Abstract
László Arany's Eredeti népmesék (Authentic Folktales, 1862) is an iconic collection of folktales. The tales in this publication have been entrenched in the national identity as classic Hungarian folktales, and the narrative style of the tales has been established in the public consciousness as the narrative style of Hungarian folktales. The Arany family's collection of folktales ultimately had a similar function in Hungarian culture as the Kinder- und Hausmärchen of the Brothers Grimm had in Germany, but while the text formation of the Grimm tales had been thoroughly explored by philology, the Arany tales had not been accompanied by folkloristic interpretations or in-depth philological analyses. To László Arany, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm were the ideal, which he indicated in his many theoretical writings as well as his role as a collector and editor of tales. To form the individual texts found in Eredeti népmesék, László Arany used the tale manuscripts transcribed by his mother and sister in the 1850s, modifying them considerably, primarily by employing stylistic devices, many of which can also be observed in the work of the Grimms. This essay examines the extent to which László Arany's editorial and text formation practices were determined by the textological practice developed by the Brothers Grimm, and ultimately the extent to which the stylistic ideals of fairy tales developed by the Grimms contributed to the development of the written, literary version of Hungarian folktales.
Kinder- und Hausmärchen (hereinafter: KHM) of the Brothers Grimm was first published more than two hundred years ago ( Grimm 1812/1815; Rölleke – Marquardt 1986), followed by sixteen subsequent editions with varying content during the lifetime of the brothers. Not only did their text formation practice led to the creation of a collection of texts with a huge impact on European culture, by creating a written form of folktales, they also created a new genre, the Buchmärchen ( Bausinger 1979). The Brothers Grimm launched a new era in folktale research, as the stories they published defined for a long time what the European intelligentsia considered a folktale and the manner it should be presented ( Nagy 2015:15). Exactly fifty years after the publication of the first volume of KHM, in 1862, the first work of János Arany's son, László Arany, then 18 years old, was published under the title Eredeti népmesék (Authentic Folktales) ( Arany, L. 1862, critical edition: Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018). 1 According to our current knowledge, the folktales and riddles in this collection – unlike the Grimm collection – actually come from oral tradition, but the textualization of the tales bears many similarities to the Grimm collection. Like in the case of KHM, the transcription of the folklore corpus was a family enterprise, in which the young László Arany and his sister, Julianna Arany (1841–1865), as well as their mother, Jánosné Arany Julianna Ercsey (1818–1885) participated in the second half of the 1850s. 2 According to Ágnes Kovács, some of the tales represent the folktale repertoire passed down through the maternal side of the family ( Kovács 1982:500–502). In a letter to Mihály Tompa, a family friend, written on the occasion of the publication of Eredeti népmesék, László Arany indicated that he had collected the tales in Nagykőrös. 3 As head of the family, János Arany was most likely aware of the folklore collection being compiled, and it was likely through his intercession that Gusztáv Heckenast published Eredeti népmesék in 1862 ( Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018:83–84). The collection published under László Arany's name has become one of the most influential volumes of fairy tales in Hungarian culture. The tales published in this collection, which came from oral tradition but have undergone textual modifications in the editing process, have been canonized in the last nearly 160 years as classic Hungarian folktales, both in terms of their plot and their narrative style (Fig. 1).
