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Folk hero

 

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Folk hero



 
 
A folk hero is type of hero
Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, the offspring of a mortal and a deity,their Greek hero cult being one of the most distinctive features of Religion in ancient Greece....
, real or mythological
Mythology

The word mythology refers to a body of folklore/myths/legends that a particular culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity....
. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by mention in folk songs
Folk music

Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including:* Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous with the term "Traditional music", also often including World Music and Roots music; the term "Traditional music" was given its more specific meaning to distinguish it from the other definition...
, folk tales and other folklore
Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
. Folk heroes are also the subject of some film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
s.

Although some folk heroes are historical public figures, they generally are not.






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A folk hero is type of hero
Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, the offspring of a mortal and a deity,their Greek hero cult being one of the most distinctive features of Religion in ancient Greece....
, real or mythological
Mythology

The word mythology refers to a body of folklore/myths/legends that a particular culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity....
. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by mention in folk songs
Folk music

Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including:* Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous with the term "Traditional music", also often including World Music and Roots music; the term "Traditional music" was given its more specific meaning to distinguish it from the other definition...
, folk tales and other folklore
Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
. Folk heroes are also the subject of some film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
s.

Although some folk heroes are historical public figures, they generally are not. Because the lives of folk heroes are generally not based on historical documents, the characteristics and deeds of a folk hero are often exaggerated to mythic proportions.

The folk hero often begins life as a normal person, but is transformed into someone extraordinary by significant life events, often in response to social injustice, and sometimes in response to natural disasters.

One major category of folk hero is the defender of the common people against the oppression or corruption of the established power structure. Members of this category of folk hero often, but not necessarily, live outside the law
Outlaw

An outlaw or bandit is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry; the word literally means "outside the law", by folk-etymology from the original meaning "laid outside" of the Old Norse word ?tlagi, from which the word outlaw was borrowed into English....
 in some way.

Historically documented folk heroes

  • Simo Häyhä
    Simo Häyhä

    Simo H?yh? , nicknamed "White Death" or "Teaser" by the Soviet army, was a Finland soldier, and has the highest recorded number of kills as a sniper in any major war....
     - A legendary Finnish sharpshooter in the Winter War
    Winter War

    The Winter War or the Soviet-Finnish War began when the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the invasion of Poland by Germany that started World War II....
     with some 700 alleged kills.
  • Muntadhar al-Zaidi
    Muntadhar al-Zaidi

    Muntadhar al-Zaidi is an Iraqi broadcast journalism who serves as a correspondent for Iraqi-owned, Egyptian-based Al-Baghdadia TV. Al-Zaidi's reports often focused on the Casualties of the Iraq War of widows, orphans, and children in the Iraq War....
     - An Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush
    George W. Bush

    George Walker Bush served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the 46th List of Governors of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being United States presidential inauguration as President on January 20, 2001....
     as a protest of the Iraq War
    Iraq War

    The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War, the Occupation of Iraq, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing conflicts military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a Multinational force in Iraq now led by and composed almost entirely of troops from the United States and United King...
    , he gained instant acclaim throughout the Arab world.
  • Johnny Appleseed
    Johnny Appleseed

    Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman , was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois....
     - United States, he introduced the apple to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois
  • Arminius
    Arminius

    Arminius, also known as Armin or Hermann was a chieftain of the Cherusci who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest....
     - Germany, was a chieftain of the Cheruski
    Cherusci

    The Cherusci were a Germanic tribe that inhabited parts of the northern Rhine valley and the plains and forests of northwestern Germany, in the area between present-day Osnabr?ck and Hanover), during the 1st century BC and 1st century....
     who defeated the Roman army in the battle of Teutoburg Forest
  • Billy the Kid
    Billy the Kid

    Henry McCarty , better known as Billy the Kid, but also known by the aliases Henry Antrim and William H. Bonney, was a 19th-century American frontier outlaw and gunman who participated in the so-called Lincoln County War....
     - United States, a 19th century American frontier outlaw and gunman
  • Black Hawk
    Black Hawk (chief)

    Black Hawk or Black Sparrow Hawk was a leader and warrior of the Sauk Native Americans in the United States tribe in what is now the United States....
     - Midwestern United States, a Sauk Indian warrior who resisted white settlement
  • Bonnie and Clyde
    Bonnie and Clyde

    Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were notorious outlaws, robbers, and criminals who, with their gang, traveled the Central United States during the Great Depression....
     - United States, bank robbers who evaded retribution in the 1930s
  • Brian Boru
    Brian Boru

