Paul Bunyan - WikiHQ

Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His tall tales revolve around his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox (), his pet and working animal. The character originated in the oral tradition of North American loggers, He has been the subject of various literary compositions, musical pieces, commercial works, and theatrical productions.

Etymology

There are many hypotheses about the etymology of the name Paul Bunyan. Much of the commentary focuses on a French-Canadian origin for the name. Phonetically, Bunyan is similar to the Québécois expression "bon yenne!" expressing surprise or astonishment. The English surname Bunyan is derived from the same root as "bunion" in the Old French bugne, referring to a large lump or swelling. Several researchers have attempted to trace Paul Bunyan to the character of Bon Jean of French Canadian folklore.

Early references

425px|thumb|left|The first [[Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox|Paul Bunyan statue (Bemidji, Minnesota)]]

Michael Edmonds states in his 2009 book Out of the Northwoods: The Many Lives of Paul Bunyan that Paul Bunyan stories circulated for at least thirty years before finding their way into print. In contrast to the lengthy narratives abundant in published material, Paul Bunyan "stories" when told in the lumbercamp bunkhouses were presented in short fragments. Parallels in early printings support the view that at least a handful of Bunyan stories hold a common origin in folklore.

The first known reference of Paul Bunyan in print appeared in the March 17, 1893, issue of Gladwin County Record. Under the local news section for the area of Beaverton, it reads, "Paul Bunion [sic] is getting ready while the water is high to take his drive out." This line was presumably an inside joke, as it appeared over fifteen years before any commercial use of the Paul Bunyan name. At the time, few of the general public would have known who Paul Bunyan was.

The earliest recorded story of Paul Bunyan is an uncredited 1904 editorial in the Duluth News Tribune which recounts:

Each of these elements recurs in later accounts, including logging the Dakotas, a giant camp, the winter of the blue snow, and stove skating. All four anecdotes are mirrored in J. E. Rockwell's "Some Lumberjack Myths" six years later, and James MacGillivray wrote on the subject of stove skating in "Round River" four years before that.

MacGillivray's account, somewhat extended, reappeared in The American Lumberman in 1910. The American Lumberman followed up with a few sporadic editorials, such as "Paul Bunyan's Oxen", "In Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty", and "Chronicle of Life and Works of Mr. Paul Bunyan". Rockwell's earlier story was one of the few to allude to Paul Bunyan's large stature, "eight feet tall and weighed 300 pounds", and introduce his big blue ox, before Laughead commercialized Paul Bunyan, although W. D. Harrigan referred to a giant pink ox in "Paul Bunyan's Oxen", circa 1914. In all the articles, Paul Bunyan is praised as a logger of great physical strength and unrivaled skill.

Laughead's influence

thumb|right|Paul Bunyan as depicted by William B. Laughead

In 1916, advertising copywriter William B. Laughead wrote an advertising pamphlet for the Red River Lumber Company using the Paul Bunyan folk character. Laughead's first endeavor was a pamphlet entitled "Introducing Mr. Paul Bunyan of Westwood, California", but it did not prove effective. It was not until "Tales about Paul Bunyan, Vol. II" appeared that the campaign gained momentum. (in Laughead's version, Paul Bunyan towers over trees, while in the earlier folktales Bunyan had been extraordinarily tall and strong, but of human proportions).

Laughead attributes the creation of several American landscapes, landmarks and natural wonders to Paul Bunyan. by their footprints. Later writers made up more details and exploits, such as the creation of bodies of water including Lake Bemidji (which has a shape somewhat resembling a giant footprint when viewed from above). Later authors, and possibly tourist agents, would add other geographic features to those Paul Bunyan was supposed to have created.

Stories about Bunyan credited him with creating the Grand Canyon by pulling his ax behind him, and Mount Hood by putting stones on his campfire.

This burial of the original material under stories by commercial writers engendered confusion over whether Bunyan had ever even been a genuine folkloric character at all, although later research has established this.

The Laughead pamphlets remain popular, collected in a single volume titled The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan.

In Ojibwe folklore

thumb|right|[[Red Lake (Minnesota) ]]

The figure of Bunyan was adapted by the Ojibwe people into folklore about Nanabozho, a culture hero of the Ojibwe and Anishinaabe.

In the story, when Paul Bunyan came to log the forests of Northern Minnesota, Nanabozho fought him in defense of the forest. They fought for three days; Nanabozho finally slapped Bunyan with a giant walleye. Bunyan was knocked onto his buttocks in the mud, the imprint of which formed Red Lake, Minnesota. This is responsible for the lake's distinctive shape and the preservation of the Chippewa National Forest and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Children's adaptations

left|thumb|A still from the 1960 [[Mel-O-Toons cartoon Paul Bunyan. Typical among juvenile accounts, the cartoon features Paul Bunyan batting cannonballs in the American Revolutionary War, sinking pirate ships, and building the Big Rock Candy Mountain.]]

Running at variance to his origins in folklore, the character of Paul Bunyan has become a fixture for juvenile audiences since his debut in print. Typical among such adaptations is the further embellishment of stories pulled directly from William B. Laughead's pamphlet, and with very few elements from oral tradition adapted into them. Nearly all of the literature is presented in long narrative format, exaggerates Paul Bunyan's height to colossal proportions, and follows him from infancy to adulthood.