László Arany: Eredeti népmesék [Authentic Folktales] (1862), cover image
Citation: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 66, 1; 10.1556/022.2021.00003
This essay presents the text formation of László Arany's collection of tales in the context of the history of the development of the European folktale, and in relation to the collection of the Brothers Grimm. I hypothesize that KHM profoundly influenced László Arany's tales. To him, the Grimm tales represented the model to be emulated in terms of compiling the collection, editing the tales, and the textological practices implemented in their transmission. The confirmation and clarification of this hypothesis may be significant in Hungarian folkloristics because, from the second half of the 19th century, Hungarian folktales passed down in oral tradition have been greatly influenced by the tales published in Eredeti népmesék through schoolbooks and children's storybooks ( Kovács 1969; Domokos 2018a, 2018b). The popularity of László Arany's collection of tales not only ensured the diffusion and variant formation of the plots of the published tales, but also largely defined the narrative style that became entrenched in the public consciousness as the standard narrative style of Hungarian folktales ( Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018:10), the development of which, I hypothesize, was greatly influenced by the Grimm tales as well. In order to outline the Grimm effect, my essay first provides insight into the scientific and popular Hungarian reception of the Brothers Grimm and their tales, then presents László Arany's reflections on the Grimms' collection of tales, and finally compares László Arany's text formation practice with the editorial practices that Wilhelm Grimm implemented in KHM. My aim is to identify and elaborate the aspects that led László Arany to consider the Grimm tales as a model to emulate when editing and presenting his own collection of tales.
The Hungarian scientific reception of the work of the Brothers Grimm
In the 19th century, the work of the Brothers Grimm inspired folklore collections in several European nations and KHM became a model for national folktale collections and publications. The history of Hungarian folkloristics is no exception, and the history of folktale research in particular has been inseparably intertwined with the name of the Brothers Grimm ( Ortutay 1963). In the preface to the first Hungarian folk and fairy tale collection, Mährchen der Magyaren, published in Vienna in 1822 in German, reflecting on the difficulties of collecting folklore, the collector-editor Georg von Gaal alluded to the idealized informant of the Brothers Grimm when he wrote that he could never find a narrator as excellent as Frau Viehmann 4 had been to the Brothers Grimm ( Gaal 1822:IV). Starting in the early 19th century, numerous folklore collectors (e.g., János Kriza, János Erdélyi, Arnold Ipolyi) have set themselves the goal of exploring folklore and presenting it as a national heritage, an aspiration that suggests an underlying influence of the Grimm concept (cf. Jacob Grimm: Circular wegen Aufsammlung der Volkspoesie 1815, facsimile edition: Grimm, J. 1968). The Hungarian scientific reception of the Brothers Grimm gained real momentum in the 1830s with the publication of Deutsche Mythologie (Teutonic Mythology) ( Grimm, J. 1835). In 1837, Lőrinc Tóth determined that the manifestations of folklore should be considered a viable resource in the advancement of Hungarian-language literary folklorism, and he directed the Hungarian public's attention to the importance of poetic narratives inspired by folk beliefs, citing the Grimms as a benchmark ( Tóth 1837:725). In an article published in 1840 under the title Népmondák (Folk Legends), Ferenc Pulszky described folk belief, folk customs, and folk poetry as vestiges of a pre-Christian religion. He saw folk traditions as historical records indicating the religion of ancient times and considered the Grimm model an example to be followed in collecting and adapting these traditions ( Pulszky 1840:164). Arnold Ipolyi adopted the same view, and his work was also greatly influenced by Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie and his concept of Märchen. In the second half of the 1840s, Ipolyi, a young priest at the time, established an extensive network of collectors with the help of his fellow priests, and they collected folklore data from various parts of Hungary with the goal of reconstructing the ancient Hungarian religion. 5 Besides prose narrative genres, folk beliefs, folk customs, and folk games did not escape his notice either, all of which he incorporated into his work called Magyar mythologia (Hungarian Mythology) ( Ipolyi 1854). 