Would folk heroes like Paul Bunyan be considered cryptids?
In my opinion, no. Lot’s of folk heroes existed and had their lives exaggerated/immortalized/romanticized (ex: Joan of Arc). With more or purely fictional folk heroes, even though they are more-or-less fictional, they’re generally based in a reality that considers them to be “real” or have existed. Additionally anything human generally isn’t considered to be a cryptid (though some definitions are so loose that they’ll consider anything that comes from folklore to be a cryptid). That’s probably a terrible way of explaining it though so let me put it this way: no one’s making conspiracy theories or hiding in the woods trying to catch a glimpse of Paul Bunyan.