    Brian mac Cenn?tig, called Brian B?ruma, Brian Boru, Emperor of the Irish , , was an Ireland king who ended the centuries-long domination of the High King of Ireland by the U? N?ill....
     - Ireland, Irish High King who “drove the Danes out of Ireland” at the Battle of Clontarf.
  • Daniel Boone
    Daniel Boone

    Daniel Boone [October 22 , 1734 – September 26, 1820] was an American pioneer and hunting whose frontier exploits made him one of the first Folklore of the United States of the United States....
     - An American pioneer
    Pioneer

    A pioneer is a soldier employed to perform engineering tasks, originally in France. The word was borrowed into English, from Old French pionnier, which meant a "foot soldier", from the root 'peon' recorded in 1523....
     in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
  • Aylett C. (Strap) Buckner - United States, an Indian-fighter of colonial Texas
  • Calamity Jane
    Calamity Jane

    Martha Jane Cannary-Burke, better known as Calamity Jane , was a frontierswoman and professional Reconnaissance best known for her claim of being a close friend of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native Americans in the United States....
     - United States, a tough Wild West woman
  • Joseph Cinqué
    Joseph Cinqué

    Sengbe Pieh , later known as Joseph Cinqu?, was a West African man of the Mende people ethnic group and was the most prominent defendant in the Amistad , in which it was found that he and 52 others had been victims of the illegal Atlantic slave trade....
     - West African man of the Mende
    Mende people

    The Mende are one of the two largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, along with the Temne people. They make 30% of Sierra Leone's total population or 1,888,432 members....
     tribe, leader of the Amistad
    Amistad

    Amistad* La Amistad, a 19th century Spanish schooner on which enslaved Africans rebelled and took control.** Amistad , United States Supreme Court case deciding the fate of the slaves who mutinied on the ship Amistad...
     slave rebellion.
  • Gregorio Cortez
    Gregorio Cortez

    Gregorio Cortez Lira was a Mexican American who became a Folk hero to some Mexican American Texans and a symbol of the willingness to fight for equal rights....
    , Mexican American folk hero
  • Davy Crockett
    Davy Crockett

    David Stern Crockett was a celebrated 19th-century United States folk hero, Frontier#American frontier, soldier and politician; referred to in popular culture as Davy Crockett and often by the popular title ?King of the Wild Frontier.? He represented Tennessee in the U.S....
     - United States, an Indian-fighter, Congressman, and died as a hero fighting in the Alamo
  • Nils Dacke
    Nils Dacke

    Nils Dacke was the leader of a 16th century peasant revolt in Sm?land, southern Sweden called the Dacke War , fought against the King of Sweden Gustav Vasa....
     - Sweden, leader of a 16th century peasant revolt
  • Genghis Khan
    Genghis Khan

    Genghis Khan , born , was the founder, Khan and Khagan of the Mongol Empire, the World's largest empires contiguous empire in history....
     - Mongolian ruler of the Steppe during 13th century, founder of the Mongolian empire
  • Pier Gerlofs Donia
    Pier Gerlofs Donia

    Pier Gerlofs Donia was a Frisian warrior, pirate and rebel. He is best known by his West Frisian language nickname "Grutte Pier" , or by the Dutch language translations "Grote Pier" and "Lange Pier", or, in Latin, "Pierius Magnus", which referred to his legendary size and strength....
     - Frisia, legendary giant warrior, freedom fighter and leader of the Arumer Black Heap
  • Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson
    Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson

    Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson was a Sweden rebel leader and later statesman. He was the leader of the Engelbrekt rebellion in 1434 against Eric of Pomerania, king of the Kalmar Union....
     - Sweden, rebel and temporary regent in the 15th Century
  • Mike Fink
    Mike Fink

    Mike Fink, called "king of the keelboaters", was a semi-legendary brawler and river-boatman who exemplified the tough and hard-drinking men who ran keelboats up and down the Ohio River and Mississippi Rivers....
     - United States, the toughest boatman on the Mississippi River and a rival of Davy Crockett
  • Guy Fawkes
    Guy Fawkes

    Guy Fawkes or Guido Fawkes was a member of a group of Roman Catholic restorationists from England that planned the Gunpowder Plot. The plot's aim was to displace Protestant rule by blowing up the Houses of Parliament while King James I of England and the entire Protestant and even most of the Catholic aristocracy and nobility were i...
     - Roman Catholic restorationist from England that planned the Gunpowder Plot
  • Eppelein von Gailingen
    Eppelein von Gailingen