6 Ipolyi was also a prolific critic in the early days of folktale research, contributing to the popularization of the folktale research of the Brothers Grimm in Hungary ( Ipolyi 1855, 1858). In 1847, the literary criticism weekly Magyar Szépirodalmi Szemle (Hungarian Literary Review) published a writing on the German translation of Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone, a collection of fairy tales from Naples. The unknown reviewer provided excerpts from Jacob Grimm's introduction to the translation, referring to Jacob as “the foremost authority on medieval fairy tales and belief legends” (NN 1847:47–48). Imre Henszlmann, the author of the first Hungarian study on folktale theory, routinely and methodically alluded to the tales of KHM when talking about Hungarian folktales, calling the Brothers Grimm themselves “the main heroes of fairy tales” ( Henszlmann 1847:81). Jacob Grimm's Hungarian contemporaries welcomed his work in historical linguistics above all, in recognition of which he was elected an external, corresponding member of the Department of Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1858 ( Fekete 1975:347). The linguist Szende Riedl was a great admirer and follower of Jacob Grimm, who, following the example of Deutsche Grammatik ( Grimm, J. 1822), published a German-language monograph on Hungarian grammar called Magyarische Grammatik ( Riedl 1858). From 1865, János Arany held the position of secretary (subsequently called secretary general) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which was the third most important position within the academy. In this capacity, he performed important scientific management tasks for nearly a decade and a half. Among other things, he was responsible for organizing commemorative events for deceased members of the academy. Jacob Grimm died in Berlin on September 20, 1863. In November 1872, János Arany reminded the Department of Linguistics that they had failed to give a eulogy for the deceased member ( Arany, J. 1964:468. Ultimately it was Szende Riedl who stepped up to the task: Riedl 1873). This, however, was not the only indication that János Arany held the work of the Brothers Grimm in high esteem. In his review of John Francis Campbell's collection of Scottish folktales called Popular Tales of the West Highlands, based on William Stigant's English-language review of the same, Arany set forth that he considered the preservation of folk traditions a matter of urgency, and in this context he highlighted the merits of the Grimms as follows: “Popular fairy tales and bedtime stories were slow to attract attention; it is the Brothers Grimm in particular that deserve credit for having acknowledged their significance and for elevating their study to a science.” 7
The popular reception of the work of the Brothers Grimm in Hungary
The above general overview makes it clear that the rise of European fairy tale research and the introduction of fairy tales as a subject of scientific study were clearly associated in contemporary Hungarian reception with the Brothers Grimm. At the same time, the general public had access to more and more translations/adaptations of Grimm fairy tales in Hungarian, published in various collections, standalone Grimm translations, textbooks, and chapbooks. Certain fairy tales, often not even associated with the Grimms, became important elements of Hungarian culture. The Hungarian literary reception of the brothers' tales began in the 1820s. In a German-language fairy tale adaptation compiled from several folktales and intended to be representative of Hungarian prose narratives (Die Brüder, Mailáth 1825:157–177), János Mailáth added one of the most well-known Grimm fairy tales, Snow White, as a distinct subplot, calling it Die Geschichte vom Schneemädchen and presenting the entire tale enclosed in quotation marks. Mailáth's tale was not a literal translation; he adapted the Grimm tale into a literary tale inspired by Hungarian folktales, somewhat simplifying and shortening the original plot. Thus, the Hungarian reception of the brothers' tales began in the first third of the 19th century with an adaptation compiled from various folktales ( Domokos 2019a). The first well-known Hungarian translator of Grimm tales was Ignác Karády (? –1858), a practicing educator and pedagogue, who in the 1840s published a book called Regék (Tales), containing fairy tale adaptations based on German collections but no indication of sources. In addition to the tales of Ludwig Bechstein and Musäus, Karády also included several translations of Grimm tales based on one of the complete editions. According to the preface, the editor's objective was to provide a book for children and adolescents that was entertaining and edifying at the same time ( Karády 1847:III–IV). The first collection of fairy tales in Hungarian under the Grimm name was published by István Nagy in two volumes in 1860 and 1861, called Gyermek s házi regék (Children's and Household Tales) ( Grimm 1861). 8 Nagy's publication included translations of fifty fairy tales, which he based on one of the so-called “small editions” of the Brothers Grimm, published ten times between 1825 and 1858 ( Domokos 2020a). Nagy's translation was not so much the beginning, rather the culmination of a decades-long intermediary process, as numerous translations of Grimm tales had been published before, both dispersed and arranged into books, typically without any indication of the authors and often not even the translators. 