Legends are a genre of storytelling that have been passed down through generations. They are often based on real events or people, but are embellished with fantastical elements that make them more memorable and exciting. Legends can be found in every culture and society, and they serve many purposes, such as providing entertainment, explaining natural phenomena, and teaching important moral lessons. “El Enano” is a legend that tells the story of El Enano, a terrible creature which terrorizes the townspeople, doing many bad deeds. Luckily a clever fox devises a plan to trick El Enano into eating burning coal, which he dies to. In “Dragon, Dragon,” A kingdom was plagued by a dragon and the king wanted to kill it. He asks the wise cobbler who refuses. Each of the cobbler's sons tried though, and only the youngest one succeeded.
Legends advise us to always do good things in whatever situation we encounter in our lives. At the same time of doing good things, we should try to punish the bad. Legends help us learn that doing good things will give us many advantages and good results later, and doing the opposite will result in severe consequences. “El Enano” and “Dragon, Dragon” both show us this general idea of doing good and being kind. In “El Enano,” as the fox decides to help defeat El Enano and succeeds, he will be rewarded with glory and remembered for his wisdom and courage. The fox deserves such wonderful treatment because he does such a great deed of defeating El Enano. On the opposite end, El Enano was punished for being greedy and died after being tricked into eating hot coals. In “Dragon, Dragon,” the youngest son was rewarded for his honesty with the death of the dragon, and the honor of half the kingdom and the marriage to the princess. In the same story, the dragon was punished for his terrorizing of the kingdom. This was well deserved because destroying a kingdom for no reason is something very bad to do. Both of these stories show that doing good things is not only the right thing to do, but it can also lead to many unexpected rewards and success.
Legends have a very common feature, which is that most of them will have a good, happy ending. Here, all conflicts will be resolved and all unanswered questions will be answered. These happy, good endings give us a good feeling, and reward us for reading the legends themselves. Most legends have these endings to satisfy the reader and to give the story a firm resolution. In “El Enano,” after El Enano has been defeated, everyone in the village celebrates, which is a classic happy ending. Afterwards, everything will be peaceful without El Enano. In “Dragon, Dragon,” the dragon was slain and everyone achieved their goals. The king is happy the dragon was slain, the queen was turned back normal, the wizard got his book of spells back, the youngest son of the cobbler gets glory and fame, and even the princess gets the husband she wanted to be married to. Such great, peaceful endings give the story and the conflict a resolution, in this case it is mainly that the dragon is slain. There are also small resolutions that help deepen the satisfying resolution of the story. This is a common feature of legends because they are often used to teach important lessons and provide hope and inspiration to readers.
In addition to the theme of doing good things, other themes are also present in “El Enano” and “Dragon, Dragon.” These other small themes are also worthy of our studying and learning as we carry on our lives. For example, both stories emphasize the importance of listening to our elders. In “El Enano,” the village listens to the fox, and eventually succeeds in defeating El Enano. In “Dragon, Dragon,” the youngest son was the only one who listened to his father, which allowed him to slay the beast. Both of these stories show that our elders have wisdom and experience that can be valuable to us. These stories also show that greediness can lead to bad consequences. In “El Enano,” El Enano’s greediness and infinite dissatisfaction for food, and doing bad things to get the food, resulted in El Enano getting destroyed through the power of wisdom. In “Dragon, Dragon,” such is the same. The older sons were motivated from the rewards of slaying the dragon, which was something the youngest son was not interested in. From these many themes we can find that these stories have many things we can learn other than the one main theme all legends have.
There are many stories which deserve to be read, and legends are one of such books. As there is a huge quantity of books, we may question, why do we read legends? There are also a great quantity of reasons why reading legends is beneficial to us and our lives. But mainly, all of these reasons can be generalized into two branches, for education, and for entertainment. Educationally, legends are beneficial because they convey many useful messages and themes, giving insights into various beliefs and cultures which we can utilize for the entirety of our lives. Legends also give us entertainment. As everyone needs a good laugh at some time, it is important to be entertained throughout work in school or work. Legends are simple and straightforward, which is why they can have many simple entertaining parts at times. Additionally, legends can inspire and provide hope. They often have happy endings, and they show that even in the face of adversity, it is possible to overcome and succeed.
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