What Is a Tall Tale? Origins and Examples

Ever heard someone tell a story that is so absurd and yet they still swear it is true? Then you’ve probably been subjected to what is called a tall tale.

These are stories that are outrageous and hard to believe. Both the speaker and the listener know this, but see the hyperbole as simply for the sake of entertainment.

What Is a Tall Tale?

Tall tales are stories with implausible elements that are told as if they were real or factual. Some of these are based on actual events but exaggerated beyond belief while others are completely make-believe.

Most tall tales are light in tone, primarily because the exaggerations make them humorous. They become the central focus of the story, rather than simple embellishments.

A key part of Americal folktale, many believe that the tall tale came about during the era of the wild west. Frontiersmen would start bragging contests as they sat around their fires during the night. Their stories kept getting wilder and wilder as they were retold, birthing the many legendary figures of the Old West.

No one knows for sure why these kinds of stories are called tall tales. The widely believed reason is that the people featured in them just seem to be taller, bigger, and larger than life, even if they did exist in reality.

Examples of Tall Tales

Tall tales aren’t restricted to American literature and folktale. You can also find them in Canada, Australia, parts of Europe, and more. Below is a list of these tales.

America

• Paul Bunyan—An extremely large and strong lumberjack who allegedly dug out the Great Lakes and the Grand Canyon, had a blue cow, could eat food fit for many men, and moved so fast he could turn off a light and jump into bed before the room went dark.
• Jim Bowie—A real person whose supposed exploits include disemboweling men with one strike of his knife and his heroic stand during the battle of the Alamo.
• Calamity Jane—known for looking and acting like a man, drinking people under the table, and being an excellent markswoman.
• John Henry—A steel driver (someone who hammers steel drills into rock in preparation for explosives) who is said to have bested a steam-powered drilling machine in a race only to die because his heart gave out from the stress.
• Molly Pitcher—A woman from the American Revolutionary War who endlessly supplied soldiers with water to both quench their thirst and cool their cannons. Legends also tell of her replacing her husband in the gun crew for the rest of the battle when he was injured.

Europe

• Fionn mac Cumhaill—An Irish mythological hunter-warrior who is believed to have made the Giant’s Causeway as stepping stones to Scotland because he didn’t want his feet to get wet.
• The Irish Rover—An Irish folk song about a fancifully large ship carrying various wonderful cargo, that is currently on a 7-year voyage, only to reach an unfortunate end.
• Toell the Great—A giant hero from Estonian mythology who was a king but lived like a farmer, had a walking stick that was a 5-fathom spruce tree trunk, and was so tall he could walk through the Soela strait.
• The Babin Republic—A satirical society that dedicated itself to telling tall tales and mocking people. They awarded “offices” and “titles” to people with false or exaggerated stories such as someone who overinflated their hunting experience as a “Master of the Hunt.”
• Baron Munchausen—A German nobleman (based on a real one) whose fictional exploits include riding a cannonball, traveling to the moon, fighting on the back of an eagle, and wrestling a crocodile.

Australia

• Crooked Mick—A giant of a man with the appetite to match. Described as the quintessential bushman, he has lifted impossible weights, sheared a huge number of sheep in record time, and kicked alligators all the way to the moon.
• Rodney Ansell—A cattle grazer and buffalo hunter who was stranded in an extremely remote land for 56 days. Tales of his survival with limited supplies spread worldwide. His exploits eventually became the basis for the film, Crocodile Dundee.

Canada

• Big Joe Mufferaw—At only 16, this near-mythical lumberjack is known for defeating a boxing champion with only one punch. He’s also known for defending many French-Canadian workers from oppressive English troublemakers.
• Sam McGee—Sam McGee freezes to death but not before extracting a promise from a friend to cremate him in a particular location. Turns out, he’s not dead and simply conned the dude into dragging him somewhere warm and cozy.

The Tradition of the Tall Tale

Tall tales were first told in an oral tradition. Think of people who hunkered around a fire, trying to one-up one another with progressively outrageous stories.

Of course, the claims within these stories are understood as only for entertainment. The fun of it was how creative you could get when making these stories. Sometimes you just say something so ridiculous that no one can think of a comeback for it.

But like a lot of stories, these tales evolve and occupy the space between truth and fiction. It gets hard to separate the facts when stories change as they’re told from person to person.

All in all, tall tales are the type of things that are fun to read and tell. You can definitely check out what’s “canon”, add your own embellishments, or create your own.

What’s your favorite tall tale? Share them in the comments below!

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