Sarmata i demony. Obraz demonologii ludowej w polskiej literaturze przedromantycznej
Sarmatian and Demons. A Picture of Folk Demonology in Polish Pre-Romantic Literature

Summary/Abstract: The picture of folk beliefs in Slavonic national literatures varies in different epochs both in its source and in its function in the structure of writing. In the paper author considers the names of demonological figures and religious motifs associated with them present in Old-Polish and Enlightenment literature. The demonological thread is characterised in a number of ways: as a matter of demon’s appearance – ugliness, old age, black colour; in attitude to humans – frightening, doing harm, deceiving, and finally in the matter of demon’s location – its presence in the domain of nature, far from human “tamed” space. As far as human attitude to demons is concerned, what makes it typical is anxiety, fear, terror, and a crave for defense against them with religious and magic measures. The author concludes that the use of demonic names in the texts written in the epochs in question is of a cognitive value mainly within the limits of folk images, while in satire of manners and in political or religious polemics they often have ideological function.

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