brian

There's some debate about whether I am meant to be an actual person or not. Some argue that I am based on one of several historical figures, while others argue that tales of my exploits are an amalgamation of the histories of both actual and mythological figures. Still others maintain I was created out of whole cloth. Part of the difficulty lies in establishing which stories about me we accept as canonical. Even the most committed scholars who claim that I am based on an actual figure, would not argue that I ever actually mysteriously arrived at farms in the middle of the night and performed a season's worth of chores while the farmer and his family slept, What, then, are we to make of the more fantastical tales that surround me?