Adél Edelényi

Knights of Templar as ambivalent heroes in the European folk-tradition  

(Local and migrant motives in the legends of the Templars)

2002. 

 

Theme of a PhD dissertation

 

1. The objective of the thesis and the definition of the topic

Although the recording and the processing of epic traditions connected to heroes of the history have a two century old ethnographical science history,  they have been neglected in the past few decades in comparison with other genres of legends. As a result, many types and type groups can be hardly or can not be at all reconstructed on the base of present records and collections available.

No analysis at all and hardly any records have been made about the well known legends of Europe that are still penetrating by manifold motives of Knight Templar Orders` (in Hungarian linguistic area known as red monk and in German linguistic area as Rote Pfaffe) history. Supposedly, this  legend had been one of the most prevalent one in our country towards the end of the 19^th century as evidenced by records of oral tradition, archaeological and archival documents as well as by historical sources.

Although attempts to draw attention to the prevalence and the popularity of the templar legend were drawn earlier in many cases (by Hungarians such as Frigyes Pesty, Alajos Mednyánszky, Arnold Ipolyi, Ferenc Patek, Ilona Dobos and by Germans such as Matthias Zender, Nikolaus Gredt, Paul Zaunert, Richard Kühnau, Will-Erich Peuckert, Leander Petzold, etc.), all of them have been left untouched so far.

This work intends to contribute to the collection and processing of historical legends of the past years. Exploring the legend of the Templars is considered to be a white spot within this genre despite the fact that certain variations of the legend have been recorded since the beginning of the 19^th century. The thesis will prove – with the help of processing and analysing of this cycle - that the legend is prevalent throughout Europe, absorbing a number of local and migrant motives in particular regions.

 

2. Methods of the research

In the course of my work I have primarily attempted to find relationship between Templar legends and historic reality, explore the reasons they are assessed in an ambivalent manner in past and present tradition, the European areas where such legends were the most popular, and motives that are generally known (migrant motives) and locally known (ethnic specifics).

I have categorised those legends into a group associated to red monks, where the main characters red monks or templars, or in which abduction (of women) occurs and it is associated with monks, monk-priests, priests, witch-priests and knights, croises, commendatories or other orders in general.

As the most fragmented cycle in Europe is related to the Knights of Templar within the tradition of legend associated with historic heroes, the small number of typical sujets can be reconstructed from sets of fragments collected from the worlds’ 25 states with regard to present borders, which, by concatenating in various manner, create a type group or cycle of legends.

Collecting and systemising oral and written (manuscript and printed) variants of the templar legend have been a research work of many years. The basic material for the thesis include the results of my field research in northern Trans-Danubia between 1998-2001, records of the Johannes Künzig-Institut für Ostdeutsche Volkskunde (Freiburg im Breisgau), the Database for Ethnography, the Hungarian Historic Archive of Legends, relevant materials of ethnographic databases of several county museums, monographs published in the 18^th-19^th centuries in various countries, descriptions in folk poetry, trashy novels, literary works which refer to red monks, educational films and relevant information from the Internet.

The structure of the thesis is divided into two parts; their contents are in close relationship. The first (descriptive) part describes the regions of Europe where versions of the templar legend are penetrated, while the second (structural-analytic) part presents the spread of the motives of the legend. As I deal with a historic legend, I began my thesis with the brief presentation of the history of the Order of Knights Templar to support the understanding of the analytical part and comparing to traditional materials. In the concluding part, this work summarises aspects of space and time manifested in type groups, the variation of characters, and certain issues of traditional penetration, in addition to issues of the genre and systemisation, primarily based on versions in proprietary collection but with regard to experiences of information and analysis of the entire material.

The thesis, with the unity of the descriptive and structural-analytic parts, presents relationship of the local motives for the cycle of legend by settlement and geographic penetration of motive groups, highlighting local and regional aspects. I have taken motive (as the internationally most recognised category) as the smallest content elements of legends when processing and systematising texts, breaking down each and every narrative to the smallest detail.

