# Legend

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Genre of storytelling that involves heroic humans

For other uses, see [Legend (disambiguation)](/source/Legend_(disambiguation)).

In this [1897 painting](/source/Lady_Godiva_(painting)) of [Lady Godiva](/source/Lady_Godiva) by [John Collier](/source/John_Collier_(painter)), the authentic historical person is fully submerged in the legend, presented in an [anachronistic](/source/Anachronistic) [high medieval](/source/High_Middle_Ages) setting.

A **legend** is a [genre](/source/Genre) of [folklore](/source/Folklore) that consists of a [narrative](/source/Narrative) featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human [values](/source/Values), and possess certain qualities that give the tale [verisimilitude](/source/Verisimilitude_(fiction)). Legend, for its active and passive participants, may include [miracles](/source/Miracle). Legends may be transformed over time to keep them fresh and vital.

Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being entirely believed by the participants, but also never being resolutely doubted.[1] Legends are sometimes distinguished from [myths](/source/Myth) in that they concern human beings as the main characters and do not necessarily have supernatural origins, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths generally do not.[2][3] The [Brothers Grimm](/source/Brothers_Grimm) defined *legend* as "[folktale](/source/Folklore) historically grounded".[4] A by-product of the "concern with human beings" is the long [list of legendary creatures](/source/List_of_legendary_creatures), leaving no "resolute doubt" that legends are "historically grounded."

A modern [folklorist](/source/Folklore)'s professional definition of *legend* was proposed by Timothy R. Tangherlini in 1990:[5]

Legend, typically, is a short (mono-) episodic, traditional, highly ecotypified[6] historicized narrative performed in a conversational mode, reflecting on a psychological level a symbolic representation of folk belief and collective experiences and serving as a reaffirmation of commonly held values of the group to whose tradition it belongs.

## Etymology and origin

[Holger Danske](/source/Holger_Danske), a legendary character

*Legend* is a [loanword](/source/Loanword) from [Old French](/source/Old_French) that entered English usage c. 1340. The Old French noun *legende* derives from the [Medieval Latin](/source/Medieval_Latin) *legenda*.[7] In its early English-language usage, the word indicated a narrative of an event. The word *legendary* was originally a noun (introduced in the 1510s) meaning a collection or corpus of legends.[8][9] This word changed to *legendry*, and *legendary* became the adjectival form.[8]

By 1613, English-speaking [Protestants](/source/Protestant) began to use the word when they wished to imply that an event (especially the story of any [saint](/source/Saint) not acknowledged in [John Foxe](/source/John_Foxe)'s *[Actes and Monuments](/source/Actes_and_Monuments)*) was fictitious. Thus, *legend* gained its modern connotations of "undocumented" and "[spurious](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spurious)", which distinguish it from the meaning of *[chronicle](/source/Chronicle)*.[10]

In 1866, [Jacob Grimm](/source/Jacob_Grimm) described the [fairy tale](/source/Fairy_tale) as "poetic, legend historic."[11] Early scholars such as [Karl Wehrhan](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karl_Wehrhan&action=edit&redlink=1) [[de](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Wehrhan)][12] [Friedrich Ranke](/source/Friedrich_Ranke)[13] and [Will Erich Peuckert](/source/Will_Erich_Peuckert)[14] followed Grimm's example in focussing solely on the literary narrative, an approach that was enriched particularly after the 1960s,[15] by addressing questions of performance and the anthropological and psychological insights provided in considering legends' social context. Questions of categorising legends, in hopes of compiling a content-based series of categories on the line of the [Aarne–Thompson](/source/Aarne%E2%80%93Thompson) folktale index, provoked a search for a broader new synthesis. In an early attempt at defining some basic questions operative in examining folk tales, [Friedrich Ranke](/source/Friedrich_Ranke) [[de](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Ranke)] in 1925[16] characterised the folk legend as "a popular narrative with an objectively untrue imaginary content", a dismissive position that was subsequently largely abandoned.[17]

Compared to the highly structured folktale, legend is comparatively amorphous, [Helmut de Boor](/source/Helmut_de_Boor) noted in 1928.[18] The narrative content of legend is in realistic mode, rather than the wry [irony](/source/Irony) of folktale;[19] Wilhelm Heiske[20] remarked on the similarity of [motifs](/source/Motif_(folkloristics)) in legend and folktale and concluded that, in spite of its realistic [mode](/source/Literary_mode), legend is not more historical than folktale.

