Legend vs. Myth

Main Difference

The main difference between Legend and Myth is that a Legend is a historical basis story for legendary people and events, but that is without substantiation, and a Myth is a story based on tradition or legend, which has a deep symbolic meaning.

Legend vs. Myth — Is There a Difference?
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Difference Between Legend and Myth

Legend vs. Myth

Legend is an unsubstantiated story or description expressed or delivered from past times, particularly one traditionally thought to be antique. Myth is an outmoded, normally olden description dealing with mystical existences, lineages, or champions that assists as an essential type in the view of the world of a person, as by clarifying features of the natural universe or defining the customs, psychology, or ethics of a culture.

Legend vs. Myth

A legend is a story of real people with superpowers, while a myth is a story of gods and divine beings.

Legend vs. Myth

A legend is a story loosely based, or partially based, on facts. A myth is a story that forms a component of a religious framework.

Legend vs. Myth

The word “legend” comes from the Old French word “legende” while the word “myth” comes from the Greek word “mythos.”

Legend vs. Myth

All cultures or societies have stories that have been delivered from generation to generation, some of which are known as legends, while others are known as myths.

Legend vs. Myth

Robin Hood is a legend. He existed, but his tales exaggerated, and while popular, they are not part of any religious belief. Hercules is a myth. As far as we know, he never existed, and he is part of Hellenistic religious belief.

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Legendnoun

A unrealistic story depicting past events.

Mythnoun

A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.

Legendnoun

A story of unknown origin describing plausible but extraordinary past events.

The legend of Troy was discovered to have a historical basis.

Mythnoun

(uncountable) Such stories as a genre.

Myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings. (E. Clodd, Myths & Dreams (1885), 7, cited after OED)

Legendnoun

A plausible story set in the historical past, but whose historicity is uncertain.

The legend of Robin Hood/the legend of Prester John/the legend of Coriolanus.

Mythnoun

A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.

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Legendnoun

A story in which a kernel of truth is embellished to an unlikely degree.

The 1984 Rose Bowl prank has spawned many legends. Here's the real story.

Mythnoun

A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend

Father Flanagan was legendary, his institution an American myth. (Tucson (Arizona) Citizen, 20 September 1979, 5A/3, cited after OED)

Legendnoun

A fabricated backstory for a spy, with associated documents and records; a cover story.

According to his legend, he once worked for the Red Cross, spreading humanitarian aid in Africa.

Mythnoun

A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.

Legendnoun

A person related to a legend or legends.

Mythnoun

a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people

Legendnoun

A leading protagonist in a historical legend.

Achilles is a legend in Greek culture.

Legendnoun

A person with legend-like qualities, such as extraordinary accomplishment.

Michael Jordan stands as a legend in basketball.

Legendnoun

A key to the symbols and color codes on a map, chart, etc.

According to the legend on the map, that building is a school.

Legendnoun

An inscription, motto, or title, especially one surrounding the field in a medal or coin, or placed upon a heraldic shield or beneath an engraving or illustration.

Legendverb

To tell or narrate; to recount.

Legendnoun

a story about mythical or supernatural beings or events

Legendnoun

brief description accompanying an illustration

Comparison Chart

LegendMyth
Legend is a type of traditional story that contains a description including human activities supposed or believed to have made contained by someone's history.Myth is a folk tale type containing descriptions or tales that play a key role in a culture, like introductory stories of source mythologies.
Fact Or Fiction
Facts or realities are partial or overstated — more or less fiction.In myth, no proof to demonstrate it as fact. Fictional or imaginary stories are clarifying by what means "the universe formed" or some natural condition that happened on Earth.
They Are About
About courageous actions, incapacitating or overcome problems, but may also be about wrongdoing.A customary story that describes natural occurrences by metaphor and symbolism — repeatedly contains the gods of early beliefs.
It Happens
Normally in a more contemporary past. Typically, from definite beliefs.Generally, the earliest past from definite early beliefs.

