List of folk heroes

This is a list of folk heroes.

Historically documented

Antiquity (up to 450 AD)

Middle Ages (450–1500)

Early modern period (1500–1800)

Modern period (1800–present)

  • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk - Turkey, he was a revolutionary statesman, successful General and beloved figure who is revered in Turkey.
  • Johnny Appleseed – United States, he introduced the apple to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
  • Dokubo-Asari – Nigeria, a political figure who currently fights against western oil companies in the Niger Delta.
  • Stepan Bandera – Ukraine, leader of the nationalist and independence movement of Ukraine.
  • Billy the Kid – United States, a 19th-century American frontier outlaw and gunman.
  • Black Hawk – Midwestern United States, a Sauk Indian warrior who resisted white settlement.
  • Simon Bolivar- Venezuelan military and political leader who led the secession of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama
  • Bonnie and Clyde – United States, bank robbers who evaded retribution in the 1930s.
  • Andrés Bonifacio – Philippines, "The Father of the Philippine Revolution".
  • Hristo Botev – Bulgarian folk hero, poet, revolutionary.
  • Mohamed Bouazizi – Tunisian fruit vendor who immolated himself in protest of government mistreatment and sparked a successful revolution in that country and the Arab Spring.
  • Daniel Boone – United States, an American pioneer in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
  • John Brown – United States, attempted to lead a slave revolt in the south by raiding Harper's Ferry, helped spark the American Civil War.[8]
  • Antonio Canepa – Sicily, founder of the Volunteer Army for the Independence of Sicily, he is considered a hero by the Sicilian nationalists.
  • Butch Cassidy – United States, outlaw and train robber.
  • Fidel Castro – Considered as one of the founding fathers of Cuba, leader of the M-26-7 during the revolution.
  • Kakutsa Cholokashvili – Georgia, anti-Soviet guerrilla fighter who led the August Uprising, national hero of Georgia.
  • Joseph Cinqué – West African man of the Mende tribe, leader of the Amistad slave rebellion.
  • Gregorio Cortez – Mexican-American folk hero.[9]
  • Davy Crockett – United States, an Indian-fighter and Congressman; died fighting in the Alamo.[10]
  • George Armstrong Custer – United States, general who died during The Battle of Little Bighorn.
  • Zerai Deres – Eritrea, Eritrean-born man lionized for his act of vengeance against the Italian Fascists in Rome during an imperial celebration.
  • John Dillinger – United States, gangster and bank robber. Robbed dozens of banks, escaped from jail multiple times.
  • Anton Docher – United States, Roman Catholic missionary and defender of the Native Americans in New Mexico, he fought for five years in the French colonial army.
  • Wyatt Earp – United States, western lawman.
  • Mike Fink – United States, the toughest boatman on the Mississippi River and a rival of Davy Crockett.[11]
  • Mahatma Gandhi – India, the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule, employing non-violent civil disobedience.
  • José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia – Paraguay, first consul of Paraguay.
  • Giuseppe Garibaldi – Italy, general, he personally commanded and fought in many military campaigns that led eventually to the formation of a unified Italy.
  • Geronimo – United States, Apache warrior, fought United States army for years defending his people and homeland.
  • Salvatore Giuliano – Sicily, the historian Eric Hobsbawm described him as the last of the "people's bandits" (à la Robin Hood).
  • Tomoe Gozen – Japan, female samurai warrior.
  • Husein Gradaščević – Bosnia, called "Dragon of Bosnia", led the resistance of Bosnians and uprising for autonomy of Bosnia against the Ottoman Empire.
  • Nathan Hale – United States, a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
  • Simo Häyhä – Finland, a legendary sharpshooter in the Winter War with 505 confirmed kills.
  • Hekimoğlu – Turkish folk hero who led a campaign against feudal lords.
  • Wild Bill Hickok – United States, lawman, gunfighter, gambler, scout, Civil War soldier, stage coach driver, performer, abolitionist.
  • Hone Heke – Māori chief who chopped down British flagpole three times.
  • Joe Hill – United States, union leader and songwriter wrongfully convicted of murder in 1915.[12]
  • Andreas Hofer – Austrian and particularly Tirolian hero who resisted the Bavarians and Napoleon.
  • Doc Holliday – United States, western gunslinger.
  • Huo Yuanjia – China, Chinese doctor, Acupuncturer, Chinese martial artist.
  • Ip Man – China, he was the first man teaching martial artist liberally; his most famous student was Bruce Lee.
  • Jesse James – United States, Wild West outlaw who supposedly robbed from the rich and gave to the poor (in reality his crimes only profited himself and his gang).[13]
  • Calamity Jane – United States, a tough Wild West woman.
  • Jigger Johnson – United States, a lumberjack known for his exploits at hunting, brawling, and the like.[14][15]
  • Robert Johnson- American, Legendary Blues musician who is rumored to have sold his soul to the devil
  • Casey Jones – United States, railroad engineer who remained in his locomotive and died in a collision while braking in order to save his passengers and sounding the whistle to warn the crew of the other train.[16]
  • Konstanty Kalinowski – Belarus, leader of Belorussian, Polish, and Lithuanian national revival and the leader of the January Uprising.
