!!!Sagen

Legends and Sagas, short narratives based on oral tradition derived 
from real events (as opposed to the  fairy tale). The basis for these 
legends was inexplicable natural phenomena or mysterious incidents, 
which people related to such fantasy creatures as elves, dwarves and 
gnomes, giants, water sprites, etc., witches or even the Devil. Thus 
many legend motifs are found at different places ("itinerant 
legends"). "Heroic legends", which contain mythical 
elements, are the oldest form of legends ( Courtly Epics); later on, 
"historical legends" were based on figures of history (e.g. 
Emperor Maximilian I), "local legends" on specific 
places (history of the origins of Klosterneuburg, the Tyrolean legend 
of Frau Hitt, etc.). Research into legends and sagas, which are an 
important source for cultural history, forms part of folklore studies 
( legends).

\\
Ed: L. Petzoldt, Sagen (aus allen oesterreichischen Bundeslaendern und 
Salzburg-Tirol), 1992ff. - Earlier collections of Austrian legends: T. 
Vernaleken, Alpensagen, 1858; J. Gebhardt, Oesterreich Sagenbuch 1862; 
Die heiligen Sagen in Oesterreich, 1866; A. Pischinger, Sagen aus 
Oesterreich, 1949/1950; H. Pezold, Sagen aus Oesterreich, 
2 vols., 1950; F. Braumann, Unser Bergvolk erzaehlt, 1953; J. 
Poettinger, Volkssagen aus Oesterreich, 1954; M. Pacolt, Sagen aus 
Oesterreich, 1955; M. Stebich, Alpensagen, 1958; H. Strutz, Das Netz 
des Wassermanns, 1959; K. Haiding, Oesterr. Sagenschatz, 1965.

!Literature
F. Prochaska, Die wichtigsten Sagenfiguren Oesterreichs in 
ihren Namen, doctoral thesis, Vienna 1957; L. Roehrich (ed.), Probleme 
der Sagen-Forschung, 1973.


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