E X T E N S I O N TRADITIONAL LEGENDS AND URBAN LEGENDS A legend is a non historical or unverifiable1 story that passes down by tradition from one generation to the next like the legends of Beowulf, King Arthur and Camelot, Robin Hood, or even Big Foot. The word comes from the Latin legere, to read . The Latin word was originally limited to written stories, but later it lost that limitation and so a legend lives on in the stories that people tell each other. But how do legends start? They begin with a real or imagined incident or event, something so exciting that we feel the need to repeat it. This is passed by word of mouth from person to person and from generation to generation until it has been retold thousands of times and exists in a hundred different versions around the world. Each time a story is retold it changes. This happens because of a natural tendency of the mind to remember things that make a strong impression and forget things that don t impress us much. It exaggerates or minimizes, takes things apart and puts them back together in different combinations, simplifies or edits2. Naturally, therefore, the original event will be significantly different hundreds of years later! King Arthur is a perfect example of this. Many scholars3 believe that this legendary English king developed from a real general, Arturis, who lived in the 5th century AD and who won ten consecutive battles against the Saxons before he was finally killed. If they are correct, then, after 1,600 years in the oral tradition, this general has been transformed into the legendary King Arthur who used a magic sword named Excalibur, and who, with the help of a magician friend named Merlin, founded Camelot and the Round Table, and sent his courageous knights in search of the Holy Grail4. 1. unverifiable: that cannot be proved or is doubtful and unlikely. 2. edit: correct, change, improve. 3. scholar: academic, researcher, intellectual. 4. Holy Grail: the cup used by Jesus Christ during the last supper. 53