History Main / JustSoStory

** The Children of the Forest to use the Hammer of the Waters spell to stop the invasion of the First Men. The first time it was used it destroyed the land bridge known as the Arm of Dorne (it is now known as the Broken Arm). The second time was only successful in flooding The Neck and turning it into a swamp. It does not explain how the plant and animal life adapted into their new aquatic environment.

** The coming of the First Men into Westeros caused the Children of the Forest to use the Hammer of the Waters spell. The first time it was used it destroyed the land bridge known as the Arm of Dorne (it is now known as the Broken Arm). The second time was only successful in flooding The Neck and turning it into a swamp. It does not explain how the plant and animal life adapted into their new aquatic environment.

** King Brandon the Shipwright built a mighty fleet for the North and then sailed it past the Sunset Sea ad he never returned. His son Bradon the Burner put the fleet to the torch and the North has remained landlocked ever since.

** One curious piece of story telling from the Bible is the aftermath of Noah's Ark and the flood. When Noah's descendants wander around for a while, they eventually discover Egypt and start interacting with those people. Noah's flood happens in Genesis, which is supposed to chronicle the origin of humanity and the migration patterns of early humans (at least in a legendary, oral tradition sort of way). No attempt is made to explain where Egypt's civilization came from.... they're just there. This would indicate from the perspective of the Bible's writers, Egypt was so ancient that it had always kinda been there, and there was no need to question the origin of what had become a cultural fixture in that region of the world.

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has one to explain how Bane, Myrkul and Bhaal became the gods of tyranny, death and murder respectively. They were once mortal adventurers who got ambitions of godhood, and decided to challenge Jergal, the god of death, the dead and tyranny. Once they did so, however, they learned that Jergal had grown tired of his post, and willingly gave it up to them. Of course, they started fighting over who would get which domain, so Jergal suggested a game of knucklebones to decide. Bane won, and demanded rule over all that lives, so Jergal gave him tyranny. Myrkul scoffed, because what good is rule over those who will one day pass from this world? He'd rather rule over the dead, who will be his forever, so Jergal gave him what he asked. Finally, Myrkul declared that his two fellows would each be beholden to him, as he would decree how people passed from Bane's rule to Myrkul's. Jergal gave him Murder. Jergal is still around, by the way, serving as the seneschal to whoever currently occupies the god of death position.

* In Islamic folklore, [[UsefulNotes/TheProphetMuhammad Muhammad]]'s friend Abu Hurairah had a cat named Muezza, who saved Muhammad from a snake. In gratitude, he stroked Muezza's back and forehead, causing all cats to be blessed with the righting reflex. Some other versions add that he also put an "M"-shaped mark on the cat's forehead, and that all cats who have that marking are descended from Muezza. A similar legend puts a cat at the Nativity, and in gratitude Mary drew the M-shaped marking on that cat's forehead, which all (or most) cats have to this day. (Never mind that neither Mary nor Abu Hurairah used the English alphabet.)

** In ''Literature/TheHobbit'', an aside about Hobbit history states that "Bullroarer" Took smote the head clean off the head of an invading goblin warlord known as Golfimbul, which landed in a rabbit hole--thus saving the Shire and inventing the game of golf at the same time! (For fun, [[JustForPun try saying Golfimbul's name out loud]].)

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'': The annual contains one of these, explaining the origin of Cybertronian civilisation, and the nature of the mysterious Guiding Hand, who are apparently gods created by Primus at the beginning of time, who created Cybertronian civilisation with "a wave of their hands", and that Cybertronians are supposedly immortal since they killed their god of death. Later revelations in the series show two claims from these stories, the aforementioned immortality and the fact that one of Cybertron's moons was destroyed are patently untrue (they aren't, and it wasn't, respectively).

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': In the issue "Tales in the Sand", part of the story of Dream and Nada's affair includes an explanation of why weaver birds are brown: a weaver bird got burned by the sun while retrieving a fiery berry for Nada that would allow a person who consumed it to instantly be brought to the side of their true love.
* "Everything You Know About WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Is Wrong!" has the students of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten telling their own versions on how the Powerpuffs were created using the origins of Superman and Spider-Man as inspirations. The girls step up to tell how they were really created--only to get a failing grade as the stories were part of a class in creative storytelling.

** In Toydarian myth, a kindly spirit saved the ancient Toydarians from a divinely-sent flood by giving them the wings of the predatory amsulcras, and was punished by the gods with being turned into a rodent-like animal and banished to the largest of the planet's moons. [[MoonRabbit This is used to explain the moon's rodent-like markings]], as well as why amsulcras howl to the moons -- they're cursing the being who robbed them of their flight.

