Narratologia Das Literaturas em Língua Inglesa aula 3

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Religious and Folk narratives
Professor Rodrigo Jorge Ribeiro Neves
Description
A study of the main theoretical and conceptual aspects of folk and religious-based narratives, including their
origins, evolution, characteristics, function, and importance.
Purpose
Understanding narrative genres that are part of folkloric culture is essential for the study of literature. To do
so, we will dive into the world of folk and religious-based storytelling through the perspective of their roles as
contributors to the development and maintenance of language, culture, and tradition.
Preparation
Before initiating your investigation, research on the Internet “folktale”, “legend”, “ legends of the saints” and
“parable”, to become acquainted with the terms. Also, make sure you have a good English dictionary at hand.
Goals
Section 1
Folktales
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To explore the structure and examples of folktales.
Section 2
Legends
To recognize the main purpose and the appeal of legends.
Section 3
Legends of the Saints
To relate the aim of the legends of the saints with their historical and literary appeal.
Section 4
Parables
To identify the main purpose of parables.
Warm up
It would be almost impossible to imagine the world as it is today if it weren’t for the simple act of storytelling.
Even though it is probably unverifiable, many historians suggest that storytelling emerged not long after the
development of language itself. Before the advent of reading and writing, though, stories were passed on
orally from generation to generation. Those stories would then cross borders and cultures, by means of
songs, epic poetry, folktales, prayers, fables, legends, and proverbs.
Nowadays, new forms of media have allowed us to tell stories differently, but the fact is: the act of telling
stories has never ceased to exist as a fundamental part of our society. But why is that so? Does it help
people make sense of the world surrounding them or does it enable the creation of empathy with others? Is it
still a tool for sharing information? Can the act of listening and comprehending stories facilitate cognitive
processes as well as personal development? All these motives seem plausible enough. However, regardless
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of them, such intrinsic human characteristic has shaped the way society evolved and it is not possible to
study any area of knowledge without contemplating storytelling.
Hence, in this Unit, we will dive into the world of folk and religious-based narratives, more specifically into
folktales, legends, the legends of the saints, and parables. Their origins, history, characteristics, and
importance will be analyzed to understand their roles within the study of Narratology.
1 - Folktales
By the end of this section, you will be able to explore the structure and
examples of folktales.
A brief introduction
What is then a folktale?
Folk literature, commonly referred to as folklore, encompasses a series of narrative genres, including myths,
legends, and folktales.
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Myths
Sacred accounts. Example: Persephone.
Legends
Secular accounts of actual events. Example: Robin Hood.
Folktales
Fiction. Example: Little Red Riding Hood.
There is no precise way of determining the ultimate origins of folktales. Throughout history, groups of people
have shared their folk literature in numerous ways, influenced by physical and social factors. Still, the
etymology of words is always a good starting point.
Let us start with the term folklore, from the old English fole, generally defined as “common people”, and lar,
as in “knowledge”, or the art of teaching (HARPER, 2001-2022). Old English folclar means "homily".
In 1846, the antiquarian William J. Thoms (1803-1885) coined the definition of folklore as the "traditional
beliefs and customs of the common people”, (MILLER, 2021).
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But what about folktales? The old English folctalu means "genealogy", whereas old English talu refers to
"story, tale, statement, deposition, narrative, fable" (HARPER, 2001-2022).
Given that a tale is related to the act of telling, one can de�ne
folktales as traditional stories passed on by word of mouth.
When we think of the oral fictional tale, regardless of its origin, we can say it is essentially universal. Stories
can be simple or complex, but the elementary paradigm of storyteller and audience has always been there.
How do Legends and Folktales differ?
Legends
They are held as truthful and usually relied upon.
Folktales
They grant those who tell them the right to do as desired.
Scholars in the 19th century sought hidden meanings in tales certain that they were myths which had
undergone changes, losing their authentic meaning because of linguistic misconceptions. Within such
theory, the so-called “original meaning” was continually revealed to be a conflict between climatic
phenomena, for example, clouds, rain, sunshine, and wind.
On the other hand, contemporary debates have investigated folktales by relying on studies of the tellers, the
audience, and their relationship, acknowledging the transmission of folk literature through tradition as a
major part of the traditional wisdom of people (ibid.). By means of this approach, scholars have come to
realize that despite the occurrence of similar plots around the globe, style and form vary depending on
historical and geographical factors, affecting what people consider true or not.
Folktales are usually regarded as fictional by those who tell them and those who listen to them. However,
there’s a thin line between belief and disbelief which depends on the culture and individuals involved.
Marvelous creatures, for instance, such as dragons, unicorns, and mixtures of men and beasts, can be
entirely fictional or can be representations of real animals, but what is worthy of note is the connection,
always present, between humans and creatures.
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The fact that a supernatural being is real or not becomes irrelevant because what
truly matters is their relationship with the people in the tales. Are they benevolent or
are they malevolent? These are the issues that concern taletellers and their
audience.
Nevertheless, trying to classify folktales and trying to pinpoint their origins or categorize their characteristics
is a very difficult task. Although stories have many similarities around the world and some can even be
specified, they vary enormously according to the historical context, culture, language, politics, religious
beliefs, traditions, and many other factors. This means that the truly important investigation lies within the
relations established by folktales with history, literature, art, and society.
Folktales: structure and elements
When we think of folktales, what comes to mind? Characters are usually flat, either exaggeratedly good or
bad. Hyperboles are commonly utilized for the young heroes, who are always caring, unselfish, courageous,
and endowed with special abilities or powers. The setting is easily described, examples are a humble cottage
or a magic kingdom, to match the geographical aspects of the place where it is told.
The same goes with the time, mostly a distant past within the history of the culture it belongs to. Obviously,
we cannot imagine a folktale without the famous initial “once upon a time” and the final“lived happily ever
after”.
The plot is always very simple, filled with actions that follow a specific arrangement, grabbing the listeners’
attention right from the beginning and keeping it until the end, when the conflict is resolved with good deeds
or demonstrations of human kindness.
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Through usually a third-person narration, descriptions are fast-paced with little details. Promises are always
involved, the number three is a recurring element, just like supernatural beings and objects. Characters are
transformed by magical spells and the presence of extraordinary animals is essential.
Naturally, a folktale is not a folktale if it does not tell the story of
good versus evil, if it does not re�ect upon human strengths and
imperfections, and if the reader is not led to new concepts regarding
life and its meanings.
Tales have been greatly analyzed in terms of their structure. Vladimir Propp is said to have begun the
structural analysis of folktales in his Morphology of the Folktale (1971), giving rise to research on structural
typology and eventually the emergence of today’s narratology. Models have been identified through the
exploration of stories, but how patterns relate to the content is still an issue lacking deeper understanding.
Recent narratological studies have tried to go beyond, by contemplating:
Form, function, and field are the three main criteria when classifying genres.
Tales however have been classified solely based on motif or content producing inconsistency For example
the narrative structure of a tale as its form
the social purpose it carries as its function
its content as the �eld
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Tales, however, have been classified solely based on motif or content, producing inconsistency. For example,
a thematic category could be an animal tale or wonder tale, but what if a tale fits both categories? Propp was
the one, when morphologically analyzing Russian tales, to describe such stories according to their
component parts and their relations with the whole. The basic components of a tale would then be an event
produced by a character from the perspective of its importance within the course of the action (PROPP,
1971).
