Magyar Zoltán

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

PROTECTION

Saint protects from the enemy invading the country

Stephen: Saint recognizes the right person to perform the task asked by him: ST II:9. Saint has an intimation in his dream of the enemy’s raid (heathen Pechenegs); he alerts his people in time to seek refuge: ST I:23; ST II:9; ST II:35; Bonfini: 2.1.250-255; Temesvari: 52.35. Saint defeats the intruding enemy: ST II:9. As an effect of saint’s prayer pseudo-envoys appear with false orders and summon home the army of the Holy Roman emperor preparing to attack Hungary: ST I:24; ST III:36.

Ladislas: Saint defeats the heathen enemy raiding the country: MA I:I.73; Hymn II: 15th stanza; Ruthenus. Saint defeats the Pechenegs: kezai:II.19.; Temesvári:17.1.3.; AnjouLeg-LA: plate 5.; LaszloGy: plate 181. (Bántornya, 2nd cycle). Saint defeats the Cumans: CH:134; Ransanus: XII.6; Thuroczy: 83; EC:398, 400. Saint defeats the Mongols: Hodinka: 466-467, 480-481, 480-481.

Saint drives the Mongols out of Moldavia: Moldva I:50.

Kinga: To saint’s prayers two warrior saints emerge and chase away the Mongol hordes: KI I:8. Saint’s prayers protect the nuns from the attack of the Tartars: KI I:34, 39.

Sign of victorious battle

Ladislas: When saint rattles a bush with his spear, miraculously a white weasel runs up the spear and hides in saint’s bosom: CP:121; CH:111; Thuroczy: 79; Bonfini: 2.2.280-285. Angelic apparition (a man clad in beams of light) foretells Ladislas’s victory and urges him to attack: Hodinka: 464-465, 478-479, 478-479.

Saint fights a demonic enemy (endowed with supernatural abilities)

Ladislas: The Cuman warrior shoots an arrow backwards, with his left hand: LaszloGy: plates 50-52, 71-72, 100-101, 106-108, 187-188, 231, 233-234, 237. (murals). The Cuman belches out fire and smoke: LaszloGy: plates 84-85, 89, 106-110, 137, 152, 174, 176, 182, 207 (murals).

Saint defeats the commander of the enemy in combat

Ladislas: Saint defeats the chief of the Cumans in combat: CP:137; Thuroczy: 84; Bonfini: 2.4.220-230.

Saint defeats the commander-in-chief of the Mongols (Batu Khan): Hodinka: 466-467, 480-481, 480-481.

Saint slays in combat a pagan (Cuman/Mongol) warrior who has abducted a maiden and sets her free: CP:103; Thuroczy: 76; Bonfini: 2.3.100-135, 235; Hodinka: 466-467, 480-481, 480-481; AnjouLeg-LA: plates 10-14; CP: p. 72; Thuroczy: the cover page of the chronicle’s Augsburg edition; LaszloGy: plate 17 (the initial of the register of Hungarian students of the university of Vienna); LaszloGy: plates 22-246 (61 church mural cycles).

Saint protects his army

Ladislas: Following saint’s prayer beasts come forth from the woods to feed his starving army: LA:7; ; Madas:3.1.1.; 6.1.1.; 7.1.2.; 8.1.3.; 10.1.3.; 11.1.; Temesvari:14.2.3.; Laskai:48.2.1.; 50.2.2.; Bonfini: 2.4.294; EC:403. AnjouLeg-LA: plate 4. Following saint’s prayer a spring stems from the rock to quench the thirst of his army: Temesvari: 17.1.3.; EC:404. Following saint’s prayer the money thrown back, in feint, by fleeing Mongols is turned into stone: Temesvari: 17.1.3.; EC:404.

Saint aids his people even after death

Ladislas: The patrocinium miracle. Dead saint comes to the aid of his people and brings them victory in the decisive battle with the invading Mongols (as related by an aged Tartar prisoner, when the Hungarians attacked the Mongol army a tall knight was seen riding before them with a battle-axe and a golden crown on his head; above him the figure of a radiant lady appeared with a halo of light): GestaL: 9.

Saint protects from robbers

Kinga: Saint arrests the attack of highwaymen with the sign of the cross: KI I:7. Due to saint’s prayers robbers do not dare to attack the convent: KI I:59.

Saint protects from wild beasts

Ladislas: Saint frees serfs from a wild bear ravaging the environs: Ruthenus.

Kinga: Saint curbs a pack of wild dogs with the sign of the cross: KI I:7. Saint curbs a herd of wild pigs with the sign of the cross: KI I:7.

Saint’s helpers

Ladislas: St. Ladislas is aided by Christ in the fight against pagans: LaszloGy: plates 68-69 (murals). St. Ladislas is aided by Virgin Mary in the fight against pagans: LaszloGy: plates 27., 31., 75 (murals). Magic horse. Ladislas’s horse has supernatural abilities, helps his master in battle: Bonfini: 2.3.130; AnjouLeg-LA: plate 11; CP: plate 72; LaszloGy: plates 28-29, 63-64 (murals).

Kinga: To saint’s prayers two warrior saints emerge and chase away the Mongol hordes: KI I:8.

Saint’s feint

Ladislas: The siege of Cracow. Ladislas orders his soldiers to carry earth in their boots and gather it into a pile which is then dusted with flour. The besieged, thinking that the Hungarian army still has plenty of food, surrender: CP:138; Bonfini: 2.4.245; CP: p. 98.

Heroic sleep

Ladislas: Heroic sleep after victorious battle: AnjouLeg-LA: plate 14; LaszloGy: plates 45-48, 50-52, 78, 82-86, 88-89, 115-118, 124-125, 130-131, 155, 157, 159, 161-162, 174-177, 181, 188, 190, 202, 204, 218, 220, 230, 233-234 (murals); MagyarZ I:8 (mural). The Virgin Mary heals the wounds of St. Ladislas after the battle: AnjouLeg-LA: plate 15.

Saint protects persons

Gerald: Saint induces the king to pardon some offenders: GE II:41, 43

Kinga: Saint thwarts an attempt on her father’s life (bare-handed, she takes thirty swords out of the assailants’ hands): KI I:10

Margaret: Due to saint’s prayers the nun who fell into the well is rescued unharmed: MA I:II.23-24, VI.19; MA II:I.48.

Saint saves from eternal damnation

Elizabeth: Saint’s confessor had to atone for five years in Purgatory, but due to saint’s intercession he is freed (Conrad’s vision): EL VII:8.IX.

Helen: Due to saint’s prayers sinners go to Purgatory after death: HE:10.

Kinga: Saint’s prayers save a wicked knight from eternal damnation: KI I:42.

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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