* "Everything You Know About WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Is Wrong!" Has the students of Pokey Oaks Kindergarten telling their own versions on how the Powerpuffs were created using the origins of Superman and Spider-Man as inspirations. The girls step up to tell how they were really created--only to get a failing grade as the stories were part of a class in creative storytelling.

* "Les Mémoires de Zeus" by Maurice Druon naturally has this in spades. Especially clever is the overly long love night of Zeus and Mnemosyne: Each Muse character comes out due to the mood the pair just was in. The author needs [[IncrediblyLamePun epic]] handwaving to get everything in an unforced order, but he succeeds in letting everything look perfectly logical.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Seeing that Elrond refuses to tell him Durin's secret, he asks Elrond to recount the apocryphal tale known as ''The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir'', which talks about the origin of mithril. The song talks about the battle between an Elf-warrior and a Balrog over a certain tree in the Misty Mountains that contained the light of the last Silmaril. During their battle, lightning struck the tree, sending out tendrils of ore into the roots of the mountains beneath. Gil-galad and Celebrimbor believe this tale to be true, and furthermore, that the remnants of the Silmaril's light in mithril could save the Elven race from fading and being forced to return to Valinor.

[-[[caption-width-right:275:"Some guy stabbed me in the stomach!"\\
"We've been through this -- that's your belly button."]]-]

[[folder:Jokes]]
* One day, God created the human, the donkey, the monkey and the dog. He told the donkey "You will spend 60 years plowing the fields and working your ass off to feed your family". The donkey replied "60 years doing that is too long, 20 is enough." And God agreed. He then told the monkey "you will live 30 years to act like an imbecile to amuse the children". The monkey replied 30 years doing that? That'll get boring after a while, so 20 is okay for me.". And God agreed. Then He told the dog "You will spend 30 years guarding a territory and barking at everything that approaches.". The dog replied "30 years? That will be too long. 20 is enough for me.". And God agreed. Then God told the human "You will live 20 years and have fun, eat good food, have sex and so on." And the human replied "Hold on. The Donkey gave up 40 years, the monkey 10 and the dog another 10. I want them." And God agreed. This is why humans spend the 20 first years of their lives as pampered children, the next 40 years of their lives working hard to provide for their families, the next 10 years acting like an imbecile to amuse their grandchildren and their last 10 years of life barking at everything that approaches their home.
[[/folder]]

* OlderThanDirt: The Sumero-Babylonian culture had a story about the origin of seasons: Inanna (Ishtar) Descends to the Underworld. The goddess in question goes to visit her sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, and is killed there. Her priestess friend (and another deity) bring her BackFromTheDead, but she is not allowed to go back home unless she brings back a suitable substitute...[[spoiler: her own beloved husband, Dumuzi, because he wasn't visibly in mourning while she was gone.]] His sister pleads to be taken instead. Ultimately, the sister spends six months down there (summer, because Ishtar is with her true love) and Dumuzi spends winter down there (everything goes dormant because [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Ishtar misses him so much]]). The form where the seasons are flipped has also been told (scorching summer when she is separated from her love, mild, pleasant, rainy winter -- crops still grow in the wintertime in southern Mesopotamia -- when they are together). It's possible that both versions were known in Ancient Mesopotamia, as lower/southern Mesopotamia is a flat lowland with a much warmer climate than mountainous upper/northern Mesopotamia (to this day there are strong cultural differences between these regions, which the ethnic and religious divisions of modern UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}} only exacerbate).

** Scandinavian myths credit earthquakes to the god Loki, who is chained to the earth for ridiculing the gods at a wake held for the god Balder, which considering all the much worse things Loki has done in the past (like being largely responsible for Balder's death, and Balder having to ''stay'' dead in some versions of the story), was the last straw. A giant serpent lies above him, dripping caustic poison, but fortunately Loki's wife tirelessly sits between them, holding a cup to catch the poison. However, sometimes she has to empty the cup, and then...

Not to be confused with SuperheroOrigin. A CreationMyth is a particularly ambitious "Just So" Story regarding how Life, the Universe and/or Everything began. Compare PeeveGoblins, PaintingTheFrostOnWindows, and GripingAboutGremlins, for when smaller-scale occurrences are attributed to supernatural beings.

--->Little to Huan's liking was it that Tevildo lived still, but now no longer did he fear the cats, and that tribe has fled before the dogs ever since, and the dogs hold them still in scorn since the humbling of Tevildo in the woods nigh Angamandi.''

** In ''Literature/TheLastHero'', the [[PunnyName N'Tuitif]] tribe has such "myths" as How The Giraffe Got Its Long Neck: an ancestor of the giraffe had a slightly longer neck than other animals, and could reach higher leaves, with the longer-necked giraffes surviving more easily to pass their long neck to their children... [[UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin sound familiar]]? Their stories seem to end with a phrase like "[[ShaggyDogStory This is just a thing that happened]]" or "and so it is".

