Fate Legends: North, Central and Southern American Myths From the introduction: The New World. The Land of Opportunity. There’s so many names for these lands, lands that stand so different to the Old World. The legends of these lands are often new, recent and yet no less marvelous for it. But beneath the ever eye-catching, boisterous nature of the United States of America lies a very old history, one that can certainly match that of Europe or Africa or Asia.