Is it true, that …?

15.02.2019

Do you know any modern legends? Narratology, which is rooted in the field of ethnology, examines sagas in their literary and social contexts. When, where and why does a saga originate? What message does it convey and what is its purpose? Present-day sagas, also known as contemporary or urban legends, make truth claims just like traditional sagas. Nowadays, social media helps to spread the stories, which usually have a negative or cautionary message. But which of our legends are true?

The Patscherkofel, the landmark mountain near Innsbruck and part of the Tux Prealps, is a volcano in geological terms.

Some years ago a farmer dumped the carcass of a horse in Innsbruck's Baggersee (an artificial lake).

When his professor did not appear at the diploma examination, a student sued the University of Innsbruck and received his diploma without a final exam.

In 2013, after her holiday in Peru, a British woman made a frightening discovery: a fly had laid eggs in her ear. Carnivorous maggots hatched and ate a hole in her ear canal.

In the 1930s, young crocodiles were taken from Florida by tourists and abandoned in New York. To this day, some of their descendants live in the city's sewers.

A professor at the University of Innsbruck was widely known for his technical innovations and ingenious experiments in the 1960s. He even built a radio into one of his molars.

A few years back, somebody drove a Vespa scooter up the Bergisel Ski Jump.

Ötzi, the Tyrolean Iceman, was lactose-intolerant.

While eating a cordon bleu at the restaurant Buzihütte a medical student once said that the melted cheese reminded him of cutting open a boil. Since then, the filled schnitzel has been on the hut's menu aus Eiterbeule (festering sore).

The name Hungerburg goes back to its medieval predecessor, a Hungerturm (hunger tower), which served as a dungeon.

Faculty of Philosophy and History