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A legend (Latin, ''legenda'', "things to be read") is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants includes no happenings that are outside the realm of "possibility" but which may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time, in order to keep it fresh and vital, and realistic. Many legends operate within the realm of uncertainty, never being entirely believed by the participants, but also never being resolutely doubted. The Brothers Grimm defined legend as folktale historically grounded.〔Norbert Krapf, ''Beneath the Cherry Sapling: Legends from Franconia'' (New York: Fordham University Press) 1988, devotes his opening section to distinguishing the genre of legend from other narrative forms, such as 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.〕 A modern folklorist's professional definition of ''legend'' was proposed by Timothy R. Tangherlini in 1990:〔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.〕 Legend, typically, is a short (mono-) episodic, traditional, highly ecotypified〔That is to say, specifically located in place and time.〕 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== ''Legend'' is a loanword from Old French that entered English usage circa 1340. The Old French noun ''legende'' derives from the Medieval Latin ''legenda''.〔''Oxford English Dictionary'', s.v. "legend"〕 In its early English-language usage, the word indicated a narrative of an event. By 1613, English-speaking Protestants began to use the word when they wished to imply that an event (especially the story of any saint not acknowledged in John Foxe's ''Actes and Monuments'') was fictitious.〔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 in general.〕 Thus, ''legend'' gained its modern connotations of "undocumented" and "spurious", which distinguish it from the meaning of ''chronicle''. In 1866, Jacob Grimm described the fairy tale as "poetic, legend historic."〔''Das Märchen ist poetischer, die Sage, historischer'', quoted at the commencement of Tangherlini's survey of legend scholarship (Tangherlini 1990:371)〕 Early scholars such as In an early attempt at defining some basic questions operative in examining folk tales, Compared to the highly structured folktale, legend is comparatively amorphous, Helmut de Boor noted in 1928.〔de Boor, "Märchenforschung", ''Zeitschrift für Deutschkunde'' 42 1928:563-81.〕 The narrative content of legend is in realistic mode, rather than the wry irony of folktale;〔Lutz Röhrich, ''Märchen und Wirklichkeit: Eine volkskundliche Untersuchung'' (Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag) 1956:9-26.〕 Wilhelm Heiske〔Heiske, "Das Märchen ist poetischer, die Sage, historischer: Versuch einer Kritik", ''Deutschunterricht''14 1962:69-75..〕 remarked on the similarity of motifs in legend and folktale and concluded that, in spite of its realistic mode, legend is not more historical than folktale. In ''Einleitung in der Geschichtswissenschaft'' (1928), Ernst Bernheim asserted that a legend is simply a longstanding rumour.〔Bernheim, ''Einleitung in der Geschichtswissenschaft''(Berlin: de Gruyter) 1928.〕 Gordon Allport credited the staying-power of some rumours to the persistent cultural state-of-mind that they embody and capsulise;〔Allport, ''The Psychology of Rumor'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart) 1947:164.〕 thus "Urban legends" are a feature of rumour.〔Bengt af Klintberg, "Folksägner i dag" ''Fataburen'' 1976:269-96.〕 When Willian 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.〔Jansen, "Legend: oral tradition in the modern experience", ''Folklore Today, A Festschrift for William Dorson'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press) 1972:265-72, noted in Tangherlini 1990:375.〕 The word ''legendary'' was originally a noun (introduced in the 1510s) meaning a collection or corpus of legends. This word changed to ''legendry'', and ''legendary'' became the adjectival form of ''legend''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「legend」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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