LEGEND (OF. legende. Fr. b"gende, from \IL. legenda, story. from Lat. legenda, nom. pl. nem of legendus, to he read, gerundive of Legere, to read). In the technical language of folk lore. a narrative relating to a sacred person or locality, and connected with religious belief or worship. Legends were primarily lives of Chris tian saints, because these were included in the selections (/egenda) to he read in public wor ship. (See LESSON.) In the early Church, on the anniversary of a martyr. it appears to have been usual to read the story of his passion. Later. readings from lives of the saints formed a part of monastic worship (office of nocturns). Different churches, according to local ideas and stories, enlarged the lives of their respective saints, so that in time it became necessary to gather and coordinate the material. As a result of this process, toward the end of the thirteenth century, Jacobus de Voragine (James of Vara glum) composed the famous Legenfla .turea. or Golden Legend. The term legend there denoted the entire work, hut subsequently it tame to designate the story of any particular saint. The tendency of such narratives was toward a pres entation continually more fanciful. Legends. at. first brief and simple, became long and imagi native. Consequently. they came to lie regarded with suspicion. so that the word was finally taken to signify any narrative professing to be historical. but in reality of a traditional and imaginative character.
In regard to origins. the general principle i. that a story primarily historical ( though from the first often also semi-fabulous) beeomes, in course of time. more and more imaginative through absorption of material from current literature or folk-lore, in such a manner that the actual oceurrenee is resolved into the popular ideal. This process has by no means ceased; examples may be cited the accounts of modern Russian Jewish rabbis. to whom are popularly ascribed wonderful qualities bestowed after the pattern of Talmudic authors. Thus the person ality of the founder of the fanatical sect of the Chasidim. Baal Slim (Israel lleslit), who lived in the eighteenth has become obscured in the accounts of his admirers, who represent him as a miraele•worlser. predicted by prophets, and encompassed with an aureole; the limn him self seems to have been a quiet mystic. The un historical elements have been incorporated in leg( tills may be referred to several categories.
For instance, a groat influence has been •xereised by the tendency to repeat types and events of the did and NVW Testaments. A second class of legendary incidents arises from a elinfusion of fact and metaphor; for example, inasmuch as the name Christopher signifies Ch•ist-Bearer, the saint was represented as a giant enrrying on his shoulders the infant Jesus. Net a third class represents the survival of ideas and beliefs be longing to more ancient faiths, as in the (rela tively late) story of the re-cue by Saint George of the daughter of a king of Libya, which pre serves the tale of the dragon-slayer Perseus.
.1 word must be said on the ht(•1%1 my use of Christian legends. During the Middle Ages their versification continued to be a favorite form of poetic coniposition. Rhymed accounts of Saints Eulalia and Alexis belong to the principal monu ments of old French literature. Ill Germany, legends wore poetically treated in the thirteenth century by Hartmann VOn Aue. Iludolf von Ems, and Konrad von Witrzburg. The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation put an end to this literary interest, whiell, however, was re n•wed timing the romantic revival of the eigh teenth and the early part of the nineteenth cen tury. Legend NV S thou considered less as yeti talde history than as an expression of sentiment and folk-thought.
From a primal application to Christian hagi ology, the legend has been extended to include histories belonging to other faiths. It is in the nature of things that every people should pos It multitude. of traditional narratives, taken to be historical, and explanatory of their usages and beliefs. 'Mohammedan saints also have their legends. wti•li have not, found a dace in the authorized worship. In dealing with tile religion of ancient Greece. it is usual to distin guish legends of heroes from myths concerning the gods, as if the former had more of an his to•i•nI element, while the latter were more pure ly imaginative: but this distinction is by no means clear or well defined. Among American Indians the name of legend has been given to sacred histories which relate to personages hon ored in the cult, and which frequently supply information respecting, the origin and of the tribe. It is probable that similar legends, of a quasi-histo•i•al character, constitute a uni versal property of rat-es in a primitive condition of culture.