Paul Bunyan

Shirley: Hi Jake, how are you today?

Jake: Good. How are you Shirley?

Shirley: Not too bad thanks. I thought we might talk about folk heroes today. I don’t really know much about American folk heroes, are there any that you have a favorite or...?

Jake: Actually my hometown in the United States happens to be known as one of the hometowns for Paul Bunyan.

Shirley: I think I’ve heard of that name but I don’t know anything about him.

Jake: Paul Bunyan was a lumberjack. Like, he would cut down trees and he was supposedly a very giant man. He was huge. And I don’t know if he ever actually lived sometime in the past, but maybe he was just a very large man but somehow the stories have been passed down to say that he was as large as a house or as large as a skyscraper. It completely depends on who you ask.

Shirley: Wow, so not sure whether he’s a mythical character or a real character.

Jake: No one really knows for sure.

Shirley: What did he do?

Jake: Well, some people say that he took his ax and he dragged it behind his back across the United States and he made the Mississippi river.

Shirley: So it’s a kind of story to explain why something exists.

Jake: That’s part of it. And also, he had a pet too. His pet is very famous.

Shirley: And what kind of pet?

Jake: His pet was an ox, but it wasn’t just an ordinary ox. It was a blue ox. And it was also oversized to fit with his size.

Shirley: What did his pet do?

Jake: Well his pet I think would just carry lumber for him or something...

Shirley: So about when did this story start? When did Paul Bunyan become famous? Or when did people know about that story?

Jake: Well, I’m not exactly sure, but like your country, the United States is a very young country and has a very young history since the European settlers came there so I think it’s maybe from a couple hundred years ago, maybe at the most.

Shirley: Hmm. Ok.