Christian_Demonology_and_Popular_Mytholo.pdf

CHRISIAN DEMONOLOGY AND POPULAR MYHOLOGY

Demons, Spirits, Witches Series Editors GÁBOR KLANICZAY and ÉVA PÓCS

Volume II

CHRISTIAN DEMONOLOGY AND POPULAR MYTHOLOGY Edited by

Gábor Klaniczay and Éva Pócs in collaboration with Eszter Csonka-akács

Central European University Press Budapest • New York

© 2006 by Gábor Klaniczay and Éva Pócs Published in 2006 by Central European University Press An imprint o the Central European University Share Company Nádor utca 11, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary el: +36-1-327-3138 or 327-3000 Fax: +36-1-327-3183 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ceupress.com 400 West 59th Street, New York NY 10019, USA el: +1-212-547-6932 Fax: +1-646-557-2416 E-mail: [email protected] Research or this book was supported in part by OKA (Hungarian Scientific Research Fund) providing two grants (30691 and 46472). All rights reserved. No part o this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any orm or by any means, without the permission o the Publisher. ISBN 963-7326-76-6 cloth 978-963-7326-76-9

Library o Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Demons, spirits, witches / editors, Gábor Klaniczay and Éva Pócs. v. cm. Includes index. Contents: v. 1. Communicating with the spirits / edited by Gábor Klaniczay and Éva Pócs ; in collaboration with Eszter Csonka-akács. ISBN-13 963-7326-13-8 (v. 1) 1. Witchcraf—Europe—History—Congresses. 2. Demonology—Europe—History— Congresses. 3. Folklore—Europe—History—Congresses. I. Klaniczay, Gábor. II. Pócs, Éva. BF1584.E9D46 2005 133.4’094—dc22 2005006449 Printed in Hungary Akaprint Kf., Budapest

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction by Gábor Klaniczay and Éva Pócs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Part I Learned Demonology, Images of the Devil Benedek Láng, Demons in Krakow, and Image Magic in a Magical Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Anna Kuznetsova, “A Wall o Bronze” or Demons versus Saints: Whose Victory? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Erzsébet atai, An Iconographical Approach to Representations o the Devil in Medieval Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 György E. Szőnyi, alking With Demons. Early Modern Teories and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Éva Szacsvay, Protestant Devil Figures in Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Ulrika Wol-Knuts, Te Devil and Birthgiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Part II Exchanges between Elite and Popular Concepts Karen P. Smith , Serpent-damsels and Dragon-slayers: Overlapping Divinities in a Medieval radition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Wanda Wyporska, Jewish, Noble, German, or Peasant? — Te Devil in Early Modern Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

vi Jonas Liliequist, Sexual Encounters with Spirits and Demons in Early Modern Sweden: Popular and Learned Concepts in Conflict and Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Soili-Maria Olli, Church Demonology and Popular Belies in Early Modern Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Part III Evil Magic and Demons in East European and Asian Folklore Ilana Rosen, Saintly and Sympathetic Magic in the Lore o the Jews o Carpatho-Russia Between the wo World Wars . . . . . . . . . . . Monika Kropej, Magic as Reflected in Slovenian Folk radition and Popular Healing oday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L’upcho S. Risteski, Categories o the “Evil Dead” in Macedonian Folk Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anna Plotnikova, Balkan Demons’ Protecting Places . . . . . . . . . . . Vesna Petreska, Demons o Fate in Macedonian Folk Belies . . . . . . Zmago Šmitek, Gog and Magog in the Slovenian Folk radition . . Ágnes Birtalan, Systematization o the Concept o Demonic and Evil in Mongolian Folk Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

183 194 202 213 221 237 250

List o Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST AND THE THIRD VOLUME

COMMUNICAING WIH HE SPIRIS

�DEMONS, SPIRITS, WITCHES 1�

D�� S�� P�� Nancy Caciola, Breath, Heart, Guts: Te Body and Spirits in the Middle Ages Renata Mikolajczyk, Non sunt nisi phantasiae et imaginationes: a Medieval Attempt at Explaining Demons Moshe Sluhovsky, Discerning Spirits in Early Modern Europe Sophie Houdard, Mystics or Visionaries? Discernment o Spirits in the First Part o the Seventeenth Century in France Éva Pócs, Possession Phenomena, Possession-systems. Some East-Central European Examples C�� O�� W�� Wolgang Behringer, How Waldensians Became Witches: Heretics and Teir Journey to the Other World ok Tompson, Hosting the Dead: Tanotopic Aspects o the Irish Sidhe Roberto Dapit, Visions o the Other World as Narrated in Contemporary Belie Legends rom Resia D��, �� Christa uczay, rance Prophets and Diviners in the Middle Ages Peter Buchholz, Shamanism in Medieval Scandinavian Literature Rune Blix Hagen, Te King, the Cat, and the Chaplain. King Christian IV’s Encounter with the Sami Shamans o Northern Norway and Northern Russia in 1599

