Genres & Forms
Legend
A legend is a folklore prose work of fantastic or religious-didactic content that narrator and listener treat as plausibly true, unlike a tale. There are cosmogonic legends (about the creation of the world, mountains, rivers), etiological ones (explaining the origin of phenomena), biblical-apocryphal, and historical-heroic legends. A legend inclines toward explanation and moralizing and is often tied to a specific place or saint. In the Ukrainian tradition, legends about the founding of Kyiv, about Saints Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves, and about the opryshky and Oleksa Dovbush are widespread. Legends were collected and systematized by Volodymyr Hnatiuk ('Galician-Ruthenian Folk Legends,' 1902–1903) and Vasyl Myloradovych. Literary life was given to the legend by Marko Vovchok and Ivan Franko ('Moses').
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Compare “Legend” with another term
Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Both are prose folklore genres but with a different orientation to truth. The tale is oriented toward INVENTION: both teller and listener know the depicted is artistic fantasy, with fixed opening and closing formulas. The legend is presented as a plausibly TRUE narrative of fantastic or religious-didactic content, tied to a concrete place, saint or phenomenon, and inclining to explanation and moral. A tale is told for delight; a legend, on faith.
