Apokalyptische landschaften

Abstract

The author points out that a relatively low presence of eschatological myths in the preserved ethnographic cultures tradition is compensated by a great number of diffused fragments containing ideas about the end of the World. This kind of reflection does not appear marginally in folk culture; rather it infiltrates this culture as an etiologic narrative shadow. Drawing on folk tradition, the author brings out texts of apocryphal apocalypses and epigraphic predictions from the famous ,,Sybille prophecy" to highly popular apocryphal versions of the revelation in Fatima. Their interpretation leads him to a conclusion that fear of the end of the World undoubtedly has a beneficial social effect: it makes people aware of borders that when crossed bring punishment.