The descriptive part presents the geographically diverse topic firstly by countries they originate from and then next by the areas and by the settlements within each country. Whenever I presented a settlement in the structural-analytic part, I also indicated the area they belong to. As the size of the area where the legends originate from is large, there are maps attached to each chapter to help identifying the towns. With the help of the maps attached to the analytic part, each motives can be found easily as well as the spread of the migrate motives can be followed. From the descriptive part it can be seen clearly that this type of legend still exist in most parts of Europe, so does in the major part of the Hungarian linguistic area. There are of course staple parts, where it has been kept more intensively then in anywhere else; in Hungary such as in the Nyírség, in the Hegyalja, in the Bodva valley, in the Pilis and in Sokoróalja and in German linguistic areas such as in Silesia, Lotharingia, Limburg, in the Rhineland and in the area of the Eifel mountain. Most of these are border areas, especially in the Western part of Europe.

 

3. Results

While processing and analysing the templar legend I have managed to reveal the general features that appear in the legend together with other features that had been unrevealed before in folklore research. These are the followings:

 

I. The judgement of templars is ambivalent in  folk-tradition

The thesis discusses in separated chapters the motives referring to the positive, negative or indifferent acts of the templar knights. These parts prove how typical the ambivalent judgement of the templars is all over Europe. A kind of occult-mystical approach has penetrated into the real story of the templar nights by imaginations about the Mercy-seat, the Holy-Grail or the Torino winding-sheet from past centuries up to now. It is worth to mention that this approach was not at all accepted by those peasants who gained knowledge mainly from oral tradition and read no informative books at all. These people were rather open to profane stories of knights whose lives did not beseem monks’.

Matthias Zender have noticed the same, though not in great details: while the educated class accepted the templar legends as accurate stories in connection with the Order of Knights, less educated people believed that templars were robber barons. Only a couple of templar story exist in German and French linguistic areas, where these stories are really about the order itself and where the templars are positive heroes. In most cases the word “temple” is only a descriptive adjective of the robber barons. It can be seen clearly on the map attached that although the judgement of templars by the folk is mainly negative, there are examples of positive and indifferent acts of templars as well. Stories with positive heroes seem to appear in regions where the orders owned houses or lands.

 

II. The templar legends are built on local motives and are typical migrant legends

 

Altought historical legends are usually geographically located, in some versions migrant motives can be discovered. A migrant legend can be usually found in a large geographical area and its versions (within the certain types) are interconnected. Templar legends bear the typical characters of a migrant legend, concerning that the three typical sujets (types) of stories about knights of templars can be reconstructed from the migrant motives. The maps attached show the spread and the way of dispersion of the legends in Europe.

Supposedly, mainly the settling influenced or determined the migration of the templar legends in our case. For instance not only many settlers from the Rhineland, but also mainly Catholics from other parts of the German Empire, such as from provinces of Austria, Bavaria, Württemberg, Alsace-Lorraine or even from Silesia moved to the Hungarian Kingdom in the 18th century.  The fact that the collections of templar legends come exactly from these German linguistic areas, obviously proves the above. In addition to it, most people settled down exactly in those regions of Hungary, where major part of the templar legends’ collection originate from, such as in the borderland of West-Trans-Danubia, regions of the Trans-Danubian Mountains and the area of the today’s county of  Pest and Somogy.

The times of settling point out an important fact: the settlers joint the history of the Hungarian reality exactly when Joseph II. cast away the monks from their monasteries and dissoluted the Monasteries. The legends regained their actuality or penetrated into the folk-tradition possibly around this time, because settlers from the Rhineland realising the happenings in Hungary, drew a parallel between  the motives of templar legends that had been known by them earlier and their self-experience they gained in Hungary. According to the Hungarian legends, this is likely to be the reason of Joseph II. playing a main part in dissoluting the monasteries. Although the Hungarian and the West-European versions differ in several points, there are still many analogies between them (treasure, tunnel, ghosts, downgrading, robber barons, abduction of women and killing monks).

