Saga vs. Fairy tale
It is not always easy to distinguish between different genres. Here, the definition of fairy tales in contrast to legends will be examined in more detail. The term ‘fairy tale’ is the diminutive of the ‘fairy tale’. This refers to a customer, story, report, or rumor. In the original sense, ‘fairy tale’ refers to an untrue story, which, however, from a literary point of view, makes use of an “observed and imagined reality. Since the end of the 18th century, the term has been established primarily as a designation for folk tales. Contrary to the general opinion, these are not only passed down orally, but have their origin in the pen of an author. A fairy tale is characterized by a single-strand plot without location and time indications and the characters appear “one-dimensional” (good – evil, clever – stupid). In addition, they are kept linguistically simple and the plot always steers towards a good ending due to a problem.
The legend distinguishes itself from fairy tales in that it contains “miraculous or supernatural”. It refers to a specific place of action, i.e. it is location-bound. In addition, its content is not denied a grain of truth. This is created by references to the past. In this way, the saga wants to appear true (“subjective credibility”). The fairy tale does not make this claim. The legend is usually recounted orally.
S. Neuhaus, „Märchen“, 2., überarbeitete Auflage, Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2017, S. 3-7.
L. Petzoldt, „Einführung in die Sagenforschung“, 3. Auflage, Konstanz: UVK-Verlagsgesellschaft, 2002, S. 43-46
Legend research in the 19th century
Initiated by the Brothers Grimm, folk songs, fairy tales and legends were collected throughout Europe in the middle of the 19th century. However, the focus was on fairy tales, which are attractive due to their enduring symbolic content. The Romantics Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano were also decisive for the collections of legends. Jacob Grimm helped the latter with his research and began collecting folk books. From 1816 to 1818, German legends were published, edited by the Brothers Grimm. Although they emphasized the value of the faithful reproduction of folk poetry, they did not strictly adhere to it.
A closer look at the books of legends, especially their prefaces, suggests that the collections were compiled in order to obtain historical and anthropological knowledge. The assumption was that the history of the “common people” could be reconstructed from this back to antiquity. In addition to a common language, a “world of legends” was also created that represented the “people” as a unit in order to establish the nation state.
L. Petzoldt, „Einführung in die Sagenforschung“, 3. Auflage, Konstanz: UVK-Verlagsgesellschaft, 2002, S. 7-40