In *Einleitung in der Geschichtswissenschaft* (1928), [Ernst Bernheim](/source/Ernst_Bernheim) asserted that a legend is simply a longstanding [rumour](/source/Rumour).[21] [Gordon Allport](/source/Gordon_Allport) credited the staying-power of some rumours to the persistent cultural state-of-mind that they embody and capsulise;[22] thus "[Urban legends](/source/Urban_legend)" are a feature of rumour.[23] When Willian Hugh Jansen suggested that legends that disappear quickly were "short-term legends" and the persistent ones be termed "long-term legends", the distinction between legend and rumour was effectively obliterated, Tangherlini concluded.[24]

## Christian *legenda*

Main article: [Legendary (hagiography)](/source/Legendary_(hagiography))

In a narrow Christian sense, *legenda* ("things to be read [on a certain day, in church]") were [hagiographical](/source/Hagiographical) accounts, often collected in a legendary. Because saints' lives are often included in many miracle stories, *legend*, in a wider sense, came to refer to any story that is set in a historical context, but that contains [supernatural](/source/Supernatural), divine or fantastic elements.[25]

## Oral tradition

Main article: [Oral tradition](/source/Oral_tradition)

[History preserved orally](/source/Oral_tradition) through many generations often takes on a more [narrative-based](/source/Narrative_history) or [mythological](/source/Myth) form over time,[26] an example being the [oral traditions of the African Great Lakes](/source/Empire_of_Kitara).

## Urban legend

Main article: [Urban legend](/source/Urban_legend)

Urban legends are a modern genre of folklore that is rooted in local [popular culture](/source/Popular_culture), usually comprising fictional stories that are often presented as true, with [macabre](/source/Macabre) or [humorous](/source/Humor) elements. These legends can be used for entertainment purposes, as well as semi-serious explanations for seemingly-mysterious events, such as disappearances and strange objects.

The term "urban legend," as generally used by folklorists, has appeared in print since at least 1968.[27] [Jan Harold Brunvand](/source/Jan_Harold_Brunvand), professor of English at the [University of Utah](/source/University_of_Utah), introduced the term to the general public in a series of popular books published beginning in 1981. Brunvand used his collection of legends, *[The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings](/source/The_Vanishing_Hitchhiker)* (1981) to make two points: first, that legends and [folklore](/source/Folklore) do not occur exclusively in so-called primitive or traditional societies, and second, that one could learn much about urban and modern culture by studying such tales.

		- The tale of the White Lady who haunts Union Cemetery is a variant of the [Vanishing hitchhiker](/source/Vanishing_hitchhiker) legend.

		- [Bahay na Pula](/source/Bahay_na_Pula) in the [Philippines](/source/Philippines) is believed to be haunted by all those who were murdered and raped by the Japanese army within the property during [World War II](/source/World_War_II).

## Related concepts

Giants Mata and Grifone, celebrated in the streets of [Messina](/source/Messina), Italy, the second week of August, according to a legend are founders of the Sicilian city.

The mediaeval legend of [Genevieve of Brabant](/source/Genevieve_of_Brabant) connected her to [Treves](/source/Treves).

