The point is that descriptive writing is very rarely entirely accurate and 
during the reign of Olaf Quimby II as Patrician of Ankh some legislation 
was passed in a determined attempt to put a stop to this sort of thing and 
introduce some honesty into reporting. Thus, if a legend said of a notable 
here that "all men spoke of his prowess" any bard who valued his life would 
add hastily "except for a couple of people in his home village who thought 
he was a liar, and quite a lot of other people who had never really heard 
of him." 
        -- (Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic)