LEGEND

* A traditional story or group of stories told about a particular person or place. Formerly the term legend meant a tale about a saint. Legends resemble folktales in content; they may include supernatural beings, elements of mythology, or explanations of natural phenomena, but they are associated with a particular locality or person and are told as a matter of history.

* Some legends are the unique property of the place or person that they depict, such as the story of young George Washington, the future first president of the United States, who confesses to chopping down the cherry tree.

EPIC

* A long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds, although the term has also been loosely used to describe novels, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and motion pictures, such as Sergey Eisenstein’sIvan the Terrible. In literary usage, the term encompasses both oral and written compositions.

* The prime examples of the oral epic are Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Outstanding examples of the written epic include Virgil’s Aeneid and Lucan’s Pharsalia in Latin, Chanson de Roland in medieval French,Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso and Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata in Italian, Cantar de mio Cid in Spanish, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene in English.

PROVERB

* A succinct and pithy saying in general use, expressing commonly held ideas and beliefs. Proverbs are part of every spoken language and are related to such other forms of folk literature as riddles and fables that have originated in oral tradition.

* Comparisons of proverbs found in various parts of the world show that the same kernel of wisdom may be gleaned under different cultural conditions and languages.

* The biblical proverb “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” for example, has an equivalent among the Nandi of East Africa: “A goat’s hide buys a goat’s hide, and a gourd, a gourd.” Both form part of codes of behaviour and exemplify the proverb’s use for the transmission of tribal wisdom and rules of conduct. Often, the same proverb may be found in many variants. In Europe this may result from the international currency of Latin proverbs in the Middle Ages. The proverb known in English as “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” originated in medieval Latin, and variants of it are found in Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Icelandic. Many biblical proverbs have parallels in ancient Greece. “A soft answer turneth away wrath” was known to Aeschylus as well as to Solomon, and “Physician, heal thyself” (Luke 4:23) was also known to the Greeks.

SHORT STORY * The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few significant episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise narrative, and the omission of a complex plot; character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed. Despite its relatively limited scope, though, a short story is often judged by its ability to provide a “complete” or satisfying treatment of its characters and subject.

RIDDLE * A deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous question requiring a thoughtful and often witty answer. The riddle is a form of guessing game that has been a part of the folklore of most cultures from ancient times. Western scholars generally recognize two main kinds of riddle: the descriptive riddle and the shrewd or witty question.

* The descriptive riddle usually describes an animal, person, plant, or object in an intentionally enigmatic manner, to suggest something different from the correct answer. “What runs about all day and lies under the bed at night?” suggests “A dog,” but the answer is “A shoe.” The description usually consists of one general and one specific element. The general element stands first and is to be understood metaphorically.

Example of RIDDLE: * “Three eyes have I, all in a row; when the red one opens, all freeze.” The answer is traffic light.

* “What animal walks on all fours in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening?” The answer is man, since he crawls as a child then walks and uses a cane when he gets older.

* What does “Mill + Walk + Key=” The answer is Milwaukee.

* “What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?” A towel of course.

* “No sooner spoken than broken. What is it?” It is silence.