I. Literary History

1. Unlike fairy tales, which are set in a fictional world that takes wonders for granted, tales (Ger. Sagen) and legends recount the irruption of miracles and wonders into the real world. Tales treat this irruption as a mysterious and terrifying experience, while legends embed it in a religiously structured explanatory context.

2. The etymology of the terms tale and legend points to two different forms of transmission: oral in the case of tales (“what…