Nonetheless, although other scholars began diving into a tale’s structure in different cultures in search of
new models, what still lacks is a proper explanation of the relation between formal pattern, content, and
function. It has been broadly agreed upon that the function of storytelling lies in the preservation of culture,
explanation of natural phenomena, the transmission of important information, be it historical or social, and
the teaching of moral and ethical issues.
Comment
Despite the differences presented by folktales as a result of the distinct cultures they come from, the
underlying message repeats itself. What is morally and ethically right? What is considered wrong and what
are the consequences of carrying out immoral and unethical deeds? The relationship between form, function,
and field in folktales seems to be the didactic morality.
Virtues such as kindness, generosity, and honesty in opposition to greed, pride, and jealousy, surpass
cultures and can even be considered universal. American writer and professor, Joseph Campbell, defined the
folktale as “the primer of the picture-language of the soul” (CAMPBELL, 1969, p. 25).
If we think of it this way, with their extraordinary creatures, virtuous and righteous heroes, in a faraway land,
in a distant past, folktales as society’s unofficial culture, exist to teach us the basics of humanity.
Examples of folktales and their evolution
Failure of memory?
Who hasn’t heard of The telephone game? A group of people arrange themselves in a line or a circle and the
first person whispers a word or phrase into the ear of another. The message is passed on the exact same
way until the last person reached announces what was heard out loud. The objective is to have fun with how
much of the original message is transformed along the way. The more something is told, the more changes it
undergoes, and over a long period of time, an account can be altered into something entirely different,
preserving only the main idea.
As stated by Jan Vansina, any story told will undergo changes due to “failure of memory” (VANSINA, 1961, p.
43) since the teller may forget or erase certain parts, adding on new ones.
Interestingly enough
Folktales told nowadays are significantly different from the original ones
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Folktales told nowadays are significantly different from the original ones.
Little Red Riding Hood is a story present in every continent and every major language, but what we know of
the little girl saved by the woodsman is a lot dissimilar to the girl being deceived into eating her own
grandmother.
Nevertheless, all versions contain a moral teaching: do not trust
strangers.
Cinderella started off as a slave girl who married the king of Egypt. The Grimm Brothers, on the other hand,
created the the Ash girl and a wish tree.
Comment
Although the story changed into a less violent and more positive one, the moral teaching remains: to be kind,
gracious, and to forgive others for their acts.
The Pied Piper
Based on real events?
One interesting folktale to analyze is The Pied Piper, about a man hired by the town of Hamelin to clear the
region from a plague of rats. The job was successfully accomplished, but the rats weren’t the only ones
enticed by his music: when the town refused to pay for the Piper's work, he seduced the children of Hamelin,
with the melody of his flute, to follow him out of town, and the children never returned.
Such folktale evokes the primal fear of losing one’s child, and even though it is
universal, it is more than a simple tale but rather a historical occurrence.
On the stone facade of what is known as the Pied Piper house, a private residence dating to 1602, it reads
the following:
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A.D. 1284 - on the 26th of June - the day of St John and St Paul - 130 children -
born in Hamelin - were led out of the town by a piper wearing multicoloured
clothes. After passing the Calvary near the Koppenberg they disappeared
forever.
(KADUSHIN, 2020)
Furthermore, in Hamelin’s town records, there is an entry, dating to 1384: “It is 100 years since our children
left”. The window in St Nicholai church was also described to have an illustration of the Piper leading
children represented as ghosts. Other accounts in Latin and Middle Low German have been found telling a
similar story of youngsters disappearing on the 26th of June 1284, after having followed a pied piper.
But what exactly happened on that day?
A current theory suggests that these young people were Germans migrating to Eastern Europe due to
economic depression, recruited by a person who was known to wear colorful clothes and play an instrument
to attract people’s attention. Linguist Jürgen Udolph’s hypothesis is that these migrants headed to regions
that are now eastern Germany. One of his evidences lies in family names that are common in Hamelin and
frequent in areas near Berlin.
Other theories suggest a children’s crusade to win back the Holy Land: from 1095 to the 1400s, popes called
on European believers to flee to the Holy Land to rout out Muslims. What became known as the Children’s
Crusade didn’t have the approval of the Church and the participants carried banners instead of weapons,
believing they would convert Muslims through persuasion. However, when the youth arrived inGenoa, Italy,
they faced people who weren’t pleased to see them, and things began falling apart. Some children dispersed,
others took local jobs, some were sold to slavery while others drowned at sea. The fact is: these children
never returned.
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Dancing mania on a pilgrimage to the church at Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, a 1642 engraving by Hendrick Hondius.
A very intriguing hypothesis is that which relates the episode to the “dancing mania”, a medieval
phenomenon documented in Europe. It was a type of mass hysteria that led people to dance feverishly and
compulsively, jumping, singing, and even hallucinating to the point of exhaustion or death. A group of youths
was documented as dancing wildly in the south of Hamelin in the 13th century, ending up 20km away. Some
were reported to have died while others are said to have developed chronic tremors.
The 26th of June is also contemplated as the date of pagan midsummer celebrations. In this scenario, the
Piper, a pagan shaman, could have led youngsters to pagan festivities and a Christian faction could have
massacred the group to strengthen the conversion of the area. (KADUSHIN, 2020)
What is important to observe is how all folktales o�er redemption to
humankind by taking the form of international art, literature, and
music and connecting people all around the globe through the
sharing of heritage.
Despite their fluidity, being able to change to entirely new stories, and despite their original meaning, being
them moral lessons or accounts of historical incidents, folktales will probably live forever.
Once upon a time…
Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk… do you know what they all have in common? They are folktales!
In this video, we will talk about their main components and function. Stay tuned!
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You are very close to reaching your goals
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You are very close to reaching your goals.
Let’s practice!
Question 1
Considering the etymology of the term “folktale”, from the old English fole, generally defined as
“common people”, and talu, which refers to "story, tale, statement, deposition, narrative, fable" (HARPER,
2001-2022), a precise definition of the genre would be:
Parabéns! A alternativa B está correta.
Folktales come from oral tradition, transmitted by word of mouth. They were not written down the same
way books are published nowadays, and the authors were not famous writers, they were common
people who told stories. Since they are passed from generation to generation, folktales undergo many
changes, even though in most cases their original structure is kept the same.
A stories written by common people and passed on from generation to generation.
B
a traditional story that people of a particular region or group pass on by word of mouth
through generations.
C narratives about supernatural beings with the purpose of teaching a moral lesson.
D a story created by anonymous people and kept unaltered through the passing years.
E
a fictional narrative from a named author which is transmitted from person to person,
changing itself with time.
Question 2
The Pied Piper, a tale about a man who cleansed a town from a plague of rats but ended up vanishing
with all the children too, seems to have originated from a true story. Is it correct to affirm that all
folktales are based on true facts, and this is the most important aspect to be investigated?
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Parabéns! A alternativa E está correta.