[Hippolyte Delehaye](/source/Hippolyte_Delehaye) distinguished legend from [myth](/source/Mythology): "The *legend*, on the other hand, has, of necessity, some historical or topographical connection. It refers imaginary events to some real personage, or it localizes romantic stories in some definite spot."[28]

From the moment a legend is retold as fiction, its authentic legendary qualities begin to fade and recede: in *[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow](/source/The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow)*, [Washington Irving](/source/Washington_Irving) transformed a local Hudson River Valley legend into a literary anecdote with ["Gothic" overtones](/source/Gothic_novel), which actually tended to diminish its character as genuine legend.[29]

Stories that exceed the boundaries of "[realism](/source/Realism_(arts))" are called "[fables](/source/Fable)". For example, the [talking animal](/source/Talking_animal) formula of [Aesop](/source/Aesop) identifies his brief stories as fables and not legends. The parable of the [Prodigal Son](/source/Prodigal_Son) would be a legend if it were told as having actually happened to a specific son of a historical father. If it included a [donkey](/source/Donkey) that gave sage advice to the Prodigal Son it would be a fable.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

Legend may be transmitted orally, passed on person-to-person, or, in the original sense, through written text. [Jacobus de Voragine](/source/Jacobus_de_Voragine)'s *Legenda Aurea* or "The Golden Legend" comprises a series of *vitae* or instructive biographical narratives, tied to the [liturgical calendar](/source/Liturgical_calendar) of the [Roman Catholic Church](/source/Roman_Catholic_Church). They are presented as lives of the saints, but the profusion of miraculous happenings and above all their uncritical context are characteristics of [hagiography](/source/Hagiography). The *Legenda* was intended to inspire extemporized homilies and sermons appropriate to the [saint](/source/Saint) of the day.[30]

## See also

- [Legendary saga](/source/Legendary_saga)

- [Legendary creature](/source/Legendary_creature)

- [Lists of legendary creatures](/source/Lists_of_legendary_creatures)

- [The Matter of Britain](/source/Matter_of_Britain), Arthurian legend

- [Matter of France](/source/Matter_of_France)

- [Narrative history](/source/Narrative_history)

- [Non-fiction novel](/source/Non-fiction_novel)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Georges, Robert; Owens, Michael (1995). *Folkloristics*. United States of America: Indiana University Press. p. 7. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-253-32934-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-253-32934-5).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Oxford_literary_2-0)** Baldick, Chris (2015). [*Legend*](https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/acref-9780198715443-e-646?rskey=Nc4w5m&result=9). Oxford University Press – Oxford Reference Online. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-19-871544-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-871544-3). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210426235953/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/acref-9780198715443-e-646?rskey=Nc4w5m&result=9) from the original on 2021-04-26. Retrieved 2021-04-24. A story or group of stories handed down through popular oral tradition, usually consisting of an exaggerated or unreliable account of some actually or possibly historical person—often a saint, monarch, or popular hero. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern human beings rather than gods, and sometimes in that they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths do not; but these distinctions are difficult to maintain consistently. The term was originally applied to accounts of saints' lives..

1. **[^](#cite_ref-bascom_3-0)** [Bascom, William Russell](/source/William_Bascom) (1965). [*The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives*](https://books.google.com/books?id=AU0hNAAACAAJ). University of California. pp. 4–5, 9. Myths are often associated with theology and ritual. Their main characters are not usually human beings, but they often have human attributes; they are animals, deities, or culture heroes, whose actions are set in an earlier world, when the earth was different from what it is today, or in another world such as the sky or underworld....Legends are more often secular than sacred, and their principal characters are human. They tell of migrations, wars and victories, deeds of past heroes, chiefs, and kings, and succession in ruling dynasties.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Norbert Krapf, *Beneath the Cherry Sapling: Legends from Franconia* (New York: Fordham University Press) 1988, devotes his opening section to distinguishing the [genre](/source/Genre) of legend from other narrative forms, such as [fairy tale](/source/Fairy_tale); he "reiterates the Grimms' definition of legend as a folktale historically grounded", according to Hans Sebald's review in *German Studies Review* **13**.2 (May 1990), p 312.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Tangherlini, "'It Happened Not Too Far from Here...': A Survey of Legend Theory and Characterization" *Western Folklore* **49**.4 (October 1990:371–390) p. 385.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** That is to say, specifically located in place and time.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** *[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary)*, s.v. "legend"

