Urban Legends: The Spider Bite

URBAN LEGENDS
An urban legend or contemporary legend is a genre of folklore comprising stories circulated as true, especially as
having happened to a "friend of a friend" or family member, often with horrifying or humorous elements. These
legends can be entertaining, but often concern mysterious peril or troubling events, such as disappearances and
strange objects. They may also be confirmation of moral standards, or reflect prejudices, or be a way to make sense
of societal anxieties.
Many urban legends are framed as complete stories with plot and characters. The compelling appeal of a typical
urban legend is its elements of mystery, horror, fear, or humor. Often they serve as cautionary tales. Some urban
legends are morality tales that depict someone, usually a child, acting in a disagreeable manner, only to wind up in
trouble, hurt, or dead.
Urban legends will often try to invoke a feeling of disgust in the reader which tends to make these stories more
memorable and potent. Elements of shock value can be found in almost every form of urban legend and are
partially what makes these tales so impactful. An urban legend may include elements of the supernatural or
paranormal. Many of the most known tales will try to balance out the normal with the paranormal.
The spider bite

Possibly one of the more "believed" urban myths, this one tells the tale of a young person, often a traveller to a far-
flung location, who is bitten by a spider and/or an ant. On returning home, the victim experiences a "hatching"
whereby parasitic baby spiders and/or ants burst out from under their skin. Once she saw the spiders, she suffered a
heart attack.
FYI – this isn't physically possible
Chain letters
You know this one. You get sent a communiqué that suggests if you don't pass it on to five more people there'll be
some terrible consequence. This urban legend seems to have predicted viral marketing by twenty years or so.
The concept of the deadly chain letter was best explored in Christopher Pike's Chain Letter, but the idea of cursed
texts is also explored in Scarlet Thomas's The End of Mr Y and also Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The Slender Man

A truly modern modern myth, Slender Man started online as part of a competition to Photoshop pictures to include
a supernatural element. User 'Victor Surge' added a suited, faceless, unnaturally tall figure into two black and white
photos which were copied and distributed virally over the net.
Since then, millions of authors, mostly online, have shared and spread the story on websites such as Creepy pasta.
The Slender Man's MO is to abduct people, often children who seem to willingly go with the figure never to be seen
again, making him a terrifying version of the Pied Piper. New urban legends will almost certainly have some sort of
viral online element.
The Whitechapel Murders
The Whitechapel Murders and the mysterious entity committing them are perhaps one of the most famous examples
of an Urban Legend in London’s history. ‘Jack The Ripper’ was never found or arrested, but several individuals
were potentially tied to the mysterious entity – his nickname ‘the ripper’ came from the way he left the victim’s
bodies. Part of Jack’s notoriety came from the nature of his murders.
Alligators in the Sewers

The ‘Sewer Alligators’ myth implies that Alligators have, for some time been living in the underground sewer
system beneath New York – a climate which is far too cold for Alligators in the winter months. However, this myth
has persisted, probably because of its proximity to the everyday life of all those working and living in New York
today.
The story begins in the late 1950s, when wealthy families who had visited Florida had brought live baby Alligators
to the city as pets from the state. Upon realising that these small reptiles became much larger, aggressive creatures –
not at all suitable as pets – they promptly flushed the babies down toilets and into drains. The Alligators supposedly
thrive and breed down there, and occasional rumoured sightings keep the legend going strong. In 2017, an
adolescent Alligator was found in a Florida storm drain.
The Pied Piper

The well-known Pied Piper story has its origins in 1284, in Hamelin, Germany, when the town was suffering from a
plague brought about by an infestation of rats. Famously, the Piper, dressed in ‘pied’ (multicoloured) clothing
appeared and led the rats away with a tune played on his flue – for an agreed fee. Following this, the people of
Hamelin backed down on the agreed fee, and the Piper furiously demanded revenge.
In the same month he returned and, in the same manner as he had done with the rats, led away all the town’s
children – apart from three. A disabled child, who couldn’t walk, a deaf child, who could not hear the music, and a
blind child, who couldn’t see where he was going. The truth to the legend has several, rather dark theories, though
the most commonly claimed is that the majority of the town’s children perished in a plague, which was brought
about by rats.

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URBAN LEGENDS

The spider bite

The Slender Man

Alligators in the Sewers

The Pied Piper

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