    Eppelein von Gailingen was a famous Germans robber baron in the Middle Ages.In 1369 he was indicted for his robberies in the Nuremberg region....
     - Germany, robber baron
  • Geronimo
    Geronimo

    Geronimo was a prominent Native Americans in the United States leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States and their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades....
     - United States, Apache warrior
  • Tomoe Gozen
    Tomoe Gozen

    was one of the few examples of a true onna bugeisha in all of Japanese History of Japan. She was a samurai during the time of the Genpei War . Her name is pronounced ....
     - Japan, woman samurai warrior
  • Wild Bill Hickok
    Wild Bill Hickok

    James Butler Hickok , better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a figure in the American Old West. His skills as a gunfighter and reconnaissance, along with his reputation as a Marshal, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized....
     - United States, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, scout, Civil War soldier, stage coach driver, performer, abolitionist
  • Husein Gradašcevic
    Husein Gradašcevic

    Husein-kapetan Grada?cevic was a Bosniaks general who fought for Bosnia n autonomy in the Ottoman Empire. He is often referred to as "Zmaj od Bosne", meaning "Dragon of Bosnia"....
     - Bosnia, called "Dragon of Bosnia", led the resistance of Bosnians and uprising for autonomy of Bosnia against the Ottoman Empire
  • Nathan Hale
    Nathan Hale

    Nathan Hale was an officer for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Widely considered America's first spy, he volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission, but was captured by the British....
     - United States, a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War
  • Joe Hill
    Joe Hill

    Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel H?gglund, and also known as Joseph Hillstr?m was a Swedish American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World ....
     - United States, union leader and songwriter wrongfully convicted of murder in 1915.
  • Piet Hein
    Piet Hein

    Piet Hein is the name of:* Piet Pieterszoon Hein , Dutch naval commander and folk hero* Piet Hein , descendant of the above, Danish poet and scientist...
     - Netherlands, captured the Spanish treasure fleet.
  • Hone Heke
    Hone Heke

    Hone Wiremu Heke Pokai was a Maori rangatira and war leader in New Zealand. He is considered the principal instigator of the Flagstaff War.Born at Pakaraka south of Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands, Heke was a highly influential chief of the Nga Puhi tribe....
     - Maori chief who chopped down British flagpole three times
  • Wong Fei Hung
    Wong Fei Hung

    Wong Fei Hung was a martial artist, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, and revolutionary who became a Han Chinese folk hero and the subject of numerous television series and films....
     - China, doctor, martial artist, and revolutionary
  • Jesse James
    Jesse James

    Jesse Woodson James was an American Old West outlaw in the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. Already a grand celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary figure of the American Old West after his death....
     - An Wild West outlaw who supposedly robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.
  • Juraj Jánošík
    Juraj Jánošík

    Juraj J?no??k , baptised January 25, 1688, died March 17, 1713, was a famous Slovak people outlaw.J?no??k has been topic of many Slovak people and Poland legends, books and films....
     - Slovakia, outlaw living in the Tatra mountains, defending Slovakia peasants from the tyranny of Austrian landlords
  • Casey Jones
    Casey Jones

    John Luther "Casey" Jones was an American railroad engineer from Jackson, Tennessee who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad . On April 30, 1900, he alone was killed when his passenger train collided with a stopped freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi on a foggy and rainy night....
     - United States, railroad engineer who chose to die rather than abandon his locomotive during a collision
  • Kaluaiko'olau - United States - Hawaiian who evaded deportation for leprosy by hiding in the Hawaiian rain forests
  • Ned Kelly
    Ned Kelly

    Edward "Ned" Kelly was an Australian bushranger, and, to some, a folk hero for his defiance of the Colony authorities. Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish Convictism in Australia father, and as a young man he clashed with the police....
     - Australia, outlaw
  • Ustym Karmaliuk
    Ustym Karmaliuk

    Ustym Yakymovych Karm?liuk Karmalyuk was born a serf in the settlement of Holovchintsy in Lityn District of Podilia Province. There is little known about his early life except that he possessed some literacy and was fluent in Russian, Polish and Yiddish, besides his native Ukrainian language, as attested by the police documents of the time...
     - Ukrainian robin hood, who led a peasant rebellion.
  • Lady Ch'iao Kuo - China, warrior, politician, queen of the Hsien
  • James Mckenzie
    James Mckenzie

