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Apart from the Edige epic, the story of Čora Batir is the best-known and most popular Nogay epic of Kipchak origin. Since the first publication of a version by the Russian Turcologist, I. Berezin (1862), a large number of variants, among them Nogay, Crimean and Dobrudjan Tatar, Kazak, Karakalpak, Kazan Tatar, Bashkir and Karachay-Balkar versions, have cropped up and been brought to light. An early variant of the epic was recorded by the Hungarian Turcologist, Ignác Kúnos, but it has remained in manuscript. He collected his material from Crimean Tatar informants in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp near Esztergom (Hungary) in 1915. The present work, published for the first time in print, contains the original Crimean Tatar text and its translation, supplied with an introductory study and annotations. The main value of the epic variant recorded by Kúnos lies in that its content and plot show close relationship with the earliest recorded Nogay texts.
Györffy István Nagykun Museum) (Photo by the author, 2015) Perhaps the consequence of this sometimes exaggerated aestheticization was that a group of young people interested in folklore and material folk art from the 1970s, called the nomadic generation
Abstract
During the corpus-building operation of the Digital Database of Hungarian Verbal Charms we tried to augment the available material by the inclusion of witness statements of witch trials conducted in early modern Bihar County and the town of Debrecen. My paper explores the kinds of dilemmas and issues we were faced with concentrating especially on generic questions of verbal charms. As regards the exploration of early modern written sources of vernacular language use the most relevant recent approaches came from historical speech act research. Therefore, in the context of the corpus building project I shall also discuss to which extends the results of historical pragmatics, historical speech act research can offer any help (and if so, what kind of help) in solving the generic problems and questions of verbal magic. 1
The Hungarian Baron (then Count), Móric Benyovszky (1746–1786) was one of the best known European adventurers in the years before the French Revolution. As a young soldier he participated in a Polish uprising (1769) against the Russians, was captured by them and exiled to Kamchatka, from where he fled, and after a long journey at sea (via Formosa, Canton, Madagascar and Africa) he arrived in 1772 in Paris. There he proposed to the Court the colonization of Madagascar and organized his first expedition to the island (1774–1776), which turned out to be a complete failure. However, he insisted on making a second attempt, offering the island first to the French King, then to the English, and finally to rich American merchants in Baltimore. He was sailing to Madagascar again (1785–1786), but was soon killed by the French soldiers there. His Memoris and other publications about him were quickly published in French and English, as were several books in German, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Slovak, and Hungarian immortalizing him. In 2004 the Hungarian National Library published a manuscript Protocolle (originally an official report of exculpation to the French authorities about the first expedition). My paper describes this work, and adds some source critical remarks. Benyovszky was a typical figure of his time: hero and impostor, explorer and blind reporter of an extraordinary world. The interest in his person (not only in Hungary or Slovakia) has not flagged for over two centuries.
The northeastern Lithuanian vocal sutartines feature a great diversity in their polyphonic structure: they vary in texture (polyphonic and heterophonic), modal structure (polymodal and monomodal), and rhythm (polyrhythmic and homorhythmic). Since the prevailing melodic style of sutartines is mixed rather than homogeneous, it is probable that these polyphonic songs originally evolved through the interaction of different folk music styles. Most of polyphonic sutartines, according to Latvian and Lithuanian ethnomusicologists, were composed by juxtaposing monophonic melodies. This was proved by comparing the melodic structure of sutartines with that of the monophonic melodies from the adjacent regions.Such characteristics of sutartines as polymodality, cannot be fully explained in regard to the development of vocal melodies. This leads to an admission that vocal sutartines underwent a considerable melodic influence of instrumental music. The polyphonic polymodal sutartines have probably derived from the process of playing the two daudytes rather than singing. The polymodality could have resulted from the performance on two daudytes of different length. Historical sources provide us with evidence that earlier the tradition of performing daudytes was highly significant. Thus it appears that the influence of instrumental music on modal structure of vocal sutartines was much more considerable than it was generally thought.
Comparative analysis of both the construction and ways of performing of Lithuanian, Komi and Russian multi-pipe whistles reveals not only the difference existing between then but their similarities as well. The most important principle unifying these musical instruments is that the unattached pipes are used exclusively in sets and played only collectively. The number of both pipes and the performers is alike. The distribution of Lithuanian set with respect to performing polyphonic saturnites may be related to dividing the instruments into the so-called “pairs” by the Komis and Russians.
Abstract
The author of this article focuses on a defendant of an Inquisition trial (1641–1644) and its sources, namely a healing hermit and the Saint Cyprian prayer, published in Catalan in 1557 and used by the hermit as a verbal charm. Beyond the philological and folkloristic study of the prayer text, this paper presents the vulgarisation of reading skills and the realization of reading practice in a specific social context in the Principality of Catalonia. The author uses the most important and relevant theological literature of the period and the attestations of the trial as keys of reading. She pays special attention to the context of prayer and its actual social use. Her aim is to analyse the textual elements and gestures of the healing rite; hence, she investigates the probable readings of the healing specialist, which makes possible to reach a deeper understanding of the hermit’s role as a cultural mediator.
A JANGAR-CHAPTER CHANTED BY THE BAARIN KHUURCH RINCHIN
NEW DATA ON THE FOLKLORE GENERIC TRANSITION OF MONGOLIAN HEROIC EPIC
-ü üliger v mongol’skom fol’klore [Genre of bengsen ülger in Mongolian folklore] .’ Studia Mongolica 2/32 : 42 – 54 . RINČINDORJI (ed. and introd.) 2010 . Tuuličid quγurčid-un namtar, böge mörgöl-ün iraγu nayiraγ [ Biography of epic tellers and
The paper aims to summarize the Easter-time customs from the point of view of its “festivity”. This cycle of feasts is organized into several “sequences”. For the days before Easter it is typical to follow the pattern (given by Arnold Van Gennep): “rites of passage”, i.e. pre-liminal, liminal and post-liminal sequences. Within the singular customs there are several strata of human activity. During the whole of Easter time the everyday activity remains continuous, and it is characterized by its direct connection with the feast. During the Easter holidays proper, dramatic performances dominate. Lamenting Christ and celebrating the resurrection happen within the framework of folk theatre. Easter — one of the most important feasts in the festive year — is expressed on several strata: human activity, food, dress, acoustic and kinetic codes prevail, and visual and textural codes dominate as well. The analytic method, suggested in the paper might serve also the comparative European analysis of the ritual year.
