Professor Stythe Thompson spent considerable time and effort in the exploration of myth, legend and folk-motif. After having read something of his works, I thought that I could put my finger on a particular piece and say -what it was.

Myth, as I understand it, involves the gods, deals with the open end of the human condition. Legend may involve the supernatural, but not in so distinct or religious a fashion as myth. Folklore, basically, is just that: the lore of the folk, passed down, generation to generation, without supernatural overtones.

I’ll be damned if I know how to categorize the following Story.

Maybe that’s why it won a Nebula, however. “… The sky was dark, the moon was yellow, the leaves came tumbling down.” I am reminded of Stagalee and Red Hanrahan, and of all the people half of light and half of darkness who pass in the night, fight with the Devil on the banks of the Brazos, crash in their U-2’s and cling to coffins while white whales destroy their ships.

Here is a piece of future myth/legend/folkloremaybe.

It is timeless, though, and like all such things, timely.