9 Thanks to the many German and Hungarian publications of Grimm tales in circulation, by the middle of the 19th century, the Grimm tales were no longer limited to literary and scientific circles. Fun fact regarding the reception of the Brothers Grimm in Hungary: they were so popular in the 1850s that the general public was interested in any and all information about them personally. Vasárnapi Ujság (Sunday Post) was the best-known illustrated non-fiction periodical in Hungary in the second half of the 19th century, published weekly from 1854 to 1921. On January 16, 1859, this paper with a wide reach published a short story about Jacob Grimm having recently been visited by a little girl in his apartment in Berlin. According to the anecdote, the apropos of this visit was the fairy tale about the clever tailor (Vom klugen Schneiderlein, KHM 114). In the closing of the tale, the following sentence appears after the marriage scene of the tailor and the princess: “Whoever doubts this, shall pay me a thaler” ( Grimm 1980 II:149). According to the report of the incident, the eight-year-old girl did not believe the story, so she heeded the call in the closing of the tale and went to tell the brothers, “(…) I do not believe this story because a tailor could never marry a princess. I can't pay you a thaler all at once, but for now, here's a penny; I will pay the rest in installments” (NN 1859:35). 10
László Arany's reflections on the fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm
László Arany provided many indications of his thorough knowledge of the fairy tale literature of his time. In his fairy tale-related writings, he not only cited materials from Hungarian folklore collections, but also regularly alluded to foreign fairy tale collections and the theoretical considerations based on them. 11 László Arany made use of, among others, Arthur and Albert Schott's Romanian tales collected in Hungary (1845), Josef Haltrich's collection of Saxon folktales from Transylvania (1856), Friedrich Müller's collection of Transylvanian legends (1857), Johann Georg von Hahn's collection of Greek and Albanian folktales (1864), and Joseph Wenzig's collection of Czech and Slovak tales (1866). In his writings on folkloristics, he relied heavily on German collections and literature, citing the work of Ludwig Bechstein, Felix Liebrecht, publisher of the tales of Giambattista Basile in German Theodor Benfey, as well as Reinhold Köhler, but above all, most frequently and most consistently, the Brothers Grimm. László Arany, like his predecessors – and his father, no less – expressly linked the starting point of the scientific study of fairy tales with the Brothers Grimm ( Arany, L. 1867:47), and in a letter written in 1878, he also stated that when it comes to folktales, the Grimm tales represent the ideal (László Arany's letter to Lajos Tolnai, Budapest, 4 April 1878, Arany, L. 1960:490). In the spring of 1867, László Arany gave an inaugural lecture on Hungarian folktales at the Kisfaludy Society, a literary society. The text of his lecture was also published in Budapesti Szemle (Budapest Review), wherein László Arany undertook the review and systematization by genre of all Hungarian folktales published to date ( Arany, L. 1867). Although he focused on Hungarian folktales, in presenting parallels in tale type and motif, László Arany also took into consideration the foreign variants he was aware of. In his comparative study, his main reference was the seventh and latest major edition of the Grimms' collection of fairy tales, which has since become the standard (1857). In all Hungarian fairy tales he reviewed, Arany sought to establish and document the corresponding Grimm type parallels (he made no such gestures for the other foreign collections he referenced), thanks to which this specific essay of his contains more than thirty references to KHM. In most cases, Arany referenced specific Grimm tales, but he also often referred to the reference data in the Grimm annotations (Grimm 1856). 12 László Arany made use of the rich material of the Grimm fairy tale collection not only in his above-mentioned essay, but also as the editor of an anthology of Hungarian folk literature. The most significant series of anthologies of Hungarian folk literature of the 19th century was the Magyar népköltési gyűjtemény (Collection of Hungarian Folk Poetry), launched in 1872 by the Kisfaludy Society following extensive preliminary work. Pál Gyulai was invited to edit the poetry material of the volume featuring a mixture of genres, while László Arany was asked to edit the prose material. 13 László Arany made comparative notes on the collection's tales and legends. This practice, adopted from the Grimms, later became a consistent practice in Hungarian folkloristics, a core methodological principle in the transmission of tales. With regard to a humorous tale from Torockó, László Arany included an excerpt from the Grimm tale of the same type in German (Der gescheite Hans, KHM 32) to demonstrate that the Hungarian version is not a translation of the Grimm tale ( Arany, L. 1872:599–600).
