Myth!Halp

[x_los]

Damn: you know those myths/folk-tales with Voice Stealers? Like the things that take your cleverness in a sort of Anansi sense--your silver tongue, the sound and the phraseology--like start by repeating and then just take the voice and leave you without one? I can't FIND any of those stories, and yet I KNOW I've heard of them!

Midnight made me think of that whole thing, and I'm almost certain it must have an entry on the Aarne-Thomspson classification system, I just can't find the damn thing!

Augh! Can anyone help me out/back me up here? Even just 'you're not crazy, I vaguely remember that too!' would be good.

Comments

[pinkfriction.livejournal.com]

I'm in the 'you're not crazy, I vaguely remember that too!' camp!

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *throws up hands* Now if only I could find the sodding thing...

[meaning-full.livejournal.com]

I don't remember anything that does that specifically, but I can think of two things that are related to the Midnight monster. The voice-stealing reminds me a lot of the Echo/Narcicus story where she has to repeat everything he says. And the idea of identities being deliberately stolen makes me think of Changling Demons, though I think that's more of a physical identity swap.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Yeah, all of that is v. true, and working on similar levels. I'm just banging my head against the wall trying to remember the more directly analagous pieces...

[heather-macleod.livejournal.com]

As stated above, one example is Echo. She can only repeat what is said to her until her voice fades away.
Currently taking Classical Myth, will keep an eye out for others. Maybe Hyginus has a handy section on voice-losery.
Can't remember hearing any similar myths in my Indigenous Religions class, though.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Bah. Also, you taking Classical Myth, aka...you being in a room... is still funny.

'Hyginus' is either your text book or a horrible type of yeast infection.

Bah re: lack of hearing about it in Indigenous. I will hunt this myth down like the snark if I must.

[heather-macleod.livejournal.com]

wait, why is my room-presence funny? Confusion.

Hyginus was a mythographer. At the end of his text he has helpful categories like "people who were eaten by their parents", "Persons decapitated", and "Particularly Unpleasant Yeast Infections Named After Myself". Fo' realz.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Oh it's just funny you're getting credit for Learning Stuff You Already Know/Love. Like Winston Churchill taking Alcoholism 101.

Oh, thanks Hyginus! V useful indeed!

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

I've read them too, and I can't think where, either. There was the Little Mermaid, though it's not quite what you're talking about.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Gah. This is going to bug me until I get it. And yeah, not quite, but the Little Mermaid IS the pimp-shit.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

I am thinking...it sounds either Native American, or Chinese. There are the fifteen tons of assorted European mythology, of course--it does have a sort of Celtic/Germanic fairy tale flair--but nothing I can dig up from that body is ringing any bells for me.

Now I recall the episode "Hush" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but tracing that, Whedon seems to have come across the idea more or less on his own, pulling more from Nosferatu and other silent movies than from traditional folklore.

Voice stealing seems like it might be related to breath-stealing or face-stealing... I'll keep searching, as the idea has me completely mesmerized.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Voice stealing seems like it might be related to breath-stealing or face-stealing... I'll keep searching, as the idea has me completely mesmerized.

That all sounds v. easily potentially conflated to me, yeah.

Do let me know if you find/think of anything, I'm kind of dying of curiosity over here.

[chickenamu.livejournal.com]

My first thought was "Hush", the Buffy episode where the gentlemen steal everyone's voice. It doesn't look like that was taken from any particular myth or fairy tale though.

:/

[x-los.livejournal.com]

It IS a good ep, though. Heeeey. I'm at Kaldis. Where are yooou?