Hungarian literature is the body of written works primarily produced in
Hungarian,
[''Hungarian literature'']
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2012 edition and may also include works written in other languages (mostly Latin), either produced by Hungarians or having topics which are closely related to
Hungarian culture. While it was less known in the
English-speaking world
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest languag ...
for centuries, Hungary's literature gained renown
[
Lóránt Czigány]
''A History of Hungarian Literature: from the earliest times to the mid-1970s''
Clarendon Press, 1984 in the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks to a new wave of internationally accessible writers like
Mór Jókai,
Antal Szerb
Antal Szerb (1 May 1901, Budapest – 27 January 1945, Balf) was a noted Hungarian scholar and writer. He is generally considered to be one of the major Hungarian writers of the 20th century.
Life and career
Szerb was born in 1901 to assimilate ...
,
Sándor Márai,
Imre Kertész and
Magda Szabó.
Earliest writings in 10–14th century
The beginning of the history of Hungarian language as such (the proto-Hungarian period) is set at 1000 BC, when — according to current scientific understanding — the language had become differentiated from its closest relatives, the
Ob-Ugric languages. No written evidence remains of the earliest Hungarian literature, but through
folktale
A folktale or folk tale is a folklore genre that typically consists of a story passed down from generation to generation orally.
Folktale may also refer to:
Categories of stories
* Folkloric tale from oral tradition
* Fable (written form of the a ...
s and
folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...
s, elements have survived that can be traced back to pagan times. Also extant, although only in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
and dating from between the 11th and 14th centuries, are shortened versions of some Hungarian legends relating the origins of the Hungarian people and episodes from the conquest of Hungary and from campaigns of the 10th century.
In earliest times the Hungarian language was written in a
runic-like script, although it was not used for literary purposes in the modern sense. The country switched to the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...
after being Christianized under the reign of
Stephen I (1000–1038). There are no existing documents from the pre-11th century era. The Old Hungarian period is reckoned from 896 CE, when Hungarians conquered the
Carpathian Basin, settled down and started to build their own state. Creation of the first extant written records followed soon after. The oldest written record in Hungarian is a fragment in the
Establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany (1055) which contains several Hungarian terms, among them the words ''feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea,'' ("up the military road to
Fehérvár," referring to the place where the abbey was built). This text is probably to be read as ''Fehérü váru reá meneü hodu utu reá'' with today's spelling, and it would read as ''a Fehérvárra menő had
útra'' in today's Hungarian. The rest of the document was written in Latin.
The oldest complete, continuous text in Hungarian is
''Halotti beszéd és könyörgés'', a short funeral oration written in about 1192–1195, moving in its simplicity.
The oldest poem is ''Ómagyar Mária-siralom'' (the
Lamentations of Mary
The Old Hungarian ''Lamentations of Mary'' (OHLM) () is the oldest existing Hungarian poem. It was copied in c. 1300 into a Latin codex, similarly to the first coherent Hungarian text, the '' Halotti beszéd'' (''Funeral Oration''), which was wri ...
), a free translation from Latin of a poem by
Godefroy de Breteuil.
It is also the oldest surviving
Uralic
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian lan ...
poem. Both the funeral sermon and the Lamentations are hard to read and not quite comprehensible for modern-day Hungarians, mostly because the 26-letter Latin alphabet was not sufficient to represent all the sounds in Hungarian before
diacritic marks and double letters were added.
During the Middle Ages and well into the Renaissance, the language of writing was mostly Latin. Important documents include the ''
Admonitions of St. Stephen,'' which includes the king's admonitions to his son
Prince Imre.
Among the first chronicles about Hungarian history were
Gesta Hungarorum ("Deeds of the Hungarians"), by an unknown author, and
Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum ("Deeds of the Huns and the Hungarians") by Simon Kézai. Both are in Latin. These chronicles mix history with legends, so historically they are not always authentic. Another chronicle is the ''
Chronicon Pictum
The ''Chronicon Pictum'' ( Latin for "illustrated chronicle", English: ''Illuminated Chronicle'' or ''Vienna Illuminated Chronicle'', hu, Képes Krónika, sk, Obrázková kronika, german: Illustrierte Chronik, also referred to as ''Chronica Hun ...
