Mardin legends

One of the narrative literature types, legend has been defined variously by many scientistsand compared to other types until today. This study seeks to find the answers to questions?what is a legend? What are the similarities and differences between legends and othernarration types? Legends are created based on what? What are the topics of legends? Underwhich frame a narration can be called a legend?? in the light of the mentioned definitions.This study is based on the facts of Turkish society shaping their behaviors pursuant to beliefsand moral rules provided in the legends for centuries and that legends will be destined to beforgotten unless they are recorded in writing.Furthermore, the choice of Mardin, a provincemerging many different cultures, has been one of the elements driving us towards this studysince several legend textsfrom Mardin will be compiled.Resource scanning, field research and examination methods are employed in this paper. Thisstudy was initiated by means of resource scanning stage where field research has beenconducted within the borders of Mardin province in order to compile legend texts at variouslocations.A motif examination has been performed with an aim of evaluating the compiledlegend texts.The most prominent research problem of this study was the limited time of field research.?mportant criteriaof this study for qualifying the narrations as legends are, whether or not theorigin of legends are dating back to old times, if the legend narrates about persons, locationsand events, and extraordinary characteristics of legends. However the most ditsinctive featureof a legend is to have an underlying element of belief. This is an eminent factor.One of the conclusions of this study has found out that similar versions of certain legendtexts compiled in Mardin province are also been told in many different regions ofAnatolia.We have also coincided with different variations of the manner of telling of thesame legend texts as told by different persons.Similar motifs are found in the legend texts.This paper also shows that legends, a type of literature based on narration, is closelyconnected to the history and geography of a society. In sum, legends are mirrors of theculture of the regions and society.