The damned, feared and ridiculed wolf in the Bohemian medieval society

In the Middle Ages wolves were traditionally seen as evil and demonic creatures, who had been killing farm and wild animals. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to reconstruct origins of these conceptions and their reflections in the society of Bohemian High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages. The emphasis was placed mainly on wolves in literature and on questions, why they had been hunted and seen as pests. The thesis also tries to cover, how the wolves' reputation was reflected in the chosen material sources, namely in heraldry of Bohemian nobility and towns and in Prague house insignia. Extensive range of sources had to be processed to accomplish the goals of this thesis such as historiographic narrative sources, medieval encyclopaedias, pragmatic documents as well as material sources, which included mainly seals and coats of arms. The thesis would like to contribute to broadening the knowledge of more complex topic of animals in Bohemian Middle Ages. Key words: wolves, animals, Middle Ages, material sources, heraldry, seals, house insigni