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CONENS OF HE FIRS AND HE HIRD VOLUME

WICHCRAF MYHOLOGIES AND PERSECUIONS �DEMONS, SPIRIS, WICHES 3� M�� Martine Ostorero, Te Concept o the Witches’ Sabbath in the Alpine Region (1430–1440) ext and Context Round-table discussion on Ecstasies by Carlo Ginzburg (with the participation o Wolgang Behringer, Carlo Ginzburg, Gustav Henningsen, Gábor Klaniczay, Giovanni Pizza and Éva Pócs) Gábor Klaniczay, Learned Systems and Popular Narratives o Vision and Bewitchment Adelina Angusheva, Late Medieval Witch Mythologies in the Balkans Per Sörlin, Child-Witches and the Construction o the Witches´ Sabbath: Te Swedish Blåkulla Story L�� , �� Péter óth G., River Ordeal–rial by Water–Swimming o Witches: Procedures o Ordeal in Witchcraf rials Ildikó Kristóf, How to Make a (Legal) Pact with the Devil? Legal Customs and Literacy in Witch Conessions in Early Modern Hungary Anna Brzezińska, Healing at the Jagiellonian Court Polina Melik Simonian, Following the Traces of Xenophobia in Muscovite Witchcraf Investigation Records Judit Kis-Halas, rial o an Honest Citizen, Nagybánya 1704-5: Te Social and Cultural Context o Witchcraf Accusations—a entative Microanalysis Daniel Ryan, Boundaries and ransgressions: Witchcraf and Community Conflict in Estonia During the Late Nineteenth Century W�� Francisco Vaz da Silva, Extraordinary Children, Werewolves and Witches in Portuguese Folk-radition Ülo Valk, Reflections o Folk Belie and Legends at the Witch rials o Estonia Iveta odorova-Pirgova, Witches and Priests in the Bulgarian Village: Past and Present Mirjam Mencej, Witchcraf in Eastern Slovenia

INTRODUCTION GÁBOR KLANICZAY and ÉVA PÓCS

Te most important ordering principle o our first volume 1 was that o the communication with the supernatural: the relations o the human world with the domains o the spirits, a set o relationships which constituted an important part o the mental universe o medieval and early modern Europe. As shown by several articles in the volume, in some traditional village communities on the margins o Eastern, Southern and Western Europe, such archaic religious maniestations could play a considerable role—classified as Christian visions, shamanism or belie in diabolic possession—even in the twentieth century. Tese studies could indicate a renewed interest in this subject, and a new dynamism o research, relying upon novel insights into the vast source material. Te most important outgrowth o these new interpretations is the enrichment o the traditional methodologies o ethnology, the history o religion and olklore by an anthropological approach that examines the mental phenomena in their social contexts and communal unctions. Te same could be said in connection to our present volume. Like the previous book, the essays published here also originate rom presentations at the Budapest conerence on “Demons, spirits and witches,” which took place in Budapest in 1999 (though, in the time elapsed since, they had been considerably reworked). Tose common discussions allowed the authors o this volume, coming rom nearly the whole o Europe, and also rom Asia and America, to harmonize their research interests and their strategies or analyzing this complex material. Tough the setting o the problematic is again medieval and early modern Europe, the ocus o the studies this time is centered on present-day traditional communities and living olkloric traditions exam-

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ined, above all, by Russian, Macedonian and Slovenian anthropologists and olklorists. Te central idea of the present volume is the manifold presentation of the interchanges between learned and popular culture. When choosing these two concepts for framing our studies on medieval, early modern and contemporary demonology, we were aware that they had been considered controversial within historical research for quite some time. In the 1960s and 1970s, the originally somewhat condescending category of popular culture prompted a set of heated methodological debates and opened stimulating new fields of analysis related to the development of historical anthropology (Mandrou 1964; Bollème 1971; Davis 1975; Le Goff 1977; Burke 1978). Absorbing and critically adjusting the emancipatory messages of Mihail Bakhtin (Bakhtin 1984; Ginzburg 1976; Klaniczay 1990), historical research became ultimately skeptical as to whether “popular” could really serve as a useful delineation of a specific cultural level or form of expression (Kaplan 1984). Yet, in the anal ysis of medieval and early modern Christianity, the distinction between a learned, ecclesiastical level of religiosity and a broader set of lay, popular, folkloristic beliefs (as well as the study of their interchanges and conflicts) remained indispensable (Schmitt 1988; Gurevich 1988). Te historical evolution of the beliefs related to demons, spirits and witches, in particular, constitutes a field wherein this dichotomy remains one of the useful starting points of inquiry; this is what the studies collected in this volume hope to demonstrate.

