ABSTRACT
Many a legend is a tall tale that has somehow become true. At some stage it became accepted in a culture, in a sub-culture, in a locality, in a whole country or just within the family, not as ‘just a story’ but as something that happened long or not so long ago or is now or used to be. We don’t know who made such tales up nor how. They have (generally) been told and then retold over and again, in such a way that they have acquired the feel of a truth, like the patina and glow that much-handled coins get. In fact they can seem so true that some people actually claim to have seen and witnessed parts of them.
