I'm from Australia and there aren't many legends here (except for those of the Aboriginals - whose legends I cannot recall, but I dpo remember some of them having the most interesting morales as far as the environment is concerned)
There is one legendary figure, though, whom dates back to only the end of the 19th century. His name was Ned Kelly. I don't know how many of you europeans would have heard of him, but here, he's all over the place.
Ned was a bushranger (a highwayman, basically), famous for his wearing of a custom-made body suit that consisted of a breastplate and a helmet that look like a bucket with a long eye-slit. During his short life, he robbed a heck of a lot of coaches, killed three policemen in cold blood (although the exact details of the motives and the events around these killings is still debated by many armchair historians) and was eventenually captured after a legendary standoff at a place called glenrowan (after which he was hung).
Although, the strange thing about this is that he is only remembered by history for commiting violent crimes. Some historians have illustrated him as a martyr for the underdogs the irish community (of which I am descended from, adding another interesting personal fact, my ancestor, an irishman, was one of the cops that ned shot), whom were shat on by the british in the early days. There have been a number of movies made about him, the latest of which starred heath ledger and orlando 'legolas' bloom.
Australia tends to idolize it's famous criminals, being a nation that arose from a penal colony. The latest legendary criminal is a man called 'chopper reid' whom rose to fame at the end of the twentieth century. He was a hitman from the melbourne underworld whom cut his ears off in jail. In the early nineties, when he ws serving another sentence for murder, he wrote an autobiography and a few crime novels, instantly earning him the status of a nation-wide celebrity. There was a movie made abut him, called 'chopper' and starring eric bana (whom played the Hulk in the recent ang lee movie)
Yet, despite our criminal history, australia is not that criminal a place. Here, in canberra, we hear about murders commited in melbourne and sydney. The underworld is lame, consisting of a bunch of wnnabe godfathers whom have recently started killing each other in our biggest 'gang-war' yet (20 people down so far over a ten year period- laugh your asses off all americans, please). The only real criminals are international gang members, whom tend to quietly import drugs and not make any sort of a scene. Yet we have based our culture almost solely around criminals like ned kelly (politicians here often pretend to fight for the 'underdog' whlst happily raising our taxes and taking away our benefits). I think all of this is incredibly stupid, my country is lame, peoples, llame, I tell you.
actually, one thing i forgot to mention in my rantings is that the real underdogs nowadys are the native aboriginals, whom are living in fourth world conditions (there society is going downhill, not gradually developing like third world ones). They are constantly losing support from the government, have massive alcohol problems throughout their society (they've only been drinking for maybe a hndred and fifty years, unlike those of european and asian descent, whom have been drnking for thousand) and they are subject to the most horrific acts of racil vilification by mainstrem society ('abbo is almost an accepted word in most conversation). There re changes that need to be made in my country! fast! :Titan:
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