Magyar Zoltán

Legends of Early Hungarian Saints: type- and motif-index

LIST ACCORDING TO THEME

BIRTH

Divine signs foretell saint’s birth

Stephen: Dream vision of supreme chieftain Géza. An angelic apparition announces to Stephen’s father that a son will be born to him who will be anointed king: ST I:5; ST III: 5.; Bonfini: 2.2.10; Temesvari: 52.23-24; EC:494; VD:1. kép. Dream vision of supreme chieftain Géza. The Holy Virgin appears in dream to Stephen’s father and announces to him that a son will be born who will be anointed king: Ransanus: IX.2-3. Dream vision of Sarolt. St. Stephen Martyr appears to Stephen’s mother before childbirth to announce that she is to bear a son who will receive a crown, will be anointed king and instructs her to baptize her son to his name: ST III: 8; Hymn I:2.4; Ransanus: IX.4; Bonfini: 2.1.30; Temesvari: 52.25; EC:494.; CP: p. 37.

Kinga: A voice from heaven foretells saint’s birth and holiness to her mother: KI I:4.

Prophecy of saint’s birth

Elizabeth: Klingsor, the legendary Transylvanian Saxon bard foretells saint’s birth and marriage with the son of the landgrave of Thuringia: EL VII:1.I.

The parents take an oath to consecrate their child to the Lord

Margaret: Margaret’s parents take an oath that they will consecrate their child to be born to the Lord if Hungary is liberated from the Mongol hordes: MA I:I.2; MA II:I.1.; Ransanus: XIV.5.

Miraculous circumstances of saint’s birth

Gerald: Saint’s mother had long been barren, saint is born as a gift from heaven in response to his parents’ prayers: GE II:2.

Kinga: Painless childbirth: KI I:4. Saint is born in perfect cleanliness, needs no bath: KI I:4.

Baptism performed by a saint

Stephen: Saint is baptized by St. Adalbert: ST I:8; ST III:9; Temesvari:52.25; VD: plate 2.

Miraculous infant

Kinga: As a baby saint never suckles nor sleeps during mass: KI I:4.

Legends of Early Hungarian Saints: type- and motif-index

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 185 6

Művelődéstörténet Idegen nyelvű

The work of folklorist Zoltán Magyar throws light on a relatively little-known segment of the dynastyc cult of saints in Central European cultural history. The hagiographies and legends written on different members of the Árpadian dynasty, ruling in Hungary between the 11th and 13th centuries, and their contemporaries endowed with the aura of sanctity, occur not only in their medieval Hungarian legendry but have also become part of the liturgical tradition and the cult of saints on German, Polish and Byzantine soil. The thematic and generic variety of this legendry and its many folkloric implications show close parallels with another major work of medieval European hagiography: the legends of early Irish saints. The type- and motif-index and generatic catalogue compiled by Zoltán Magyar orders the epic tradition, based on 11rh-16th century written sources, of twelve Hungarian royal saints who have become the subject of legends shortly after their death. Beside classification according to the type of legendd heroes and themes, the book also contains an analysis of the biographical data, of the historical sources and of the primary types and motifs of hagiographies.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/magyar-early-hungarian-saints-type-and-motif-index//

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