Long before emergence of writing in the ancient people there were stories in which it was told about an origin of the universe, about gods and about the heroes making unusual feats for justice and good. The first and rather primitive ideas of people of the world seeming unclear, mysterious and full of miracles found reflection in these legends.
Instruction
1. Legends represent one of types of fantastic prose. Most likely, the first such national legends appeared long before a written language and at first were transferred from generation to generation in the form of oral legends. Subsequently stories about magic transformations and feats of heroes began to be brought on paper, acquiring at the same time new improbable details.
2. In the center of a traditional legend usually there is a legend about any historic figure or the event taking place in fact. Material for creation of legends, of course, not ordinary events and biographies of ordinary people were chosen. Legends most often describe the affairs fanned by glory and acts of those who in fact immortalized the name in the history. Over time legends often received additional social, religious or moralizing sense.
3. Researchers of folklore believe that events and the persons who found reflection in legends in many cases were not completely fictional. Creation of a legend began with the usual narration about what was in fact.
4. Passing by word of mouth, history acquired improbable and fantastic details, exaggerations and art fiction. The well-known legend of the king Artur who proved the noble origin and the right for a throne can be an example, having pulled out the magic sword thrust in a stone which to it nobody could master.
5. Having arisen in primitive times, legends in many respects intertwined with myths and religious beliefs of people. Deities and the mysterious beings who had supernatural force quite often participate in legendary events. Some legends became so popular that often laid down on music, it gave to oral stories a special charm.
6. In images of legendary heroes expectations of people, their idea of war, contentions, justice and unearthly love were reflected. There passed centuries, true details of the events which are been the basis for any given legend gradually were erased, but the moral force of acts of heroes and greatness of their feats from it did not change. And today legends of feats of knights and national heroes inspire writers and directors on creation of the epic works narrating about the distant and heroic past of mankind.