Legend vs. Myth

Legends are stories intended to impart a lesson or moral about an actual being in the past, with rare facts or truths intensely reformed. Whereas myths are sections or stories, which made about why or how something became. The term “legend” derives from the Old French word “legende”, while the word “myth” derives from the Greek word “mythos.”

A legend is supposed to be some origin in narrative and keep reference real or tangible people, actions, or events. Historic data transformed into a legend when the fact overstated to the point that actual people or proceedings have taken on an idealized, “superior to life” value. In compare, a myth is a kind of representative tale that never created on fact. All overtime, myths have pursued to clarify problematic thoughts (e.g., the basis of the world) with the assistance of common story strategies, like exemplification and metaphors.

Legend is used to teach later generations about loyalty and other virtues needed in times of war and hardships. It tells the story of real people who are strong and equipped with superpowers and their struggles with life, fate, oppression, and powerful enemies. On the other hand, myths are considered sacred and true, often affirmed by religious leaders and rulers. They are people, places, and events that happened in the distant past, which usually tells the story of how certain things and customs came to be.

A legend is a part-true say or story that is said from one-on-one and has significant denotation or representation for the beliefs in which it initiates while a myth ‘says a truth’ to those who state it and perceive it, or necessarily record a factual or true happening.

What is Legend?

The description of a legend is a story said by generations, which is understood to be ancient. A legend typically contains a part of certainty or is grounded on past facts. Legends generally include heroic or daring characters or good places, and every so often involves the mystical faith of the beliefs or culture in which they make.

Characteristics of Legends

  • A description of someone’s activities that are felt or believed by the narrator and the person who reads or listener to have made in the human past.
  • Legends have a definite setting: a time and a place. They generally include beliefs and ideas of a culture. Legends have malleable guidelines, and therefore, can begin with miracles that are believed to have happened.
  • Inscribed in such a way as to be at least potentially real/true; includes no happenings outside of the realm of possibility.
  • Legends transform over time. Facts change or stretched, HYPERBOLE will enter the PLOTLINE, and interesting details will remain and/or get more interesting.
  • Legends read like Folk Stories but have a least a bit of historical reality.
  • Legends are different than myths because they portray a historical hero rather than one who is a god or goddess.
  • Legends can be poetry or prose. They combine or chain a real event or real person’s unusual life story with the exaggeration and heroic actions that we associate with stores of heroes and great national events.

Purpose of Legends

Many legends exist as an explanation for how the world created or as a means to explain various natural phenomena that early civilizations didn’t understand. A legend also used as a means to convey a moral message of some sort. A legend may exist as an exaggeration of a relatively true, historical event.

What is Myth?

A myth is a story based on a concept, an idea, or an answer. It’s an effort to explain something, but when the hard research is done, it’s clear there is no historical basis for the story. Myths are stories herd or documented, are passed on from generation to generation, but proofs for proving hardly exist, or these are imaginative stories from ancestors, myths limited to a particular region or country.

Characteristics of Myths

  • A myth is a description that is or as an exact clarification of the natural domain and how it became.
  • The situation is classically olden or in the past time when real records retained. Myths usually set in a creation very comparable to our own, but with paranormal fiends or zones.
  • Characters are frequently non-human or primate and are usually gods, supernatural beings, or spiritual “fistful persons.”
  • The conspiracy of a myth may make among a mystical creation and our existing world. Myths do this to emphasize elementary human actions that are necessary for any situation.
  • Endorses “Social Action”—myths mean to tell individuals how to doing and live. Essential ethics such as individuality, community, and family often imparted in fabulous champions.
  • Myths retain happenings that turn or break laws of nature. It is usually done to amplify the “super simplicity” of the fabled sphere.
  • Myths have a common sense of anonymous or the mysterious.
  • Myths frequently have prominence in language. Mythological supermen are usually cultured narrators.
  • Complements are generally playing significant roles in the strategy of a myth.
Conclusion

A story can be both a myth and a legend. A legend has some basis in fact, although it probably exaggerated. A myth is completely untrue.