Folktales can be inspired by true events, but not necessarily. Furthermore, whether they are veridical or
not is not the main issue to be investigated. In fact, there is not one main issue since it depends on the
researcher’s objectives. Still, all aspects are important, and these include origin, if there are possible
authors, historical and social context, psychological factors, changes in the narrative and the audience,
region, and language.
A
Yes. Folktales are stories originated from real events which need to be investigated as
part of historical research on a region, culture, language, and tradition.
B
No. Folktales can be either fictional or based on true events. Still, this is the most
important aspect to be studied because where a story comes from determines all other
characteristics.
C
No. Folktales are always fictional, and their most important aspect is the analogy made
with real life, according to the context in which they are told.
D
Yes. Like The Pied Piper, which has the purpose of teaching its audience to protect its
children preventing a similar incident from occurring, all folktales narrate true events
from the past and the study of these events allow people to avoid their reoccurrence.
E
No. Not all folktales are based on facts, although they can be, and the source of
inspiration is not the most important aspect of analysis, it is one aspect and should be
investigated along with social, historical, psychological, and economic factors, as well as
with its original language, culture, region, and development.
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2 - Legends
By the end of this section, you will be able to recognize the main
purpose and the appeal of legends.
What is a legend?
De�nition
According to J. A. Cuddon, a legend is a “a story or narrative that lies somewhere between myth and
historical fact and which, as a rule, is about a particular figure or person” (CUDDON, 2012, p. 484).
From the Latin lĕgo, meaning to gather, collect cremated bones, pick out, but also to read (OLIVETTI, 2013),
legends are stories about unproven and undocumented events told as historical accounts. While some
people may recognize their veracity, some may refute. Although the term “legend” can be utilized to
accentuate someone or something’s significance or reputation, the legend referred to in this section is the
genre: historically grounded narratives.
In the 1990s, folklorist and ethnographer by training, R. Tangherlini, established the following definition to the
term:
Legend, typically, is a short (mono-) episodic, traditional, highly ecotypified
historicized narrative performed in a conversational mode, reflecting on a
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p , g
psychological level a symbolic representation of folk belief and collective
experiences and serving as a reaffirmation of commonly held values of the
group to whose tradition it belongs.
(R. TANGHERLINI, 1990, p. 385)
Tangherlini’s study It Happened Not Too Far from Here...: A Survey of Legend Theory and Characterization,
exposes the challenging task of differentiating the genre.
Previously, intellectuals would analyze legends focusing solely on literary factors, disregarding social
and psychological motivations.
In the 1950s and 1960s, scholars broadened their perspective envisioning the creation of an
international legend catalogue and expanding investigations through anthropological and psychological
perceptions.
What we commonly perceive are literary approaches towards the definition of legend comparing it to other
styles of folk narrative, for example, folktales.
Scholars began delineating legends as reconstructions linked to the outer reality, with specific references to
provable topographic elements or historical figures, and as episodic, centering their narration on single
events (TANGHERLINI, 1990). Furthermore, after observing the frequent description of legendsas formless,
intellectuals began observing how printed legend texts provided summaries rather than the whole stories.
Setting rules for a legend morphology is an unfeasible task given the absence of consistent terminology for
describing narratives and due to the elasticity of legends, which “expands, contracts and survives great
variation” (Ibidem, p. 377). Like other forms of folklore, this genre undergoes variations to suit the demands
of the culture and tradition it belongs to. Still, legends can be considered a reflection of folk belief shaped by
communal experiences, addressing real psychological pressures, fears, and desires.
Sum up
Legends are often short episodic, historicized narratives presented in a colloquial manner, indicating, on a
psychological degree, a figurative depiction of folk belief and collective experiences and acting as a
reiteration of generally detained principles of the group whose tradition it is a part of (Ibidem, p. 381).
What role do legends play?
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Their purpose
Going back to the best-known definition of a legend, that of the Grimm Brothers, the genre refers to a story
considered true about a specific person, event, or place.
Many legends can function as mere entertainment, however, the most important
ones have the purpose of transmitting knowledge and teaching religious and moral
lessons directly related to the customs of a community.
According to Tolkien, “legends and myths are largely made of 'truth', and indeed present aspects of it that
can only be received in this mode; and long ago, certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and
must always reappear” (TOLKIEN, 1981, p. 147).
As an essential element of a particular culture, legends emphasize sacred facets of a group of people. They
exhibit a special fact and describe its effects on the lives of the characters, making sure there is an
association with issues of morality. By adapting the message to the social framework and time, legends
uncover and protect the culture of a population.
The King Arthur with excalibur.
Furthermore, they dissect the etiological aspect of the plot, in other words, the origins and reasons behind
the events. All this fosters the capacity of remembering stories, locations, figures, and happenings,
encouraging the preservation of individual and collective memory of a community, as well as their cultural
heritage.
Legend or urban legend?
An essential note that must be made is the distinction between the legends discussed previously and the so-
called urban legends, another genre of folklore made of stories that happened to a “friend of a friend”,
presenting frightening or comical elements.
Two scholars are credited for having coined the term urban legend: Richard Mercer Dorson in his 1959 book
American Folklore, and one of his students, Jan Harold Brunvand, who popularized the term with a series of
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publications exploring American urban legends.
By affirming the story happened to a known person, the narrative gains authenticity
and by invoking feelings of shock, disgust, and panic, urban legends acquire power.
Many jokes can be spread as true events and some enduring legends can even sustain a degree of
credibility. From a psychological perspective, urban legends help people cope with the threat, whereas from
the perspective of believers, such stories act as evidence and justify their beliefs, legitimizing their anxieties
and fears. Furthermore, urban legends also function as a means of entertainment, promoting social
engagement.
Urban legends can exert a powerful influence and can sometimes, like all types of folklore, be used as a
scapegoat. What became commonly known as The Satanic Panic, early in the 1980s, was a series of
baseless conspiracy theories about cults carrying out mass child abuse spread around the United States.
After the publishing of the book Michelle Remembers, co-written by a Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder
and his psychiatric patient, and eventual wife, Michelle Smith, about her memories of child abuse at the
hands of Satanists, the terror was spread.
In the summer of 1983, a woman in Manhattan Beach, California, accused an employee at her son’s
preschool, of abusing him. Letters were sent by the police to families asking for help with the investigation,
and hundreds of children were interviewed. In 1986, seven employees were arrested for child molestation,
even with increasing doubts, fantastical claims, and acts of violence lacking physical trace. In April 1985, the
corporate giant Procter & Gamble was accused of supporting devil worship. Over the course of The Satanic
Panic, nearly 200 people were charged.
Undoubtedly, the internet has helped the spread of urban legends and even added pictures to the stories,
increasing their credibility, but they are still very similar to traditional folklore.
And legend became myth
Faustus
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Considered one of the most enduring legends in Western folklore and literature, the German story of Faust,
also called Faustus or Doctor Faustus, narrates how a necromancer or astrologer sells his soul to the devil in
exchange for knowledge and power. An anonymous chapbook circulated in the late 16th century. It was a
collection of tales about ancient men skilled in the occult sciences, whose acts were attributed to Faust.