In summary, to László Arany, KHM was not just a European folktale collection; he was well acquainted with it and regularly referenced it in his theoretical works, and it was ultimately the main reference point for collecting, publishing, and studying fairy tales.
Children's tales: genre innovation in Eredeti népmesék
In the following, I argue that in compiling and editing Eredeti népmesék, the collection of fairy tales published in 1862, László Arany considered the collection of the Brothers Grimm a benchmark not only in terms of collecting the documents of the oral narrative tradition but also in selecting and transmitting the tales, thus becoming a model in terms of both genre and style. László Arany consciously strived for the folklore collections that he edited from his own ( Arany, L. 1862) and from others' collections ( Arany – Gyulai eds. 1872) to provide a diverse picture of Hungarian folktales in terms of genre and language ( Arany, L. 1872:595–596). Eredeti népmesék contained 36 tales and 54 riddles, as well as solutions to the riddles. The genre distribution of the tales is as follows: 16 fairy tales (tales of magic), 8 formula tales, 5 animal tales, 2 novella tales, 3 humorous tales, and two other non-typologized closing formulas. If we look at the genre distribution of other Hungarian fairy tale collections published in this period, we find that the genre diversity of László Arany's folktales was truly novel compared to the publishing practice of the period, as fairy tales were clearly overrepresented in previous collections. 14 Arany's quest to present the diversity of folktale genres has also caught the attention of his contemporaries. As Pál Gyulai emphasized in his review of the volume, Arany's collection was novel in its presentation of formula and animal tales, a genre of children's tales generally overlooked by previous collectors but prioritized by the Brothers Grimm ( Gyulai 1862:389).
In László Arany's collection of tales, less than half of the folktales (about 44%) represent the previously almost exclusive genre of fairy tales ( Sárkány 1971:162), while texts that were typically meant for children – that is, short, rhythmic prose formula and animal tales featuring animals and simpler ordinary objects – were represented in a higher proportion than in any previous collection. In László Arany's fairy tale classification system, these simple, short tales meant for children occupy a special place, which he himself called children's tales. László Arany defined this group of fairy tales as naive and animated, simple narratives without mythological and didactic content, suitable for grabbing children's attention: “The German collection of the Grimms is particularly rich in such playful naivete. Our Hungarian collectors seem to have paid little attention to these (…)” ( Arany, L. 1867:219). László Arany stated that ten of the folktales in his own collection belong to this category. 15 To illustrate this, in his essay he briefly recounted two of the children's tales of Eredeti népmesék, both of which he considered noteworthy in terms of their form and rhythm as well ( Arany, L. 1867:219–222; Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018:430–433, 464–467). With regard to the rhythm of these tales, Arany specifically pointed out that national poetry could very well find its source material in folk prose, yet these tales were typically utilized not as a resource for fiction but as school and children's reading material. Interesting data concerning the use of László Arany's shorter animal tales can be found in the correspondence of János Kriza, a Unitarian priest who also collected folk poetry. As Kriza related it, his six-year-old daughter, Lenka (1856–1890), learned to read with the help of the tales in this volume. 16 László Arany's shorter tales for children were not only suitable for pedagogical use in terms of genre but, in the words of Pál Gyulai, as “the best narrated Hungarian folktales” ( Arany, L. 1901a:5), they also represented an excellent linguistic sample of national literature for textbook writers; consequently, many of László Arany's folktales became a permanent part of the reading material of Hungarian school books from the middle of the 19th century to the present day. 17 In his essay, László Arany highlighted several Grimm tales in order to illustrate possible type parallels found in his own tales. A farkas-tanya/The Wolves' House is about wandering animals fleeing their homes and finding a house where they come into conflict with wolves. There are three Grimm tales related to this story: KHM 10, Das Lumpengesindel, KHM 27, Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, and KHM 41, Herr Korbes ( Arany, L. 1867:220). With regard to the story of A kóró és a kis madár/The Weed and the Little Bird, Arany noted the Grimm tale known as KHM 30 (Läuschen und Flöhchen) as a narrative related to his tale in terms of structure and mood. One novelty of László Arany's collection was the diversity of genres, which, as we have seen, was realized mainly by including simpler fairy tale genres (formula and animal tales) meant for children. The earlier Hungarian-language folktale collections could not serve as precedent for Arany in this respect, but the Grimm collection offered many examples of such fairy tales. Ultimately, the KHM material had certainly guided László Arany in the development of the genre structure of Eredeti népmesék. It is not known whether such influence can be assumed for specific types of tales as well, but in any case, it should be noted that nearly two-thirds (20 tales) of the Arany tales published in 1862 represent a type that can also be found in the collection of the Brothers Grimm (see Appendix for summary table).