    James Mckenzie, possibly born in Ross-shire, Scotland, in 1820 was a New Zealand outlaw who has become one of the country's most enduring folk heroes....
     - New Zealand, Outlaw and inspiration to landless immigrants in early colonial New Zealand
  • Lampião
    Lampião

    Lampi?o was the nickname of "Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, the most famous leader of a Canga?o band ....
     - outlaw, leader of a Cangaço
    Cangaço

    Canga?o is the name given to a form of "social banditry" in the Northeast Region, Brazil of Brazil in late 19th and early 20th centuries. This region of Brazil is known for its aridness and hardships, and in a form of reaction against the domination of the land owners, the government and the European colonizers, many men and women decided to...
     band in Northeast Brazil
  • Abraham Lincoln
    Abraham Lincoln

    Abraham Lincoln was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery....
    , President of the United States during the Civil War.
  • Jack Mary Ann
    Jack Mary Ann

    Jack Mary Ann is a folk hero whose legendary exploits in the Wrexham area of Wales in the 1920s and 1930s are celebrated in a series of jokes and tales transmitted in local oral tradition....
     - a folk hero from the Wrexham area of north Wales whose fictionalised exploits continue to circulate in local folklore.
  • Miyamoto Musashi
    Miyamoto Musashi

    , also known as Shinmen Takezo, Miyamoto Bennosuke, or by his Buddhist name Niten Doraku, was a Japanese people swordsman famed for his duels and distinctive style....
     - Japan, a skilled swordsman, soldier, philosopher, and author
  • Redmond O'Hanlon
    Redmond O'Hanlon (outlaw)

    Redmond O'Hanlon was a 17th-century Irish t?raidhe or rapparee , and an important figure in the Irish Rebellion of 1641....
     - Irish, rapparee of the 17th century
  • Philippe Petit
    Philippe Petit

    Philippe Petit is a France tightrope walking who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the World Trade Center in New York, New York on August 7 1974....
     - Tight rope artist that walked between the two towers of the World Trade Center
  • Louis Riel
    Louis Riel

    Louis David Riel was a Politics of Canada, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and leader of the M?tis people people of the Canadian prairies....
     - Canada, founder of Manitoba, led two rebellions against the Dominion of Canada
  • Dorus Rijkers
    Dorus Rijkers

    Theodorus "Dorus" Rijkers was a famous Netherlands lifeboat captain and folk hero, most famous for his sea rescues of 487 shipwrecked victims over a total of 38 rescue operations, and at least 25 before joining the lifeboat-service....
     - the Netherlands, sailor and savior of over 500 men, women and children as the captain of a rescue-boat, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century
  • José Rizal
    José Rizal

    Jos? Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Philippines polymath, nationalist and the most prominent advocate for reforms in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era....
     - Philippines, a critic of the Spanish Colonizers, was gun-fired by the Spanish Guardia Civil in Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park)
Rizal 18
* Rob Roy
Rob Roy

Rob Roy may refer to the following:*A colloquial name for Scottish hero Robert Roy MacGregor, who has been described as the Scottish Robin Hood...
 - Scotland, outlaw whose word was his bond
  • Laura Secord
    Laura Secord

    Laura Secord was a Canada heroine of the War of 1812.Laura Ingersoll was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1775. Suffering the aftermath of the American Revolution, her father, Thomas Ingersoll, moved the family to Canada in 1795, and in 1797 she married the United Empire Loyalists James Secord, son of an officer of Butler's Ra...
     - Canada, heroine of the War of 1812
  • Skanderbeg
    Skanderbeg

    Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg , or Iskander Beg, was a prominent historical figure in the history of Albania and of the Albanian people. Known as the Dragon of Albania he is the national hero of the Albanians and initially through the work of his main biographer, Marin Barleti, is remembered for his struggle against the Ottoman Empire,...
     - Albania, National Hero, led the resistance of Albanian people against the Ottoman Empire
  • Soapy Smith
    Soapy Smith

    Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II was an American con artist and gangster who had a major hand in the organized criminal operations of Denver, Colorado, Creede, Colorado, and Skagway, Alaska from 1879 to 1898....
     - Infamous nineteenth century Colorado and Alaska bad man.
  • The Smith of Kochel
    The Smith of Kochel

