[LM_NET] LM_NET Learning Legends with Primary Sources

[Carole Bos <bosc@GVSU.EDU>]

At the beginning of every story - even legends - are primary sources.  Often those 
sources are lost altogether, or obscured by the clouds of history.  But with the 
world's great libraries and national archives digitizing their holdings, it is 
possible to reach back in time, tracing legends, and their heroes, to the 
earliest-known manuscripts and oral histories.  What the sources reveal is often 
more interesting than the legends themselves:

1.  Ivan the Terrible actually had a "good reign" before he went mad.  
http://www.awesomestories.com/biography/ivan_terrible/ivan_terrible_ch1.htm 

2.  What is the real story behind "The Star-Spangled Banner?"  
http://www.awesomestories.com/history/spangled_banner/spangled_banner_ch1.htm 

3.  Grandparents often tell stories - like:  "I had to walk five miles to school 
each way!"  Photographs from the national archives reveal their lives were actually 
much harder than most people today could even imagine. 
http://www.awesomestories.com/history/child_labor/child_labor_ch1.htm 

4.  Bodies also tell tales - even thousands of years after a person has died.  
http://www.awesomestories.com/history/mummies/mummies_ch1.htm 

5.  Was "Arthur of Camelot" a real person?  Records seem to suggest so.  
http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/king_arthur/king_arthur_ch1.htm 

6.  Chaucer told the story of "The Knight's Tale."  What did English "sound like" 
at that time - and - what was life really like for knights in the Middle Ages?  
http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/knights_tale/knight_tale_ch1.htm 

7.  Dracula was a real person - every bit as evil as his legend suggests.  
http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/shadow_vampire/shadow_vampire_ch1.htm 

8.  Alexander the Great believed he had conquered "the known world."  When he died, 
at a young age, his men brought his body back to Egypt.  Hundreds of years later, 
Caesar Augustus was still able to view the body through "its glass case."  Where is 
his body now?  
http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/alexander_great/alexander_great_ch1.htm 

Although this primary-sources website is subscription-based, it is free to all 
libraries, schools, educators and library media specialists.  Simply request an 
academic membership at the site's main URL:  http://www.awesomestories.com/ 

Carole Bos, J.D.
Grand Valley State University
Dean's Advisory Board

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