'' (Illustrated Chronicle), which was written for
Louis the Great.
Further,
Rogerius Rogerius can refer to the following things:
It is the Latin form of the given name Roger, and was the name of several medieval figures.
*Rogerius (physician) (also called Rogerius Salernitanus, Roger Frugard, Roger Frugardi, Roggerio Frugardo, and ...
's 13th-century work was published with
János Thuróczy's chronicle in the late 15th century. In
Split (now a part of
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capi ...
)
Thomas of Spalato wrote on local history, with much information on Hungary in the 13th century. At that time
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, str ...
and the city of Split were part of the
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coronation of the Hungarian monarch, c ...
.
Renaissance and Baroque 15-17th century
The 15th century saw the first translations from the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
. Two
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the A ...
n preachers, Thomas and Valentine, followers of the
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
n religious reformer
Jan Hus
Jan Hus (; ; 1370 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the insp ...
, were responsible for this work, of which the prophetic books, the Psalms, and the Gospels have survived. A great part of the vocabulary created for the purpose is still in use.
Renaissance literature flourished under the reign of
King Matthias (1458–1490).
Janus Pannonius, although he wrote in Latin, counts as one of the most important persons in Hungarian literature, being the only significant Hungarian humanist poet of the period. The first printing house was also founded during Matthias's reign, by
András Hess
András Hess set up a printing press in Buda in 1472.
He printed the first book in Hungary on 5 June 1473 in his Buda press. Hess was probably of German origin. He dedicated the book, the Chronica Hungarorum or Buda Chronicle ( hu, Budai Krónika) ...
, in
Buda
Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
. The first book printed in Hungary was the ''Chronica Hungarorum''.
In 1526 most of Hungary fell under
Ottoman occupation, from which date the beginning of the Middle Hungarian period is set, in connection with various cultural changes. The most important poets of the period were
Bálint Balassi (1554–1594),
Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos (c. 1510–1556) and
Miklós Zrínyi (1620–1664). Balassi's poetry shows Mediaeval influences. His poems can be divided into three thematic categories: love poems, war poems and religious poems. Zrínyi's most significant work, ''Szigeti veszedelem'' ("
Peril of Sziget", 1648/49) is an epic written in the style of the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Ody ...
'', and recounts the heroic
Battle of Szigetvár
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
, where his great-grandfather died while defending the castle of Szigetvár.
Translation of Roman authors produced also some works:
János Baranyai Decsi translated
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust (; 86 – ), was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became during the 50s BC a partisa ...
's
''Catalina'' and
Jughurta's war in the late 16th century. A decade later appeared the translation of
Curtius Rufus
Curtius Rufus () was a Roman professional magistrate of senatorial rank mentioned by Tacitus and Pliny the Younger for life events occurring during the reigns of the emperors Tiberius and Claudius. In all probability, he is to be equated with ...
's life of
Alexander in
Debrecen
Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and ...
.
Historical works were even more numerous: the chronicle of
Gáspár Heltai
Gáspár Heltai (born as Kaspar Helth) (''c''. 1490–1574) was a Transylvanian Saxon writer and printer. His name possibly derives from the village Heltau ( hu, Nagydisznód, today Cisnădie, Romania). Despite being a German native speaker h ...
, published by him in
Kolozsvár;
Zay Ferenc's unpublished work on the siege of
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...
from the 15th century;
Kemény János's Transylvanian Dukes, and
Miklós Bethlen's memoirs with
János Szalárdy's voluminous then-unpublished work on Transylvanian history from Bethlen's reign to the 1660s; and
Mihály Cserei's early 18th-century work are highlights of Hungarian-language literature. Another category is historical verses in Hungarian, like that of
Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos from the 16th century,
Péter Ilosvai Selymes,
Mihály Szabatkai and
Gergely Bornemissza.
Latin works in the period are more numerous.