    The Smith of Kochel is a figure from Bavaria myth. According to this myth, he was a soldier in the Great Turkish War . Armed with nothing but a bar, he supposedly stove in the gates of Belgrade....
     - Germany, especially in Bavaria a famous National hero
  • Spartacus
    Spartacus

    Spartacus , according to Roman historians, was a slave and gladiator who became the leader in the somewhat successful slave uprising against the Roman Republic known as the Third Servile War....
     - Thrace, led the largest slave revolt against the Roman Republic
  • Tipu Sultan
    Tipu Sultan

    Sultan Fateh Ali Tipu November, 1750, Devanahalli ? 4 May, 1799, Srirangapattana), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Indian Kingdom of Mysore from 1782 until his own demise in 1799....
     - Indian, a Muslim who fought and defeated the British in the Mysore wars
  • Tamanend
    Tamanend

    Tamanend or Tammany was a chief of one of the clans that made up the Lenape nation in the Delaware Valley at the time Philadelphia was established....
     - United States, an Indian Chief who became the source of many folk legends that propelled his fame to mythical proportions during the time of the American Revolutionary War
  • William Tell
    William Tell

    William Tell is a legendary hero of disputed historical authenticity who is said to have lived in the Swiss Alps Canton of Uri in Switzerland in the early 14th century....
     - Switzerland, began the rebellion against the Austrians
  • Dick Turpin
    Dick Turpin

    For other meanings see Dick Turpin .Richard Turpin The Highwayman was a legendary England rogue and highwayman. Turpin engaged in poaching, burglary, cattle rustling, horse theft, highway robbery and murder before being executed in York....
     - England, highwayman
  • Nat Turner
    Nat Turner

    Nat Turner was an United States Slavery who led the Nat Turner's slave rebellion that resulted in 60 dead, the most fatalities in one uprising in the antebellum southern United States....
     - Leader of Nat Turner's Rebellion
    Nat Turner's Rebellion

    Nat Turner's Rebellion was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, Virginia during August 1831. Slaves in the rebellion killed approximately 60 white people, the highest number of fatalities caused by slave uprisings in the South....
     (also known as the Southampton Insurrection), a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia
    Southampton County, Virginia

    Southampton County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state of the United States. As of the United States Census, 2000, the population was 17,482....
     during August 1831
  • Viriathus
    Viriathus

    Viriathus was the most important leader of the Lusitanians people that resisted Roman Republic expansion into the regions of Western Iberian Peninsula , where the Roman province of Lusitania would be established ....
     - Portugal, the leader of the freedom fighters of the confederated Iberian tribes who resisted colonial Rome
    Rome

    Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
  • William Wallace
    William Wallace

    William Wallace was a Scotland knight and landowner who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and regarded as a patriot and national hero....
     - Scotland, knight who led a rebellion against England in the early 14th century
  • Lam Sai Wing
    Lam Sai Wing

    Lam Sai Wing , was a student of the legendary Cantonese martial artist, healer and folk hero Wong Fei Hung....
     - China, martial artist and student of Wong Fei Hung


Possibly apocryphal folk heroes

  • Cúchulainn
    Cúchulainn

    C?chulainn is an Irish mythology hero who appears in the stories of the Ulster Cycle, as well as in Scottish folklore and Isle of Man folklore....
     - Ireland, folk legend and the pre-eminent hero of Ulaid in the Ulster Cycle
  • Fionn mac Cumhaill
    Fionn mac Cumhaill

    Fionn mac Cumhaill was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, occurring also in the mythologies of Scotland and the Isle of Man. The stories of Fionn and his followers, the Fianna, form the Fenian cycle or Fiannaidheacht,much of it supposedly narrated by Fionn's son, the poet Ois?n....
     - Ireland, warrior, leader of the Fianna. Primary figure in the Oisin cycle.
  • Till Eulenspiegel
    Till Eulenspiegel

    Till Eulenspiegel was an impudent trickster figure who originated in the Middle Low German German folklore and was disseminated in popular printed editions narrating the string of lightly-connected episodes that outlined his picaresque career, primarily in Germany, the Low Countries and France....
     or Tijl Uilenspiegel - Germany and the Low Countries, trickster
  • John Henry
    John Henry (folklore)

    John Henry is an American folk hero, famous for having raced against a steam powered hammer and won, only to die in victory. He has been the subject of numerous songs, stories, plays, and novels....
     - United States, mighty steel-driving African American
  • Robin Hood
    Robin Hood