wo clusters o essays (Parts I and III) present the variety o demonological concepts, respectively, in the spheres o medieval and early modern learned traditions, and in the world o modern olkloristic culture, while the central cluster (Part II) presents some meeting points o these two cultural domains. Te principal theme o the analysis is the world o spirits and demons in European culture: the world o spirits in pre-Christian cultures and in the elite and popular culture within Christendom. Te general picture that can be discerned rom the studies is that o a syncretistic pagan and Christian universe peopled by demons, protecting, escorting, harming, possessing, and healing spirits, and the figure o the ever-present Christian devil that is, in many respects, related to all the previously mentioned beings. In the religious worldview, mentalities, and religious movements o medieval and early

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modern Europe, the central role o the towering figure o Satan is wellknown (Gra 1889; Russell 1977, 1981, 1984). Te already richly documented picture o the history o the devil could, however, be complemented in these studies by several texts and images unpublished thus ar, and also by adding the presentation o the colorul universe o demons rom Central and South-Eastern Europe to European research in this field. Tis set o popular belies in spirits and demons, most vigorous perhaps in the regions where Orthodox Christianity prevails, has always been a challenge or learned, theological reflection on demonology, and certainly requires systematic scholarly scrutiny as well—a common task o the studies collected in this volume. Te studies in the first chapter on learned demonology, images o the devil draw their material rom Central and Northern Europe, two areas hitherto less explored by researchers. Teir rich documentation and new approaches provide ample material or the increasing scholarly interest in these matters. Benedek Láng presents a hitherto unknown Polish magical handbook rom the early fifeenth century. He points out, that, although the magic it contains is not explicitly demonic—so, in the strict sense o the word it is not necromantic—this handbook could still count as a typical example o its genre. Situating the contents o this codex preserved in Krakow within the broad medieval history o magical handbooks, he also attempts to find specific Polish and Central European traits in this collection o magical texts. Anna Kuznetsova deals with the conrontation o saints and saintly recluses with demons who try to divert them rom their holy enterprise with ruses. Her examples come rom Slavic orthodox Christendom: the impact, or example, o the model o the Byzantine “ools or Christ’s sake” in translations (such as the Slavic lie o Andrew the Fool) in inspiring ollowers at the Kievan Caves monastery (such as monk Isaac, whom the demons tried to seduce), or o religious writers such as John o Ephesus in spreading this spirituality. Te stories are instructive as to how demons can triumph i the saintly person—hermit, recluse, exorcist—alls prey to his pride, but they are powerless beore the „wall o bronze” o humility. Erzsébet atai analyzes the iconography o the devil in medieval Hungary. In order to situate it in a general context, she provides an

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overview o the evolution and varieties o the representation o the devil rom the Old estament to the end o the Middle Ages, rom the chaos dragons and monsters to the tiny medieval animal-shaped devils, or those who took on human shape with or without some animallike members. Te Hungarian iconographic material is extant rom the eleventh century on; the devil was depicted on rescos, panel paintings, and manuscript illuminations. Te author pulls this broad set o sources together in her analysis, characterizing each type o representation in turn. Besides devils, her analysis also extends to other “devil-like” demons and fiends. György E. Szőnyi analyzes the learned tradition o the magic arts, principally related to the Corpus hermeticum, cultivated by no lesser figures than Ficino, rithemius, Cornelius Agrippa, and Guillaume Postel. In the ootsteps o Lynn Torndike, Aby Warburg, and Frances Yates he gives an overview o the most popular magic books, such as De figura Almandel, Clavicula Solomonis, Ars Notoria Solomonis, Liber sacer , and Liber juratus o Honorius, with particular attention to the changing shapes o the devil and the varieties o demons in these writings. On the other hand, he also reveals another typical trait o these writings: the desire or deification and the drive or exaltatio, which have never ceased to be major ambitions o humankind. Te study written by Éva Szacsvay is a kind o early modern continuation o, and complement to, the essay by Erzsébet atai: she here analyzes the representation o the devil in Hungarian Protestantism. Tis subject’s interest relies on the act that we find no rescos or panel paintings in the row o devil depictions by Hungarian Lutherans and Calvinists, as is generally the case with any Protestant conession; we must thereore be satisfied with the symbolic devil-figures used or decoration. Yet, rom this type o source the author provides us with extremely rich material, consisting primarily o the painted decoration o the wooden ceilings o Protestant churches, which is virtually unknown in European research. Ulrika Wolf-Knuts provides a selection of Swedish and Finnish devil legends and a most interesting analysis o the devil as “helper” at childbirth. She clarifies the relationship o these legends to the myth o creation in the Book o Genesis, and calls our attention to the trickster eatures o medieval devil figures. As a consequence, she observes that

