Legends and epics

Legends are based in history and embellish the acts of a real person. The facts and adventures of the person are exaggerated, making the individual notorious or his or her deeds legendary. Finn MacCoul and Robin Hood are legendary figures. Legends are associated with a particular place or person and are told as if they were historical fact. Legends, like myths, are stories told as though they were true.

Arthur and the Sword (Atheneum, 1995)

Retold and illus. by Robert Sabuda

Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife (Dutton, 1999)

Retold and illus. by Robert Byrd

The Heroine of the Titanic (Morrow, 1991)

Written by Joan W. Blos. Illus. Tennessee Dixon

The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Morrow, 1993)

Retold and illus. by Lemieux, Michèle

Robin Hood (Abrams, 1996)

Retold and illus. by Margaret Early

Saint George and the Dragon (Little, Brown, 1985)

Retold by Margaret Hodges. Illus. by Trina Schart Hyman

· Legends and epics are stories of human heroes; the stories may have gods as characters, but the main characters are human beings.

· There is no clear distinction between legends and epics, but both are hero tales about men (very seldom women) who have accomplished great and impossible feats.

o Legend is the general name for hero tales; it may be one tale or a series of related tales; legends probably had some original basis in fact. (Archeological discoveries in Crete substantiated many of the details of the legend about the Greek hero Theseus, who conquered Crete.)

o Tales of most of the Greek heroes are called legends, rather than epics, and are usually published with the Greek myths.

o An epic is usually considered to be a large cycle of stories about a hero; they are often told originally in poetry, and are strongly national in character; the heroes embody the ideals most desired by the particular society, and the stories present the moral code of the country and the time.

· Important legends and epics:

o Greece: The Iliad; The Odyssey.

o Norse: Sigurd the Volsung.

o England: Robin Hood, King Arthur, Beowulf.

o India: Ramayana.

o Sumeria: Gilgamesh (the world's oldest known literary work, from the land now called Iraq; important because it has much in common with the Bible--Abraham was originally from Ur, a city in Sumeria, and the epic includes the story of a great flood similar to that of Noah.)

Bible stories

· Bible stories, although written down fairly early, were originally oral.

· Bible stories include many hero tales, and are both religious and, for Jews, patriotic (Ex: David He No Fear).