Over the weekend, I had the chance to become acquainted with American legend, Paul Bunyan! 😃 Although not known universally, Bunyan is still a rather popular local legend, and he has even been featured in recent media. The Simpsons did an episode on him years ago. Children's show Phineas and Ferb even mentioned him.
(Source: https://tenor.com/en-CA/view/simpsons-homer-babe-bestfriend-cow-gif-9333226)
(Source: https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/53ce9bc4-74f6-43c0-a967-4816afd51e94/gif)
Up until recently, I, however, was still unfamiliar with the legend. The only things I knew about Paul Bunyan were that he was huge, and that he has a blue ox. Needless to say, I was excited to learn more about Bunyan 😄
So this is the lovely copy of the book that I came across. I was enthralled, albeit a bit heartbroken, at the dedications that I found within the book.
The first dedication was from the person who had originally purchased the book. Given its heartfelt message, I would imagine a high school girlfriend bought this for her boyfriend. Perhaps they broke up and he departed from the book...
The second dedication was from the editor of the book, the person responsible for compiling these short fables together. I think it is absolutely beautiful, and I can only dream of leaving the same impression on my own children...
For one thing, as a Canadian myself, I was honored to learn that Paul Bunyan is also Canadian! 😃🇨🇦 It is said that "Bunyan was of French descent and was born on the bank of the Chippewa River, Canada, and "was a 'chunk of a boy' weighing a full 80 pounds." The storks who attempted to deliver Bunyan to his parents were so exhausted that he had to walk halfway! He was so large that at "only 3 weeks old ... he knocked down four square miles of standing timbers."
"When Paul was 7 months old, he sawed off the legs from under his dad's bed."
It was then that his parents knew that Paul would grow up to be a great logger.
As a child, Bunyan had also contracted a terrible case of the mumps. "He was sick for eleven years, and it took three doctors, an osteopath, twelve chiropractors and a mind-reader to pull him through."
As a man, Paul would go on to run his own logging camp, a group of men who would travel around to log trees. "Not a man of that memorable crew was under 7 feet in height, and none weighed less than 350 pounds."
Bunyan himself was a monstrosity of a man! 😱 He was 12 feet, 11 inches tall, and weighed 888 pounds!
A typical meal to feed Bunyan's crew was an incredible feat to accomplish!
"We worked for three hours to prepare the meal. It consisted of 33 pounds of beef, one venison, 2 bushels of fried potatoes, 12 loaves of bread ... 7 gallons of coffee, 6 hams, 12 dozen eggs, 678 pancakes ... topped off with 6 gallons of pure maple syrup. Paul Bunyan was hungry."
Paul was capable of some amazing achievements. "He whacked off 31 trees as if they had been stalks of wheat." He was quite the shot! "He looked behind the fallen tree and found 28 dead deer there." His breaths of frost still hang in the air from his travels up north, and "sometimes they get out to sea and then they're called fog."
Bunyan had three distinct voices. "The third voice he used for swearing and cussing ... His hot words set forest fires raging ... which took 500 men about a week to extinguish." He grew lead pencils!: "Pretty soon the lead pencils come up eight inches high and started to rubber." He could tame rivers! Legends even say that Paul's fight with fellow giant, Pecos Bill, was what created the Grand Canyon.
(Image created using an AI art generator on Night Cafe)
There were rumors of a wife, where another legend states that Bunyan had created a woman out of wood. The figure drifted into the lake water and emerged a woman! 😱
We do know that Babe the Blue Ox was no rumor. It is said that Babe was discovered by Paul in Tonnere Bay, during the middle of an incredibly rare blue snowstorm! From then on, the two remained thick as thieves.
"Paul was ticklish, especially around the neck, and the Ox had a strong passion for licking him there with his tongue."
Unfortunately Babe ended up passing away one day, after making the terrible mistake of devouring a red-hot stove! 🥵
There was another incredible legend of Sport, the Reversible Dog. An accident took place after Bunyan had mistaken the dog for a mouse!
"Paul's axe cut the dog in two, but Paul ... quickly stuck the two halves together, gave the pup first-aid and bandaged him up. ... It was seen that Paul in his haste had twisted the two halves so that the hind legs pointed straight up."
The book ended with a poem, about the "death" of Paul Bunyan.