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the medieval devil type has a dual character, that o a trickster and culture hero at the same time, whose actual ace changes according to the various phases and contexts o the transormation o its myth into mythological stories and, subsequently, legend. Te second part o the book, entitled Exchanges between elite and Popular Concepts, gathers studies dealing with the relations o the popular universe o spirits and demons with the recording o all this in written culture and the evolution o the ecclesiastical concepts o the devil. Te essay written by Karen P. Smith approaches the world o demons, represented by dragons or by the devil taking the shape o a dragon, rom the perspective o dragon-slayer heroes; among them, she deals principally with the legends o St. Margaret o Antioch. Te olkloristic analysis o the narratives in the hagiography o St. Margaret shows several traits in common with magical belies and saintly figures associated with childbirth in European popular religion. One can also discover traits o the “divine midwie” or o goddess-like demonic creatures such as Berchta, Frau Percht and Frau Holle in her figure. Studying archival documents pertaining to Polish witch-trials, Wanda Wyporska asks hersel how judicial narratives are related to learned demonological concepts and to popular devil-belies in local olklore, which had been the soil rom which the witchcraf accusations sprang. She examines the printed source material, which mediated elite demonology: Latin treatises or Polish translations o Latin demonological writings. On this basis she can present a selection o the ideas and images o the devil prevalent in the Polish lands during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Jonas Liliequist analyzes the relationship o elite demonology and olkloristic devil concepts, also on the basis o witch-trial documents, in his case those rom Sweden. His analysis ocuses on narratives speaking o sexual contacts with the devil. He also discusses demonic figures o olk-belie, such as emale water spirits or orest nymphs. Analyzing the testimonies o the accusers and the witchcraf conessions in the trials, he traces what changes occur in these belies during the two centuries o witchcraf prosecutions in Sweden. He observes the “bestialization” o the figure o the demons, the “demonization” o olkbelie, and the gradual appearance o naturalistic and rationalistic explanations or these phenomena.

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Soili-Maria Olli also deals with the figure o the devil in Swedish witch-trials, and her inquiry is centered on the problem o the devil’s pact. Tere have been considerable changes both in the concepts o the devil in Lutheran demonology and in olkloric devil-belies, and several o these changes could be ascribed to the exchanges and intermingling o these two mythologies in the course o witchcraf prosecutions. Nonetheless, important differences persisted. According to Lutheran belie the devil is by definition nothing but evil, whereas the devil o the olk belies is closer to humans and also appears as a helper figure. In light o this difference, the concept o the devil’s pact acquires a di erent meaning in different contexts. Part III, dealing with evil magic and demons in East European and Asian olklore, provides inquiries rom a very broad geographical spectrum: along with studies on Slovenian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek and Ukrainian Jewish olklore, there is even a study on demon belies among the Mongols. Tis final essay, a kind o external confirmation, sheds light on some generally valid characteristics o the relationship o dominant (“official”) religion and popular belies in demons. As to the lively variety o all the olkloric demon figures and diabolical creatures presented in these studies, one might still add that even this sample is only a small raction o the extremely rich demon-mythology o Central and South-East European olklore. Ilana Rosen deals with Jewish olklore, based on the once-existing mystical and magical world o the Hasidic Rabbis in Carpatho-Russia (or Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia). He collected his material in Israel, rom immigrants having memories o the 1920s and ’30s. Te narratives reflect the historical changes in Hasidism, the mixed attitudes o these communities in ace o modernization, and the real lie history o the wonder-maker Rebbe in Hust. At the same time, they contain a large portion o the mystical and magical legacies o Hasidism as well. In the hagiography o the Rabbi, an episode related to a dog provides the author with a mystical and realistic interpretation, as well as with an opportunity to show the relationship o an individual protagonist and a storytelling community. Te study by Monika Kropej provides a brie overview o Slovenian olk belie: mythical beings, magic, witchcraf and healing; she also presents the world o olkloric demons. In the second part o her es-

