Definition of the word legend in literature. Tradition
1. BETRAY see Betray. 2. TREND; TRADIO, I; Wed 1. Oral story; a story passed down from generation to generation. P. says. Keep p. Biblical p. Family, folk p. Ancient p. Living p. (a legend that is alive in the mouths of the people is not ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary
TRADING, traditions, cf. (book). 1. units only Action under Ch. betray betray. Bringing to trial. Commitment to the earth. 2. A story, a belief passed from one generation to another through oral transmission. Ancient legend. “The legends of deep antiquity.”... ... Dictionary Ushakova
- (Ukrainian opinion, German Sage, French and English tradition, Greek paradosis, in popular terminology “pre-syulshchina”, “byl”, “byvalshchina”) “ folk tale", or rather those stories and memories that are not included in the circle of genres that are clearly distinguished: epics ... Literary encyclopedia
See fairy tale... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and similar expressions. under. ed. N. Abramova, M.: Russian Dictionaries, 1999. legend, history, fairy tale; myth, belief, parable, Kabbalah, belief, legend, shazhere, story, legend, sunnah... Dictionary of synonyms
Genre of folklore; oral history, which contains information about historical persons, events, places, passed down from generation to generation. Often arising from an eyewitness account, the legend, when transmitted, is subject to free poetic... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
BETRAY, betray, etc. see betray. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. V.I. Dahl. 1863 1866 … Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
The sacred (sacra traditio) is the second of the two primary sources of the Christian faith. Holy tradition, like Holy Scripture, is the teaching of Himself. Christ and the apostles, taught by them to the church orally, and later written. Such written bodies of St. Petersburg now serve as... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
Tradition- TRADING is a story that has developed among the people and is passed down through oral transmission from generation to generation. A legend about a historical person is called a historical or legend. Depending on their content, legends can be heroic (about... ... Dictionary of literary terms
TREND, in folk poetry, a type of legend containing information about historical persons, localities, and events of the past. Fiction in legends is different from fairy-tale fiction and legendary miracles … Modern encyclopedia
See Gospel of Matthew (I,2) see Masoretic Text see Scripture(II,C) see Bible (II,4; III,4) ... Brockhaus Biblical Encyclopedia
Books
- Tradition, Petr Shmakov. Poet and writer Petr Shmakov was born in 1950 in Kharkov. Graduated from Kharkov Medical Institute. Worked as a doctor. In 1995 he emigrated to the USA. Lives in the suburbs of Chicago. Written in 2003…
- Tradition, Shmakov Peter. Poet and writer Petr Shmakov was born in 1950 in Kharkov. Graduated from Kharkov Medical Institute. Worked as a doctor. In 1995 he emigrated to the USA. Lives in the suburbs of Chicago. Written in 2003…
"The legend of deep antiquity, things have been done for a long time days gone by..." Every Russian-speaking person has heard, seen, and read these lines since childhood. This is how Alexander Pushkin began his work “Ruslan and Lyudmila.” Are his fairy tales really legends? To know for sure, you need to understand the concepts.
Poetry is poetry, fairy tales are fairy tales, but what does the word “legend” mean? Definition and special features We will consider this phenomenon in our article.
Tradition as a genre
Your introduction to the world folk legends We'll start by defining the concept itself. So, various sources give us the following.
Tradition is a prosaic folklore genre, the plot of which is historical facts in the folk interpretation. People's legends are not associated with the fairy tale genre, although sometimes events resemble mythical or fairy tales.
Legends in literary theory are usually divided into two large groups by type of plot: historical and toponymic.
Legends are part of oral folk prose
We learned what tradition is. The definition gave us general idea. Let's talk about one feature of this genre. It is noteworthy that legends are a genre of oral folk art. This means that the stories heard today were created hundreds of years ago and passed from mouth to mouth. By the time the legend was recorded on an information medium, dozens or even hundreds of transformations of the plot and images could have occurred.
Creations famous poet In Greece, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, having an incredible length, were also transmitted orally. They also described historical events, embellished and somewhat modified. This shows some similarity between these creations and newer legends.
As a genre of oral prose, legends delight in their long history. Fortunately, or maybe not, distributing them in recorded form is much easier these days. We should appreciate every word and legend that provides important spiritual knowledge about our ancestors.
Comparison with other folk prose genres
Traditions can sometimes be mistakenly defined as legends or epics. To avoid this, let's call this pattern: the plots of legends are aimed at explaining the origin of any cultural or natural phenomenon. They often give a certain moral assessment to the events described. A legend is a retelling of a story in a folk style with the participation of widely known or locally famous heroes.
The legends of the people differ in content from the epics, actors (historical figures: robbers, rulers, ordinary people, artisans), the participation of real personalities famous in a certain area who became mythological heroes.
Characteristic for this genre folklore prose is a third-person narration of events in the past. The narrator of the legends was not an eyewitness to the events, but conveys a story heard from third parties.
Historical legends
Collective folk memory created ancient legends from real facts, about which we can read in a slightly different light in history textbooks. This is how historical legends were created.
Historical legends include legends about Joan of Arc, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Ataman Mazepa and others.
This also includes biblical stories about the creation of the world, the exit of the Israelites from Egypt in search of their land, and many others.
IN this group includes such legends that absorb people’s ideas about the creation of their world. All folklore units create a single historical and mythological world, reflecting big picture people's view of the surrounding reality.
The time frame covered by the legends is difficult to determine: this information ranges from biblical antiquity to the present.
Toponymic legends
Toponymic legends include legends that record events that became the basis for the origin of a particular name. Their heroes are, accordingly, local famous characters and events that have meaning only there. The study of such local stories is an interesting part of toponymic and ethnographic research.
Toponymic are short legends about the Serpentine Ramparts (from the Serpent), the city of Kyiv (about Kiy, his brothers and sister), the city of Orsha (Prince Orsh and his daughter Orshitsa), the city of Lvov and many other toponymic objects.
Prospects for Researchers
In every city, every village there are such short stories about where some local name came from. Collections of such legends can be compiled endlessly. There is still room for research today. Therefore, everyone who discovered the legends and found them interesting object activity, there is work.
Publishing a collection of legends collected in a specific area is a very real prospect. New names are appearing today, right at this moment. Also in remote corners of Russia there are settlements in which folklore is actively developing. This means that new boundaries for ethnographic and folklore work are emerging.
It is noteworthy that nowadays more topographical legends appear. Historical ones are saved from previous eras, since for some time all facts have been recorded immediately after their appearance.
Legends, myths and their historical basis
Tradition, which we have already defined, is sometimes associated with mythology. Thus, stories about the exploits of the Greek hero Hercules, according to researchers, could not have arisen without real historical facts. Those mythical events and heroes with which the probable true story the adventures of Hercules appeared over time.
Some facts from the Book of Enoch, which mentioned giants, were confirmed. In the same way, architectural monuments were found that could have witnessed the events that became the basis of the legend about the Flood.
Conclusions
Thus we have learned that tradition is a devotee's word of mouth folk story about historical events. In the process of transmission, speakers tend to embellish the legend. Definition and features of this folklore genre now we know. We can easily distinguish it from legends and fairy tales.
Ancient legends are a reflection of the deepest layers of culture and history of a certain people. By studying and comparing them with the facts of the history of certain nationalities, one can draw conclusions about the worldview of the people living at that time. The value of retellings for ethnology is also extremely high.
Every person has heard folk legends, historical and toponymic, but could not pay attention to this diamond, cut over the years of transmission from mouth to mouth. We can now appreciate what we know and hear about our surroundings. cultural world. Let our article be useful to you and give you the opportunity to look at the creativity of the people from a different perspective.