The Faustbuch (1587) ended up inspiring the English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era,
Christopher Marlowe, to write the theatre piece The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus,
first published in 1604. The mixture of tragic and humorous elements of the Faustbuch were retained and
remained a fundamental part of posterior Faust dramas and puppet plays, widely performed the following
two centuries. Meanwhile, the legend of Pan Twardoswki, a sorcerer who made a pact with the devil in
exchange for special powers, began to disseminate amongst Polish folklore.
In 1808, the first part of what became the most significant version of the Faust legend, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe’s dramatic poem Faust appeared. The second part, which saves the protagonist by bringing about his
redemption, was published in 1832.
The legend penetrated the cultural universe through Schubert, Wagner, and Berlioz’s operas, through
Bulgakov, Turgenev, and Wilde’s fictions, through Pushkin, Byron, and Heine’s poems, through Havel, Mamet,
and Gertrude Stein’s dramas, not to mention the paintings, sculptures, and ballets all inspired by the legend
of the man who sold his soul to the devil. Films, musicals, video games, comics, and manga have continued
to use Faust as a source of inspiration, from an episode of The Simpsons called “Bart Sells His Soul” to
Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, the legend has infused pop culture.
Learn More
It is curious to reflect on how Faust reemerges at times of moral crisis. In 1936, Klaus Mann wrote the novel
Mephisto, about a man who gets involved with the Nazi regime to gain recognition as an actor. He manages
to do so, but when he interprets the characters of Mephistopheles in the production of Faust, he recognizes
he is acting the wrong part. Later, in 1947, immersed in the post-war feeling that took over Europe, Klaus
Mann’s father, Thomas Mann published a novel, based in part on Friedrich Nietzsche’s life, about a composer
who gave up the possibility of love in exchange for composing the music that would influence future
generations.
By means of the exploration of the nihilism seizing civilian culture, Doctor Faustus reflects on the
protagonist’s degradation, the dying ashes of the Third Reich along Germany’s moral corruption.Throughout
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the 20th Century, Faustian stories exposed the temptations of fascism. Friedrich Durrenmatt’s play, The Visit
(1956), depicts the people of a town offered money to murder one of their citizens, while Stephen Vincent
Bebét’s short story, The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936), written at the peak of the Great Depression narrates
how a farmer sells his soul in exchange of prosperity.
“Every notable historical era will have its own Faust,” wrote
Kierkegaard in 1843 (KIERKEGAARD, 1992 p. 60).
We know this to be true and we are aware of what legends teach us. In this case, it warns us of the adoration
of the ego, the enticement of fame, and the commemoration of power, all empty and perishable triumphs.
The legend of Faust is only one of many that have lasted, such as Robin Hood and King Arthur, and in every
case, the narrative lies between a myth and a historical fact, passed from generation to generation, teaching
lessons of morality and ethics, inspiring artists, and scholars, but above all, overcoming time.
What is a legend?
What is the difference between legend and myth? When do legends become myths? This video will definitely
help you grasp the difference!

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You are very close to reaching your goals.
Let’s practice!
Question 1
Consider the following quote: 
“The people in the mountains are very superstitious and relate many marvelous and absurd stories of St.
Patrick, as also about fairies, enchantments, ghosts. The old women and men will tell these stories to
any person as long as they will listen to them and to express any doubt as to their veracity is considered
a sure indication of ignorance”. 
(Extracted from: DAY, Angélique; MCWILLIAMS, Patrick (ed.). Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland:
Parishes of County Antrim IV, 1830-8. Liverpool: Institute of Irish Studies, 1990, p. 113) 
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The text is part of The Ordnance Survey Memoirs, a book of accounts about life in the northern half of
Ireland immediately before the Great Famine, documenting the landscape, employment, livelihood
among others. Regarding the quotation, choose the correct affirmation:
Parabéns! A alternativa C está correta.
A legend is a traditional, historicized narrative that reflects on a psychological level, a symbolic depiction
of folk belief and collective experiences. It serves as an endorsement of commonly held values of the
group whose tradition it comes from.
A
It is a fair and informed statement because the legend of St. Patrick along with all types
of legends is related to superstition, not facts.
B
It is informed but not fair because whether a legend has to do with ignorant superstitions
or not, depends on the listener or reader’s point of view.
C
It is unfair and intolerant because superstitions shouldn’t be an indication of ignorance
and legends are historicized narratives that reaffirm commonly held values of a
particular group of people, culture, or tradition.
D
It is unfair because although legends have no historical ground, they shouldn’t be
classified as ignorant, given that they explore real psychological issues, desires, and
fears of a community.
E
It is unfair because legends are historical sources, written with the function of
documenting aspects of people’s lives from habits, language, and traditions, to fears,
desires, and affections.
Question 2
The legend of King Arthur has lasted centuries and served as inspiration for numerous works of art. If
King Arthur did in fact exist, he was probably a Roman military who led Britain against the invasion of
Saxon forces between the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. The story of the head of Camelot and the Knights
of the Round Table is considered a legend because:
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Parabéns! A alternativa A está correta.
Legends are unverifiable stories passed on by oral tradition from earlier times and which are popularly
accepted as historical. They can’t be proven to be factual in their integrity, but they contain plausible
descriptions and have great significance to a community, representing the traditional wisdom of a group
of people.
A
It is a fictional narrative transmitted through oral tradition, combining facts and fantasy,
and surpassing time, naturally suffering modifications, but keeping its essence and
morals.
B
It is a fictional tale that has overcome time, and although it has undergone many
alterations, it is still a source of inspiration for other works of art.
C
It is a historical account used in historiography for research on the wars of the fifth and
sixth centuries, for the rituals carried out by knights, and for the relationship between
military men.
D
It is a narrative that combines historical accounts and imaginary descriptions, remaining
unaffected by the passing of time.
E
It is a written narrative about the reputation of a man, a source of inspiration to posterior
generations due to his qualities and values.
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3 - Legends of the Saints
By the end of this section, you will be able to relate the aim of the
legends of the saints with their historical and literary appeal.
Where does the term come from?
Origins of the term
Since we have already examined the term “legend”, we can jump right into the adjectivization “of the saints”,
but first it is indispensable to differentiate the genre legend of the saints from the Legenda Aurea, “The
Golden Legend” also referred to as the Lombardia historia. This is a collection of saints’ lives, accounts of
Christ and the Virgin Mary, information about holy days and seasons, amongst others, written as an
exemplum, a didactic-literary genre cultivated in the Middle Ages, compiled around 1260 by the Dominican
and Archbishop of Genoa, Beato Tiago de Voragine, also known as Jacobus de Voragine or Varagine. It
became a major success and was translated into all western European languages. However, due to its
miraculous narrative and lack of historical evidence, the book lost its popularity.
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Edition of the Golden Legend showing Saint Remigius and Clovis I.
The genre legend of the saints encompasses chosen segments of the lives and sufferings of martyrs, with
the intention of spiritually educating people. By extension, it began covering a collection of legends that
narrated the acts of the saints, documented every month. The “Golden Legend” is an example of these
recordings. Such genre originated in the Biblical midrash.
