Legends

Abstract

While often confused in contemporary usage on the one hand with the more conscience-shaping, or even cosmographic, term 'myth' of Aboriginal religion, and on the other with the more simple yarn or tale, 'legend' is still best defined as it was in the late nineteenth century by The New English Dictionary as 'an unauthentic or non-historical story, especially one handed down by tradition from early times and popularly regarded as historical'. As all societies had 'legendary periods', so did Australia have a social phase preceding more universal literacy. As in other (former colonial) territories in the twentieth century, in Australia the term 'legend' has been used more loosely for various stories about colourful or public people and their activities, in a way which may be said to be exaggerated or larger than life, and not necessarily completely credible, as well as being outside the accepted formal records of history, biography, or newspaper accounts. Legends of the settler and colonial periods tend to grow and to change, carrying into the present the (folk) traditions and perceptions of the past; they are updated or become less significant according to the evolving patterns of national life.