Some of the more enduring collections of stories include Paul Bunyan by Esther Shephard (illustrated by Rockwell Kent), Paul Bunyan by James Stevens, Paul Bunyan Swings His Axe by Dell J. McCormick, Paul Bunyan by Esther Shephard, Paul Bunyan and His Great Blue Ox by Wallace Wadsworth, and The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan by William Laughead.

The Wonderful Adventures of Paul Bunyan as retold by Louis Untermeyer and illustrated by Everett Gee Jackson was published in 1945 by The Heritage Press, an imprint of The George Macy Companies.

Legends of Paul Bunyan (1947) was the first book published by the prolific tall tale writer Harold Felton.

In 1958, Walt Disney Studios produced Paul Bunyan as an animated short musical. In it, Paul competes with his axe in a tree-chopping contest against a steam-powered mechanical saw. The feature starred Thurl Ravenscroft, perhaps best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger for The Kellogg Company, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

"Three Tall Tales", a 1963 episode of The Wonderful World of Color, is an animated three-part anthology. The third part is the tale of Paul Bunyan.

In the 1995 Disney film Tall Tale, Paul Bunyan is played by Oliver Platt. Contrary to the usual image of Bunyan's gigantism, Platt's Paul is depicted as a man of average height, but compensated with a "larger than life" personality consistent with the film's "over the top" nature.

In Marybeth Lorbiekci and Renée Grae's 2007 story Paul Bunyan's Sweetheart, Paul marries Lucette Diana Kensack, a giant Meti woman who teaches Paul to be a forester, replanting the forest after logging.

In 2017, an animated film based loosely on the folktale titled Bunyan and Babe was released, starring John Goodman as Paul Bunyan.

Scholarly research

K. Bernice Stewart, a student at the University of Wisconsin, was working contemporaneously with Laughead to gather Paul Bunyan stories from woodsmen in the Midwest. Stewart was able to make a scholarly anthology of original anecdotes through a series of interviews. He published these anecdotes in short pamphlet format for the use of students of folklore. Much of his research was financed through the government-funded Wisconsin Writers' Program. From 1865 to 1875, Fournier worked for the H. M. Loud Company in the Grayling, Michigan, area. and this is occasionally repeated in other accounts.

Stewart and Watt acknowledge that they have not yet succeeded in definitively finding out whether Bunyan was based on an actual person or was wholly mythical. They have noted, however, that some of the older lumberjacks whom they interviewed claimed to have known him or members of his crew, and the supposed location of his grave was actually pointed out in northern Minnesota. Throughout the better part of the 20th century, Paul Bunyan's name and image continued to be used to promote various products, cities, and services. Across North America, giant statues of Paul Bunyan were erected to promote local businesses and tourism. A significant portion of these were produced from the 1960s through the 1970s by the company International Fiberglass as part of their "muffler man" series of giant fiberglass sculptures. Many cities through which the trail passes sell Paul Bunyan trinkets and novelty items. The Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon (started in 2013) runs along the Paul Bunyan State Trail, around Lake Bemidji and past the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues. The Bemidji statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe, the blue ox, appear in the Fargo television series.

His statue is also briefly shown in the film Fargo from 1996.

The statue of Paul Bunyan located in Bangor, Maine, is regularly mentioned in the novel It by Stephen King.

A 2024 advert for Apple Pay features a collection of commemorative plates. The protagonist is sitting in her armchair when she discovers a ‘Babe the blue ox’ plate. It is the final missing piece in her collection and she buys it. It appears she is buying it for Paul Bunyan who seems to be looking out from his plate.

He is mentioned in the song "Grand Canyon" from the Magnetic Fields' 1999 album 69 Love Songs. He is also mentioned in the song "Double" from Yeat's 2022 album 2 Alive.

Paul Bunyan appears in It (2017), It Chapter Two (2019) and It: Welcome to Derry (2025–present) as being born in the fictional town of Derry, Maine.

References

External links

Field recordings

Bill McBride in interview with Alan Lomax, "Dialogue on lumber camps and lumberjack ballads; Paul Bunyan discussion, tale: The Round River Drive," Mount Pleasant, Michigan, August 22, 1938, (Field Recording) *Paul Bunyan discussion begins at 7:04
Bill McBride in interview with Alan Lomax, "Paul Bunyan tale: The Round River Drive, cont.; Roving Lumberjack," Mount Pleasant, Michigan, August 22, 1938, (Field Recording)
Martin Mustig (phonetic spelling) in interview with Alan Lomax, "Oh When; Paul Bunyan stories," Traverse City, Michigan, September 3, 1938, (Field Recording) *Paul Bunyan discussion begins at 2:47
Perry Allen and Carl Lathrop in interview with Alan Lomax, "Wild Mustard River; Paul Bunyan tales," Saint Louis, Michigan, August 22, 1938, (Field Recording) *Paul Bunyan discussion begins at 3:03

Text resources

"Tall Tales" from PaulBunyan.org.
"Tall Timber Tales" (An Archive of Early Paul Bunyan Printings from 1904 to 1924). Paul Bunyan Fine Art.
Inventory of the William B. Laughead Papers, 1897-1958, Forest History Society Archives
"The Birth of Paul Bunyan", Forest History Society, October 1972
Esther Shephard. Paul Bunyan. Illustrations by Rockwell Kent. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1941. Full text available free online at the Internet Public Library.