The Birth of Paul Bunyan
aul Bunyan is probably one of my favorite Tall Tale heroes. Today’s tall tale, from American Folklore, is about the birth of Paul Bunyan, as retold by S. E. Schlosser.
Now I hear tell that Paul Bunyan was born in Bangor, Maine. It took five giant storks to deliver Paul to his parents. His first bed was a lumber wagon pulled by a team of horses. His father had to drive the wagon up to the top of Maine and back whenever he wanted to rock the baby to sleep.
As a newborn, Paul Bunyan could hollar so loud he scared all the fish out of the rivers and streams. All the local frogs started wearing earmuffs so they wouldn’t go deaf when Paul screamed for his breakfast. His parents had to milk two dozen cows morning and night to keep his milk bottle full and his mother had to feed him ten barrels of porrige every two hours to keep his stomach from rumbling and knocking the house down.
Read more . . .
(Picture credit: ForestSystems.com. And Disney, of course.)
