About the "historical" and the "local" Legend and Their Relatives

Résumé du livre

The most well known definition of the legend, and the fundamental one to all other definitions, is the one of the Brothers Grimm: a legend is a story which is believed; it is told about a definite (real or fabulous) person, event or place. Four factors are included in this definition: (1) the legend fits somewhere in the dimension of the historical time of the narrator: (a) the legend is connected with a definite historical (real or fabulous) event; (b) the legend is connected with a definite person, i.e., a named historical (real or fabulous) figure; (2) the legend fits somewhere in the dimension of the geographical space of the narrator: it is connected with a definite place; (3) the legend is a true story: i.e., although it deals with supernatural events, it is 'believed' by its bearers, it is regarded as being placed in the real world of the narrator and of his audience (contrary to this the fairy-tale, also dealing with supernatural events, is not 'believed' by the same narrating community). The Grimms' propositions are examined on a corpus of Jewish-Near Eastern legendary material.