    Robin Hood is an archetype figure in English folklore, whose story originates from Middle Ages times but who remains significant in popular culture where he is known for robbing the rich to give to the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny....
     - England, outlaw usually associated with the motto "Steal from the rich, give to the poor"
  • Rummu Jüri
    Rummu Jüri

    Rummu J?ri is the archetype Estonians folk hero, an outlaw who stole from the rich to give to the poor. Although most noted for his material egalitarianism, in the stories he also pursues other types of equality and justice....
     - Estonia, outlaw who stole from the rich to give to the poor
  • Hua Mulan
    Hua Mulan

    Hua Mulan is a heroine who joined an all-male army, described in a famous China poem known as the Ballad of Mulan. The poem was first written in the Musical Records of Old and New from the 6th century, the century before the founding of the Tang Dynasty; the original work no longer exists, and the original text of this poem comes from...
     - China, heroine who disguised herself as a male in order to join an all-male army
  • Molly Pitcher
    Molly Pitcher

    Molly Pitcher was a nickname given to a woman who may have fought in the American Revolutionary War. Historians differ on the real identity of Molly Pitcher, or even if she existed....
     - United States, heroine of the American Revolutionary War
  • Fong Sai-Yuk
    Fong Sai-Yuk

    Fong Sai-yuk was trained in the martial arts by his mother Miu Tsui-fa, daughter of Miu Hin, who according to the legend was one of the Five Elders, who escaped the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery by the Qing Dynasty....
     - China, martial arts folk hero
  • Pazhassi Raja
    Pazhassi Raja

    Veera Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja, known as the Lion of Kerala, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Kottayam in northern Kerala and one of the first martyrs in India in the struggle against the Great Britain....
     - India, fought against British raj in south India (Kerala) by gurrila war technique


Folk heroes known to be fictional

  • Tony Beaver - United States, lumberjack and cousin of Paul Bunyan
  • Pecos Bill
    Pecos Bill

    Pecos Bill is a legendary United States of America Cowboy, Apocryphal immortalized in numerous tall tales of the Old West during American westward expansion into the Southwest of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona....
     - United States, giant cowboy who "tamed the wild west"
  • Taylor Bradshaw - Canada, possibly a variant of Paul Bunyan
  • Paul Bunyan
    Paul Bunyan

    Paul Bunyan is a mythological lumberjack who appears in tall tales of American folklore. He is usually portrayed as a giant as well as a lumberjack of unusual skill....
     - United States, giant lumberjack of the North Woods
  • Febold Feboldson - United States, farmer who could fight a drought
  • Koba - Georgia, folk hero whose legend bears a resemblance to Robin Hood
  • Joe Magarac
    Joe Magarac

    Joe Magarac is purportedly a legendary American folk hero who was a steelworker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. Magarac first appeared in print in a 1931 Scribner's Magazine article by Owen Francis, who said he heard the story from immigrant steelworkers in Pittsburgh area steel mills....
     - United States, steelworker made of steel
  • Siegfried
    Sigurd

    Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Volsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving and the G?k Runestone ....
     - Germany, the legendary dragon-slaying hero in Nibelungenlied
  • Alfred Bulltop Stormalong
    Alfred Bulltop Stormalong

    Alfred Bulltop Stormalong or Captain Stormalong was an American folk hero and the subject of numerous nautical-themed tall tales originating in Massachusetts....
     - United States, immense sailor whose ship was so big it scraped the moon
  • The Little Dutch Boy
    Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates

    Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates is a novel by American author Mary Mapes Dodge, first published in 1865. The novel takes place in the Netherlands, and is a very colorful fictional portrait of early 19-century Netherlands life, as well as an inspirational tale of youthful honor....
     - Netherlands, saves Holland from disaster by persisting in keeping his finger in a dike
  • Martin Fierro
    Martín Fierro

    Mart?n Fierro is an 2,316 line epic poem by the Argentina writer Jos? Hern?ndez. The poem was originally published in two parts, El Gaucho Mart?n Fierro and La Vuelta de Mart?n Fierro ....
     - Argentina, hero of the eponym
    Eponym

    An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
    ous poem by Jose Hernandez


See also

  • Culture hero
    Culture hero

    A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group who changes the world through invention or discovery . A typical culture hero might be credited as the discoverer of fire, or agriculture, folk music, tradition and religion, and is usually the most important legendary figure of a people, sometimes as the founder of its ruling dyna...