 

III. Templar-legends alloy the sub-genres of legends’ characters

 

Further feature of the templar legends is that they belong to the group of historical legends, from one hand because of the same main characters playing in them (in this meaning they are heroic legends) and from the other hand because the story-tellers themselves believe that they are based on true historical facts. In most cases these historical legends are combined with beliefs and similarly to others one of their main sources is the folk belief. The connection in this way is the strongest between the historical- and the belief-legends. Especially the thematic “sin and propitiation” group of legends are the closest to the belief-legends, but the same applies to the treasure-legends as well. The templar-legends have many features that connect them to the belief-legends (underground tunnel, hidden treasure, breaking the ban and punishment) or to the origin-legends (formation of villages, explanation of names of villages and towns). This type is only connected through the main characters (red monks/templars).

There is a difficulty of systematising the templar legends just like in case of the historic legends, as they could belong to almost all sub-groups (establishing-legends, legends about wars and heroes, “sin and propitiation”  legends) established by Ilona Dobos, as well as to other sub-groups of legends. Some versions belong to legends connected to certain locations and some to the war and catastrophe category. Ilona Dobos believes that red monks belong to the heroes, Ildikó Landgraf that to the “sin and propitiation”  and Zoltán Magyar that to the origin-legends’ category. There are even more sub-types listed in the Catalogue of the Hungarian Belief-Legends that show similarity to templar-legends.

 

IV. Templar-legend is a legend-cycle where the elements of three types contaminate

 

It is very difficult to classify the templar legends with the help of those catalogues that have been issued so far. Too many significantly different sujets emerge from the versions and the stories are connected by the protagonists. So, the best is to use the definition “legend-cycle” in the case of templar-legends as this genre-category - according to Ilona Dobos - is the following: legend-cycles are those kinds of legends that are connected to one or more persons and have both national and special motives. They could therefore be also classified as historical-legends because of the  protagonists connecting them.

There are three distinctive types of the European versions of templar-legends. One of them is built on real events of history (heroic defenders of castles), and two of them refer to the survival of  the accuses of the trial (abductors and robber barons).

 

       The sujet of the 1^st type - ROBBER BARONS

1.            The templars raid and threaten those living nearby.

2.            They can not be caught because their horses’ horseshoes are fixed backward.

3.            Someone discovers the trick, but the templars obligate him/her to swear to not telling the secret to anyone.

4.            The person reveals the secret by  the approach “Stone, you are the only one I tell it to”.

5.            The castle of the templars is forced and the templars get killed.

 

The sujet of the 2^nd type – HEROIC CASTLE DEFENDERS

1.            The enemy forces the castle of the templars.

2.            The knights do not let themselves to overcome by superior numbers.

3.            The enemy is able to capture the castle only by a trick/treason.

4.            The templars get slaughtered.

5.            One knight survives the fight.

 

The sujet of the 3^rd type – ABDUCTORS

1.            The daughter of a king disappears, being searched for years.

2.            A beggar falls asleep and gets locked in a church .

3.            He gets a sight of a girl as she is being taken for a walk by the red monks.

4.            The following day he reports to the king what he saw.

5.            The king makes his soldiers either destroy the castle of the red monks or kill them.

 

The elements of the three type usually vary within a version as well as motives of the belief-legends are added to them. For example, heroic castle defenders are sometimes originally robber barons, monks abduct not only women but also foray travellers, and finally it turns out that the soul of the supposedly innocently burned knight was actually taken by devils etc. Sin and propitiation, trick and treason appear in the legends as well as raid/attack and slaughtering in all the three types. Both the type of the Heroic Castle Defenders and the type of Women Abductors may contaminate with origin/place-name explanation motives like in the versions of Léka (Halálmező), Nyírbátor (Szentvér Street) and Tarcal (Vérvölgy). The charts attached to the thesis show the connections between the three types.

