There is a legend which comes from...
January 20, 2021 8:47 AM   Subscribe

Click for a made-up bit of folklore. This page generates two-sentence lore on demand. One sentence describes its origin while the next summarizes the story. For example, "There is a legend which comes from the book The Ghosts of Shildon & Stanley by Cleveland Kendall. In 1841, the Devil himself died of 'rising of the lights', contracted from a witch named Mother Liliana."

It springs from this podcast.
posted by doctornemo (27 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
Pretty sure that this is an unused Star Trek: Enterprise plot.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:33 AM on January 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


This is so great.
posted by SoberHighland at 9:39 AM on January 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


Spoiler: a small pig meets an unhappy fate a lot.

(This is lovely, though — thank you!)
posted by tuckshopdilettante at 10:00 AM on January 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


pretty much a Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell footnote generator
posted by BungaDunga at 10:13 AM on January 20, 2021 [6 favorites]


"This story is told by the people of Redcar. Every Autumnal Equinox since 1564, the women of Redcar build a witch from stones in order to hasten the End of the World."

Sounds good to me!
posted by praemunire at 10:17 AM on January 20, 2021 [4 favorites]


A lot of improbable births, too.

It needs a hash generator so you can share a link to a particular outcome.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:27 AM on January 20, 2021 [3 favorites]


man those necromancers got up to some shit back in the day
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:39 AM on January 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


It needs a hash generator so you can share a link to a particular outcome.

I think that's what this thread is for.
posted by medusa at 10:42 AM on January 20, 2021 [3 favorites]


"This story is spoken of in Greater Manchester. In 1428, a rampaging crab with bright green teeth and the tongue of a lion was seen in a wooded grove."

That's supposed to be a secret.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:46 AM on January 20, 2021 [2 favorites]


"This folktale comes from the book The Spirits of Wokingham by Lady Hedwig Stapleton. In 1544, a witch called Mother York was hanged from the neck until dead, after eating a smuggler in the courthouse."

475 years later, it became the surprise Netflix hit Courthouse Cannibal Witches.
posted by The Bellman at 10:55 AM on January 20, 2021 [3 favorites]


I... think I found the porn?

There is a legend which is spoken of in Cumbria. In 1477, a necromancer died of "dropsie", contracted from a skeleton.
posted by AFII at 11:15 AM on January 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


The final unpublished calendar/alphabet/screenplay/treatise on life, as written and illustrated by Edward Gorey.
posted by winesong at 11:31 AM on January 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


Brilliant!
posted by adrianhon at 12:13 PM on January 20, 2021


"This legend is told by the people of Uckfield. In 1409, a necromancer received a pewter pipe, said to have the power to change mens' minds, from another necromancer on the town common."

I really like that one.

These are fun!
posted by edencosmic at 1:44 PM on January 20, 2021 [2 favorites]


"This folktale comes from the book The Witches of Wallsend by Bentley Ansley-Axton. In 1883, the shape of the town simpleton was seen under a bridge."

I die.
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:45 PM on January 20, 2021


Sort of the antithesis of this, I'm (re-, slowly) reading Robert Graves' The White Goddess, which is a masterful unravelling of many textual poetic bits that seem to make no sense, because the meaning was purposefully concealed, or grafted onto something earlier, or both. We've been doing this for a loooong time, and if nothing else (and likely a lot, like, poetry) it's an astounding display of scholarship and cross-referencing. Fun stuff.
posted by emmet at 2:45 PM on January 20, 2021 [2 favorites]


I have been looking for prompts to get back into writing creatively...
posted by ChuraChura at 3:39 PM on January 20, 2021 [3 favorites]


For folks who are interested in experimenting with this kind of generative text, I can't say enough good about Tracery. It's very approachable as these tools go, and has a variety of related toys floating around the Internet, like Cheap Bots Done Quick, that let you show them off in interesting ways. Once you start examining certain niche interests (summaries of Supernatural episodes, imaginary Taco Bell products, fake Ready Player One quotes, whatever) it's easy to get hooked.
posted by verb at 3:51 PM on January 20, 2021 [5 favorites]


I'm enjoying the mad libs feel of these.
posted by inexorably_forward at 4:45 PM on January 20, 2021


Fifteen years ago the baseball world saw the introduction of the Peter Gammons Sunday Notes generator. (It was 2004 actually.) It's not quite as polished as this, but it encompasses more varied sentence structures and adds some terrible poetry to the bottom of each page. The more things change...
posted by Cris E at 7:00 PM on January 20, 2021


Wonderful! Thanks for finding this!

"This legend is spoken of in Isle of Wight. Since 1795, the phantom of a large pig has appeared every Wednesday in the sky above Sandown."
posted by nfalkner at 7:12 PM on January 20, 2021 [1 favorite]


"There is a legend which comes from the mythology of West Midlands. In 1431, a witch called Nanny Stourton was hanged from the neck until dead, after touching another witch in the manor house of Fordbridge."

yeah the librul media never likes to talk about witch on witch crime which is the REAL factor behind most hangings
posted by FatherDagon at 9:57 PM on January 20, 2021


A lot of goings-on on the town midden!

This is my favourite though; "This legend is told by the people of Market Weighton. In 1724, a small rabbit gave birth to the 3rd Viscount of Goole in the manor house of Market Weighton."
posted by Fuchsoid at 3:31 AM on January 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


"...Since 1658, the ghost of a small rabbit has appeared every day in the stables of Pinkerton Farm."

Folklore about a 370 year old bunny ghost is adorable.
posted by cobaltnine at 5:34 AM on January 21, 2021


There is a legend which is spoken of in North Yorkshire. In 1836, a witch named Nana Beckwith was crushed by the town simpleton falling from the sky.
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 9:08 AM on January 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


This story comes from the book Eastaughffe's Witches of Dartford by Zelda Harlan. In 1561, the Devil himself turned to dust in the home of Obsession Lancaster-Ogden, the 2nd Viscountess of Hawkinge.
Lovely. I can see the Gorey line drawings.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:00 PM on January 21, 2021 [1 favorite]


There is a legend written in the Book of the Blue. In early 2021, a moderator endeavored to share a procedural generator on Metafilter, only to find it had already been posted.
posted by cortex at 11:54 AM on January 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


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