#FolkloreThursday: Woman Wept

The purpose of the women's existence also varies, depending on the combination of elements that are driving their legend and the time and place in which the story is being told. Some are looking to rescue or replace the children that have been lost to them. Some appear to herald the deaths of others. And some find themselves stuck in a recursive loop, repeating their deaths over and over again, never resting and affecting nothing.

#FolkloreThursday: Hans Trapp, The Cannibalistic Christmas Scarecrow

My guess is that it was children who began this folkloric game of telephone, because it's almost always the children. They hear a story, it begins to morph, they grow up, they repeat the story to their children, perhaps with a little spice added, and on it goes. Because children, then as now, seem to like to make any urban legend as gruesome as possible and one-up their friends, eventually we end up with a Christmas-themed scarecrow that eats kids.

#FolkloreThursday: Don’t Lick the Blue Star Tattoo

Looking back on this, it seems absurd, right? And it is. The inherent danger, though, is in the fact that law enforcement agencies were so quick to begin passing out warnings when they had no evidence that anyone had ever actually experienced this. Zero investigatory work was done and while Google may not have been possible back then, it can't have been that hard to try to get to the bottom of this. But they didn't.

#FolkloreThursday: Goatman’s Bridge

In the 1930s there was an Black goat farmer named Oscar Washburn who lived in the Denton, Texas area, near Old Alton Bridge. Washburn was an incredibly successful and popular farmer who was known for miles around for the quality of the meat, milk, cheese, and hides that his farm produced. Washburn became so well know, in fact, that he hung a sign near the bridge that said "This way to the Goatman," the better to direct people to his farm.