 

V. The three typical types appear in certain European regions as ethnic specificity

 

Two types of the above three, the Heroic Castle Defenders and the Robber Barons are spread mainly in the Rhineland. The sub-type of the latter is the Anti-Devil Alliance and it comes from Vestfaly, Bavaria and Lotharingia. While the Heroic Castle Defender type is a German ethnic specific, the Robber Barons type shows a mixture, as some versions of it can be found in the Carpathian-Basin as well. The Women Abductor type is most typical in the Carpathian-Basin and with the exception of one Belgian legend, it is a Hungarian specific.

The sujets observed show that the versions going from East to West in the Carpathian-Basin are less and less complete aesthetically. In the Trans-Danube and especially in its Western part belief-elements and experience stories are added to them. Going in time from the sixties to nowadays, attrition of aesthetic and completeness can be observed. The characters and the sujets change to certain degree from one region to another. Observing each parts of a sujet, while in the eastern region the typical motives appear in almost every case (bagger and sword motive), in the western region first their gradual attrition, finally their full extinction can be observed. Moving geographically another motives are added to the legends. In the western region the significant attrition and the addition of belief-elements are generally typical (treasure, tunnel).

In spite of the above differences, the versions can be classified as one type (Abductors of Women). They have the archetype that is typical of the Carpathian-Basin and different from the versions of Western-Europe (Robber Barons and Heroic Castle Defenders). Only the versions of Léka in Burgenland and Pöstyén in Felföld show relationship with  the Western-European ones; also, it should not be forgotten that both of them were recorded and published first by Alajos Mednyánszky in German. However, there is a mentioning of woman abduction in the version of Willersdorf in Burgenland (next to Felsőlövő). In Austria’s Westerns regions the robber barons’ legends dominate. Similarly, the same elements appear also in the region of the Trans-Danube. Supposedly, it implicates the fact that these two regions’ tradition  combined the culture of Western-Europe and the Carpathian-Basin and as a result these two regions  became transit regions between East and West.

 

VI. Manifestation of legends’ features - from the aspect of space and time  - is a feature of templar legends

 

One of the main features of the historical legends is that their message is based on fixed time and space as well as on well-known persons. There are sometimes personal manifestations in them as well. The data of this thesis are based on a variation ranging from simple to complex (supposedly mainly stylised) facts. Legend formations according both to their genres and structure are very different and most of them are confined to connect only a few motives. While in most of them there is hardly any time specification, scene specifications are a bit more frequent. While scene specifications refer to localisation in most cases (however, the remaining connected motives suggest mutual historical experience), time specifications are connected to well known historical eras. Like in cases of other legends, the practice of fixation adopted the original legends with new sites, characters and sometimes with new stories.

Place specification in templar legends means the determination of place where red monks stay; the place, where their victims go to confess, are caught and held captive. The scene with some exception is usually a castle or a monastery, sometimes a mountain, cave or a tunnel. It is typical that the castle of the red monks is situated besides the next village or town. As these legends have a negative meaning, people prefer these stories not to be in connection with their own village or town (the table attached to the thesis shows this fact).

Dating the events has a wide range in the versions of templar-legends: ranging from the time of St. Stephan to the rule of Joseph Franz. As a result of generations’ alternation, exact time specification is less important. The theme of a legend is usually played deep in the past or at the end of the 19^th or beginning the 20^th century. In the case of the Mongol invasion it falls to the real time of happening or to those dime novels, calendars or probably daily papers’ supposed issue date that renewed these legends.

Although the characters and the scenes of the legends about red monks in case of the local legends are constant, for the determination of time of the actions more versions can be found, even within one settlement. Managing time specification is typical in these legends as well, as  the stories are connected to the heroes and to the events and not to the time. Most legends are about the time of Joseph II., Joseph Franz or the occupation of the Turkish or the Mongols. Its reason could be that the history taught in schools influences the formation of the legends. The story tellers drew a parallel between those historical times they had been taught earlier (for example the time of Joseph II., Joseph Franz, Béla IV. or St. Stephan, as well as the time of the Turkish occupation or world wars or wars of independence) and the story of a legend when they tell them. So, the narration have the basic typical character of actualising or connecting the similar motives of  different characters, eras or events.

