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The Hungarian (Székely) Gábor Bálint of Szentkatolna (1844–1913) was one of the first researchers of Kalmyk and Khalkha vernacular language, folklore and ethnography. His valuable records are written in a very accurate transcription and include the specimens of Kalmyk and Khalkha spoken languages, folklore material and ethnographic narratives, and a comparative grammar of western and eastern Mongolian languages. Bálint’s manuscripts had not been released until recent years when Ágnes Birtalan published his Comparative Grammar in 2009 and the Kalmyk corpus with a comprehensive analysis in 2011.
The present article aims to give an introduction to Bálint’s ethnographic materials recorded among the Kalmyks (1871–1872) and Khalkhas (1873). Despite the similar economic and cultural milieu the two ethnic groups lived in, there is considerable difference between the Kalmyk and Khalkha text corpora. Besides presenting and systematising Bálint’s ethnographic material, I shall try to clarify the reason why this significant divergence emerges between the two text corpora. Specimens of a particular phase of the wedding ceremony are represented as examples from both text corpora.
The present article deals with two legitimising elements to be found in the Turkic epic cycle Edige. According to oral tradition Edige’s genealogy goes back to Angšïbay who married a heavenly swan girl thus laying foundation to the Manghit clan. But in the same oral tradition Edige’s forefather is identified with a Muslim saint ( walī or awliyā ) called Baba Tükles. The article tries to analyse the process of linking the Muslim tradition of Baba Tükles, who in written sources appears as the Islamiser of the Golden Horde, to a pre-Islamic tradition about the superiority of a clan originating form a heavenly swan girl. Similarly to folklore and oral tradition, modern religious traditions also display the elements of Islamised folk belief and Central Asian Muslim (e.g. Sufi) traditions, where worshiping ancestor spirits is often intermingled with the respect for Muslim saints who were Islamisers or Sufi practitioners. Some historical and ethnographical data are presented to elucidate the parallel processes that took place in folklore and religious traditions.
Abstract
This study analyses the distinctive features of stories of magical healing – thematic (meeting of the natural and supernatural as the core of the narrative), structural (stability of motifs, incorporation of other folklore genres – curses, blessings; didactic statements, cumulativity), and ideological (being based on a system of beliefs). In the genre system of folklore, stories of magical healing occupy a liminal space, right at the crossroads of two semantic fields, the demonologically coded and the secular(ised), as the connection with the supernatural is sometimes only latently present. On the one hand, they introduce mythologicaldemonological elements into the everyday, and on the other, they make abstract demonic content concrete by linking it to the plane of experience. Stories told by cunning folk about successful magical healing are an important factor in their social positioning and the verification of magical practice. The circulation of such stories within a community facilitates the creation of a picture of specific practitioners, the domain of their competences, and the effectiveness of the ritual acts. Viewed more broadly, it also creates ideas about the natural and the supernatural, the worldly and the otherworldly, eschatology, morality, and codes of conduct in the broadest sense, even when tradition is rationalised, subjected to doubt, or disagreed with.
Regarding György Ligeti’s relation to ethnic music, his oeuvre can be divided into three periods. Until 1956 he used East European folk music in the manner of Hungarian composition of the 1940s and 1950s, but upon leaving Hungary he apparently rejected folkloristic inspiration. In his late period from 1978 on, however, ethnic musics became again central to his creative work, albeit in a basically different way than in his youth. This article provides an overview of Ligeti’s early folkloristic pieces and a brief characterization of his use of elements of Eastern European folklore in Le Grand Macabre, Hungarian Rock, Passacaglia ungherese and the Horn Trio. Finally, it traces back Ligeti’s “lamento melody,” that appears for the first time in the last movement of the Horn Trio, to certain types of the Hungarian folk lament. Ligeti’s references to folklore do not mean an idealization of his past, but are rather signs of an ambivalent attitude toward his own roots, in which nostalgic longing, ironic distancing, and desperate mourning are equally present.
