About Legendopedia

Legendopedia is an independent publication by Zemyna Studio about legends: tales of towns, regions, old streets, castles and schools that have been passed on by word of mouth and from book to book. Each legend has its own page with the story itself, its origin and context, the versions recorded in the sources, the place it belongs to and a list of the works consulted.

How each legend is written

We retell every legend in our own words, working from sources named on the page: public-domain collections and chronicles, archives and reference works. From each source we take the plot and the facts (characters, places, periods), not the author's sentences. Quotations are rare and short, are taken only from public-domain works and always name their source.

Before a page goes live, the text is proofread and checked against the sources: every name, place, date and version on the page must appear in them. If a legend has no reliable source, we do not publish it, and where the sources leave gaps, we do not fill them with invented details.

Sources and licences

The sources are listed at the end of each page: title, author, year, the exact passage and, where a copy exists online, a link to it. Each source also shows its legal status:

• Public domain: works whose copyright has expired. They are the main basis for the retellings.
• CC BY and CC BY-SA: works published under open Creative Commons licences. We use them in line with the licence terms, which include crediting the author.
• Reference only: works still in copyright. They serve only to confirm that a legend exists or where it is set; they are never the only source for a page, and their text is not used to tell the story.

Traditional tales, not facts

A legend may name real people, real places or exact dates, but what it tells is not proven history. That is why no page presents a story as something that really happened: we say what “is told” or what a particular version records. What is actually documented about how a legend came about is covered separately, in the “Origin and context” section.

Indigenous peoples' traditions

Many stories are part of the heritage of particular Indigenous peoples and belong to their communities. Out of respect for them, and for the laws that in some countries protect their traditional cultural expressions, Legendopedia does not publish stories attributed to a specific Indigenous people or community. The site focuses on local, urban, colonial-era and European legends, and on historical traditions recorded in public-domain works.

Content limits

Many legends deal with death, punishment or apparitions. We tell them without graphic detail. We do not describe self-inflicted death: when a story includes one, that part is left out or mentioned only in general terms. The pages are written for teenagers and adults. The site gives no health advice and does not cover politics or gambling.

Corrections and contact

If you spot a mistake, a detail that does not match the source or a missing version, write to us at support@zemynastudio.com. We check every report against the sources and correct the page where needed.

Legendopedia is a project by Zemyna Studio.