Games with a wild man

According to legend, the “wild man” is an anthropomorphic creature occupying an intermediate position between humans and animals, an inhabitant of the “wild periphery” of the civilized world. In different traditions, the presentations of this figure can vary greatly, and the religious-magical practices associated with him also differ: on the one hand, theatrical ceremonies in Western Europe (folk games, urban carnivals, spectacles, and masquerades); on the other hand, the veneration of relics and remains of the “wild man” and their use for healing (magical, medical) purposes in Central and East Asia. It is possible that behind all this lie similar ideas about the supernatural qualities of this character. Apotropaic and productive magic likely also underlies the ritualized games dedicated to the “wild man,” whether they still preserve their original connection with folk rites of the spring rebirth of nature, or are purely entertaining or ceremonial in nature. Their main scenarios include: (1) hunting the “wild man,” bringing him into the village, and killing him; (2) the “wild man” invading a human settlement, ending with his expulsion or death; (3) a battle between two groups of “wild people.” Such performances were extremely widespread not only in rural but also in urban European culture of the 14th – 16th centuries (including the aristocracy), and in the folklore of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain they persisted until relatively recently. The almost complete absence of such “games” outside Western Europe suggests that the figure of the “wild man” was not genetically directly related to them, and that his incorporation into the plot and ritual contexts of these traditions likely occurred as a result of the association of the “wild man” with certain figures from local folk mythology. For this to happen, however, he must already have possessed, in his “original” version, certain traits linking him to spirits of the wild and enabling him to assume such roles.

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