Grass and gemstone: the narrative style of László Arany's fairy tales (simple, vernacular, pictorial)
László Arany's Eredeti népmesék has been given a special place in Hungarian folkloristics practically since its publication, due to not only its genre diversity but also the performance and linguistic style of the individual tales. According to his contemporaries, László Arany got the folk storytelling voice just right ( Gyulai 1862; Katona 1894). Arany's tales started getting re-issued as early as the second half of the 19th century, almost immediately after their first publication, in various types of print products. The tales continued getting re-issued in the 20th century at an even higher rate, in compilations and adaptations geared toward children, which contributed to the canonization of the narrative tone of László Arany's fairy tales as the narrative style of Hungarian folktales. 18 Below, I would like to identify some of the elements of this narrative style, especially ones whose precedence or parallels can also be discovered in the Grimm tales. The tales presented in KHM exist in numerous manuscript and published versions ( Rölleke ed. 1975). There is only one authorized version of László Arany's tales, the volume published in 1862, and the collection of the family's manuscript tales which provided the basis for these tales are kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Budapest). The manuscript tales of the Arany family were discovered in the cellar of the Academy's main building in Pest after the Second World War, and only in the first half of the 1960s has it been confirmed that they were genetically related to the texts of Eredeti népmesék. However, none of the extant manuscripts are completely identical to the published tales. The manuscript texts have been transcribed by several different individuals, most of them written down between 1850 and 1862 by Jánosné Arany Julianna Ercsey, Julianna Arany, and László Arany. 19 The manuscripts represent an earlier textual state compared to the published texts, but the manuscripts themselves embody the different phases of story formation, as most texts bear traces of subsequent corrections by a hand other than the transcriber's, in addition to the autograph corrections added at the time of recording. A philological comparison of the manuscripts and the published texts reveal that László Arany used his mother's and sister's and his own earlier (childhood) tale transcriptions in preparing the volume's tales, but modified them significantly, practically rewriting them stylistically line by line, episode by episode. In the synoptic (genetic) critical edition of the published text versions and the manuscripts they are based on, the different text versions are displayed side by side ( Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018). The parallel reading of these texts enables us to observe the way in which László Arany, relying on the manuscripts, formed the texts of his tales in a distinct fairy tale style. By comparing the manuscript and the published texts, I aim to determine the text formation practices that László Arany as collector-author-editor applied to the manuscript folktales that were originally derived from oral tradition and which ultimately resulted in the classic collection of fairy tales associated with his name. In his study on the classification of Hungarian tales, László Arany quoted Wilhelm Grimm's famous gemstone analogy. In Wilhelm's concept, fairy tales have a kind of ancient, cult content core, which he likened to gems scattered among the grass and flowers, and which he believes must be discovered if fairy tales are to be suitable for transmitting knowledge about the past. Although László Arany did not dispute the validity of this view, he considered folktales valuable not only in terms of their substance, or from the historical perspective as remnants of a hypothetical ancient cult, but also from a formal, aesthetic perspective, considering the “unassuming grass” as a folktale character a noteworthy phenomenon as well ( Arany, L. 1867:51). I find László Arany's grass analogy to be particularly significant because it draws attention to the form of folktales, and to the narrative style that is the main characteristic of the folktales published by László Arany. In his notes to the folktales and legends published in 1872 in Elegyes gyűjtések (Miscellaneous Collections), László Arany also states that the value of folktales is derived either from their hypothetical mythological content or from the aesthetic value of the language of fairy tales, the latter being the main aspect of his selection ( Arany, L. 1872:595). Thus, to Arany, the “unassuming