This thesis represents a new 'tool' for a special hermeneutic of Mircea Eliade's writings. Its function is to analyse his fiction with the help of his academic studies, and it attempts to prove the influence of the latter upon the former. Although theoretical studies on this subject have been published, no real endeavour to prove this influence has been done. In a way, this thesis is a response to an academic need. On the other hand, the entire oeuvre of Eliade constitutes not only a vast field of research in itself, but an 'opener' of original paths and theories. This leads to the need to bring into play new terms (e.g. 'personal hierophanies', 'chronophanies', 'diastimophanies' etc.), new concepts (e.g. the quadrifold structure of the labyrinth: psychological, philosophical, metaphysical and mythical), theories (e.g. on the evolution of the symbolic language, on the linear or circular structure of the labyrinth) and parallels (e.g. between the myths of Orpheus and Dionysus; between the works of Nae lonescu and Mircea Eliade). During the whole thesis, our main aim was to preserve a balance between the scholarly writings of Eliade and his fiction. This accounts for ou'f' undertaking to keep critical references to the minimum. It is QU r hope that the present thesis proves that the dichotomy of the Eliadean oeuvre is only an apparent one, and his academic works put their imprint on his literary creations