Legends

Legends are one product of popular literature, and allow a cultural heritage to be handed on from the past to the present day, as well as making a contribution to the understanding of people and the cultural structure they comprise. They are one of the specific types of lliterature to concern themselves with real and imaginary beings and the mythical features of places and events. Together with a belief in the veracity of what is recounted, they point to individual and social life. They may be classified as follows, according to subject matter:

Legends regarding historical places, people and events

Legends about mythical beings

Legends about animals

Legends to do with religious matters

Legends about plants and trees

Legends about the natural environment

EXAMPLES OF LEGENDS

The Dragon of Mount Albat

A dragon emerged from the Ortanca Fountain on the slopes of Mount Albat. It refused to allow anyone near the fountain, and people went thirsty. Seeing the people’s despair, the lord of the city took two sharp-bladed swords and went to slay the dragon. The lord held the swords out in his two hands. The dragon breathed flames from its nose, and breathing in deeply, it swallowed the lord. The lord then slew the dragon with the two swords he held, cutting it in two from its mouth to its tail.

When the lord returned home, he had the pool in his garden filled with milk, undressed and jumped in. The milk immediately curdled because of the dragon’s poison. The lord kept having milk baths until it no longer curdled, and thus freed himself of the poison.
Suzan (Suzi) and the Mountain of the Forty Saints

To the southwest of Diyarbakır, on the banks of the River Tigris (Dicle), stands the Mountain of the Forty Saints. Behind the mountain is the Place of Pilgrimage of the Forty Saints. Those without children come here to make a wish.

One wealthy Syriac family had no children. The woman came to make a wish and vowed to make an offering. She had a daughter. They called her Suzan (Suzi). Every year on her birthday, her mother would dress her up and take her to that spot, where she would sacrifice an animal. Suzan grew up to be very beautiful. She fell in love with one Adil, the son of her Muslim neighbour, and he with her. On another birthday, her mother sent Suzan with her servants to the place of pilgrimage to sacrifice an animal. Adil followed secretly behind. Taking advantage of the servants’ excitement at the sacrifice, Suzi and Adil wandered behind the mountain and there made love. The Place of Pilgrimage of the Forty saints did not forgive Suzi. She fell into the Tigris at the Bridge of the ten Eyes, and there drowned. After her death, Adil went mad.

The Folk Song of Suzi

The face of the Mountain of the Forty Saints
Covered the plain with darkness
I died.
Suzi, Suzi, the place struck us down.
It is pitch black under the bridge
Mother, come and find me.
My hair is full of sand.
Bring a comb and comb it.
The water rushed
Through the central arch of the bridge.
I died.
Suzi, Suzi, the Tigris separated us.