Fake Legends

"Nobody knows anything about Shakespeare the person.  It is all legend, it is all rumor." (Jeanette Winterson)  Winterson connotes legends are fake.  Even though Shakespeare was a real person, no one knows what he was truly like.  Does this mean that all legends are simply lies people began telling themselves until they became grand enough to be legendary?  

In "Arm Wrestling with My Father," the father figure is legendary to Brad Manning.  As the final arm wrestle develops, Brad states, "I wanted to win but I did not want to see him lose."  This quote exemplifies the degree to which his father's strength means to him.  All throughout his life, his father has beat Brad in arm wrestling enough times that his father is legendary to Brad.  To win though, Brad relates it to catching the "Big Joe" fish at his grandpa's house.  The win means more to Brad than keeping his possibly fake legend alive.  The reason it could be possibly fake is the legend of the father's strength and protection is only legendary to his son, Brad Manning.  To anyone else in the world, Brad's father is not a legend, but that is the beauty of legends-they can exist where they are needed most.

Professor Trelawney produces the prophecy of neither can live while the other survives in the Harry Potter series.  She is referring to the rivalry between good versus evil-Harry versus Voldemort.  While Voldemort's evil and dark magic is legendary to everyone in the world of wizards because of his terror, he is legendary to Harry for the special reason that Voldemort murdered Harry's parents and marked Harry's forehead in the same night.  In the end though, Trelawney's prophecy predicts Harry of Voldemort will have to die; there isn't room for both of them to be legendary.  Harry tricks Voldemort.  Harry's legend lives on while the legend of Voldemort dies-just as Brad's father looses his legend of strength.