Examples of legends from the 1st Century can be found in the apocryphal Gospels, a collection of texts,
some of which are known to be anonymous, written in the first centuries of Christianity, vetoed on the First
Council of Nicaea, not recognized by the orthodox Christianism, and consequently not included in the Canon
of the New Testament.
Other legends can be found in the Acts of the Apostles and in the adaptation of the Acts of the Martyrs, as
well as in stories from the discovery and translation of relics, which was the removal of holy objects from
one place to another, usually a place of higher status (SAINTS, 2022). These were all extended to the
biographies of the monks, posteriorly penetrating the development and beautification of the martyrologies
and synaxaria, catalogues, lists, or liturgical books containing collections of the abbreviated lives of saints,
arranged in the orderof their anniversaries or feasts.
Inspirations from Buddhist, Indian, Celtic, and German legends are visible but the most important is the aim
of the author:
midrash
Term meaning exposition or investigation used to refer to a form of biblical interpretation and to a detached
body of annotations on Scripture utilizing this explanatory mode.
to strengthen the Christian faith
Although the intention is not to recount history, places can sometimes be explained, as well as the origin or
importance of a saint. Other elements may include reasons for the construction of a church or motives for a
pilgrimage. Nonetheless, the saints, subjects of the legends, are always praised in opposition to rival saints,
highlighting, even more, the distortion of historical facts, but exposing the justification of the ends.
Bearing all this in mind, it is easy to understand why historians find the legends of the saints a complex
matter. In Delehaye’s The Legends of the Saints: an introduction to Hagiography (1962), the author discusses
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mechanisms for reading this genre by referring to it as hagiographical documents and outlines an approach
for distinguishing sources that can be utilized by historians from those which should be left for poets and
artists. As he defines, these sources have undeniable importance, but they should not be mistaken for
history.
The work of the hagiographer may be historical, but it is not necessarily so. It
can assume any literary form suitable to the glorification of the saints, from an
official record adapted to the use of the faithful, to a poetical composition of the
most exuberant character wholly detached from reality.
(DELEHAYE, 1962, p. 2)
Nonetheless, the element of reality is still relevant, otherwise they would be transformed into tales.
History of the legend of the saints
Historical background
There is a story about a person, Pope Saint Clement I, also known as Saint Clement of Rome, who appointed
Roman notaries to compile the acts of martyrs. Very little is known about him, but the Liber Pontificalis, the
Book of the Popes, which contains biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century, presents him
on the list, after Peter and Linus.
Peter had ordained two bishops, Linus and Anacletus, to take over the services of the community so that he
could dedicate himself to prayer and preaching, and it is said that he chose Clement as his successor,
entrusting the Church as a whole. The first document indicating the Roman church’s intervention in matters
of nearby churches is attributed to Clement. Nonetheless, there is a great amount of work recognized to have
been mistakenly credited to him.
Between 356 and 362, Saint Athanasius of Alexandria wrote about the life of Saint Anthony, serving as an
example for the History of the Monks of Egypt, an account of one of the seven monks from Rufinus of
Aquileia’s monastery on the Mount of Olives who embarked on a pilgrimage to visit monastic communities in
Egypt. The piece, narrated in first-person, dating from September 394 to early January 395, whose authorship
remains a mystery, became one of the most popular and disseminated works of hagiography during Late
Antiquity and Middle Ages, along with Athanasius’ Life of Anthony.
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Saint Athanasius of Alexandria.
Saint Jerome’s biographies on Paul of Thebes, Hilarion, and Malchus, were also important influences for the
emergence of the legend of the saints. Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, theologian, confessor, and
historian.
The Christian writer and native of Aquitania in modern-day France, Sulpicius Severus, wrote the biography of
Saint Martin of Tours and Victor of Vita, a fifth-century African bishop, and Church historian. He narrated the
persecution of the African Catholics by the Arian vandals.
During the Reformation, the stories of the saints began to disappear. Since Protestants refused to venerate
saints, the production of legends diminished. Even though a few intellectuals such as John Milton, Abram of
Santa Clara, and Martin von Cochen, kept an interest in the production of the genre, in the 18th century, the
Enlightenment, Voltaire, the Encyclopedists, amongst others around Europe, reinforced the critical attitude
towards the stories of the saints. It was precisely this attitude that led hagiography, on a historical basis, to
arise in the turn of the 17th century.
Reformation
The religious reform that took over Europe in the 1500s resulting in the creation of Protestantism, a branch of
Christianity including groups that broke away from the Catholic Church because of divergence regarding
doctrine.
Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde of Utrecht attempted to publish a critical hagiography, projecting a minimum of
sixteen volumes, but died before achieving his goal, just like the Jesuit scholar, Jean Bolland, who took over
the project but was also unable to conclude it. A group of scholars, the Bollandists, continued the work and
published, from 1643 to 1940, 68 volumes under the name Acta Sanctorum, Latin for “Acts of the Saints”,
influencing many of the writers and compilers of the legends of the saints in the 19th and 20th centuries.
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History, literature, or both?
Hagiography as historiography?
“On the outer edge of historiography, as its temptation and betrayal, there exists another discourse”
(CERTEAU, 1988, p. 269). In his The Writing of History, Michel de Certeau (1988) redefines historiography and
rethinks the categories of history, defining hagiography as a literary genre, “limited neither to antiquity nor to
the Middle Ages, even if, since the seventeenth century onward, it has been viewed too much from the angle
of historical criticism and source studies” (CERTEAU, p. 270). According to the intellectual, trying to analyze
hagiography exclusively in terms of its “authenticity” or “historical value” would be comparable to “submitting
a literary genre to the laws of another genre - historiography - and to dismantling a proper type of discourse
only in order to engage its contrary” (CERTEAU, p. 270).
When it comes to defining the concept of history, historians find it difficult to distinguish its characteristics
and what differentiates it from literature.
Historiography consists of the articulation of concepts and sources which serve as
accounts for the past. When Certeau defines hagiography as a literary genre and the
betrayal of historiography, he establishes a clear line between history and literature.
Nonetheless, from the Golden Legend’s narrative characteristics, sequence of texts, and interpretative
possibility of its message, it is possible to investigate the relationship between history and literature during
the Middle Ages, more specifically in the second half of the 13th century. This work was the most read
hagiographic compilation in the Christian West from the end of the 13th century onwards. The Christian West
of the late 13th century was an environment of cultural conflict. The Church tried to expand over growing
orders and thus modified rituals while fighting heretical movements.
The Legenda Aurea, c. 1290.
The Legenda Aurea, Golden Legend, was written by a man of the church, who knew not only Latin but also the
philosophical tradition of Christianity. In the context of the construction of the hagiographic narrative, the
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archbishop used metaphors and analogies not only as didactic instruments but as expressions of a medieval
imaginary based on a kind of analogical thinking. That is, approachingthe unknown by means of transferring
characteristics of what was known, through comparisons, approximations, and inversions.
The opposition between hagiography and historiography was formulated by Michel de Certeau given that
both produce different systems of truth. Historiography, as it is situated in the tension between the reality
implied by the scientific operation and the reality as a lived experience, is the product of the procedures
adopted by the historian: from the inventory of documents to the possible interpretations of the assembled
documentary series. Hagiography conveys, in turn, another regime of truth:
(...) the truth of the sacred, the edification inspired by the cult of the saints.
