American Tall Tale
The tall tale is a fundamental element of American folk literature. The tall tale's origins are seen in the bragging contests that often occurred when the rough men of the American frontier gathered. The tales of legendary figures of the Old West, some listed below, owe much to the style of tall tales.
The bi-annual speech contests optionally held by Toastmasters International public speaking clubs may include a Tall Tales contest. Each participating speaker is given three to five minutes to give a short speech of a tall tale nature, and is then judged according to several factors. The winner and runner-up proceed to the next level of competition. The contest does not proceed beyond any participating district in the organization to the International level.
The comic strip Non Sequitur sometimes features tall tales told by the character Captain Eddie; it is left up to the reader to decide if he is telling the truth, exaggerating a real event, or just telling a whopper.
With "§" indicating legendary figures who are known to be based on actual historical individuals, other subjects of American tall tales include:
- Johnny Appleseed – A friendly folk-hero who traveled the West planting apple trees because he felt his guardian angel told him to §
- Tony Beaver – A West Virginia lumberjack and cousin of Paul Bunyan
- Pecos Bill – legendary cowboy who "tamed the wild west"
- Cordwood Pete – Younger brother to lumberjack Paul Bunyan
- Daniel Boone – Blazed a trail across Cumberland Gap to found the first English-speaking colonies west of the Appalachian Mountains §
- Aylett C. "Strap" Buckner – An Indian-fighter of colonial Texas §
- Paul Bunyan – huge lumberjack who eats 50 pancakes in one minute
- Davy Crockett – A pioneer and U.S. Congressman from Tennessee who later died at the Battle of the Alamo §
- Febold Feboldson – A Nebraska farmer who could fight a drought
- Mike Fink – The toughest boatman on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a rival of Davy Crockett. Also known as the King of the Mississippi River Keelboatmen §
- John Henry – A mighty steel-driving African American§
- Calamity Jane – A tough Wild West woman §
- Casey Jones – A brave and gritty railroad engineer §
- Johnny Kaw, a fictional Kansan whose mythological status itself was in one sense a figment, in that it was created recently, in 1955. Adherents of this assessment deem such stories fakelore
- Nat Love, also known as "Deadwood Dick", was born a slave in Tennessee in 1854. Tales of his adventures after emancipation, as a cowboy and and a Pullman porter, gained such fantastical elements as to be considered tall tales §
- Joe Magarac – A Pittsburgh steelworker made of steel
- Molly Pitcher – A heroine of the American Revolutionary War §
- Alfred Bulltop Stormalong – An immense sailor whose ship was so big it scraped the moon
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Famous quotes containing the words american, tall and/or tale:
“Utility is our national shibboleth: the savior of the American businessman is fact and his uterine half-brother, statistics.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“There is regret. Always, there is regret.
But it is better that our lives unloose,
As two tall ships, wind-mastered, wet with light,
Break from an estuary with their courses set,
And waving part, and waving drop from sight.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Like a tale of little meaning though the words are strong;
Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil,
Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil,
Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil;
Till they perish and they suffer—some, ‘tis
whispered—down in hell”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)