Line #48 Main/Legend


1	->''For the 1985 fantasy film, see ''Film/{{Legend\|1985}} (1985)''. For the 2015 gangster film, see ''Film/{{Legend\|2015}} (2015)''. For the 1995 science fiction/Western TV series, see ''Series/{{Legend}}''. For the tabletop game system, see ''TabletopGame/LegendSystem''. For the videogame developer, see Creator/LegendEntertainment. For this wiki's hall of fame, see JustForFun/TropesOfLegend.''
2
3	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".
4
5	Their claim to factuality or realism distinguishes them from folktales, {{fairy tale}}s and other types of stories that make no claim to be anything other than {{fiction}}. Accordingly, legends often have a historical setting, and before the emergence of critical history-writing, legend and history were mostly indistinguishable genres. Legends may feature historical figures, even though the details of the story spun around them are often clearly unreal.
6
7	Of course, "legend" has acquired secondary meanings -- more often than not, to call something a "legend" can mean, depending on context, "it's awesome" (like in "LivingLegend"), or "it's not true" (like in "historical legend"). This doesn't actually mean that we don't believe in legends any more -- only that we don't ''call'' them "legends" (at least so long as we believe in them). Such modern day legends may be referred to as UrbanLegends.
8
9	Legends are related to, and sometimes overlap with, {{myth\|ology}}s; 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".
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11	Besides explaining the origins of human institutions, another frequent function of legends is teaching morals -- as a rule of thumb, legends say a lot about the values of the society or social group where they are passed down.
12
13	And finally, they may be told to preserve and pass on (supposedly) historical knowledge, and/or simply for entertainment.
14
15	Independently from their functions, legends can be grouped in different genres -- mostly the following three:
16
17	* 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 [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=2qg4nwdf4or50yswbv8ure0o Heroic Literature]].
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19	* Religious Legend: This was the original sense of the word "legend". ''Legendae'' (which means, "things you should read") were stories about Christian Saints (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".
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21	* 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.
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23	When a writer makes up artificial legends, whether to flesh out a fictional setting or the background of a story, or as a purpose in itself, that is a subgenre of {{Mythopoeia}}.
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25	{{Tall Tale}}s have many similarities with legends, with the key difference that the claim to factuality in tall tales is only a playful pretense.
26	----
27	!! Examples of legends, or works presenting legend:
28
29	[[index]]
30	!!! Heroic Legend
31
32	[[AC:Albanian]]
33	* Myth/NoraOfKelmendi
34
35	[[AC:Arabian]]
36	* The Literature/ArabianHeroCycles
37
38	[[AC:Caucasian]]
39	* The Myth/NartSagas
40
41	[[AC:Chinese]]
42	* ''Literature/TheBalladOfMulan''
43
44	[[AC:Classical (ancient Greek and Roman)]]
45	* ''Literature/TheAchilleid''
46	* ''Literature/TheAeneid''
47	* ''Literature/{{Heroides}}''
48	* ''Literature/{{Punica}}''
49	* ''Literature/TheThebaid''
50	* Literature/TheTrojanCycle:
