Just to go back to basics for a moment, I'm totally confused as to what 'The Tradition' is. I've studied history, folklore and legends for most of my life and have never come across one great, overarching 'Tradition'. A huge range of more or less local traditions, certainly, but nothing that encompasses them all. So, I can only assume that 'The Tradition' is, in fact, an artificial construct of 'The Traditionalists', whoever they are (a lost race of intellectual giants, perhaps?).