13 legends of Brazilian folklore
Folkloric legends are stories told by little hair from a place to a lot of time. Those stories, or myths, were transmitted from one geração to another pela oralidade, ou seja, pela fala.
Each country or region has its own lenda, but many times you see its origins are still uncertain and mixed cultures of other povos.
No Brazil, mostly lendas and folklore people emerged from union between indigenous, black and european cultures.
We can consider that the folk myths are ancestral symbols that connect people to serious years past through fantastic narratives cheias of meaning.
1. Cuca
Cuca is a personagem of Brazilian folklore who is very well known as the figure of a velha senhora as a reptile body.
Na verdade, it's about a feiticeira with powers to enchant and kidnap children, as we see in the popular song Nana Neném:
Nana, baby
That cuca see me hit
Papai foi na roça
Mom was working
At the origin of the myth born in Portugal as a personagem Coca, a creature with a assusta as disobedient children.
No Brasil, essa lenda ganhou projeção ao integrate the histories of the Sítio do Pica Pau Amarelo, a literary work by Monteiro Lobato with 23 volumes, written between 1920 and 1947.
In 2020 Netflix launched a series Cidade Invisível, featuring various Brazilian folkloric characters. Cuca is played by Alessandra Negrini and exhibits magical powers to control bubbles, ler minds and make people numb. Also, a personagem na series assemelha mais às origins da lenda do than a figure as a jacaré body that we commonly associate.
To learn more about this figure, please also check: Lenda da Cuca explained.
2. Tutu
Tutu, also known as Tutu Marambá, assembles itself to people who fear children, such as Boi da Cara Preta, or Bicho Papão (and Cuca itself).
Its origin and Europe, but only in Brazil, it was transformed and ganhou esse not as an influence of African culture, what "Tutu" vem from "quitutu", a word of Angolan origin that means "ogre", second or historian and folklorist Câmara Cascudo.
Assim, a creature and described as briguenta, robust and covered with hairs. In other variations, he presents an indefinite body.
Na Bahia, was related to or porco-do-mato, due to physical force and also because a region or animal was chamado by a similarity, caititu.
A lenda is also present nas songs to fazer as crianças dormirem, such as:
Marambáia tutu
no more come,
what pai do menino
he sends you kill.
Also a member of the Cidade Invisível series, nele Tutu is represented by a big bearded man who lives next to Cuca.
3. Iara
A Iara is a folklore entity that It is related to the waters, by isso she is also called by Mãe D ’Água.
She appears as a beautiful woman. Metade mulher and metade peixe, Iara enchants the homens with his enfeitiçada voice, attracting you to or founding the river. Assim, their victims ended up dying suffocated.
Such a figure many times is he related to African entity Yemanjá, a deusa das águas.
In literature, I was very much explored, appearing in works by Machado de Assis, Gonçalves Dias, among other great writers.
She is more present in the Amazon region of the country, being a mixture of European myths with indigenous elements.
In 1881, a personagem was described by the researcher João Barbosa Rodrigues da follows maneira:
A Iara was two old men with all his attributes, modified by nature and hair climate. Live not found two rivers, in the shade of virgin forests, with a brown complexion, olhos e os pretos hair, as you filhos do equador, burned hair, burning sun, while two seas north of loura, and green temples like two seaweed rochedos.
To learn more about this important folkloric personagem, read: Lenda da Iara analyzed.
4. Saci
A black boy, travesso and with a perna só, who lives with a vermelho hat on the head and a hookah on the mouth. Assim is described or most famous personage of Brazilian folklore.
O Saci, ou Saci-Pererê, originated in Brazil and has been present in popular culture since colonial times.
Very agitated, funny and brincalhão, or saci enters the house of people to gather fish, such as barter or salt with sugar and submerge with objects. Além disso, seu strident assobio serves to amaze travelers in the street.
That figure has so much um playful side quanto o gives protection to forests, ha that also dominates nature, conhecendo herbs and medicinal plants. Assim, fear or power to confuse the people who enter the kills without authorization.