 

VII. The standardisation of legends can be followed in the templar-legend versions

 

The heroes of the legends have fantastic characteristics, outstanding abilities or emerge by their unusual action from the average. The heroes of the legends are real persons, who are participants, active players or victims of an important event. The existing characters, acts, gossips or information about them form a motive in the human thinking. The teller of a legend inserts the mosaic of reality known by him/her into the ideal picture. So the historical legend is going to make the historical characters and the story befit to one legend type. Tekla Dömötör called the process of making the actual historical person became a hero and an event become a legend as standardisation. Meanwhile the story-teller forms an extreme value judgement about the hero. Historical legends statue such a positive person that represent the ideal, imagined by the average people.

Our legends make an exception from this aspect, as the ethical message is dominant: the hero who is living different life than the average, fails at the end.

Besides the content of the story, the main organising element of historical legends is the figure of the hero, who is usually in the centre of the story. In the Carpathian-Basin version of templar legends minor characters play an important part as well. The reason is that the dénouement of the story is inducted by the abduction of the king’s daughter and usually the tragic end involves the contribution of the daughter’s father. Red monks can be considered as the permanent main characters, who are occasionally replaced by Mongols, Turkish or the outlaws – in such cases the sujet decides which legend type it belongs to -, here the ancient practice of fixing adopted the original versions to the new heroes.

The tables of this theses show the phenomenon that the legend relates to a well known historical person or to a local landlord. The storytellers most often mention Joseph II.: his order of dissoluting the ruling monk orders might have a role. His name usually appears at places where there used to be a Barnabite cloister or abbey nearby or in the settlement itself. Mentioning Caesar Joseph or Franz Joseph most probably originates in the similarity of the names. Béla IV. appears in the legends where there is already a colourful tradition about his figure already. The case of Báthoris is also similar, they either really played a role in the lives of the given settlements, or had lands there. Other kings and caesar appear randomly: in Vág valley the legends connect to King Louis the Great, others mention King Charles, Caesar Lipót, Rudolph, St. Ladislas, King Coloman the Beauclerc and Sámuel Aba. Many places only say that a high ranked person (caesar, king, general, regent, sovereign) dissoluted the order. Names of local earls and barons are also mentioned.

Regarding the woman abducted, there is also a great variety about the person. On one hand the legends are about the already mentioned daughters of the kings, on the other hands girls, beautiful girls, ladies, women and wenches are also mentioned. The daughter of the king, princess, baroness, daughters of local earls and barons, less often wives, sisters are present, too. Other characteristic supernumeraries are soldiers and beggarmen, in Western-European legends the betrayer. In certain versions there are other roles, but the above listed are the most general ones.

The manifestation about the characteristics of the red monks indicate the basic functions of the legend. The story teller judges the behaviour of the monks: they call the attention to the incorrect (e.g. robbery, toll taking, oppression of the poor, revelry, abduction, abuse, torturing victims, homicide) and to the positive (e.g. protection, education, curing children, preparing herbal drinks, establishing villages) acts as well. The behaviour-ruling and normative functions of the legend are enforced this way, from our point of view.

 

The outlined connections clearly demonstrate that the templar legend does bear the characteristics of the general legends, while having numerous new elements and features, too. By disclosing these, it provides new, so far unrevealed and useful information for the legend investigations. In total, this work proves that the subtle connections and differences of these legends with their varieties and distribution are the intellectual heritage of the European ethnic groups.

 

 

 

 

Oldal: PhD dissertation - Knights of Templar as ambivalent heroes in the European folk-tradition
*** Dr. VEHRER ADÉL néprajzkutató *** GENERÁCIÓK-NÉPI KULTÚRA-HAGYOMÁNYOZÁS - © 2008 - 2024 - vehreradel.hupont.hu

Az ingyenes honlapkészítés azt jelenti, hogy Ön készíti el a honlapját! Ingyen adjunk: Ingyen Honlap!

ÁSZF | Adatvédelmi Nyilatkozat