  • Kaluaiko'olauHawaii, Hawaiian man who evaded deportation for leprosy by hiding in the Hawaiian rain forests.[17]
  • Karađorđe – Serbia, leader of the Serbian Revolution.[18]
  • Ustym Karmaliuk – Ukrainian counterpart of Robin Hood, who led a peasant rebellion.
  • Ned Kelly – Australia, bushranger and leader of the Kelly Gang who fought against a corrupt government system; most famous for crafting bullet-proof armor.
  • Sundance Kid – United States, outlaw and train robber.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. – United States, African American activist and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, who promoted nonviolent resistance in an effort to end policies of racial segregation.
  • Theodoros Kolokotronis – Greek general during the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
  • Tadeusz Kościuszko – Belarus/Poland, military leader.
  • Paul Kruger – South African Boer leader and President of the South African Republic (Transvaal).
  • Rani Lakshmibai – warrior Queen of Jhansi, fought and was martyred as the first revolutionary for Indian Independence.
  • Lam Sai-wing – China, martial artist and student of Wong Fei Hung.
  • Lampião – Brazilian outlaw, leader of a Cangaço band in Northeast Brazil.
  • Abraham Lincoln – United States president during the Civil War.
  • Francisco Solano LópezParaguay, president during the Paraguayan War.
  • Lord Minimus- Court Dward who fought with the Royalists in the English Civil War
  • Ned Ludd – Britain, leader of the Luddites in the 1810s.
  • Nelson Mandela – South Africa, anti-apartheid activist who became President on apartheid's end.
  • José Martí – Cuban revolutionary, one of its greatest national heroes.
  • Jack Mary Ann – north Wales, a folk hero from the Wrexham area whose fictionalised exploits continue to circulate in local folklore.
  • James Mckenzie – New Zealand, outlaw and inspiration to landless immigrants in early colonial New Zealand.
  • Juan Moreira – legendary Argentine outlaw, famed as a skillful knife fighter. He is considered one of the most important figures in Argentine history.
  • Joseph Montferrand– Canada, a larger than life French Canadian woodsman popularly known as Big Joe Mufferaw.
  • Pedro I of Brazil – hero of Brazilian independence and hero of the Portuguese Civil War.
  • Pemulwuy – Australia, an Aboriginal resistance leader.
  • Philippe Petit – France, tightrope artist who walked between the two towers of the World Trade Center.
  • Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – Bangladesh, led Bengali nation's decade long struggle for independence against then autocratic rule of Pakistan, finally resulting the Bangladesh Liberation War and the independence of Bangladesh.
  • Pazhassi Raja – India, fought against British Raj in south India (Kerala) with guerrilla war tactics.
  • Bass Reeves – United States, the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River. He worked mostly in Arkansas and the Oklahoma Territory. During his long career, he was credited with arresting more than 3,000 felons. He shot and killed 14 outlaws in self-defense.
  • Paul Revere – American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution whose 'Midnight Ride' warned patriot rebels of the arrival of the British military troops.
  • Manuel Rodríguez - Chilean lawyer and people's hero, who fought the Spanish with often nothing more than crafty disguises.
  • Louis Riel – Canada, founder of Manitoba, led two rebellions against the Dominion of Canada.
  • Dorus Rijkers – 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 – Philippines, a critic of the Spanish colonizers, was gun-fired by his executioners in Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park).
  • Rob Roy – Scotland, outlaw whose word was his bond.
  • Nana Sahib – India, a leader in the First War of Indian Independence until his mysterious disappearance.
  • Deborah Sampson- American, Female soldier who disguised herself as a man to fight in the American revolution
  • Juan Santamaría – Costa Rican national hero.
  • El Santo – Real life Mexican wrestler, with heavy fictionalised adventures in movies and comic books.
  • Laura Secord – Canada, heroine of the War of 1812.
  • Sitting Bull – shaman leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota.
  • Soapy Smith – United States, infamous 19th-century Colorado and Alaska bad man.
  • Samuel Steele – Canada, a Mountie who brought peace to the Canadian West and law and order to Yukon, preventing bloodshed between the First Nation peoples and the settler peoples of Canada.
  • Tamanend – United States, a Native American chief who became the source of many folk legends during the American Revolutionary War.
  • Tecumseh – United States, Shawnee chief who formed a Native American confederacy to combat the United States.
  • Ten Tigers of Canton – China, group of ten fighters in southern China.
  • Joseph Trumpeldor – Israel, leader of the Jewish forces at Tel Hai.
  • Nat Turner – America, leader of Nat Turner's Rebellion (also known as the Southampton Insurrection), a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia in August 1831.
  • Dick Turpin – England, highwayman.
  • Pancho Villa – Mexico, fought in the 1910s Mexican revolution with Emiliano Zapata.
  • Tudor Vladimirescu — Romania, leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821.
  • Wong Fei Hung – China, Chinese doctor, Acupuncturist, Chinese martial artist, and revolutionary.
  • James Morrow Walsh – Canada, a Mountie who turned Sitting Bull and his peoples from enemies into friends in 1879.
  • Hannah Szenes - Jewish paratrooper who was sent to Yugoslavia to rescue Hungarian Jews during World War II.

