Local myths and legends from your area.

[Clive Howlitzer]

Well I live in Bridgewater, MA. There is some whole thing called the Bridgewater Triangle in the area about all sorts of weird supernatural happenings and myths and legends involving native americans and such. I don't buy into any of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgewater_Triangle

 

[Fenris97]

The Seljordsormen, living in the fjord of a nearby place called Seljord.
That reminds of a joke some guys pulled on it. You see, it was summer holidays, and they decided to do something interesting. They had a python that recently died, so they cut off its head and placed it on the bank of the fjord. Someone found it, and it came in the news that a baby sea serpent had been found. Funnily enough, experts on such things were all off on vacation, and didn't come back before two weeks after, during which the python had had a good round in the news.

 

[Lunar Templar]

just big foot and sparkle fairy's that think they're vampire up here

 

[Carl goes to mars]

Banshees and a hooded figure that supposedly comes out at midnight in the local forest but then again the hooded figure could be mistaken for a chav

I read "banshees" and "chav" and instantly knew you were talking about Northern Ireland.

 

[Kraiger]

The campus that I'm currently living on has a few myths and legends, though it helps when there is an old mansion in the area. Tales range from the original owner of the mansion killing herself in the entry way to people seeing ghosts and a Goat Boy (a creature the size of a man but with the face of a goat who carries a garbage bad). The mansion is also the school's music building and the main path up to it is through a large open field. I'm under the impression that I've been visited by a ghost whilst walking back to the dorms. It felt like a puff of cool air past my face yet the surrounding area stood still.

A couple of years back two students fell out of a building after a window broke and one of them died. I heard from a friend of mine that she went into the room that they had fallen from around midnight or 2 in the morning, opened the door, and heard someone barefoot running at her. The lights were turned off and she slammed the door and got out of there.

Such a wonderful place.

 

[StarCecil]

Wont find it online, but there's a bridge in my hometown where if you cover the hood of your car in a fine dust (like baby powder) and go in neutral across the bridge (its on a slight slope) you'll have the tiny handprints of a child that her mother threw off the bridge way back when.

It's funny you should mention that. There's a bridge here where a woman supposedly lost her baby (either due to her killing it or Indians doing so) and if you proclaim that you have her baby something happens (you get attacked, or hear things, or something). And there's a cemetery where if you go with a clean car at night you'll find the hand prints of children.

There's also some railroad tracks here where woman was supposed to have been killed by a train. If you put your car in neutral over the rails, she's supposed to push you over.

 

[zombie goat fetish]

Ireland has hundreds of Myths and Legends so I will just pick one

MUG RUITH

Mug Ruith is a famous druid of ancient Ireland. His father was Cethern and he had a famous daughter called Tlachta who was a sorceress. Some writers believe that Mug Ruith was an early sun God and his daughter Tlachta a fertility goddess. In medieval times there were many tales which linked Mug Ruith to the magician Simon Magus. In one of these tales they create a flying machine together called roth ramach (rowing wheel) which was sighted flying over Tlaghta, Co. Meath. He is always outspoken against the encroaching christian religion and a staunch supporter of Paganism.

He is described as either one-eyed, or blind in the tales and he can dry up the lakes with his breath or raise storms. The chieftain Fiachu Muillethan gave him a large tract of land in north Cork as a reward for helping him defeat Cormac Mac Art in the siege of Knocklong.

The mediaeval legend tells how one of his eyes was lost in Alps becoming a 'snow-calf' or mound, the other eye was destroyed while trying to stop the course of the sun for two days. He is able to fly and spy upon his enemies. His magical equipment includes his 'encennach' - bird head-dress and his 'roth ramach' (rowing wheel) which are the tools he uses to fly through the sky.

 

[Smagmuck_]

I live in Yuma Arizona, and just outside town is the old Yuma Territorial Prison.

Between 1910 and 1914 Yuma Union High School occupied the place and during a Football Game with a Phoenix team, and winning, they were dubbed "Criminals" because of the place where they played, and that Phoenix thought they cheated.

And the place is Haunted as fuck. At the Prison Hole, where they would throw someone in for solitary confinement, it's nearly pitch black, and when you're there by yourself. You tend to hear things, scraping on the walls, mumbling, and chains rattling.

That's about it really.

Oh yeah, and it's a major part of the Film 3:10 to Yuma.

 

[Powereaver]

supposedly a TON of people see a ghost of a olden time paperboy at a place i used to walk past constantly on my way to school/work i never saw him though... kinda sad really i want to see a ghost once .. id probably freaked out and run away but still would be kinda cool

he supposedly died during the original bridge construction over the brisbane river so he now haunts the spot of the original gate at southbank.

 

[Jodah]

Only one around here happens every couple years. Rumors start that a panther escaped a zoo or some such and is roaming wild. Nothing ever comes of it, and its likely because the closest school (and the one I went to) has a panther as the mascot, but it always pops up.