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-etymonline_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-etymonline_8-1) Harper, Douglas. ["legendary"](https://www.etymonline.com/word/legendary). *[Online Etymology Dictionary](/source/Etymonline)*. Retrieved 10 June 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** ["legendry"](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legendry). *[Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary](/source/Merriam-Webster)*. Merriam-Webster. [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [1032680871](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/1032680871).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Patrick Collinson. *Elizabethans*, "Truth and Legend: The Veracity of John Foxe's Book of Martyrs" 2003:151–77, balances the authentic records and rhetorical presentation of Foxe's *Acts and Monuments*, itself a mighty force of Protestant legend-making. Sherry L. Reames, *The Legenda Aurea: a reexamination of its paradoxical history*, 1985, examines the "Renaissance verdict" on the Legenda, and its wider influence in skeptical approaches to Catholic [hagiography](/source/Hagiography) in general.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** *Das Märchen ist poetischer, die Sage, historischer*, quoted at the commencement of Tangherlini's survey of legend scholarship (Tangherlini 1990:371)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Wehrhan *Die Sage* (Leipzig) 1908.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Ranke, "Grundfragen der Volkssagen Forshung", in Leander Petzoldt (ed.), *Vergleichende Sagenforschung* 1971:1–20, noted by Tangherlini 1990.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Peuckert, *Sagen* (Munich: E Schmidt) 1965.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** This was stimulated in part, Tangherlini suggests, by the 1962 congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** Ranke, "Grundfragen der Volkssagenforschung", *Niederdeutsche Zeitschrift für Volkskunde* **3** (1925, reprinted 1969)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Charles L. Perdue Jt., reviewing [Linda Dégh](/source/Linda_D%C3%A9gh) and Andrew Vászony's essay "The crack on the red goblet or truth and the modern legend" in Richard M. Dorson, ed. *Folklore in the Modern World*, (The Hague: Mouton 1978), in *The Journal of American Folklore* **93** No. 369 (July–September 1980:367), remarked on Ranke's definition, criticized in the essay, as a "dead issue". A more recent examination of the balance between oral performance and literal truth at work in legends forms Gillian Bennett's chapter "Legend: Performance and Truth" in Gillian Bennett and Paul Smith, eds. *Contemporary Legend* (Garland) 1996:17–40.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** de Boor, "Märchenforschung", *Zeitschrift für Deutschkunde* **42** 1928:563–81.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** [Lutz Röhrich](/source/Lutz_R%C3%B6hrich), *Märchen und Wirklichkeit: Eine volkskundliche Untersuchung* (Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag) 1956:9–26.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** Heiske, "Das Märchen ist poetischer, die Sage, historischer: Versuch einer Kritik", *Deutschunterricht***14** 1962:69–75.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** Bernheim, *Einleitung in der Geschichtswissenschaft*(Berlin: de Gruyter) 1928.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** Allport, *The Psychology of Rumor* (New York: Holt, Rinehart) 1947:164.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-23)** [Bengt af Klintberg](/source/Bengt_af_Klintberg), "Folksägner i dag" *Fataburen* 1976:269–96.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-24)** William Hugh Jansen, "Legend: oral tradition in the modern experience", *Folklore Today, A Festschrift for Richard M. Dorson* (Bloomington: Indiana University Press) 1972:265–72, noted in Tangherlini 1990:375.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-25)** [*Literary or Profane Legends*](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09121a.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20100611064242/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09121a.htm) 2010-06-11 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine). Catholic Encyclopedia.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-26)** Vansina, Jan (1985). [*Oral tradition as history*](https://books.google.com/books?id=A-CVBVzZwmAC&dq=oral+tradition+as+history&pg=PR5). University of Wisconsin Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-299-10213-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-299-10213-5).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-27)** Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed. 1989, entry for "urban legend," citing R. M. Dorson in T. P. Coffin, *Our Living Traditions*, xiv. 166 (1968). See also William B. Edgerton, *The Ghost in Search of Help for a Dying Man*, Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 5, No. 1. pp. 31, 38, 41 (1968).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-28)** [Hippolyte Delehaye, *The Legends of the Saints: An Introduction to Hagiography* (1907)](http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/delehaye-legends.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20100110212608/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/delehaye-legends.html) 2010-01-10 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine), Chapter I: Preliminary Definitions

