If you grew up in North America anytime during the 20th century, chances are fairly good you’ve been told the legend of Paul Bunyan. It’s not told as often today, as the internet makes it pretty easy to debunk any fantastical yarns our parents were able to so easily spin for us, but we still think it’s a fascinating story. Let’s take a look at the lumberjack behind the legend!
Paul Bunyan is a fictional character featured in North American folk tales from the early 1900s, which often fell into the category of “tall tales.” Tall tales were a type of storytelling known for taking the characteristics of a real person and exaggerating them for humor or shock value. Paul was said to be a lumberjack much bigger than an average person, and a number of larger-than-life legends are attributed to him. In later tales, he is sometimes referred to as an oil worker.
It was said that Bunyan was born in Maine, with some legends listing his hometown as Bangor. He was such a big baby that it took five storks to deliver him to his mother. The large baby’s cradle rocked so violently it caused the crashing waves of the Bay of Fundy, and he could sleep so soundly, it took seven hours of cannons firing to wake him.
Paul Bunyan’s size was the subject of a number of these tales, which varies from tale to tale. In some stories, Bunyan is so large that when he thrashes in his sleep, he destroys large swathes of forest. He’s said to have dug the St. Lawrence Seaway and created the Grand Canyon by dragging one of his axes along the ground, as well as forming the Mississippi River from water dripping out of a large tank he carried with him. He’s said to have driven all the whales out of the Great Lakes by trying to harness them. The griddle used to make his breakfast was so big, seven boys strapped hams (or slabs of bacon in some accounts) to their feet and skated across it to grease it.
Along with Paul Bunyan, a number of other characters recur in these stories. One is the accountant Johnny Inkslinger, who needed nine barrels of ink every day to write down all of Paul’s logging accomplishments. Paul’s frequent traveling companion was Babe, a blue ox so large and strong it could pull the bends out of winding roads. Babe’s footprints are said to have formed the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. The ox’s unusual color was due to a rare meteorological occurrence of folklore: the Winter of Blue Snow. After Babe died of old age, Paul’s gigantic tears formed the Missouri River.
Featured Image from Edgar Lee Espe/Shutter Stock
