Magyar Zoltán

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

PUNISHMENT, MALEDICTION, RETRIBUTION

Saint does justice among people

Stephen: The legend of the sixty Pechenegs. Sixty Pechenegs come to Hungary to visit the king, but some of the king’s men rob them and even kill a number of them. Stephen tracks down the culprits and orders that they be hanged in pairs by the roadside in all parts of the country: ST II:10; ST III:38; Bonfini: 2.1.315-325. The king orders the flaying alive of a court justice for false judgement: Laskai: 76, 77. A hired murderer wants to slay the sleeping king, but drops his sword upon the act and Stephen is awakened by the sound. The king pardons the man begging for his mercy, but punishes the abettors by cutting off their hands: ST II:11; ST III:41; Bonfini: 2.2.325-330. The Csanád folk legend. The commander of Stephen’s army, Csanád, aided by a miraculous apparition (St. George), defeats the governor of the southern province of the country who rebelled against the king. Another warrior claims the victory for himself, but Csanád demonstrates his valour and the rightfulness of his claim by showing the cut-out tongue of the rebel commander whom he slew in battle. King Stephen punishes the would-be hero and appoints Csanád governor of the province which duly bears his name: GE II: 8-15.

Saint reads others’ thoughts

Margaret: Saint reprimands the sister who is thinking of leaving the convent during her illness: MA I:II.13-14; MA II:I.55. Saint scolds the sister who secretly craves for rich worldly garments: MA I:II.10, VI.43; MA II:I.54. Saint reveals the thoughts of angered, irritated, vengeful nuns: MA I:I.85, 106, II.11-12, VI.31; MA II:I.56, 57.

Saint puts others to shame

Margaret: Margaret’s confessor doubts the truth of saint’s words. As a proof saint’s prayer provokes a flood: MA I:II.21; MA II:I.46. One of the nuns (Margaret’s niece) doubts Margaret’s holiness. As a proof, a cripple is healed, the nun is put to shame: MA I:III.7, VI.5; MA II:II.38.

Saint punishes

Elizabeth: Saint’s prayer ties the sinner couple who intend to abandon their child at their night lodging (they can’t go any further and are forced to return): EL IV:IV.5; EL V:26; EL VIII:37. Saint orders the flogging of a woman who refuses to confess: EL IV:IV.10; EL V:22; EL VIII:35.

Kinga: Bare-handed, saint flings a lewd woman on to her carriage: KI I:17.

Margaret: The ache in saint’s shoulder is transferred to the nun mocking her: MA I:I.102, VI.5, 40; MA II:I.49. The man who, instead of visiting Margaret’s shrine, goes to revel instantly feels pangs in his shoulder: MA I:V.2. The blind man who visits Margaret’s burial-place without doing penance returns unhealed: MA I:III.9. The nun who refuses to testify in Margaret’s canonization process is taken ill: MA I:II.17, VI.39; MA II.II.9. A man healed by virtue of Margaret’s merits does not want to testify in the canonization process; as a result, his illness returns: MA II:II.57.

Malediction

Elizabeth: A man who regained his eyesight by virtue of the saint curses the man who insulted him by saying let Elizabeth avenge him. The cursed man drowns: EL II:49; EL VIII:53.

Kinga: Saint punishes the nuns for not believing her; she casts illnesses upon them (’Let your sick-room never stay empty!’): KI I:61. Because the townspeople in the city of her burial-place (Ószandec/Stary Sacz) do not believe in her chastity, her confessor prophesies the decline of the city: KI I:45, 58.

Ordalium

Gerald: The pagan who profanates the saint’s body is possessed by a demon and dies tearing and gnawing at his own flesh: GE I: 16.

Ladislas: The legend of the man with the twisted jaw-bone. During the burial of king Ladislas a sweet scent is felt, but a man from the crowd states that he can smell a foul stench. His jaw-bone is twisted backwards on the spot and only after long prayer and supplication does he regain his original shape: LA:11; Temesvari:14.3.; Laskai:48.2.2.; 49.2.1.; Bonfini: 2.4.290; EC: 402; AnjouLeg-LA: plate 22. Divine judgement at saint’s burial-place. A count accuses a soldier of having stolen his silver cup. The cup is placed on the tomb; the soldier takes it off unharmed, but the count collapses when trying to touch it: LA:12; Madas:6.1.1.; 10.1.3.; Temesvari:15.1.3.; Laskai:48.2.3.; Bonfini: 2.4.295; EC: 403; AnjouLeg-LA: plates 23-24.

Elizabeth of Töss: A person who insulted Elizabeth has to atone for his sin in Purgatory: TE:8, 8.

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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