According to Certeau, the hagiographic document does not refer to what happened,
but to what is exemplary.
Legends of the Saints: purpose and
features
Hippolyte Delehaye was a Belgian Jesuit, a hagiographical scholar, and an outstanding member of the
Society of Bollandists. In 1905 he wrote The Legend of the Saints (1962) and established some criteria to
differentiate not only history from hagiography but also the inherent characteristics of literatures that are not
necessarily related to reality.
Attention!
In this sense, the legend is, in opposition to the myth and the tale, a narrative that presupposes a historical
fact embellished or disfigured by popular imagination, placing the text on the sides of reality and fiction.
Still, it is important to take into consideration that Hippolyte Delehaye was a Bollandist author, responsible
for the compilation of the lives of saints in the Acta Sanctorum and for coining the notion of hagiography as
an account of the life of a saint, generally written to be inserted into a sermon, with the aim of conveying a
lesson to the listeners.
Between norm and dogma, leisure, and edification, it produces a visualization of miracles, martyrdom, and
places of devotion. The climax of the text is in the conversion, often before the martyrdom, in a combination
of torture and resistance in which the saint reveals himself as an exceptional being, characterized as an
intercessor for men with God.
The basic form of the text is the exemplum, an oratorical device of antiquity used to illustrate a point that
underwent modifications until it assumed this narrative form of moral anecdote in the central Middle Ages.
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Attention!
In this sense, hagiography is a text that seeks to retrace the steps, in life, of the saint, without pretending to
be a biography, but rather a vehicle of dissemination and access to salvation. The saint embodies values and
righteousness, and it is in the dissemination of these values that hagiography is centered.
Thus, hagiography in general, and the “Golden Legend” in specific, present not only the Church as an
institution, but also as an institution that seeks to control a collectivity. Men of knowledge linked to the
Church understood that it was necessary to Christianize places, beliefs, and stories.
Segments of the legend of the saints should be left for historians, but others for poets and artists, given both
their importance for literature and for the understanding of the Middle Ages, as well as the contribution to
discussions regarding the narration of time. Such legends are works of art but at the same time provide
elements for thinking about the tensions between beliefs, theological representations, and their forms of
dissemination. As Delehaye points out:
The conditions in which many accounts of martyrs and lives of saints were
composed are too little known to people in general to allow of a ground of
understanding… We therefore believe that we shall be doing a useful work if we
try to classify, more definitely than has been done hitherto, the various methods
pursued by pious writers, to sketch in broad outline the genesis of their
compositions, and to show how far they are from being protected against errors
which exact history is bound to denounce.
(DELEHAYE, 1962, p. IX)
The legends of the saints should not be mistaken for history. However, they should not be excluded as
important historiographical sources. “If you despoil the legend of all that connects it with reality, you give it
the external features of a mere tale” (DELEHAYE, p. 9).
Hagiography as historiography?
In this video, you will learn about the historical and literary appeal of The Legends of the Saints.

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You are very close to reaching your goals.
Let’s practice!
Question 1
The legend of Procopius of Scythopolis, a venerated martyr and saint, was written by Eusebius of
Caesarea and translated to medieval Syriac, Georgian, and Latin. Posterior legends defined him
differently, either as a soldier saint, an ascetic, a Persian, or a prince of Alexandria. Regardless of his true
story, the legend of St. Procopius, like all other legends of the saints, has one main objective, which is to:
Parabéns! A alternativa C está correta.
Hagiographies have a religious character and aim at edification, promoting devotion to the saints.
Produced in the Middle Ages, the legend of the saints had the objective of educating the people.
A
counterattack the Protestant Reformation through the documenting of the lives of
saints, not recognized by Protestantism as holy figures.
B serve as a historical foundation and complementary reading to the Bible.
C
spiritually educate people through the teaching of the lives, sufferings, and acts of
saints.
D teach about historical people and events that were a major part of the Middle Ages.
E
convert people from other religious traditions to Christianism through the praising of the
saints.
Question 2
Michel de Certeau, in his book The Writing of History (1988) defines hagiography as a literary genre even
though it has been considered by many as a historical study. Are the legends of the saints a literary
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genre or a historical source?
Parabéns! A alternativa D está correta.
Hagiography is a genre of literature, but it is also a form of historiography not because it provides us
with historical facts, simply because it helps us understand how history and the recording of history
were theorized in the Middle Ages. Furthermore, the legends of the Saints provide us with valuable
historical and geographical information.
A
The lives of the saints are neither literature nor history because they are biased accounts
of the ones who were said to have an exceptional degree of closeness to God.
B
Hagiography can be considered both literature and history given its narratological and
historiographical characteristics, containing elements present in the study of narratology
and serving as important historical evidence.
C
Legends of the saints are historical sources for they document the acts of important
people with historical and geographical evidence, elucidating issues of the Middle Ages
and the Roman Catholic Church.
D
The legend of the saints is a literary genre with historical facts. It can’t be mistaken for
history, but it contains essential elements that contribute to discussions about the
Middle Ages.
E
Hagiography is purely a literary genre for none of what it narrates is based on proven
evidence. They are important works that should be studied by scholars specialized in
literature.
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4 - Parables
By the end of this section, you will be able to identify the main purpose
of parables.De�ning parables
From the Latin, parabola means comparison, and from the Greek parabolē, as in a comparison, literally “a
throwing beside”, hence “a juxtaposition”, from para that refers to alongside and bolē that means “a throwing,
casting, ray” (HARPER, 2001-2022), a parable is a succinct, didactic story that demonstrates instructive
lessons.
According to David Gowler (2000), what is parabolic exists in the eyes and/or ears of the beholder. The
author of What are they saying about the Parables? discusses the Greek term for parable in relation to its
translation of the Hebrew term mashal that means “to represent” or “to be like”.
In the Hebrew Bible, mashal refers to everything that is similar to a proverb with a concealed or indirect truth.
In posterior Jewish literature, parables are used by rabbis for preaching, since parallels can be traced
between the stories and the listeners’ lives, serving as guidance.
Comment
If the analogy is not made clear, the audience can be confused, so parables are neither mere simple tales
with clear lessons nor impenetrable stories with indecipherable messages, but narratives dependent on the
audience’s interpretation.
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With real-life events rather than supernatural situations, parables were told to grasp the listener’s attention
and stimulate a reaction. Throughout the history of the church, the debate over how much of a parable is an
allegory, an extended metaphor which usually utilizes mythical events to demonstrate an argument, has been
constant. Many have also disagreed regarding the interpretation of parables, but modern scholarship has
rejected the practice of interpreting parables as allegories.
The allegorical elements present in parables are exceptions and should be identified as specific references
or comparisons regardless of their amount. They are still not allegories because their objective is not to
represent something else but to generate a response.
A parable can leave those who are exposed to it with enough doubt concerning its
exact aim. For such reason, this type of narrative is one of the most dialogic
narratives there is, confronting their hearers and readers.
