The simiots of Catalan folklore: neither are reminiscences so old, nor are they so strange beings

The simiot is a creature in the Catalan Pyrenean mythology. The term can be translated as 'a kind of ape' or 'similar to an ape'. According to a medieval legend, around the tenth century, these wild beasts terrorized Arles, a Catalan village in the Vallespir region. Up until now,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Ardanuy, Jordi
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/185255
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/185255
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Folklore
Història local
Història medieval
Local history
Medieval history
Descripción
Sumario:The simiot is a creature in the Catalan Pyrenean mythology. The term can be translated as 'a kind of ape' or 'similar to an ape'. According to a medieval legend, around the tenth century, these wild beasts terrorized Arles, a Catalan village in the Vallespir region. Up until now, the number of scholarly studies dealing in depth with these beings is very small. Books and papers by several twentieth-century folklorists, such as Joan Amades, have not contributed to clarifying their origin. By and large, authors propose that simiots are remnants of an ancient and pagan religion, perhaps linked to canid cults or forest deities. However, considering their probable etymology, their origin can be traced to the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries.