Abstract his article examines the relationship between regional mythologies and local spirit concerns. It explores the extent to which teenagers in three communities are famil- iar with myths about the Goddess of the Southern Ocean, Nyai Roro Kidul, and her supposed daughter, Nyi Blorong. It shows how as one moves further away from the Queen’s immediate domain, knowledge of this allegedly universal mythological igure rapidly diminishes and is merged with local spirit igures of more immediate concern. Although the mythological igures may be less immediately relevant locally, people still retain practical knowledge about them, such as the taboos associated with the queen and how to create amulets and other safeguards against her or her daughter’s anger. he article inally also examines how in the non-local space of motion pictures, diferent mythologies may come to be merged, unchallenged by the truth constraints that being anchored in a locality usually places upon such tales. his loosening from local ties allows the movement of these spirit entities into media and cyberspace in which the direction of their further development is anything but certain since it is determined by non-local mythmakers. Keywords: Nyai Roro Kidul—Nyi Blorong—local knowledge—mythmakers—Java Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 65, 2006: 45–68 Robert Wessing Leiden University Homo Narrans in East Java Regional Myths and Local Concerns