1. **[^](#cite_ref-29)** Encyclopædia Britannica (2006). "Fable". *Britannica Concise Encyclopedia*. Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 652. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781593392932](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781593392932).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-30)** Timothy R. Tangherlini, "'It Happened Not Too Far from Here...': A Survey of Legend Theory and Characterization" *Western Folklore* **49**.4 (October 1990:371–390). A condensed survey with extensive bibliography.

v t e Folklore genres and types Narrative Animal tale Fable Fairy tale list Tall tales Parable Personal narrative Oral tradition Folk etymology False Joke Nursery rhyme Proverb Repositories Riddle Saying Word game Folk belief Birthstone Crossroads Folk religion Folk saint Ghostlore Legend tripping Luminous gemstones Mythology Old wives' tale Ritual Silver bullet Weather lore Folk arts Folk art Folk costume Folk epic Folk dance Folk instrument Folk music Folk play Folk poetry Folk wrestling Foodways Society Cunning folk Fakelore Folk devil Folk healer Folk hero See also Folklore studies Morphology (folkloristics) Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index Motif-Index of Folk-Literature Storytelling Tradition Knowledge Medicine Story Vernacular

v t e Narrative Character Antagonist Archenemy Character arc Character flaw Characterization Confidant Deuteragonist False protagonist Focal character Foil Gothic double Hamartia Hero Anti Byronic Tragic Narrator Protagonist Stock character Straight man Supporting character Title character Tritagonist Villain Plot Ab ovo Action Backstory Origin story Chekhov's gun Cliché Cliffhanger Conflict Deus ex machina Dialogue Dramatic structure Eucatastrophe Foreshadowing Flashback Flashforward Frame story In medias res Kishōtenketsu MacGuffin Pace Plot device Plot twist Poetic justice Red herring Reveal Self-insertion Shaggy dog story Stereotype Story arc Story within a story Subplot Suspense Trope Setting Alternate history Backstory Crossover Dreamworld Dystopia Fictional location city country universe parallel Fictional species Utopia Worldbuilding Theme Irony Leitmotif Metaphor Moral Moral development Motif Deal with the Devil Conflict between good and evil Self-fulfilling prophecy Time travel Style Allegory Bathos Comic relief Diction Figure of speech Imagery Mode Mood Narration Narrative techniques Hook Show, don't tell Stylistic device Suspension of disbelief Symbolism Tone Structure Act Act structure Three-act structure Freytag's Pyramid Exposition/Protasis Rising action/Epitasis Climax/Peripeteia Falling action/Catastasis Catastrophe Denouement Linear narrative Nonlinear narrative films television series Premise Types of fiction with multiple endings Form Drama Fabliau Flash fiction Folklore Fable Fairy tale Legend Myth Tall tale Gamebook Narrative art Narrative poetry Epic poetry Novel Novella Parable Short story Vignette Genre (List) Fiction Action fiction Adventure Comic Crime Docu Epistolary Ergodic Erotic Historical Western Mystery Nautical Paranoid Philosophical Picaresque Political Pop culture Psychological Religious Rogue Romance Chivalric Prose Saga Satire Speculative fiction Fantasy Gothic Southern Horror Magic realism Science Hard Utopian and dystopian Underwater Superhero Theological Thriller Urban Nonfiction Autobiography Biography Novel Creative Narration Diegesis First-person Second-person Third-person Third-person omniscient narrative Subjectivity Unreliable narrator Fourth wall Multiple narrators Stream of consciousness Stream of unconsciousness Tense Past Present Future Related Dominant narrative Fiction writing Continuity Canon Reboot Retcon Parallel novel Prequel / Sequel Series Genre List Literary science Literary theory Narrative identity Narrative paradigm Narrative therapy Narratology Metafiction Political narrative Rhetoric Glossary Screenwriting Series of works Storytelling Tellability Verisimilitude

Authority control databases International GND National United States France BnF data Japan Czech Republic 2 Spain Israel Other Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine Yale LUX

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