FREE ESSAY ON DAVID AND LEGEND

DAVID AND LEGEND

The legend of David and Goliath is a very familiar one to many people. It is an oral
legend that has been told from one generation to the next. It has been mostly assumed to
be a fictional story. The question is how do we know it is fiction. This is the problem
historians have when using the tool of oral bards or legends. The story may have changed
drastically in the years it has taken to be told and retold over many years. We do not
know if the story had any truth to it in the first place. It is difficult to isolate the
actual historical data from everything else.
Some of the things that the legend of David tells us are that David was a person who had
many followers and eventually overcame some type of forces to ascend to be king. So we
know that David was a prominent figure. We also can take from the legend that battles
were decided between two people at a time, one from each side, in some cases. The person
or force David defeated had much more power than he did and he won with cunning instead
of strength. The fact that the story of David is a legend tells us that written
communication possibly has not become the most prominent form of communication. 
We also do not know, however, if any of the information from the legend is true. Subtle
changes that may have occurred when the legend started may have transformed the legend
into complete fiction. The time it took place is unknown as is the location of his defeat
of Goliath. The legend could throw off a historian completely from the facts. Also, who
was Goliath? It is doubtful that he was as big as the legend now says he was.