Soren Kierkegaard stated that parables work as indirect communication because they involve their readers
and challenge them to “untie a knot” and choose between possibilities of self-understanding (KIERKEGAARD,
1978, p. XII). Hence, to benefit from this type of communication, one must undo such a knot by oneself.
An interesting story related to Kierkegaard’s view is that of the poet, painter, and printmaker, William Blake
and his patron, Reverend John Trusler, a wealthy priest, writer, and publisher. Trusler appointed Blake to
produce a series of moralistic paintings to illustrate the Reverend’s writings on themes such as malevolence,
benevolence, humility, and pride.
However, Trusler condemned Blake’s approach as excessively transcendent, to which Blake explained that he
had tried to follow the instructions for the designs but couldn’t do so. In a letter to the patron, he argues:
“That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care. The wisest of the Ancients considered
what is not too Explicit as the fittest for Instruction because it rouzes the faculties to act” (BLAKE, 1799, p.
1).
First and last pages of Blake’s letter to Trusler, August 23, 1799.
Like great works of art, parables can test our minds, imagination and can even challenge our hearts. Due to
their ambiguity, interpreters need to dialogue with others to gain greater clarity and this exchange of
interpretations can bring about the answers sought. People must undo the knots by themselves but also with
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the help of others. If parables are too obvious or too incomprehensible, then they will have lost their function,
for people won’t be able to grasp their meaning and learn from them.
The act of interpreting a parable is very tricky because true meaning can end up being lost. Parables are
supposed to be immediate in their transmission and when this immediacy is extended to posterior
interpretation, it loses its effectiveness in provoking people. Just like a joke.
The parables of Jesus
Jesus as a preacher
With the publication of Adolf Jülicher’s Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, attention was brought to the literary
character of parables and modern research began.
Through a historical methodology, the German scholar and biblical exegete investigated the sources of our
knowledge regarding Jesus’ parables, with the intention of transforming the way they were seen, which he
thought was obstructed by excessive layers of interpretation based solely on allegories.
Before his approach, parables were studied from the theoretical perspective, lacking a deeper investigation
of the literary features, and this method was reproduced for centuries, without focusing on the narrative.
Jülicher’s threefold classification of parables into similitude, parable proper and
example story had a significant impact on subsequent studies.
There is still no consensus regarding the methods to understand Jesus’ parables. Jülicher argued that this
type of parable was a fable, like those of Aesop (JÜLICHER, 1888, p. 108), however many scholars claimed
that the parables of Jesus should be studied with reference to the meshalim, something like a proverb, which
contains a concealed or indirect truth present in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature.
Mary Ann Beavis studied parables comparing them with fables (BEAVIS, 1990) and had to use a common
thought present in studies of the beginning of the 20th century to analyze the degree of complexity a parable
can have. This brings us to a critical issue: Jesus’ audience. Many people may argue that fables are more
appealing to uneducated individuals who will promptly agree with the arguments if they feel satisfied with
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the teachings.
Beavis used this argument to claim that when approaches to parables are overly intricate and refined, the
impact on their first hearers may be misrepresented (BEAVIS, 1990, p. 497). Still, the fact that Jesus told
parables to common people, about unlikely historical events, does not make the messages irrelevant or
unreliable. Madeleine Boucher makes an important observation:
When Jesus preached so strikingly in parables, he did not create a new literary
genre. Rather, he made brilliant use of a genre which was familiar to all
throughout the Mediterranean world.
(BOUCHER, 1981, p. 11)
Jülicher also affirmed that Jesus was probably a preacher who said things in the simplest of ways and it was
the Evangelists who came after him that complicated his sayings (JÜLICHER, 1888). Klyne R. Snodgrass, in
his Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus, identifies that Jesus’ parables were
mostly brief, simple, symmetrical, theocentric, focused on humans with engaging descriptions from everyday
life and frequent allusions to the Old Testament (SNODGRASS, 2008).
According to him, since Jesus was not a pioneer in the telling of such stories, parables from the ancient
world, for instance, the Old Testament and early Jewish writings, should be studied for a better
understanding. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that anyone who came before Jesus utilized parables as
regularly and persuasively as he did.
When the parables of Jesus were told, the audience immediately grasped the points of comparison, thus,
interpreters must read such stories as the original audience perceived them, and this means studying their
customs, culture, and the significance that certain people, places, and objects had to them.
Such historical distancefrom our modern western society to Jesus’ audience is not only chronological, but
also social, political, and religious.
Comment
I i i hi hli h h l h h bl f h l i f i i l h h
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It is important to highlight that although parables act as a means for the revelation of spiritual truth, they
were not told for this purpose, but to generate a response, capturing the audience’s attention and stimulating
them to see things through a different perspective.
Two parables
The boy who cried wolf
There are numerous examples of parables widely known.
“The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, ascribed to Aesop, about a shepherd boy who repeatedly tricked villagers into
believing that a wolf was attacking the town’s flock, gave origin to the expression “to cry wolf” which means
to make false claims. When a wolf actually appeared and the boy cried for help, the villagers were certain it
was another deceitful plea, leaving the boy alone.
In one version of the story the flock is eaten and in another the boy is devoured, but the moral is one: liars will
not be compensated for even if they tell the truth, no one will believe them anymore. Trust is something
difficult to regain.
The prodigal son
“The Prodigal Son” is a parable mostly known by westerners as found in Luke’s Gospel. However, a Buddhist
parallel in the Lotus Sutra teachings of Mahayana Buddhism exposes fundamental differences between
Christianity and the Indian philosophical tradition.
According to Luke, a man’s younger son asked for his shares and set off for a distant country where he spent
all that had been given to him. When a major famine hit the region, he went to work for a man, feeding his
pigs on the fields. No one gave him food, so he thought to himself, “The men my father hires have food to
spare. Why am I here starving to death? I will return and tell him I am like his men.”
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On the journey back home, his father caught sight of him and filled with compassion he ran and kissed him.
At that moment, the son said all he had planned, but the father made his servants bring the best robe and
sandals, as well as a calf to celebrate for his son was alive and back.
The older son, who had been working on the fields, heard the feasting and got enraged when one of the
servants told him the commemoration was in honor of his brother. He refused to join in and questioned by
his father, replied: he had spent years working, never disobeying, but it was the ungrateful son who had left
and spent all his money who had a feast made in his name. To that the father repeated what he had said
about the brother who was dead and now alive again, lost and now found.
In Mahayana Buddhism, the story is about a man who left his father and spent years living in different places,
growing more and more in need the older he became. Meanwhile, his father never stopped searching for his
son. He ended up settling in another city, in a rich home with goods and treasures but filled with regret for not
having found his son, for having no heir. One day the son, after wandering from city to city, reached the place
his father had settled in. At a distance, standing by the gate, he saw his father in expensive clothes, sitting on
a lion couch, with servants all around him, and was consumed by fear. He thought it would be best to leave
and search for work in a poorer village.
However, as he rushed away, the father recognized him, and with great joy requested his attendants to go
after him. The son cried frightened that he had not committed any offense. As he was dragged to the house,
he fainted, terrified that he would be imprisoned and killed.
