An adjective question for you literary-minded folk

[foravalon]

When something is said to be "fabled", what is the correct interpretation of that description?

 

[Therin of Andor]

When something is said to be "fabled", what is the correct interpretation of that description?

Well, a fable is a short, traditional moral tale (ie. usually with an explicit moral tacked onto the end), and originally told - and retold - orally.

So a fabled something would be well-remembered, fondly remembered, something passed on from generation to generation, perhaps.

You might say "Ah, the fabled Mr Brown! I've heard so much about you" if you met a favourite teacher of both your older sibling and your father.

Or, "We went to the fabled Brown's Restaurant" last night, if it were a restaurant known to have a long-standing, good reputation.

Ah, here you go. You have two meanings here:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fabled

–adjective
1.celebrated in fables: a fabled goddess of the wood.
2.having no real existence; fictitious: a fabled chest of gold.

 

[Christopher]

^^Yeah, I think your "fabled Mr. Brown" example is a bit iffy... To put it simply, "fabled" means either "legendary" or "fictitious." (Scroll down your linked page to the American Heritage entry.) Having a good reputation isn't the same thing as being the stuff of legend. Something fabled is more likely to be something that everyone has heard about but that the speaker has never encountered because of its remoteness in time or space, and that may not actually have existed.

 

[Deano2099]

You can use fabled in the sense Therin does though, it's just using it as a figure of speech, much like you might say "Ahh, the legendary Mr. Brown" because he's been talked up a lot by people you know, even though he's not actually the stuff of legends.

 

[Christopher]

I suppose, but I'd call that hyperbole.

 

[foravalon]

^^Yeah, I think your "fabled Mr. Brown" example is a bit iffy... To put it simply, "fabled" means either "legendary" or "fictitious."

Wouldn't both those definitions imply that the person is fictitious? Or at least that their reputation is?

 

[Christopher]

A legend is generally grounded in reality, albeit often exaggerated and embellished. For instance, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh are legends of aviation.

 

[Trilliam]

A legend is generally grounded in reality, albeit often exaggerated and embellished. For instance, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh are legends of aviation.

I'd put Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith in that class too.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Wouldn't both those definitions imply that the person is fictitious? Or at least that their reputation is?

Possibly, but - as in real fables - there was probably once a grain of truth in the reputation, that may have been altered over many retellings.

The reader would be bringing their own understanding of the term to any story, but would take other clues from the context of the story. Calling someone "fabled" might imply that the speaker is being ironic, satirical, mean, hyperbolic, sarcastic, whatever...