Atall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some tall tales areexaggerations of actual events, for examplefish stories ("the fish that got away") such as, "That fish was so big, why I tell ya', it nearly sank the boat when I pulled it in!" Other tall tales are completely fictional tales set in a familiar setting, such as theEuropeancountryside, theAmerican frontier, theCanadian Northwest, theAustralian outback, or the beginning of theIndustrial Revolution.
Events are often told in a way that makes the narrator seem to have been a part of the story; the tone is generally good-natured.Legends are differentiated from tall tales primarily by age; many legends exaggerate the exploits of their heroes, but in tall tales the exaggeration looms large, to the extent of dominating the story.
The tall tale has become a fundamental element of American folk literature. The tall tale's origins are seen in thebragging contests that often occurred when the rough men of theAmerican frontier gathered. The tales of legendary figures of theOld West, some listed below, owe much to the style of tall tales.
The semi-annual speech-contests held byToastmasters International public-speaking clubs may include a tall-tales contest. Each and every 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 proceeds to the next level of competition. The contest does not proceed beyond any participating district in the organization to the international level.
Thecomic stripNon Sequitur (1992–present) 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 fabricating a story entirely.
Mike Fink – the toughest boatman on theOhio andMississippi rivers, and a rival of Davy Crockett. Also known as the King of the Mississippi RiverKeelboatmen.
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 as a Pullman porter, gained such fantastical elements as to be considered tall tales
Sam Patch – an early 19th-century daredevil who died during a jump on Friday the 13th
Paul Bunyan'ssidekick,Babe the blue ox, sculpted as a ten-meter tall roadside tourist-attraction
Subjects of some American tall tales include legendary figures:
Paul Bunyan – huge lumberjack who eats 50 pancakes in one minute, dug theGrand Canyon with his axe, madeMinnesota'sten thousand lakes with his footprints, and also has a blue ox named Babe who made the Mississippi River
Johnny Kaw, a fictionalKansan whose mythological status itself was in one sense a figment, in that it was created recently, in 1955. Adherents of this assessment deem such storiesfakelore.
The Australian frontier (known as the bush or the outback) similarly inspired the types of tall tales that are found in American folklore. The Australian versions typically concern a mythicalstation calledThe Speewah. The heroes of the Speewah include:
TheBabin Republic, in Renaissance Poland (1568), was a satirical society dedicated entirely to mocking people and telling tall tales.
Juho Nätti (1890–1964), known as Nätti-Jussi, was a Finnish lumberjack known for telling tall tales; his stories have also circulated as folk tales and been collected in books.
Legends of the Irish mythological hunter-warriorFionn mac Cumhaill, also known as Finn MacCool, have it that he built theGiant's Causeway as stepping-stones to Scotland, so as not to get his feet wet, and that he also once scooped up part of Ireland to fling it at a rival, but it missed and landed in theIrish Sea; the clump became theIsle of Man, the pebble becameRockall, and the void becameLough Neagh.
The Cumbrian Liars, a United Kingdom association who follow in theseven-league footsteps of Will Ritson.[3]
"The Irish Rover" is a well-known Irish folk song about an implausibly large sailing ship with a fanciful cargo.
Oskar, later known as "Unsinkable Sam," was aship's cat that was supposed to have survived the sinking of three ships during WWII: the GermanBismarck on 27 May 1941,HMSCossack on 27 October 1941, and finallyHMSArk Royal on 14 November 1941. While photographs exist of a ship's cat purported to be Oskar on HMSArk Royal, the historicity of this legend is debated.
.JPG)
