Black Legend

English

Etymology

Calque of Spanish Leyenda Negra (literally “Black Legend”).

Proper noun

the Black Legend

1. The depiction of Spain and Spaniards (or, by extension, all Hispanics and their countries of origin) as bloodthirsty and cruel, greedy and fanatical, especially concerning the period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.
   • 1964, Jan Morris, “Wild Spain”, in Spain, Faber and Faber, published 2008, →ISBN:

     […] if the black legend seemed to be fading at last, the horrors of the Civil War revived it with a vengeance. Never was a conflict fought more bitterly.

Translations

the depiction of Spain as cruel, greedy and fanatical

• Dutch: Zwarte Legende f
• Finnish: musta legenda
• French: Légende Noire f
• Polish: Czarna Legenda hiszpanii f
• Portuguese: Lenda Negra f
• Spanish: Leyenda Negra f
• Swedish: svarta legenden

See also

• White Legend