In all the regions of the country, his image was already known and was explored in various artistic productions, such as films, books and histories in quadrinhos (HQ).
As an example we can cite HQ To Turma do Pererê, Launched Ziraldo cartunista hair in 1959, or first colorful gibi in Brazil.
O Saci also appears in works by Monteiro Lobato and ganhou um longa-metragem in 1951, directed by Rodolfo Nanni.
5. Bot
Imagine that at a São João festival a beautiful girl meets an elegant raptor, seduced, enchanted or engraved. Depois some. Provavelmente or subject was or Boto
A lenda, common to the Amazon region, it is said that in noites de lua de cheia or in festas juninas, a boto cor-de-rosa transforms into homeme sai to name the girls. He wears an elegant dress and covers his head to hide a hole that he uses to breathe.
Assim like boa part two national myths, or Boto é fruit of mixed European culture à indigenous.
His figure is celebrated in popular festivals such as Festa do Sairé, not Pará.
This is a fanciful story used - at the same time - to justify unwanted gestations in which the homens do not assumem a paternity and also cases of abuse and sexual violence against women ribeirinhas.
It is also possible to olhar for the myth of a more poetic form, as um symbol of union between human being and nature.
Na ficção a historia já was exhibited some times, sendo or film Ele, or Boto (1987) or more conhecido, which was drawn by Carlos Alberto Riccelli, not the main role.
In 2020 in series Cidade Invisível, or personagem was interpreted by Victor Sparapane e recebeu o nome de Manaus.
Saiba ainda mais on this incredible personagem: Lenda do Boto.
6. Body-dry
As suggested by me, Corpo-seco is a dried-up death that amazes people, like um Dead-alive.
When I live, or little subject, it was so ruim that nem a terra or quis, expelling-o. A creature is also known as Unhudo and when deixa or corpo happens to be or Bradador.
According to the folklorist Câmara Cascudo, it can be understood as follows:
A convergence of two spirits-bradadores, souls that shout and choram, commons not European Folklore, like or Corpo-Seco, is a natural and logical popular explanation. Or corpse resequido, expelled from the land, it seems rejecte by it and only would be given for an exceptionally serious sin. Or screaming ghost (Bradador) must be, necessarily, or spirit that animates or Corpo-Seco. Both, spirit and body, fulfill a sina, fulfilling moral and religious commitments.
7. Curupira
Two more known people of the Brazilian culture, or Curupira. Muito forte e fast, he is described as um jovem com fire hair and pés pés turned back.
These are important attributes na sua defend you killHe lives in the forests and is a mission to defend the hunters and other homens who want to harm nature, confusing you with their sticks and with strident screams.
In any way, it was associated with "demonic" entities not in the 19th century, as seen in the first story known about or myth, by José de Anchieta in 1560.
It is a known cause and it peels everyone's mouth that has certain demons, that you Brasis chamam corupira, that attack the Indians many times I do not kill, dao-lhes de açoites, machucam-os e matam-os. São testemunhas distorted nossos Irmãos, who sometimes turn to death for them. For isso, we customary the Indians to leave in a certain way, that by rough brenhas vai ter ao interior das terras, not cume da mais alta montana, when by ca passam, penalties of birds, fans, arrows and other similar couses as a kind of oblation, fervently begging the curupiras that they do not façam wrong.
O fact that or Curupira can be associated with fears, mysteries and disappearances of homens nas depths of kills.
Read me too: Lenda do Curupira explained.
8. Boitatá
Outro protetor das matas é o Boitatá, uma huge fire cobra That burns the invaders and destroyers of the forest. Accredited-it is added that the people that olharem for or Boitatá lost to visão e ficam loucas.
A word Boitatá vem gives the Tupi-Guarani language and means mboi, coisa, e tatá, cobra. Also being "coisa de fogo" for indigenous people.
A creature lives in water and transforms itself into a burning wood that would ignite those that would place fire in the kill.
Either myth arose out of a real phenomenon in swamps, or fire-fátuo. This phenomenon occurs when organic materials decompose and release gases, which in contact with oxygen produce luminous particles, or photons.
