Paul Bunyan

The tall tale of Paul Bunyan is one of the more memorable tall tales of American folklore. Bunyan was a lumberjack of epic proportions. His tales are larger than life, as he was larger than any other man.

The Paul Bunyan tale is likely the result of a conglomeration of many logging camp tales eventually stretched and attributed to one man. That man happened to be named Paul Bunyan.

Many of the attributes given to Bunyan are so epically out of proportion that they can not even be attributed to some possible literal person. The story of Bunyan’s birth is equally elaborated. Variations in the story range from his day of birth delivery requiring up to 5 or more storks, whereas the normal stork could carry many babies.

His childhood is also glorified by amazing attributes. Every aspect of his size and childhood are stretched to unimaginable proportions. The theme seems to continue throughout his life and he is blamed or attributed with creating many different geological features. Mountains and canyons, such as the Grand Canyon are said to be a result of Bunyan simply walking or rolling across the landscape.

: Image via Wikipedia

Bunyan was not alone in his large world. He was often accompanied by his blue ox. Babe, the blue ox, is a common companion to Paul Bunyan in his tall tales. Since oxen were the common animal used at this time for hauling timber it was natural for him to have one, and because of Bunyan’s size, Babe was also of incredible dimensions.

The Paul Bunyan tale was made popular by early 20th Century newspaper articles passing on the story. There is quite possibly no way to determine the first use of the Bunyan name, and the stories may have began as long ago as there were loggers to tell tall tales around a fire, however, the Bunyan tale remains imbedded in the folklore of America.

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