* Myth/ClassicalMythology

** A tale states that the first people were made out of cornmeal dough and baked in an oven. The Baker took the first batch out too early, and they were all pasty and pale, so he threw them away across the sea. The second batch he left in too long, and they came out all black and burnt, so he threw them away across the sea. The third batch came out all reddish brown, just right, so he kept them. (This tale almost certainly postdates contact with Europeans, which just goes to show that not all myths are ancient.)

* The Norwegian FairyTale "Why the Sea is Salty" has it that this is because of a magical food-producing hand-mill, which a greedy sea-captain set to producing salt. It churned out so much salt that the boat sank, and thus nobody was ever able to stop it. The mill sits on the ocean floor to this day and continues to churn out salt, which is why seawater is salty.

* A Nenets fairy tale, ''Literature/TheBlueberry'', is about a girl who was kidnapped, then managed to escape, but couldn't go back home because her clothing caught on a branch and she was so tiny she couldn't get off it by herself. So she cried and cried until she turned into a blueberry. And since it was her kidnapping that started all that, blueberries are very hard to find because they always hide from humans.
* Various tales associated with the Lorelei -- a cliff of slate rock flanking the Rhine river, situated in the gorge-like Upper Middle Rhine Valley -- offer Just-So Stories for the natural features of the area:
** Heinrich Heine's poem "Literature/TheLoreley" describes how a skipper is entranced by the river nymph Loreley and, staring only at her, does not notice the dangers of the river, and thus is shipwrecked (and presumably drowned). This suggests all nautical accidents in the area are really to blame on the Lady Loreley.
** In the last stanza of Clemens Brentano's ballad "Literature/LoreLay", the narrator claims he heard this very song sung by a skipper on the Rhine, and takes note of the name "Lore Lay!" echoing thrice from the Three-Knights-Rock (''Dreiritterstein'', a part of the Lorelei rock). In conjunction with the preceding stanza, which reported the tragic death of the three knights who tried to climb after Lore Lay, this implies the ''Dreiritterstein'' derives its name from the dead knights, and the threefold echo just ''may'' be the voices of their ghosts haunting the place.

* ''Literature/TolkiensLegendarium''

** According to a highly heterodox interpretation (i.e. followed by a few conspiracy theorists and cultists) the word "Elohim" in the original text of the Tanakh is not a [[RoyalWe majestic plural]] of the word "god" (''Eloh''= "god"; "-im"= Hebrew pluralization suffix), as accepted by virtually all Jews and Christians (and, for what it's worth, Muslims and other random Abrahamic faiths like the Baha'i and Rastafari). Instead, they put forward that "Elohim" is a literal plural referring to a whole species of gods of varying appearance. Genesis 1 thus "accounts" for the racial differences between groups of humans by stating that the Elohim made men each in their own image and likeness. This, according to the followers of this theory, "explains" why each nation's gods look remarkably like their people. Never mind that majestic plurals are almost embarrassingly characteristic of Semitic languages, or that only part of the Bible uses "Elohim" to refer to God...
** This interpretation isn't all bunk, since there is considerable evidence that the Israelites were not strictly monotheist to begin with -- otherwise, what were all the prophets complaining about?

** Winter occurs when Persephone, daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter, is forced to stay in the Underworld with her husband Hades for six months (due to [[FoodChains eating six seeds]]). Demeter gets so depressed that she refuses to let anything grow.

** Existing somewhere in the space between this trope and a CreationMyth, [[DependingOnTheAuthor various stories told by different peoples]] in the Western parts of North America credit [[TricksterGod Coyote]] (or his more Northern {{Expy}} Raven) for the existence of fire (a la Prometheus), sunlight[[note]]Raven stole it from the first chief, who kept it in a box all to himself, and then released it in an attempt to [[KillEmAll get back at]] a couple of fishermen [[DisproportionateRetribution who wouldn't give him their catch]]. [[ApocalypseHow It worked]], and created the notion of daytime, thus ushering in the era for modern humans[[/note]], the stars[[note]]he begged to be allowed to or was asked to place the stars in the sky by the creator deity. He ''started'' doing it carefully, until he got bored/tripped and fell/couldn't help but peek in a bag he was told not to/sneezed, and the rest wound up scattered all across the sky without rhyme or reason[[/note]], death, or humans, among other things, with the impetus ranging from [[GuileHero underhanded heroics]] to malicious intent to [[HanlonsRazor incompe]][[NiceJobFixingItVillain tence]].