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South American folklore

A giant emerald anaconda spirit creating the first river in the Amazon forest, based on a Tukano folktale from Colombia.

The Anaconda Spirit and the First River

October 30, 2025

In the beginning, before the sound of rushing water or the song of the frogs, the earth lay dry beneath a heavy sun. The people of the world lived on cracked soil, their crops failing, their throats dry. No river flowed through the forest, and the wind carried only the dust of thirst. The elders gathered in the open clearing,

A quiet village touched by a whispering wind, Mapuche folklore from Patagonia.

Indigenous American Folktales

The Wind That Spoke Only Once

In the wide southern lands where plains stretch toward distant mountains and the wind moves without obstruction, the Mapuche people learned early that sound itself carried meaning. The wind was not merely air in motion. It was a traveler. It arrived unannounced, lingered briefly, and departed without promise of return.

A clay path with footprints in the Andean highlands, Aymara folktale.

The Clay Path That Remembered Footsteps

Long before the borders of nations were drawn, when the high plains

A sacred hill shifting under moonlight, Mapuche folklore from southern Chile and Argentina.

The Hill That Shifted at Night

In the southern lands where mist clings to the valleys and the

Sepia-toned illustration on aged parchment showing multiple glowing orbs of pale blue and green light hovering above a dark stretch of the Uruguayan pampas at night. The orbs illuminate patches of grass and disturbed earth, while the surrounding plains fade into silence and mist, evoking the presence of an unmarked burial ground. “OldFolktales.com” is inscribed in the bottom right corne

The Fire Lights of the Uruguayan Pampas

January 6, 2026

South American Folktales

The pampas of Uruguay held secrets beneath their golden grasses, secrets that had been buried for generations in unmarked graves and forgotten places. The land remembered what people tried to forget: battles fought over territory, bodies left unburied in haste, treasures hidden by desperate men who never returned to claim

A sacred Andean hill reshaping itself to protect ancestral graves.

The Hill That Shifted for the Dead

January 5, 2026

South American Folktales

In the southern Andes of what is now Chile, where mist clung to the slopes and the earth folded into itself like an old memory, there stood a hill known as Wira Apun. To travelers, it looked ordinary. Its surface was uneven, its grasses thin, and its stones darkened by

Sepia-toned illustration on aged parchment showing Castillo Pittamiglio in Montevideo at night under a dim moon. The castle’s uneven stone façade, strange towers, and dark windows cast deep shadows, evoking mystery and abandonment. The labyrinth-like structure looms against a cloudy sky, with “OldFolktales.com” inscribed in the bottom right corner.

The Castle of Borda: A Tale of Ambition and Lost Souls from Uruguay

January 5, 2026

South American Folktales

In the heart of Montevideo, Uruguay, where the old city meets the whispers of the past, there stands a peculiar structure that has captured the imagination of locals for generations. The Castillo Pittamiglio, also known as the Castle of Borda, rises from the corner like a fever dream carved in

South American folklore

The Anaconda Spirit and the First River

The Wind That Spoke Only Once

The Clay Path That Remembered Footsteps

The Hill That Shifted at Night

The Fire Lights of the Uruguayan Pampas

The Hill That Shifted for the Dead

The Castle of Borda: A Tale of Ambition and Lost Souls from Uruguay

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