 

[comadorcrack]

I'm from the New Forest, in the south of England, so naturally there are a few ghosts and camp fire tales floating about.

Actually, I'll lead off with something I know if true! There are some amount of occult dealings deeper in the forest. In fact I once stumbled across a bunch of rabbit bones arranged in a symbol once. An actual occult movement took place there in the 50's called the "New Forest Coven", some people still believe that there are people who meet in the forest and follow rituals.

And there are defiantly a fair few ghost stories to share. People believe in phantoms that stalk the trees. There are mistresses that haunt the older pubs and inn. IN FACT! If anyone remembers "Most Haunted" they did an episode in Beaulieu, the next village over from me.

 

[NerdElf]

This isn't a story about ghosts, this is what happened.
During a battle between the turks, romanians and hungarians a long time ago (17th century or whatever) a meteorite fell from the sky and crashed in a place 1 minute away from where I live. Nowadays that's a children's park, but in ye olde timme, it was a forest of sorts.
Also, when it was falling from the sky, each camp thought that it was a missile from the enemies, so they shot at it with cannons.

 

[Wolfwood1203]

In El Paso (a crappy border town in Texas) we apparently have a legend about La Llorona ("The Weeping Woman"). A woman who supposedly drowned her children and in death has to search for them. Sometimes it's said that she kidnaps children.

 

[Aoper]

In Minnesota we have stores of bigfoot, but more interesting, wendigos, native American spirit cannibals. PRETTY CRAZY.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Only one around here happens every couple years. Rumors start that a panther escaped a zoo or some such and is roaming wild. Nothing ever comes of it, and its likely because the closest school (and the one I went to) has a panther as the mascot, but it always pops up.

Blue mountains? They are supposed to have panthers released by WW2 US military types or something.

Oh, close (ish) to where I live, there are rivers supposedly home to a colony of pleisiosauruses, just like Loch Ness...of course, Loch Ness is a ginormous body of deep water, and the local rivers tend to be narrow and shallow. And I don't believe in the Loch Ness monster anyway.

 

[Tilted_Logic]

I'm not aware of any solid myths surrounding the area I live in, but there is a really old town near by, I'll ask around and see if I can find some interesting tales later.

My aunt and uncle have a number of eerie stories of things that have happened to them growing up, I'm not sure if any have spurred a local legend, but they are still disturbing non-the-less.
My aunt's grandfather for example went to do work out deep in the woods. He was staying in a small dorm building, and during one of the nights as he was drifting off to sleep the wooden floor boards started to rattle uncontrollably. He fled the site, and later after numerous reports from colleagues of a similar occurance the floor boards were pried up and removed. It was was discovered that the building had been constructed on a Native American burial ground. I'm not sure what happened to the building after that, but I'm quite certain it was not made use of again.
There are other tales of seeing playful apparitions on the lawn of a house of 'spiritually attuned' people in the town nearby, but according to my uncle they only appear to people with the insight to see them.

Also, the Wendigo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo) has already been casually mentioned, but from the tales I've heard it's a Native American spirit that goads people into turning to cannibalism when the alternative is starvation. Once someone has eaten human flesh, they themselves become a Wendigo - a very gaunt, repulsively thin being with a ravenous and insatiable appetite for human flesh. It's a story told to ward people from falling into temptation in dire circumstances (famine, for example), as in the case of many Native Americans tribes it was unforgivable to resort to cannibalism.

A forest that has animals taking care of themselves, leaves that fall on their own, and clouds that move by themselves.

Leaves falling on their own? What nonsense you sputter, I think we'll need to call the Mythbusters.

 

[GundamSentinel]

There was supposed to be a basilisk in the tower of the church nearby. I went up there. No basilisk (well, color me surprised).

Myth busted!

 

[Druss the Legend]

Not really ghost stories or anything like that around my town that I know of.
But about 100 years ago when three murdering bandits got executed by hanging from the neck, one of their necks didn't break, so the executioner had to swing on the guys legs to suffocate him.

I cant help but chuckle at the mental image I get from that.

 

[BOOM headshot65]

I have 2.

One isnt really a myth anymore, weve known it in ther area forever.
Farmer: "There are Mountain Lions in Kansas."
Gov't: "No silly farmer, who has lived here his whole life and knows every type of animal in the area, you are wrong."

*March 2011* Gov't: "Mr. Farmer, we have done a recent study. Its Amazing! There are Mountain Lions in Kansas!"
Farmer: -___-

The other one is the legend about why the 5 mile/5 minute drive on our country road to town seems to take 30 minutes. The legend goes this farm woman was madly in love with the man from a nearby town, he said he wasnt ready, she said he would wait for him. Then she finds out he is with someone else, and he must use the road to get there. For revenge, she curses the road to get revenge on him by making everything on the road seem to move slower. ???

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Let's see... there's Bloody Steps [http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=6cfc534f-110c-41b3-8a0c-9e4ce9257baa]! There's also been rumours aplenty of big foot, black dogs, panthers and ghosts in Cannock Chase...