No good reason that it can’t be history.
What you have with the Old Testament is a collection of roughly four sections, which came in draft form over several hundred years by several individuals writing the text by what they were told (stories often passed around the tribal unit). Because of the number of tribes occupying the land of Judah, you might have a couple of people hearing the story and trying to write it by the description they were told.
It should be pointed out as well...that the original Hebrew version had 24 ‘books’. The Catholic version had 46 ‘books’. The Greeks had 50 ‘books’. Most of these did originate as Hebrew texts, some were Greek, and a handful were Aramaic.
I should point out here that via the land of India....there is the legend of Manu, which details out the same story as Noah. There are probably several stories via the Old Testament which can be found in other lands.