Contemporary Legends Allow People To Confront The Dark Corners Of Life

August 8, 2001

Hazleton, Pa. -- Contemporary legends, especially those involving the occult and macabre, are a socially accepted way for people, particularly teenagers, to make sense of life and confront the mystery of death, says a Penn State folklore researcher in a new book.

Contemporary legends about satanic cults, aliens and ghosts are not collective delusions or sinister fantasies that threaten society, notes Dr. Bill Ellis, associate professor of English and American studies at Penn State's Hazleton Campus in northeastern Pennsylvania. Such legends are a universal phenomenon, having existed from Roman times at least.

Rather than being finished products, legends are always works in progress circulating among young and old, according to Ellis, author of "Aliens, Ghosts and Cults," published by the University of Mississippi. Each individual adds his or her own flourishes, but legends always preserve scattered fragments of truth.

Because legends of haunted graveyards, headless ghosts and secret covens can neither be proved or disproved, they defy closure and live on indefinitely, Ellis notes. In their own fashion, they serve a rational purpose by allowing people to find reason and order in what often appears to be a chaotic universe filled with the unexplainable, bizarre or menacing. Legends help to address anxieties created by the unknowable, the greatest of which is death, and justify actions that alleviate these anxieties, he adds.

In his book, Ellis demonstrates how contemporary legends, despite their supposed irrationality, can motivate political action designed to dispel fear. He cites as a prime example the 1987 prom scare at a rural Pennsylvania high school. The triggering event was the suicide of a popular male student. He had no previous record of depression, and his suicide appeared random and absurd, a fact which made it even more traumatic for the student body.

A week later, attention focused on a small group of students who allegedly belonged to a satanic cult; the students sullenly denied such connection. This scrutiny increased after someone spray-painted a skull on the suicide's gravestone, and crank calls threatened the lives of school officials and their families.

"In the midst of this charged atmosphere, students began to spread the news that a satanic cult in the area was planning mischief for the school's prom night," Ellis notes. "The rumors had many versions, one of which held that the first four couples to arrive would die; or perhaps it would be the first five persons to leave. Some students speculated that the refreshments would be laced with drugs or poison; others thought that people would simply be stabbed at the tables or shot on the parking lot as they left."

Mass fear spread rapidly among students and soon came to the attention of parents, even in neighboring school districts, the Penn State researcher says. Administrators had metal detectors installed at the door of the banquet room and hired additional security guards for the occasion. On the night of the prom, undercover agents mixed with students, and state police patrolled roads leading to the school.

Prom night became a showdown with the community's anxieties, during which no fatalities occurred, according to Ellis, a past president of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research.

"As always with contemporary legends, ambiguity remained about the outcome. Some could dismiss the entire episode as a ridiculous hoax. Others could say, with equal justification, that Satanists did in fact present a threat to the prom but had been frightened away by the extra security precautions," Ellis says. "Ironically, the panic, as painful as it was for many participants, was socially therapeutic. It exorcised the threat created by the suicide and put a rational mask on events otherwise seen as chaotic."

"Not all the evil named in contemporary legend is fictional," he warns. "Violent death is at the heart of nearly all teenage legend-trips or visits to places allegedly haunted or frequented by Satanists. However, the stories that linger around these sites, when stripped of all melodrama, resemble today's news items. Bodies do turn up in isolated fields and roads. High schoolers are tragically killed in car wrecks. Husbands do go berserk and kill wives and family. Serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer really do exist.

"Mortality fears, first becoming intense during adolescence, need to be relieved, and adult White middle-class society is notorious for making such fears taboo in `polite' discussion, thus evading the psychological burdens of such feelings," Ellis adds. "Local legends about haunted houses, demonic rituals and places where allegedly grisly deeds took place help teenagers come to grips with the basic reality of death. Through contemporary legends, teenagers test their capacity to be human, which means enjoying life even as it passes."

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Contacts:

Paul Blaum (814) 865-9481 pab15@psu.edu

Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 vfong@psu.edu

EDITORS: Dr. Ellis is at (570) 450-3026 or wce2@psu.edu by e-mail