BEER Ch. 6, 53-57: knotting into March Kelleher

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Ah, of course! 'Legend' in Le Carré is a Germanism.

Was what I was going to reply until I browsed through the LRB review of 
'Undercover: The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police' by Rob Evans and 
Paul Lewis that Fiona provided a link to:

"In SDS slang, he [an undercover secret policeman] was creating his 
‘legend’. A good legend would account for every aspect of the 
character’s story and personality, and would make it possible for a spy 
to be a ‘deep swimmer’ rather than a ‘shallow paddler’. Francis’s legend 
included an abusive, alcoholic father to explain why he could fight so 
well, and a mother dying of cancer abroad to explain his trips to visit 
his actual family (undercover for years at a time, officers couldn’t go 
home regularly). When an officer had prepared his legend, he exchanged 
his warrant cards for identity papers – driving licence, birth 
certificate, passport, even a fake criminal record on the police 
database, where the role required it. Once in the field, handlers aside, 
they were on their own. The unofficial SDS motto was ‘By Any Means 
Necessary’."

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n21/katrina-forrester/shag-another

Did the Special Demonstration Squad take 'legend' in this meaning from 
Le Carré? Has somebody had a look at the OED yet?

Thomas, catching up


Am 29.10.2013 00:15, schrieb jochen stremmel:

> I think you are right, Monte. Pynchon's use of "legend" here is in the
> sense saga, lore, myth, not like Le Carré's usage, which might not be
> MI6 argot but a Germanism, "Legende" in the sense of cover story for a
> spy. I didn't look it up again in his books.

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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l