Comments on: There is a legend which comes from...

There is a legend which comes from...

doctornemo — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 08:47:28 -0800

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.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 09:33:40 -0800

Pretty sure that this is an unused Star Trek: Enterprise plot.

By: SoberHighland

SoberHighland — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 09:39:46 -0800

This is so great.

By: tuckshopdilettante

tuckshopdilettante — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:00:28 -0800

Spoiler: a small pig meets an unhappy fate a lot. (This is lovely, though — thank you!)

By: BungaDunga

BungaDunga — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:13:08 -0800

pretty much a Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell footnote generator

By: praemunire

praemunire — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:17:00 -0800

"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!

By: ChurchHatesTucker

ChurchHatesTucker — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:27:21 -0800

A lot of improbable births, too. It needs a hash generator so you can share a link to a particular outcome.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:39:42 -0800

man those necromancers got up to some shit back in the day

By: medusa

medusa — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:42:57 -0800

It needs a hash generator so you can share a link to a particular outcome. I think that's what this thread is for.

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:46:45 -0800

"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.

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 10:55:39 -0800

"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.

By: AFII

AFII — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 11:15:30 -0800

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.

By: winesong

winesong — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 11:31:25 -0800

The final unpublished calendar/alphabet/screenplay/treatise on life, as written and illustrated by Edward Gorey.

By: adrianhon

adrianhon — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 12:13:39 -0800

Brilliant!

By: edencosmic

edencosmic — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:44:20 -0800

"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!

By: turbid dahlia

turbid dahlia — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:45:16 -0800

"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.

By: emmet

emmet — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 14:45:18 -0800

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.

By: ChuraChura

ChuraChura — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 15:39:30 -0800

I have been looking for prompts to get back into writing creatively...

By: verb

verb — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 15:51:49 -0800

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.

By: inexorably_forward

inexorably_forward — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 16:45:07 -0800

I'm enjoying the mad libs feel of these.

By: Cris E

Cris E — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 19:00:00 -0800

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...

By: nfalkner

nfalkner — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 19:12:17 -0800

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."

By: FatherDagon

FatherDagon — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 21:57:19 -0800

"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

By: Fuchsoid

Fuchsoid — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 03:31:34 -0800

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."

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 05:34:38 -0800

"...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.

By: obscure simpsons reference

obscure simpsons reference — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 09:08:34 -0800

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.

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 17:00:10 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 11:54:09 -0800

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.