaves no marks and makes no sounds. According to legend, if you see the Black Dog three times, you will die. It appears silently, leaves no traces (even in the snow), and then just as suddenly disappears.
In the early 1900s, geologist Pynchon explored a Meriden mountain called West Peak. One day he saw a black dog among the trees. As Pynchon turned to head home, the dog disappeared into the trees.
The second time the scientist saw a black dog a few years later in the same place. One of his friends, with whom he was climbing the mountain that day, said that he had already seen the dog twice.
They wandered around and finally came to the top. But the enemy was waiting for them. The black dog stood in front. Pynchon only turned away for a second when he suddenly heard a terrible scream. His friend fell and hit the rocks.
In Meriden, local residents told Pynchon about the legend of the Black Dog, but he did not believe it. Several years passed, the geologist decided to visit the same mountain. He left his apartment at dawn and never returned. His dead body was later found at the bottom of a ravine.
Pisadeira
In Brazil there is a legend about a scary woman named Pisadeira. It comes to men who are afraid, or to those who have eaten a heavy dinner and lie down on their backs - in this position, Pisadeira’s victim is practically unable to escape.
Pisadeira is a bony and thin creature, she has short lower limbs and long dirty hair, a hooked nose, reddish eyes, thin lips, sharp teeth with a greenish coating. Her long fingers have wide yellow nails. But even more frightening is the laughter and mocking giggle of the monster. If a person hears characteristic laughter at night, it means that Pisadeira will soon come to him. It is the creepy laughter that precedes her appearance.
The monster tortures its victim until she suffocates from fright, but Pisadeira can also leave a person, having had enough of fear.
Phantom of Benito Juarez Park in Mexico
In the small Mexican town of Jaral del Progreso there is Benito Juarez Park. This is one of the city's attractions, but the park was laid out on the site of an old cemetery, so a bad reputation has spread about it. The city authorities landscaped the square as best they could. They installed benches and paved paths so that people could enjoy the beauty of nature. However, local residents believed that the authorities had awakened local spirits and a curse was placed on the place.
Every evening in the park someone destroyed the benches and disappeared. Authorities then hired security guards to patrol the area at night.
And then one evening the guard began duty. At first everything was calm. The riots began when the park was covered in thick fog. The security guard heard a woman scream and went to check what had happened. When he reached the place, standing in front of him was an elderly woman dressed in White dress. The watchman followed her, and she began to destroy and throw benches.
When the guard approached her, he saw that the woman had no legs, she was floating in the air. Suddenly the old woman pounced on him and began beating him furiously. The guard managed to escape, and the next morning he told about what he saw. Shortly after this incident, he fell ill with a mysterious illness and died. The city authorities forbade talking about this story in the media, but the rumor still spread throughout the city; no one else wanted to be on duty at night.
Locals called the ghost the phantom of the park.
Girl from the closet
One day, a 57-year-old Japanese man noticed that someone was rearranging things in his house, food was disappearing from the refrigerator, and strange noises woke him up at night. The man decided that he was going crazy because he lived all alone. Both the windows and doors in his house were always closed.
One day he decided to take action and installed hidden cameras in all the rooms.
The next day he looked at the footage. In the footage, an unknown woman crawled out of the Japanese man's cupboard. The man assumed that she was a robber. But police said no one broke the locks.
After a thorough search, the woman was found in a small locker. As it turned out, she lived in a Japanese man’s house for a year.
Maryland Goat Man
For many residents of the United States, Prince George's County in the American state of Maryland is associated with a bloodthirsty monster called the Goat Man.
According to legend, the monster used to be an ordinary goat breeder. One day his wife became seriously ill, and he had to work tirelessly to help his beloved. But the cruel teenagers decided to play a trick on the poor guy and poisoned all his goats. The family was left without their only source of income, and the woman died.
Grief turned the farmer into a terrible monster, he ran into the forest and began killing everyone who crossed his path.
According to another version, the goat man is a scientific experiment of the mad scientist Dr. Fletcher. Local residents believe that prohibited experiments on animals were carried out at the district's agricultural research center. Once, through an experiment, a scientist created a half-man, half-goat. The researchers decided to keep him alive for study. But the creature grew up and turned into a cruel monster. He killed several scientists and escaped from the center.
Whether this is true or a myth, strange events took place in the area in the 50s of the 20th century. In 1958, residents found a German shepherd dead: the dog had been torn to shreds, but its meat had not been eaten.
In the spring of 1961, two students were found dead in the northeastern Maryland town of Bowie. The girl and the boy went into the forest at night. In the morning, a local hunter found a car with broken windows and many deep scratches on the body. The teenagers' bodies, mutilated beyond recognition, were found in the back seat. The criminal was never found.