István Szamosközy,
János Baranyai Decsi,
Miklós Istvánffy,
János Bethlen, and
Farkas Bethlen
Farkas Bethlen de Bethlen (1639 – 30 December 1679)Markó 2006, p. 100. was a Hungarian noble and chronicler in the Principality of Transylvania, who served as Chancellor of Transylvania from 1678 to 1679.
Life
Farkas was the son of Fer ...
,
Ferenc Forgách,
György Szerémi,
Ambrus Somogyi,
Gianmichele Bruto and
Oláh Miklós are the most important authors of historical works from the 16th to 17th century. In German
Georg Kraus and
Georg Zeiler wrote on Transylvanian history. In Spanish one may read
Bernardo de Aldana's apology for the 1552 loss of the castle of
Lippa to the Turks.
Among
religious literary works the most important is the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
translation by
Gáspár Károli
Gáspár is a Hungarian masculine given name, equivalent to English Jasper, and may refer to:
*Gáspár Bekes (1520–1579), Hungarian nobleman
* Gáspár Boldizsár (fl. 1990s), Hungarian sprint canoer
* Gáspár Borbás (1884–1976), Hungarian ...
, the
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
pastor of
Gönc, in 1590. The translation is called the ''Bible of Vizsoly'', after the town where it was first published. Another important religious work is the ''
Legend of Saint Margaret
The Legend of Saint Margaret ( hu, Szent Margit legendája) is an important piece of Mediaeval Hungarian literature. The only specimen of the text was preserved in the Margaret Codex, copied by Lea Ráskay in 1510. The legend tells the life and de ...
'', copied by
Lea Ráskai around 1510 from an earlier work that did not survive.
Enlightenment and the language reform
The Hungarian enlightenment arrived, via
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, about fifty years after the Western European enlightenment. The first Enlightenment writers were
Maria Theresia's bodyguards (
György Bessenyei,
János Batsányi and so on). The greatest poets of the time were
Mihály Csokonai Vitéz and
Dániel Berzsenyi.
The most prominent figure of Hungarian language reform was
Ferenc Kazinczy
Ferenc Kazinczy (in older English: Francis Kazinczy, October 27, 1759 – August 23, 1831) was a Hungarian author, poet, translator, neologist, an agent in the regeneration of the Hungarian language and literature at the turn of the 19th centu ...
, who helped make the
Hungarian language
Hungarian () is an Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hungar ...
feasible for scientific explanations; furthermore, a lot of new words were coined for describing new inventions (for example, ''mozdony'', which means 'locomotive.' Previously the
loan word ''lokomotív'' had been used.)
Gallery
File:Endre Ady.jpg, Endre Ady
Endre Ady (Hungarian: ''diósadi Ady András Endre,'' archaic English: Andrew Ady, 22 November 1877 – 27 January 1919) was a turn-of-the-century Hungarian poet and journalist. Regarded by many as the greatest Hungarian poet of the 20th century ...
File:Barabas-arany.jpg, János Arany
File:Rippl-babits.jpg, Mihály Babits
Mihály Babits (; 26 November 1883 – 4 August 1941) was a Hungarian poet, writer and translator. His poems are well known for their intense religious themes. His novels such as “The Children of Death” (1927) explore psychological pro ...
File:Balassi Bálint költő.jpg, Bálint Balassi
File:Donát Berzsenyi.jpg, Dániel Berzsenyi
File:Csokonai portre.jpg, Mihály Csokonai Vitéz
File:Barabas-eotvos.jpg, József Eötvös
File:Geza gardonyi.jpg, Géza Gárdonyi
File:Mor Jokai.jpg, Mór Jókai
File:Kaffka Margit.jpg, Margit Kaffka
Margit Kaffka (10 June 1880 – 1 December 1918) was a Hungarian writer and poet.
Called a "great, great writer" by Endre Ady, she was one of the most important female Hungarian authors, and an important member of the Nyugat generation. Her writ ...
File:Katona József Barabás.jpg, József Katona
File:Kazinczy.jpg, Ferenc Kazinczy
Ferenc Kazinczy (in older English: Francis Kazinczy, October 27, 1759 – August 23, 1831) was a Hungarian author, poet, translator, neologist, an agent in the regeneration of the Hungarian language and literature at the turn of the 19th centu ...
