Legends and myths

By TORRIONE CASTLE LODGE OF RESEARCH No. 34
[...] The difference between legends and myths involves two dimensions: the degree to which the narratives in questions are sacred, that is, emotionally important and intensely real to the tellers; the degree to which they are grounded in historical, geographical, and scientifically plausible (at least at the moment when the assessment is made) reality. What separates these two genres is the extent to which the tellers themselves assess the tales in question as real beyond any question and culturally important, not whether they are any more or less objectively real. That is why myths tend to emphasize the actions and include narratives about how the human society and other important phenomena began and their interactions with mortals. Legends by definition focus primarily on an historical ambiance. Not that every important character in a legend is a real historical figure whose objective existence can be documented; far from it. But the folks that populate legends operate for the most part in a recognizable historical and temporal framework rather than in the realm of once upon a time or the dream-like world inhabited by gods and goddesses and, with some major exceptions, are generally subject to the same constraints that affect all life forms on this planet. In short, the Craft narratives clearly belong to the genre of legend, regardless of whether there are any objectively documented, historical prototypes of Freemasons...
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