Possibly apocryphal

  • Shimshon - Israel, one of the judges, who became a legend due to his superhuman strength.
  • King Arthur – Britain, legendary British warlord said to have united the Britons against the Germanic invaders, with the support of the Knights of Camelot.
  • Beowulf – Scandinavia, legendary Geatish hero later turned king
  • Cúchulainn – Ireland, folk legend and the pre-eminent hero of Ulaid in the Ulster Cycle.
  • Till Eulenspiegel or Tijl Uilenspiegel – Germany and the Low Countries, trickster and jester.
  • Fionn mac Cumhaill – Ireland, warrior, leader of the Fianna. Primary figure in the Oisin cycle.
  • Fong Sai-Yuk – China, martial arts folk hero.
  • Grettir the Strong – Icelandic outlaw.
  • John Henry – United States, mighty steel-driving African-American.
  • Hercules – Greece, strongman and demigod.
  • Homer – poet credited as the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey.
  • Robin Hood – England, outlaw usually associated with the motto "Steal from the rich, give to the poor".
  • The Three Musketeers – France, some highly skilled musketeers particularly fictionalized by Alexandre Dumas.
  • Hua Mulan – China, heroine who disguised herself as a man in order to join an army.
  • Hung Hei-Gun – China, martial arts folk hero.
  • Ilya Muromets - Kievan Rus', heroic knight from the Russian bylinas.
  • Merlin – Britain, the greatest Mage to have ever existed, it's unknown if he was real and if he was an alchemist or a priest.
  • Nai Khanom Tom – Thailand, master of Muay Thai.
  • Nasreddin Hodja – Seljuk Empire, Muslim philosopher and wise man.
  • Miloš Obilić – Serbian knight, assassin of Ottoman sultan Murad I.
  • Odysseus – Greece, legendary king of Ithaca.
  • Ragnar Lodbrok or Lothbrok – Sweden and Denmark, legendary Viking king.
  • Rummu Jüri – Estonia, outlaw who stole from the rich to give to the poor.
  • Molly Pitcher- American, Military woman who carried water pitchers for American soldiers in the Revolutionary war
  • Siegfried – Germany, the legendary dragon-slaying hero in Nibelungenlied.
  • Sundiata Keita – Mali, founder of the Mali Empire and king of the Mandinke people.
  • William Tell – Switzerland, hunter began the rebellion against the Austrians.
  • Twm Siôn Cati – Wales, robber and trickster nicknamed the Welsh Wizard.
  • Achilles– Greece, hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors

Fictional

  • Pecos Bill – United States, giant cowboy who "tamed the Wild West"
  • Paul Bunyan – United States, giant lumberjack of the North Woods
  • Chen Zhen – China, martial artist who fought against Japanese aggression in pre-World War II China
  • Febold Feboldson – United States, farmer who could fight a drought
  • Martín Fierro – Argentina, hero of the eponymous poem by Jose Hernandez
  • Koba – Georgia, folk hero whose legend bears a resemblance to Robin Hood
  • Joe Magarac – United States, steelworker made of steel
  • Momotarō – Japan, legendary figure from the Edo period who defeated a band of ogres
  • Juan Bobo – Puerto Rico, trickster folk hero
  • Alfred Bulltop Stormalong – United States, immense sailor whose ship was so big it scraped the moon
  • Väinämöinen – Described as an old and wise man with potent magical powers.
  • ZorroSpanish California/Mexico-United States, a masked vigilante.

References

  1. Seal, 2001. Page 6.
  2. Czesław Robotycki (2003). Cultural Identity and Ethnicity in Central Europe: Proceedings of the International Conference on Ethnic and National Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, May 11-16, 2000. UJ. p. 90. ISBN 978-83-233-1774-6.
  3. Charlie T. McCormick; Kim Kennedy White (2011). Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art. ABC-CLIO. p. 809. ISBN 978-1-59884-241-8.
  4. Tanya Popovic (1988). Prince Marko: The Hero of South Slavic Epics. Syracuse University Press. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-0-8156-2444-8.
  5. Wes Johnson (2007). Balkan Inferno: Betrayal, War and Intervention, 1990-2005. Enigma Books. p. 469. ISBN 978-1-929631-63-6.
  6. Tanya Popovic (1988). Prince Marko: The Hero of South Slavic Epics. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2444-8.
  7. Velma Bourgeois Richmond (17 September 2014). Chivalric Stories as Children's Literature: Edwardian Retellings in Words and Pictures. McFarland. p. 182. ISBN 978-1-4766-1735-0.
  8. Seal, 2001. Page 34.
  9. Seal, 2001. Page 49.
  10. Seal, 2001. Page 50.
  11. Seal, 2001. Page 77.
  12. Seal, 2001. Page 107.
  13. Seal, 2001. Page 125.
  14. Appalachia Appalachian Mountain Club, 1964.
  15. Monahan, Robert. "Jigger Johnson", New Hampshire Profiles magazine, Northeast Publications, Concord, New Hampshire, April, 1957.
  16. Seal, 2001. Page 132.
  17. About Kaluaiko'olau Archived November 27, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  18. Danielle S. Sremac (1999). War of Words: Washington Tackles the Yugoslav Conflict. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 35–. ISBN 978-0-275-96609-6.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.