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According to Wikipedia, it is impossible to exactly date the urban legend. The term has its roots in folklore dating back to mythology. It was only in the 1980's that the exact term "urban legend" came into being to distinguish it from the "folktale." One thing that is common to all urban legends is that "it happened to a friend" and there's no date or name attached to verify the tale.
So on that criteria, the Cinderella tale could be the longest extant urban legend. The original tale came from ancient Egypt where the slave girl Rhodopsis was washing clothes and an eagle took her sandal and dropped it at the feet of Pharoah Amasis. They eventually marry. There are indications that this story was already old when it was recorded by Strabos the Greek in the first century BCE.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE...In the misty dawn of time before there was recorded histrory there was a tribe of intrepid inventors. Throughout their oral history there were many ocurances that were very disturbing. One of these was the disappearance of the former tribal leader Blarg.As we now know, Blarg was the unfortunate victim of the first volcano erupting, but the tribal members had no way of knowing that volcanos were dangerous natural ocurances. The marvelous tale of Blarg's disappearance became the stuff of the first urban legend.
Blarg was the most notorious tribal leader in the vicinity. His sheer visciousness was renowned far and wide. When the lesser mortals of his tribe dared to show inventiveness, Blarg ruthlessly quashed all such upstarts...usually with a beating. Fortunately, his visciousness was only exceeded by his stupidity. When two of the "lesser mortals" Gronk and Ogg returned to the camp from an expedition with the marvelous y'Ron rocks which were much admired by the ladies of the camp, Gronk took the unprecidented step of trying to get some of these rocks for himself.
Since no one knew how volcanos worked, Gronk had no way of knowing that a volcano could kill. He marched up the slope of the volcano and overcome by the noxious gasses, fell in at the exact moment that the mountain erupted. Gronk and Ogg were witnesses of this event, and they tried to explain to the tribe what had happened. Being somewhat culpable in the man's death, they embroidered upon the event somewhat.
As the explanation grew ever more complicated, it soon became the stuff of legend. Blarg (being dead and not able to object) became the first known "hero" who stopped the earth from trembling by his noble sacrifice. As time gradually dulled the edge of his evil works while he was alive, he became revered as a mighty, noble man who did great deads.
As all hero worship does, Blarg soon became a cautionary hero. While the tribe appreciated his sacrifice (and his absense), they told their children the tale with a view to keeping them safe..with limited success. Thus was born the first urban legend, hero worship, and the tradition of children doing dangerous things to try to emulate said hero.
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