The father did so because he knew his high position had sparked fear, yet convinced that the man was his
son, he discreetly kept it a secret. The poor son was delighted with the unexpected release and went to a
poor village in search of food and clothing. That was when the father sent two men, sorrowful and poor in
appearance, to tell the son he should go to a place to be hired for scavenging, where they would work
together. The poor son accepted the proposal, and his father was struck with compassion for him.
One day, seeing the man lean and sorrowful, filthy with dirt and dust, he took off his jewels, his clothing, and
put on a torn and dirty garment, smearing himself with dust. When he got near his son, he told him to stay, for
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he would increase his wages and give whatever he needed. He told the man he was his father and after
pointing out his qualities, gave him a new name and called him son. Nonetheless, the son never stopped
seeing himself as a mere scavenger.
With time, the father grew ill and told his son to understand in detail the quantities of all his possessions, to
which the son obeyed, but with no expectation of inheriting anything.
Gradually, the poor man’s dreams and aspirations began to shift and that was when the father, aware of his
death, gathered all his relatives, the kings, priests, warriors, and citizens, and told them about his begotten
son, declaring that all his wealth belonged entirely to him.
Let's see the main differences between the parables:
Luke’s Gospel
Luke illustrates God’s character and his expectation that every sinner will return. Jesus told this parable
to a diverse audience including outcasts such as prostitutes and tax collectors, and the Pharisees who
despised them. The parable in Christianity shows how God loves all who accept it, as the prodigal son
who returns and rejects the self-centered righteousness of the Pharisees, just like the older son.
Lotus Sutra
The Buddhist parable was addressed by Buddha’s disciples to arhats, beings who have reached a state
of enlightenment, and to bodhisattvas, individuals on the path of becoming buddhas. Buddhist disciples
should also aspire to a higher position through a long process of learning and acquiring merits, just like
the son who saw he could ascend from his low status.
There are, nevertheless, many misunderstandings regarding the differences between parables, particularly
when classifying Jesus as loving and Buddha as cold. The biblical story talks about reconciliation while the
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Buddhist one talks about the gradual encouragement of a son in identifying his own Buddha wisdom.
The key to Luke’s narrative regards the distinction between just and unjust. The point of the Buddhist parable
does not relate to the theme of penitence. Again, we are faced with the deepness of parables:
the stories are very similar, but they re�ect distinct religions,
cultures, mentality, and language.
Luke focuses on the rebellion against God and God’s forgiveness whereas the Buddhist story portrays the
long path to Buddhahood, the awakening. Both, nonetheless, require attentive interpretation, reflecting upon
them as the audience to which the parables were told would.
Let’s talk about parables!
In this video, you will learn more about parables. Stick around for a discussion about this quite interesting
genre.

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You are very close to reaching your goals.
Let’s practice!
Question 1
How do parables challenge readers to “untie the knot” (KIERKEGAARD, 1978, p. XII)?.
A
To “untie the knot” means to research background information because without an
understanding of the social, historical, and geographical context - the “knot”- parables
will not be fully understood.
B
Parables challenge readers to study how evangelistscomprehend the Gospels. To “untie
the knot” is to unravel the scriptures through the eyes of those who know Christianity
best.
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Parabéns! A alternativa E está correta.
Parables work as indirect communication. They are not overly intricate and shouldn’t be analyzed as so,
nonetheless, they are not excessively simple. They operate like riddles and the readers should not
expect to be given answers, only more questions.
C
In order to understand parables, the ways in which they were studied by previous
scholars must be deciphered, otherwise new underlying messages will not be
encountered.
D
To “untie the knot” means to re-signify the parable in terms of its context, bringing it to
the present in regard to language, setting, and characters.
E
Parables are not straightforward narratives with given meanings and their message
depends on the reflection of the readers and/or listeners.
Question 2
Consider the following statement: 
“Often too much is read into detail of the story and instead of functioning to provoke a response, it
becomes an allegory which is essentially a vehicle for truth… Therefore, it is far more likely that parables
will be overinterpreted than underinterpreted” (KUSKE, 1995, p. 98). 
What is the function of a parable and why are Jesus’ parables under or overinterpreted?
A
The function of parables is to spread spiritual truth, but they are not properly interpreted
given the biased analysis people make of them.
B
Parables have the objective of teaching about the Gospels and generating a response.
Still, people are not able to fully interpret them because they want to do so without
understanding the context in which they were written.
Parables may reveal a spiritual truth, but their most important function is to catch the
listener or reader’s attention provoking a response They are not properly interpreted
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Final issues
Narratives are stories of all types, fictional, factual, based on imagination or evidence; spoken, sung, written,
objects of study for historians, biographers, artists, psychoanalysts, journalists, scientists, and the list goes
on. Folk and religious-based narratives have constituted us as human beings, shaping our communication
from generation to generation and not only by transmitting knowledge, art, and ideas, but by defining our
interaction, our evolution, our past, present, and future.
Storytelling depends on the lives of people just as our lives depend on the mere act of storytelling.
Parabéns! A alternativa C está correta.
The function of parables is to stimulate the listeners or readers to think about an issue they would
neglect if it weren’t for the story. Parables may serve to teach spirituality and transmit a religious
method, but that is not their purpose; their function is to provoke the audience in an unexpected way.
However, this genre is usually misinterpreted due to modern classification systems created to structure
the modern world. Terms utilized today would be incomprehensible for the people of the time, so with a
lot of prudence, interpreters must read such stories as the original audience perceived them.
C
listener or reader s attention, provoking a response. They are not properly interpreted
because their context is not properly examined, so the events and reasons that led to
their creation, as well as the effect they had on the original audience, are not discussed.
D
Parables function to generate a reaction on their readers and/or listeners, however, they
are usually under or overinterpreted because the audience is unaware of the spiritual
truth behind them.
E
Parables may transmit a religious message, but their function is to grasp the attention of
those who read or listen, stimulating them to reflect upon the story and their lives. Still,
they are not interpreted as they should since scholars try to place themselves at the time
the parables were told, something impossible to be done. Parables should be analyzed
from today’s point of view, more solid and more accurate due to decades of study.
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Podcast
In this podcast the main topics of the Unit will be revised. Enjoy!

References
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DELEHAYE, H. The Legends of the Saints. New York: Fordham University Press, 1962.
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KIERKEGAARD, S. Either/Or: A Fragment of Life. EREMITA, V. (ed.). Tradução: Alastair Hannay. London:
Penguin Classics, 1992.
KIERKEGAARD, S. Parables of Kierkegaard. ODEN, T. C. (ed.). New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978.
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MILLER, S. The Notes and Queries Folklore Column, 1849-1947: Subject Indexes. Cambridge: Cambridge
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SAINTS, Legends of the . New Catholic Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia.com. 28 Feb. 2022
SNODGRASS, K. R. Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus. Grand Rapids:
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TANGHERLINI, T. R. "It Happened Not Too Far from Here...": A Survey of Legend Theory and
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Go Further
Check out the website World of Tales, by Viktor Andonov, Bulgaria, for famous tales by The Grimm Brothers,
Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen, the fables of Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine and folktales
from around the world. (worldoftales.com).