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say she examines, on the basis o her fieldwork, the belie systems o Rosental, a Slovenian village in Carinthia. Te bulk o her material comes rom the repertoire o a 76-year-old woman healer. L’upcho S. Risteski’ s paper takes us to the world of folkloric demons in Macedonia. His central theme is provided by the ‘evil,’ ‘unclean’ dead, hostile to human communities, and the demons that issue from these monstrous dead. Te most important of these beings is the vampire. Te author’s experience confirms that the vampire beliefs—with all the paraphernalia of preventive and protective rites against them—still constitute a live and vigorous part of Macedonian folklore. Along with a systematic description of vampire beliefs and related protective rituals, the author also discusses the myths concerning other hostile dead in the Balkans: the unbaptized, the unmarried, the suicidal, the drowned, etc.

Anna Plotnikova provides a panorama o Balkan demons protecting places according to Slavic, Albanian and Greek olklore. Te variety o these beings spreads rom the genius loci; it lives in houses, especially fireplaces, protecting spirits, patronizing humans, amilies, villages, orests, lakes, sometimes bearing the traits o the “Lord o the animals.” One o their interesting eatures is that they protect their communities rom hail, as do the patrons o the sorcerers living there, bearing the same name. Te author provides a classification o these beings—appearing in the shape o ghosts, humans, animals and dragons—named stikhio, stihia, stopan or lamia. Vesna Petreska again examines an aspect o Macedonian demonology: the case o the ate-women, a type well-known all around the Balkans. Defining the ate o the newborn is the principal unction o the Greek moiras, and the related Roman parcae, those mythical beings who always come in groups o three. Te belie in their workings is still well alive in Macedonian village communities. Te author presents their roles in our day, and depicts their principal mediator and “representative,” the figure o the grandmother/midwie. In the article by Zmago Šmitek the typical demonic creatures o Slo venian olklore, the dog headed— psoglavaci—are analyzed in the context o the late antiquity Romance o Alexander the Great. Te literary and olkloristic remnant o this legend-romance can be traced through medieval and early modern Slovenia up to the present. One o the belated olkloristic episodes o the Alexander the Great cycle shows Alex-

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ander near the Great Wall in China, which is taken to be the camping place o Gog and Magog; this is analyzed by the author rom a literary and olkloric point o view. Ágnes Birtalan describes the various orms o the representation o “evil” in Mongolian olk religion, relying upon her own fieldwork. Her classificatory system reaches back to religions beore the advent o Buddhism and also explores Buddhism rom this vantage point. Te duality o non-Buddhist and Buddhist worlds o spirits and demons and the myths o origins related to certain demons provide a useul reerence point or all who strive to situate the findings o European demonology or angelology in a world-wide, cross-cultural comparative context.

Note 1 Te contents o this first volume, entitled Communicating with the Spirits (Budapest: CEU Press, 2005) have been reproduced above, beore this Introduction at pp. IX o the present volume.

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Bibliography Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1984. Rabelais and His World . ranslated by Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Bollème, Geneviève. 1971. La Bibliothèque Bleue: La littérature populaire en France du XVI e au XIX e siècle. Paris. Burke, Peter. 1978. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. London: emple Smith. Davis, Natalie Zemon. 1975. Society and Culture in Early Modern France. Stanord: Stanord University Press. Ginzburg, Carlo. 1976. Il ormaggio e i vermi. Il cosmo di un mugnaio nel ’500. urin: Einaudi. Gurevich, Aron. 1988. Medieval Popular Culture: Problems o Belie and Perception. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Kaplan, Steven L., ed. 1984. Understanding Popular Culture: Europe rom the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Berlin: Mouton. Klaniczay, Gábor. 1990. “Te Carnival Spirit. Bakhtin’s Teory on the Culture o Popular Laughter.” In idem, Te Uses o Supernatural Power. Te ransormations o Popular Religion in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Polity Press, 10–27. Le Goff, Jacques. 1977. Pour un autre Moyen Âge. emps, travail et culture en Occident: 18 essais. Paris: Gallimard. Mandrou, Robert. 1964. De la culture populaire aux 17 e et 18 e siècles. Paris. Schmitt, Jean-Claude. 1988. Religione, olklore e società nell’Occidente medievale. Bari: Laterza.

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