51	** ''Literature/TheIliad''
52	** ''Literature/TheOdyssey''
53	* Many works of Ancient Greek tragedy:
54	** ''Theatre/{{Ajax}}''
55	** ''Theatre/{{Alcestis}}''
56	** ''Theatre/{{Antigone}}''
57	** ''Theatre/{{Bacchae}}''
58	** ''Theatre/{{Electra}}''
59	** ''Theatre/{{Hippolytus}}''
60	** ''Theatre/{{Medea}}''
61	** ''Theatre/OedipusTheKing''
62	** ''Theatre/OedipusAtColonus''
63	** ''Theatre/TheOresteia'' trilogy:
64	*** ''Theatre/{{Agamemnon}}''
65	*** ''Theatre/TheLibationBearers''
66	*** ''Theatre/{{Eumenides}}''
67	** ''Theatre/{{Philoctetes}}''
68	** ''Theatre/TheProgeny''
69	** ''Theatre/TheTrojanWomen''
70	** ''Theatre/TheWomenOfTrachis''
71
72	[[AC:English]]
73	* ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''
74
75	[[AC:Estonian]]
76	* ''{{Literature/Kalevipoeg}}''
77
78	[[AC:Finnish]]
79	* ''Literature/TheKalevala'' (also includes Myth)
80
81	[[AC:French]]
82	* ''Literature/TheSongOfRoland''
83
84	[[AC:German]]
85	* ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}''
86	* ''Literature/{{Waltharius}}''
87
88	[[AC:Germanic]]
89	* Myth/WaylandTheSmith
90
91	[[AC:Hittite & Hurrian]]
92	* Literature/KumarbiCycle
93
94	[[AC:Indian]]
95	* Literature/{{Mahabharata}} (also SacredLiterature)
96	* Literature/{{Ramayana}} (also Sacred Literature)
97
98	[[AC:Irish]]
99	* ''Literature/TheCattleRaidOfCooley''
100
101	[[AC:K'iche' Maya]]
102	* Literature/PopolVuh (also Sacred Literature)
103
104	[[AC:Malian]]
105	* Myth/SegouCycle
106
107	[[AC:Mesopotamia (Sumerian/Babylonian/Akkadian)]]
108	* ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh''
109
110	[[AC:Norse]]
111	* ''Literature/ADescriptionOfTheNorthernPeoples''
112	* ''Literature/GestaDanorum''
113	* The [[Literature/TheIcelandicSagas Icelandic Legendary Sagas]], such as:
114	** ''Literature/RagnarLodbrokAndHisSons''
115	** ''Literature/TheSagaOfTheVolsungs''
116	** ''Literature/TheSagaOfHrolfKraki''
117	* ''Literature/{{Heimskringla}}''
118
119	[[AC:Persian]]
120	* ''Literature/TheShahnameh''
121
122	[[AC:Romanian]]
123	* Myth/TheScholomance
124
125	[[AC:Russian & Ukrainian]]
126	* The ''byliny'', heroic lays that often feature [[Myth/RussianMythologyAndTales the bogatyrs (old times heroes)]]
127
128	[[AC: Spanish]]
129	* ''Literature/CantarDelMioCid''
130
131	[[AC:Welsh]]
132	* Myth/ArthurianLegend
133	* ''Literature/{{Mabinogion}}''
134
135	!!! Religious legend:
136
137	[[AC:Christian]]
138	* ''Literature/TheGoldenLegend'' -- Jacob de Voragine's definitive ''legendarium'' of the Christian MiddleAges.
139	* The legend of the Myth/BattleOfClavijo
140	* The legend of Myth/StEdmundOfEastAnglia
141	* The legend of Myth/SaintGeorge
142
143	[[AC:Buddhist]]
144	* ''Literature/TheLifeOfMilarepa''
145
146	!!! Folk legend
147	[[AC:International]]
148	* ''Art/CartaMarina''
149	* Myth/NauticalFolklore
150
151	[[AC:England]]
152	* "Literature/TheLambtonWorm"
153	* The Myth/RobinHood stories
154
155	[[AC:Germany]]
156	* The legend of Myth/{{Faust}}
157	* "Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin"
158
159	[[AC:Jamaica]]
160	* "Myth/TheWhiteWitchOfRoseHall"
161
162	[[AC:Japan]]
163	* UsefulNotes/SarutobiSasuke
164
165	[[AC:Mexico/Central America]]
166	* Myth/LaLlorona
167
168	[[AC:Switzerland]]
169	* The legend of Myth/WilliamTell
170
171	[[AC:USA]]
172	* Myth/PaulBunyan and related [[TallTale Tall Tales]].
173	* While UsefulNotes/DavyCrockett was a real person, many of the stories around him are legends.
174	* UsefulNotes/JohnnyAppleseed: Like Davy Crockett, a real person surrounded by legends.
175	[[/index]]

Context Main / Legend