"Népmese" és mondahagyomány : A János vitéz lehetséges mondai forrásai

Magyar, Zoltán (2023) "Népmese" és mondahagyomány : A János vitéz lehetséges mondai forrásai. IRODALOMTÖRTÉNETI KÖZLEMÉNYEK, 127 (5). pp. 559-579. ISSN 0021-1486

Preview

Text magyar.pdf Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike. Download (264kB) | Preview

Abstract

Petőfi’s work John the Valiant has received a large number of inter- pretations. Some of them are folkloristic, due to the fact that the author con- sciously incorporated various folklore motifs into his narrative poem, as indi- cated by the poem’s subtitle (folktale). However, while previous studies mainly highlighted the folk tale and popular poetry aspects of the poem, the authors paid almost no attention to the large number of legend motifs in the work, or their folk poetry analogies. This paper analyses the aspects of legend found in John the Valiant in light of historical sources and intensive legend collections over the last two or three decades. The author of the study seeks to show that the legend motifs in John the Valiant (the hero’s unknown origin; defeating the forest robbers; dog- headed Tatars; the star falling from the sky as a sign of death; Darius’ treasure; bag of gold; girl-kidnapping Turks and rescuing the abducted girl; splitting in two the enemy warrior with a single blow; field of blood; mountain rising from corpses; hero with supernatural strength; stone-eating giants; giant who helps people; graveyard ghosts; dragon slaying in an inventive way; Fairyland; golden hair of blonde fairy girls, etc.) are deeply embedded in the Hungarian epic tradition. Furthermore, the legend motifs’ geographic dispersion is analysed, and whether the poet knew the legends or at least could have known them. This paper also indicates that, while active folk poetry of the mid-19th century was a clear source for Petőfi’s poem, a reverse process can also be observed after the publication of the work (1845), in which some parts of it were folklorised and returned to the peasant oral tradition.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item