Legends and realities of Ukrainian alchemy: the cultural and historical reminiscences Doctor Faust - Pan Twardowski

Abstract

The article deals with legends about “sorcerous” knowledge and its possessors, which are connected with a “legendary” mode of alchemy phenomenon existence, especially on the Eastern borders of Late Medieval and Early Modern Western alchemy spread area. The similarity of images and plots of these legends bears witness either about their archetypal nature or numerous influences and borrowings, i.e. about the existence of unite European informational space as of Late Medieval era. In the Ukrainian context, alchemy was manifested in both “historical” and “legendary” modes as well as in their “adventurous” and “sorcerous” derivatives; in legends and their literary treatment. Considering this, it seems interesting and promising to consider a series of legends about a famous nobleman and sorcerer, Pan Twardowski, as well as about similar characters belonging to Faustian tradition. This type of stories comes from a proto-Indo-European plot “The Smith and the Devil”. But in case of Faustian legends, one should deal not with folklore magic, e.g. fairytale magic or witchcraft, but with the phenomenon of learned magic which is related to high esoteric knowledge with even proto-scientific trends, including alchemy. A wide spread and popularity of such legends testify the social rooting of the phenomenon of alchemy and concomitant esoteric knowledge in Early Modern Ukraine.