history's rough draft, polished by a thousand retellings until the facts gave up.
means a legend is a traditional story about real people or places, believed true by its tellers, that grows more mythic than accurate with each generation.
from from latin legenda, meaning things to be read, originally referring to accounts of saints' lives read aloud in medieval churches before the word wandered off to describe anyone impressive enough to outlive the truth about them.
robin hood — english outlaw, likely stitched from several real 13th century bandits
king arthur — post-roman british king, first named in writing around 830 ad
johnny appleseed — real man john chapman, 1774 to 1845, planted actual nurseries not seeds
loch ness monster — scotland, first photographed hoax in 1934, still funding tourism