Remeték, lovagok, szarvasok és oroszlánok

Abstract

Medieval hagiography is full of animal motifs. Representations of animals in medieval literature is usually metaphoric. They could represent theological, moral or political notions. Animals frequently were the symbols of vices and virtues. On one hand researching the changes of the hagiographic topoi related to animals could shed light to the human-nature relationship, on the other hand it provides several pieces of information about medieval society, mentality, religious and folkloristic beliefs. Animal episodes are emphatic in the lives of the desert fathers and later in the Western eremitic movement. The animals appear as the companions of the lonely hermits, give food and help them in the fi elds, and they underline the self mortifi cation of the saint. The motive of the taming of wild animals expresses the holy man’s power over nature. The hermits transform the deserted wilderness into an earthly Paradise, where ferocious animals can live in peace. Hagiographical animal motifs were thoroughly researched by Anglo-Saxon, Italian and French medievalists, however in Hungarian medieval studies this topic is not on the highlight, due to the limited amount of the narrative sources. Present study researches the animal motifs in Hungarian hagiographical literature with special regard to the “the hermit and the hunter” topos – a denomination used by the British scholar, Brian Golding. Chiefl y I analyse the legends of Saint Gerhard, Saint Ladislaus, Saint Günther and Saint Andreas, the hermit of Zobor. The Life of Paul the hermit of Thebes by Jerome and the Dialoges of Sulpicius Severus also appear in the study, although they are not connected directly to Hungary, but the cults of Saint Paul the hermit and Saint Martin of Tours were widespread in the medieval Hungarian Kingdom. The Vitae Patrum, the History of the Pauline Order from the early 16th century by provost Gergely Gyöngyösi also appears in the study, because several hagiographic motifs occur in the work. The magic deer is a crucial motif in the texts, this can be also connected to the ancient pagan Hungarian folkloristic “myths”. ”However I research only the Western hagiographic parallels of this topos, and make little reference to the pagan origins. This topic has already been researched by several medievalists, art historians and ethnographers.