Urban legends, or urban myths, tend to be stories so widely and universally circulated that the majority of people who come across them automatically accept them as being genuine incidents. Furthermore, those people circulating these urban legends believe these stories to be completely genuine although, when investigated, these myths are exactly that – stories proven to be myths when minimal investigation as to their sources is carried out.

Of course, when relating an urban legend it is essential for your story to sound feasible, preferably referencing it back to ‘somebody, whom I knew, knew somebody to whom this happened to…’ The urban legend could be embarrassing or funny, appalling or tragic – or simply something along the lines of ‘my mother’s friend’s daughter caught a cold that turned out to not be a cold but was the symptoms of being allergic to insect bites…’. It is important that, as an urban legend unfolds in the telling, that the essence of the story is believable, from which its veracity can be proven from reliable sources.

Not Necessarily Fictitious

Urban legends which eventually become entrenched into society’s folklore give the appearance of being a tale with a moral whose actual storyline is based on an incident derived from fact. Over generations much of this folklore evolves so that, as we reach modern times, there are often as many versions, each with a ring of truth to them, as there are people telling the story. Despite their variety, there are certain characteristics that are common to all urban legends, least of all that the source of these myths are often of indeterminate origin, with their beginnings lost amidst the mists of time. Despite these lost beginnings, the greatly disparate myths are all thought to arise from a single event, long lost in the past, with the storyline carrying a ring of truth with it regardless of the number of times the myth is re-told and re-adapted in the telling.

Contemporary Legends, Urban or Not

Many of these legends have evolved over generations from a single event in the past and, despite being called ‘urban’ often have little to do with originating within any metropolis. So, while these apocryphal stories tend to be referred to as ‘urban myths’ or ‘urban legends’ there is no real consensus as to where the ‘urban’ derivative actually came from. In fact, these myths are often referred to as contemporary legends and mean exactly the same thing.

Turning an Event into a Narrative

An important characteristic of the urban legend is that it is a story that has evolved over time, narrated in many places almost simultaneously, yet emerging from a single, unspecified source. Furthermore, the narrative needs to hold a kernel of truth into which is interwoven a narrative that sounds as feasible as to be a true event. Occasionally, the narrative does actually seem to come to life in a true, witnessed event although this does not detract from an acknowledgment of being any less an urban legend or, legend of a contemporary nature.

Want to know how to determine whether a tall tale is real or if they are an urban legends stories? Visit the snopes.com website to check whether the story is a myth or not.

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