The study gives a survey of the history of research on the legend type mentioned in the title, in Hungary and abroad, and makes the reader acquainted with the newly published Hungarian texts and theories. Towards the end of the 19th century comparative philology possessed a great number of data about the dualistic legend of the creation of the earth. Dragomanov's monograph (based on Veselovskii's and others thorough exploratory work to some extent, itself a synopsis) appeared and was extended in the other great comprehensive study of the century, Dähnhardt's Natursagen. The problematic issues in the research have been the written sources. The sacred books of the Bogomils do not draw up the dualistic creation legend of the earth in the form it is known from the folklore: the only apocryphal document that actually contains that form is the one titled Svitok božestvennyx knig [Bundle of Divine Books], or O Tiveriadskom more [About the Tiberian Sea] - but it can be found under different titles as well. In the last years a debate about its origin has formed. Likewise, in case of the Hungarian texts we could just ignore the problem of when and where they came from: they simply exist, are rich in variations, beautiful and a part of Hungarian culture. And yet, Hungarian researchers are constantly intrigued by this question; what sort of culture did we have of our own at the time of the conquest, what is the link that connects us to our relatives? The creation legend of the earth cannot be examined as an independent typological unit. The Slavic apocrypha remain the basis for further research; the texts are supplemented with two important elements. First of all the whale-motive requires further elaboration, then the story of the creation of mankind and the Noah-legends require more comprehensive examinations. All the more so since Hungarian folklore, with the new results of research, presents an unbelievably rich collection of this kind of material. The myth of the creation of the earth is an organically integrated element of the system of dualistic creation-legends in Hungarian folklore. Its variability indicates that, in spite of the individual, fresh borrowings, this system could not have been formed in a matter of seconds. This system goes by the surrounding peoples' culture but retains its local touch that is worth introducing.
This paper discusses how Russian anti-proverbs function in modern speech and mass media. Today, as one consequence of the democratization of speech, the abolition of censorship, and the growing influence of youth speech, this genre of folklore has become very active, exerting significant influence on Russian standard language. Relying on the definitions of the term “anti-proverb” given by Wolfgang Mieder, the authors describe the characteristics and spheres of application of some of these expressions. In addition, the authors propose a classification of Russian anti-proverbs, demonstrate their different properties and applications, refer to their sources and describe prototypes of anti-proverbs and antidictums. Moreover, the authors attempt to propose a sociolinguistic characterization of anti-proverbs, such as “Old — New”, “Traditional — Untraditional”, “Neutral — Ironical” etc., as well as a complex lexicographical description of anti-proverbs.
The Swedish Nobel Prize laureate, Selma Lagerlöf, wrote a fairy-tale novel for children with the purpose of teaching them about their homeland, translated into English as The Wonderful Adventures of Nils . It contains a dualistic cosmogonic naaration: The Legend of Småland . The material contained in it underwent a double folklorization. Its content: How the Lord together with Saint Peter created the Småland plateau. Saint Peter took the place of the figure of Satan. Similarly to the beliefs of other European peoples, both Hungarian and Russian Christian tradition als include apocryphal parabiblical narratives telling how God and Satan/Saint Peter together created the world and man. The Legend of Småland is a striking example of literary transplantation and adaptation.
The article gives data referring to the meanings and functions of mushrooms in general, and with the Hungarians respectively to edible mushrooms. The Hungarians living in the Carpathian basin, being exposed to both mycophob and mycophile (German and Slavic) influences, formed an intermediary attitude, which is reflected up to now in the medium number of mushroom names and average knowledge about mushrooms. The knowledge about mushrooms of the Hungarian people can be considered medium, in some regions above average. The frequency of consuming mushrooms varies in different Hungarian regions. The article, while describing the mushroom consumption and mythology, the functions of mushroom in the food culture, the tools and methods of mushroom-gathering, the knowledge and beliefs related to edible and poisonous mushrooms, the role of edible mushrooms in folklore and folk art, compares them with other European traditions.
The North of England open air museum was established at Beamish in the early 1970s, since when the local community has radically changed in terms both of ethnicity and of occupations. Heavy industry and agriculture have been largely replaced by service and light industries. This paper explores the ways in which Beamish is engaging with local communities who have no previous experience of the collections it holds and the history it represents. The paper has been prepared from a presentation by the author to Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore Congress, 2008, and includes material from a presentation by Chris Scott, Beamish Curator of Industry, to the Society for Folk Life Studies conference, Swansea, 2007, and reports prepared by Seb Littlewood, Rural Collections Curator, and Helen Barker, Collections Access Officer.
The article commemorates a certain scientific conception of “Folklore” which was presented by Arnold Van Gennep in the early years of the 20th century and which is widely unknown nowadays. Further, the issue is dealing with some points of Van Gennep’s narrative research i.e. the religious legends. The article discusses a particular and eminent problem in researching “rites of passage,” the problem of stillborn children, who could not be baptized and therefore could not be buried by a church ceremony either. There are and were very different and controversial definitions on the liminal space where these children’s souls may dwell, which can be localised neither in heaven nor in hell.