9. Mule sem headed
Also associated with fogo, a Mule is headed and a personagem present in the Iberian culture and adored in the northeast and southeast regions of Brazil.
Or myth tells about uma woman who receives a punishment for being in love or father gives community and is transformed into a mule. There is no place where the animal's head has a large fire pit.
It accredits that the feitiço lasts from the end of the afternoon of the fifth-feira I tied to manhã the following day. During this time, a mule cavalga grazing hairs whinnying loudly and scaring the inhabitants.
It is curious to think that the myth tells about a punishment applied against a woman. Meanwhile, he commits or "crime" he or father, at the end of which he burned face vote of chastity. Assim, it is possible to interpret history as part of the patriarchal culture that blames mulher e a pune.
10. Lobisomem
Or lobisomem é um homem that, nas noites de lua cheia, is transformed into a huge and fierce creature, metade homem, metade lobo.
Assim, ele é uma anthropozoomorphic figure, ou seja, which had human characteristics (anthropo) and animais (zoo). This type of hybrid personagem appears in various cultures, such as Greek mythology and Egyptian divinities, for example.
Aliás, in Greek mythology, has a similar story in which a little subject named Lycaon was transformed by Zeus into a lobisomem. By conta disso, or lobisomem he was also known as Lycanthrope.
No case of lobisomem of Brazilian popular culture, or myth tells that the oitavo filho of a house will most likely be one of these creatures.
Other verses contam that he is the seventh filho depois 6 women. There is still a belief that babies who are not battered are transformed into lobisomens.
11. Negrinho do Pastoreio
A personagem comum no sul do Brasil é or Negrinho do Pastoreio. A figure was raised in colonial times, I do not know XIX. Seen as an abolitionist symbol, in lenda conta about a black garoto that tinha like senhor um little subject, very cruel.
One day, ao take care of two cavalos, or menino deixa um deles fugir. Either he is furious and orders me to find him. Mas or negrinho do not get trazer or animal of volta.
Either senhor então torture or small escravo e o joga em um formigueiro.
No next day, porém, um miracle it happens. Or garoto arises sem nenhuma brand of violence or das picadas das formigas. Next to her is Virgem Maria, her protector.
The figure of the saint indicates that the minor was saved from the food and raised the ceus. More said to be a black man, he is frequently seen in a dug under grass hair, free and content.
A thrilling story has been raised in cinemas for less than two times. Em 1973, or famous ator Grande Otelo interprets or garoto does not film O Negrinho do Pastoreio, directed by Nico Fagundes.
Em 2008, and feita uma re-music em Netto e o Domador de Cavalos, because Evandro Elias lives a personagem.
12. Pisadeira
Present not southeast, a lenda da Pisadeira tells about a creature that torments the people à noite, não leaving-as they sleep. It is said that when someone feeds too much before dying, Pisadeira is placed on the stomach of the victim.
A personagem customizes to attack during the early morning and is related to episodes of paralisia do sono. This phenomenon is common in the logo after going to sleep or before waking up.
Or body temporarily paralyzed and a person cannot move, pois or brain awakens, more or body.
In appearance, there is a footprint of a lean woman with apparent osses. You have big and short legs, apart from a messy hair. Seus olhos são vermelhos and his laugh is high and sharp.
Interesting to note that a similar creature was portrayed in 1781 by the Swiss painter Henry Fuseli on canvas or weighing it down.
13. Comadre Fulozinha
A lenda of the northeast region has a low crease girl with tight black hair that takes all your body from her. Cabocla lives in forests and protect nature against invaders and evil-feitors.
A willing entity to receive offerings like mel and aveia, being prescient as he pleases.
He has confused Comadre Fulozinha with another personagem, Caipora, for both defenders of the killings.
A personagem is more known in your region. In 1997 I was raised in Recife (PE) a band only of women that was beaten as a name. Comadre Fulozinha In homage to folk myth.
You can also be interested:
- An incredible literature by Monteiro Lobato
- Poems about Amazônia