In 2011 he was born american film horror film "Deadly Detour", inspired by the Maryland monster.
According to Irish folklore, the banshee is a spirit from the other world. She appears in the form of an ugly woman to the relatives and friends of the one who is about to die. It is believed that if a banshee did not cry loudly enough before her death, then in the next world her screams will be several times worse.
Banshees look like scary screaming women, old women with flowing gray hair, a scary wrinkled face and skeletal thinness.
The legend of an American girl who took revenge on her lover
In the USA there is a terrible legend about a girl who took revenge on her lover for unrequited love. In the small town of Stahl, Texas, there once stood a small church surrounded by graves. Next to the church there was a cellar, which was very difficult to find, as it was overgrown with grass.
The priest's daughter fell madly in love with a neighbor boy, but he broke her heart by choosing another girl. They got married, his chosen one became pregnant. Soon after the birth of the child, the priest's daughter visited the couple. They greeted her cordially, but the girl herself looked at their child with hatred.
The priest's daughter suddenly attacked her parents and cut both their throats, then she dragged their bodies to the hill where the church stood. She left the dead in the cellar and placed the living child between them.
The priest's daughter closed the door to the cellar and soon died. The bodies in the cellar could not be found for three weeks.
Many believe that the voice of a crying child can still be heard near the church at night.
Corpse house in Mexico
In the Mexican city of Monterey there is a famous legend about an abandoned building called the "corpse house." The strange structure was built in the 1970s, but no one has ever lived in the building.
From the street, the house looks like a structure made of concrete pipes. According to legend, the house was built by a wealthy couple who had a sick, paralyzed daughter. My father wanted to build a special house that would be suitable for people with disabilities. The design of the house included ramps that led from one floor to another.
The family began construction. One day the girl wanted to look at the house. She began to ride on the ramps, her parents were distracted for just a moment, when suddenly her wheelchair flew down the ramp. The girl could not stop, as a result she flew out the window and fell to her death.
Years later, the unfinished building was put up for sale. But no one wanted to buy it for a long time. One day there were clients. They came to see the building with their little son. While the couple were examining the situation, the boy went upstairs, and a few minutes later they heard him scream. On the top floor he was fighting with a little girl. An unknown person grabbed their son and threw him out the window. The boy died, the girl could not be found.
After this story, the authorities fenced off the area.
In 1941, a certain Mary Shaw performed with her Billy doll in one of the theaters in the American city of Ravens Fair. One day one of the spectators - a little boy - called the woman a liar. He saw the woman's lips move as Billy spoke. A few weeks later, the unfortunate critic disappeared.
Residents of the city and the boy's parents blamed the ventriloquist for his disappearance. Mary Shaw was soon found dead. According to local legend, the Eshen family (the boy’s relatives) committed lynching against the woman. They burst into the dressing room, forced Shaw to scream, and then ripped out her tongue.
Before her death, the woman wished that all her dolls be buried with her, there were 101 of them.
After the ventriloquist's funeral, massacres began in Raven's Fair. And the victims of crimes were those people who raised their hands on the Show. They, like Mary, had their tongues pulled out.
Every nation has beautiful and amazing legends. They are varied in theme: legends about the exploits of heroes, stories about the origin of the names of geographical objects, scary stories about supernatural creatures and novelistic tales about lovers.
Definition of the term
A legend is an unreliable account of an event. It is very similar to the myth and can be considered its approximate analogue. But legend and myth still cannot be called completely identical concepts. If we are talking about myth, then there are fictional heroes who have nothing to do with reality. The legend is based on real events, later supplemented or embellished. Since many fictitious facts are added to them, for reliable scientists legends do not accept.
If we take the classical meaning of the word as a basis, then a legend is a legend presented in artistic form. Such legends exist among almost all nations.
The best legends of the world - they will be discussed in the article.
Types of legends
1. Oral legends are the most ancient look. They spread through wandering storytellers.
2. Written traditions - recorded oral stories.
3. Religious legends - stories about events and persons from church history.
4. Social legends - all other legends that are not related to religion.
5. Toponymic - explaining the origin of the names of geographical objects (rivers, lakes, cities).
6. Urban legends are the newest type that has become widespread these days.
In addition, there are many more varieties of legends, depending on the plot that underlies them - zootropomorphic, cosmogonic, etiological, eschatonic and heroic. There are very short legends and long narratives. The latter are usually associated with a story about the heroic achievements of a person. For example, the legend about the hero Ilya Muromets.
How did legends arise?
