History Main / Legend

If you came here looking for something different, go to ''Film/{{Legend}}'' for the fantasy film, ''Series/{{Legend}}'' for the TV series, ''TabletopGame/LegendSystem'' for the tabletop game system, Creator/LegendEntertainment for the videogame developer, and JustForFun/TropesOfLegend for this very wiki's Hall of Fame of tropes.

* ''Literature/TheMabinogion''

->''For the 1985 fantasy film, see ''Film/{{Legend|1985}}''. For the 2015 gangster film, see ''Film/{{Legend|2015}}''. For the 1995 science fiction/Western TV series, see ''Series/{{Legend}}''.''

* ''Literature/TainBoCuailnge''

Legends are related to, and sometimes overlap with [[Mythology myths]]; colloquially the two terms are often used as synonyms. If the categories are interpreted a little stricter, then legends, in contrast to myths, are mostly concerned with the human sphere, not gods or cosmology, and accordingly are not considered [[SacredLiterature "sacred"]]. They frequently ''are'' concerned with the [[JustSoStory origins]] of a particular people, settlement, custom, or technology; this type of legend is also called "founding legend".

Legends are related to, and sometimes overlap with myths; colloquially the two terms are often used as synonyms. If the categories are interpreted a little stricter, then legends, in contrast to myths, are mostly concerned with the human sphere, not gods or cosmology, and accordingly are not considered [[SacredLiterature "sacred"]]. They frequently ''are'' concerned with the [[JustSoStory origins]] of a particular people, settlement, custom, or technology; this type of legend is also called "founding legend".

* {{Mulan}}

* Myth/ArthurianLegend.

* Myth/KingArthur was a Welsh hero before he morphed into the NonActionGuy known from many a ChivalricRomance.

* The legend of {{Faust}}

If you came here looking for something different, go to ''Film/{{Legend}}'' for the fantasy film, ''Series/{{Legend}}'' for the TV series, ''TabletopGame/LegendSystem'' for the tabletop game system, Creator/LegendEntertainment for the videogame developer, and TropesOfLegend for this very wiki's Hall of Fame of tropes.

'''Legends''' are stories that are, at least in their beginnings, passed down as “true”, or at least possibly true. Tellers of a legend and their listeners may not necessarily believe in all its details, or even in its truth as a whole, but at least they believe that previous generations thought it was true. Legends often describe events that supposedly happened "long ago".

* '''Heroic Legend''': Stories about ancient heroes and their awesome deeds. These are mostly martial in nature and include, but are not limited to, monster-slaying and acts of war. Heroic legends praise warrior virtues like badassery, courage, and loyalty. As in most aristocratic societies the aristocracy identifies itself as a warrior elite, heroes of heroic legend are, with few exceptions, of noble blood. Heroic legends may (but don't have to) be tied to a specific mythology; if they do, the distinguishing line to myths (as mentioned above) can be blurry, as some of these heroes are demigods that are part human, part divine. Heroic legend may be told in various forms and media, but the "classical" genre of heroic legend is [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=2qg4nwdf4or50yswbv8ure0o Heroic Literature]].

* '''Religious Legend''': This was the original sense of the word “legend”. ''Legendae'' (which means, not very specific, “things you should read”) were stories about Christian [[PatronSaint Saint]]s (mostly revolving around miracles), or non-biblical traditions about [[Literature/TheBible biblical]] characters. A book that contained these was a ''legendarium''. But religious legend is not limited to UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}}; the concept of "holy men" and women, and stories surrounding them, exists in virtually all major religions (compare, for example, the traditions attached to ''boddhisattvas'' and ''arhats'' in UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}, ''mahatmas'' in UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}, ''walis'' in UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}, and ''Tzadikim'' in UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}). Religious legends extol religious devotion, piety, and whatever behavior is endorsed as exemplary by the religion at hand. -- The genre of Christian Saints’ Legends, with its focus on miracles, was much ridiculed by Protestants after the Reformation, which is when the word “legend” acquired its present-day flavor of “bullshit story”.

* '''Folk Legend'''. A diverse category for legends that exist in or, really or supposedly, are directly taken from oral tradition. "Supposedly" because written sources can in turn (re-)enter the oral tradition, and there are probably quite a few "book legends" that were concocted on a writing desk to begin with. Content-wise, many folk legends are {{Ghost Stor|y}}ies; others tell of memorable {{Folk Hero}}es (accordingly the category may overlap with heroic legend). These kind of legends are often made into folk {{ballad}}s. UrbanLegends, a.k.a. contemporary legends, may be considered the modern day's folk legends.

* '''Heroic Legend''': Stories about ancient heroes and their awesome deeds. These are mostly martial in nature and include, but are not limited to, monster-slaying and acts of war. Heroic legends praise warrior virtues like {{badass}}ery, courage, and loyalty. As in most aristocratic societies the aristocracy identifies itself as a warrior elite, heroes of heroic legend are, with few exceptions, of noble blood. Heroic legends may (but don't have to) be tied to a specific mythology; if they do, the distinguishing line to myths (as mentioned above) can be blurry, as some of these heroes are demigods that are part human, part divine. Heroic legend may be told in various forms and media, but the "classical" genre of heroic legend is [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=2qg4nwdf4or50yswbv8ure0o Heroic Literature]].

** The ''Theatre/{{Oresteia}}'' trilogy:

->''For the 1985 fantasy film, see ''Film/{{Legend}}''. For the 1995 science fiction/Western TV series, see ''Series/{{Legend}}''.''

* The ''byliny'', heroic lays that often feature [[RussianMythologyAndTales the bogatyrs (old times heroes)]]