File:Kemény Zsigmond.jpg, Zsigmond Kemény
Baron Zsigmond Kemény (June 12, 1814December 22, 1875) was a Hungarian author.
Life and work
Kemény was born in Alvincz, Principality of Transylvania, Austrian Empire (today Vințu de Jos, Romania) to a distinguished noble family, but famil ...
File:Kisfaludy Karoly 1930 11 16 Pesti Hirlap Vasarnapja.jpg, Károly Kisfaludy
Károly Kisfaludy (5 February 1788 – 21 November 1830) was a Hungarian dramatist and artist, brother of Sándor Kisfaludy. He was the founder of the national drama.
Early life
The youngest of eight children, his mother died in childbirth, a ...
File:Einsle kölcsey.jpg, Ferenc Kölcsey
Ferenc Kölcsey (archaically English: Francis Kolcsey, 8 August 1790 in Sződemeter – 24 August 1838) was a Hungarian poet, literary critic, orator, and politician, noted for his support of the liberal current in Hungary regarding the poli ...
File:Madachimre.jpg, Imre Madách
Imre Madách de Sztregova et Kelecsény (20 January 1823 – 5 October 1864) was a Hungarian aristocrat, writer, poet, lawyer and politician. His major work is ''The Tragedy of Man'' (''Az ember tragédiája'', 1861). It is a dramatic poem app ...
File:Marai2.jpg, Sándor Márai
File:Ferenc Molnár 1941.jpg, Ferenc Molnár
File:Pazmany Peter ismeretlen mester alkotasan.JPG, Péter Pázmány
File:Petőfi Sándor.jpg, Sándor Petőfi
File:Radnoti1.jpg, Miklós Radnóti
File:Rippl-szabo.jpg, Lőrinc Szabó
Lőrinc Szabó de Gáborján ( hu, gáborjáni Szabó Lőrinc ; Miskolc, 31 March 1900 – Budapest, 3 October 1957) was a Hungarian poet and literary translator.
Biography
He was born in Miskolc as the son of an engine driver, Lőrinc Sz ...
File:Vörösmarty mihály barabás.jpg, Mihály Vörösmarty
Mihály Vörösmarty (archaically English: Michael Vorosmarthy 1 December 180019 November 1855) was an important Hungarian poet and dramatist.
Biography
He was born at Puszta-Nyék (now Kápolnásnyék), of a noble Roman Catholic family. ...
File:Nicholas Zrinski.jpg, Miklós Zrínyi
File:József Attila 1927.jpg, Attila József
Attila József (; 11 April 1905 – 3 December 1937) was one of the most famous Hungarian poets of the 20th century. Generally not recognized during his lifetime, József was hailed during the communist era of the 1950s as Hungary's great ...
File:Peter Esterhazy by Kubik 04.jpg, Péter Esterházy
File:Illyes Gyula (Bahget Iskander).jpg, Gyula Illyés
Gyula Illyés born ''Gyula Illés'' (2 November 1902 – 15 April 1983) was a Hungarian poet and novelist. He was one of the so-called ''népi'' ("from the people") writers, named so because they aimed to show – propelled by strong so ...
See also
*
List of Hungarian writers
References
External links
General
A History of Hungarian Literature (From the Earliest Times to the mid-1970s) by Lóránt CzigányAlbert Tezla: Hungarian authors – A bibliographical handbookHungarian literatureHungarian Literature OnlineThe Hungarian Electronic LibraryDatabase for translations of Hungarian literary worksMagyar poemsMagyar poetryPoetry of the Magyars
Specific sources
Literary chapters from the ''Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica'' (1–5)
*
ttp://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01955/html/index3.html The External Conditions of Literature; The Characteristics of the Contents of Literature; The Authors; The Works (1038-1301)The Level of Education; Authors, Genres, Works (1301-1437)*
ttp://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01911/html/index3.html Hungarian Literature; Turkish Literature (1526-1699)* (The English translation of volumes 6 to 9 are in preparation.)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hungarian Literature