WITH Latin language legenda translates as “that which must be read.” The history of legends goes back a long way and has the same roots as myth. having no idea about the reasons for many things happening around him natural phenomena, composed myths. Through them he tried to explain his vision of the world. Later, based on mythology, amazing and interesting legends about heroes, gods and supernatural phenomena began to arise. Many of them have been preserved in the traditions of the peoples of the world.
Atlantis - the legend of the lost paradise
The best legends that arose in ancient times have survived to this day. Many of them still captivate the imagination of adventurers with their beauty and realism. The story of Atlantis says that in ancient times there was an island whose inhabitants achieved incredible heights in many sciences. But then it was destroyed by a strong earthquake and sank along with the Atlanteans - its inhabitants.
We must express gratitude to the great ancient Greek philosopher Plato and the no less revered historian Herodotus for the story of Atlantis. An interesting legend excited the minds of these outstanding scientists during their lifetime. ancient Greece. It has not lost its relevance even today. The search for the wonderful island, which sank thousands of years ago, continues to this day.
If the legend of Atlantis turns out to be true, this event will rank among the greatest discoveries of the century. After all, there was an equally interesting legend about the mythical Troy, the existence of which Heinrich Schliemann sincerely believed. In the end, he managed to find this city and prove that there was some truth in the ancient legends.
Founding of Rome
This interesting legend is one of the most famous in the world. The city of Rome arose in ancient times on the banks of the Tiber. The proximity of the sea made it possible to engage in trade, and at the same time the city was well protected from a sudden attack by sea robbers. According to legend, Rome was founded by the brothers Romulus and Remus, who were suckled by a she-wolf. By order of the ruler, they were supposed to be killed, but a careless servant threw the basket with the children into the Tiber, hoping that it would drown. She was picked up by a shepherd and became the foster father for the twins. Having matured and learned about their origin, they rebelled against a relative and took power from him. The brothers decided to found their own city, but during construction they quarreled, and Romulus killed Remus.
He named the built city after himself. The legend about the emergence of Rome belongs to toponymic legends.
The Legend of the Golden Dragon - The Path to the Heavenly Temple
Among the legends, stories about dragons are very popular. Many nations have them, but traditionally it is one of the favorite themes of Chinese folklore.
The legend of the golden dragon says that between heaven and earth there is a bridge that leads to the Heavenly Temple. It belongs to the Lord of the World. Only pure souls can enter it. Two golden dragons stand guard over the shrine. They sense an unworthy soul and can tear it apart when trying to enter the temple. One day one of the dragons angered the Lord, and he expelled him. The dragon descended to earth, met other creatures and dragons were born from him of different stripes. The Lord became angry when he saw them and destroyed everyone except those not yet born. Having been born, they hid for a long time. But the Lord of the World did not destroy the new dragons, but left them on earth as his governors.
Treasures and Treasures
Legends about gold occupy not the last place in the list of popular legends. One of the most famous and beautiful myths of ancient Greece tells about the Argonauts' search for the Golden Fleece. For a long time, the legend about the treasure was considered simply a legend until Heinrich Schliemann found a treasure of pure gold at the excavation site of Mycenae, the capital of the legendary king.
Kolchak's Gold is another famous legend. In the years Civil War Most of Russia's gold reserves were in their hands - about seven hundred tons of gold. It was transported in several trains. Historians know what happened to one train. He was captured by the rebel Czechoslovak Corps and handed over to the authorities (Bolsheviks). But the fate of the remaining two is unknown to this day. The precious cargo could have been dumped into a mine, hidden or buried in the vast area between Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk. All the excavations that have been carried out so far (starting with the security officers) have not yielded any results.
The Well to Hell and the Library of Ivan the Terrible
Russia also has its own interesting legends. One of them, which appeared relatively recently, is one of the so-called urban legends. This is a story about a well to hell. This name was given to one of the deepest man-made wells in the world - Kola. Its drilling began in 1970. The length is 12,262 meters. The well was created exclusively for scientific purposes. Now it is mothballed because there are no funds to maintain it in working condition. The legend appeared in 1989, when a story was heard on American television that sensors lowered to the very depths of the well recorded sounds similar to moans and screams of people.
Another interesting legend, which may well be true, speaks of a library of books, scrolls and manuscripts. The last owner of the precious collection was Ivan IV. It is believed that she was part of the dowry of the niece of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine.
Fearing that the precious books in wooden Moscow might be burned in a fire, she ordered the library to be placed in the basements under the Kremlin. According to the seekers of the famous Liberia, it may contain 800 volumes of priceless works of ancient and medieval authors. Now there are about 60 versions of where the mysterious library may be stored.