Legends are stories about people in the past that are often considered to be true within the culture that produced them. Unlike myths, legends are not necessarily sacred or holy tales, but are generally secular in nature. And, while they are set in the past, legends usually depict subjects within the more recent past than the subjects of myth. Moreover, legends are often specific to a location or region, in contrast to the universalism of myth and folktale.
Similar to anecdotes and rumors, legends are stories told as a means of narrating and explaining strange events or occurrences. These stories are passed on as a way of informing community members about such events. While legends function to inform, they also entertain, and in both functions they serve the purpose of community cohesion. Some folklorists also suggest that legends may serve as a warning, often providing a rationale for observing social taboos.
The historical associations of legends are so strong that some folklorists use the term “folk history” when speaking about legends. However, while legends do have an element of historical truth at their heart, that truth is often distorted by the oral storytelling tradition. This leads to the development of multiple variations of a legend, often with contradictory elements.
Because legends are similar in nature to rumors, or the unconfirmed accounts of events, some folklorists use rumor theory to explore how legends are transmitted. The term “anecdote” is used to differentiate those stories that contain only one episode and focus on individuals. Because legends are often about developing and transmitting a national or regional identity, the narratives tend to develop in clusters around particularly significant historical moments, such as wars. Consequently, there are a number of American legends from the American Revolution and Civil War and other military engagements up to and including the recent military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Moral travesties and natural disasters such as slavery, plagues, and terrorist acts also spawn legends. It should therefore be expected that areas that suffered such episodes have a number of legends that surround these events. Such legends include the ghost stories of the New Orleans French Quarter regarding the yellow fever outbreak and the myriad legends about secret tunnels supposedly used in the Underground Railroad. Moments of social change, such as Western expansion and the transition from an agrarian to industrial society also tend to produce a large number of legends. Legendary accounts of such frontier heroes as Davy Crockett and infamous villains such as Billy the Kid are part of this tradition.
There are several subgenres of legends. The religious legend is considered the first genre to have the distinction of “legend.” These stories were once exclusively Christian tales of the saints. Such stories may be recognized as official religious stories or they may be folk narratives that are not supported by any official religious bodies. Examples of the latter include the American stories of the “Nephites,” who are supernatural beings who aid Mormons (the Church of Latter-day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith). These Nephites are said to have provided aid to Mormon believers during times of trouble and strife. Religious legends may include tales that focus on miracles, visitations (by angels or other religious figures), revelations, and noncanonical biblical tales.
The term legend has, however, broadened significantly, and now is considered inclusive of stories not associated in any way with religious beliefs. Supernatural legends, for example, are reportedly true stories that feature supporting evidence for folk beliefs, including superstitions, supernatural creatures, and magic. These tales may be as simple as a narrative of an ordinary person who has encountered the supernatural, or they may be elaborate stories focusing on the existence of the supernatural in the world. While some folklorists observe that the extensive legendry of Europe did not transpose itself into the New World, American legendry does borrow significantly from some European traditions.
America’s Puritan heritage and a sincere belief in the devil and witchcraft is certainly pervasive in American legendry. Stories of witches turning butter, killing cows or crops, harming children, and causing plagues are rife in colonial American legendry. Indeed, the rich collection of supernatural legends concerning witchcraft and the devil influenced the laws, governance, and speech of New England and other regions that have a strong Puritan heritage; consequently, many New Englanders recognize that some of their colloquial speech has its roots in the Puritan heritage of the area. Specifically, the word wicked was originally used to indicate taboo and forbidden pleasures, specifically those activities that were associated with the devil or witchcraft. Such taboos were so plentiful in Puritan culture, however, that the term became a common part of the local speech. In parts of New England, colloquial speech uses the word “wicked” as a modifier roughly equivalent to “very” or “extremely.”
Other supernatural legends include ghost stories, which are narratives used as verification of the supernatural and as entertainment meant to scare the audience. The American ghost story usually features a very human-like ghost who has briefly returned to the world of the living so that it may right a wrong or finish something left undone. Generally these ghosts do not harm the living, especially if the living have done no wrong to the deceased. Tales of avenging ghosts are less common in comparison. And, even when they do appear, they also tend to have a specific purpose, such as identifying their killer or manner of death, ensuring their body is complete and properly arranged for burial, or revealing some other secret, such as a will or treasure.
Personal legends are legends that are reportedly true about a specific individual. The European legend cycles would focus on such figures as King Arthur and Robin Hood. In a similar manner, American legends focus on figures of American history, which is of course more recent and less distant than the European legend cycles. The American frontier is a particularly rich source for American legends, and helped to spawn the legend cycles of Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, and Billy the Kid. Organized crime has also given rise to several legendary gangster figures such as John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and Al Capone. Sports stars also figure heavily in American legendry with such figures as Babe Ruth and Jim Thorpe. American legendry also includes the figure of the American martyr, such as Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. For example, the story of the grassy knoll, which reports that there were additional gunmen or that the CIA was involved in Kennedy’s assassination, is often transmitted orally, and consequently there are numerous variations on the “grassy knoll” theory.
While the American legendary figure does not have legend cycles equal to those of the European figure, the American personal legend is still a rich source of folklore. Also, while it is a widely held belief that America celebrates the folk hero, such as Paul Bunyan, these heroes are often deliberately created by savvy professional writers and marketing programs. As a result, such figures more accurately fall into the category of what is known as “fakelore.”
Local legends are those legends tied to a specific place, often by their name, history, or geography. While these legends are often accepted from within the producing culture as unique regional narratives, they are often simply variations of migratory legends. Even local legends that develop around a specific regional feature may in fact actually be migratory legends adapted for the local terrain. The development of place names is another form of local legend. Often there are conflicting etymologies in the development of place names, suggesting a conflict of cultural identity. Specific geographic locations often had similar legends grow up around them. Lakes develop a reputation as being bottomless or having monsters; caves become robbers’ dens, or were known as labyrinth-like warrens that caused the demise of those who ventured within; lost oases were known to have appeared to those lost in the desert, yet the oases were never found again. Similar stories also crop up around structures such as houses, mines, bridges, and tunnels/passageways.
The haunted house is a traditional motif that reflects the migratory nature of such local legends. While the motif includes a variety of structures beside the classic gothic manse, including mine shafts, steamboats, and asylums, the motif remains fairly constant: an abandoned structure is haunted by its past inhabitants, who seek either to find peace by breaking a curse or completing a task, or the inhabitants must avenge themselves on their transgressors (or the descendants of their transgressors). Other forms of legends include urban legends, which have a contemporary setting and are reported as true, though often without tangible evidence or corroboration.
Amanda L. Anderson
See also Appleseed, Johnny; Crockett, Davy; Fakelore; Haunted Houses; Myths; Urban Legends/Urban Belief Tales
Further Reading
Bronner, Simon J. 1986. American Folklore Studies: An Intellectual History. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Brunvand, Jan H. 1998. The Study of American Folklore: An Introduction. 4th ed. New York: W. W. Norton.
Dorson, Richard. 1971. America in Legend: Folklore from the Colonial Period to the Present. New York: Pantheon Books.
Ringel, Faye. 1995. New England’s Gothic Literature: History and Folklore of the Supernatural from the Seventeenth through the Twentieth Centuries. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
Zumwalt, Rosemary Levy. 1988. American Folklore Scholarship: A Dialogue of Dissent. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.