grass” hiding the “gems,” i.e., the language of folktales, clearly represented a value. Curiously, László Arany's thoughts on the formation of fairy tales also found their way into his legal writings. As a trained lawyer (he studied law at the University of Budapest in the 1860s), László Arany contributed to the development of the first Hungarian Copyright Act (Act XVI of 1884). He drafted the text of the act and the accompanying commentary in 1876 at the request of the Academy ( Arany, L. 1901b). This draft illustrates the legal awareness of the folklore collector, for in it he argues that the editorial practices involved in publishing a collection of folklore texts represent a kind of creative work that legitimately raises the issue of copyright. Based on Arany's legal argument, collectors of folktales can claim a kind of special property right to the style of the texts of fairy tales they publish. 20 In this light, it is understandable why László Arany took such a special care to develop the narrative style of the tales he published. The poetics of the Grimm tales indisputably influenced the formation of this fairy tale style, but no matter how prominent a role the Grimms' collection of tales played in László Arany's conception and philology of folktales, his concepts are not exactly the same as those of the Brothers Grimm. László Arany's interest in fairy tales was much more aesthetic than historical in nature. The collection of tales compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm sought to present German, folk, and oral texts; in fact, they wrote and edited their tome using various written sources of older eras and oral narratives representing different textual traditions. 21 The brothers did not differentiate substantially between their written and oral sources, but as far as we know, Arany did not use written sources in drafting his folktales (with the exception of the tale manuscripts recorded by his family), and we also understand that, unlike the Brothers Grimm, he did not approach the tale plot as a creator. It was Wilhelm Grimm that played a major role in shaping the style of the Grimm tales. As a result of decades of editorial work, he honed the texts in KHM from edition to edition, until finally developing the animated, coherent, and dramatic narratives that resonated with the literary public and could also be used for pedagogical purposes. The publication history of the Grimm tales shows that throughout the decades-long editing process, the texts became longer and more elaborate, the motivations of the characters becoming more and more pronounced, while the structure and wording remained simple and clear ( Blamires 2003). Along these principles, and with the help of various linguistic interpolations, such as adding versified rhymes, closing formulas, typical vernacular expressions, proverbs, sayings, and other phrasemes, they created a distinct Grimmean fairy tale language that served as a model for László Arany. The main aspect for László Arany in the course of the collection and reproduction of tales was the creation of authentic folktale texts formulated along aesthetic criteria. However, according to the conception of the era, credibility lied not in his fidelity to an individual folktale performance, but rather in the representation of an imagined, ideal oral performance. 22 Prior to the advent of the technical conditions for sound recording, in transcribing folktales from an oral to a written medium, collectors inevitably reconstructed the tale type and style of each text. This reconstruction can be achieved with the help of linguistic and stylistic means, solely through the creation of literary texts. At the same time, László Arany's fairy tale textology was stricter than the practice enforced by the Grimms, at least as far as the plots and motifs of oral folktales were concerned. To the extent it can be determined based on the extant manuscripts, László Arany, unlike Wilhelm Grimm, did not drastically intervene in the plot of the tale, but at the same time he used similar stylistic tools as the Brothers Grimm in reconstructing the narrative of the folktale. Ultimately, by compiling his collection of folktales, László Arany sought to present folktales that represented orality, and to identify and highlight certain characteristic features of the folk storytelling style, which helped him develop his own style of fairy tale narration. János Arany is credited with one of the most important and most cited writings on the 19th-century theory of Hungarian folktale collection, which he wrote in reaction to László Merényi's fairy tale collection ( Merényi 1861). In his critique of Merényi's book, János Arany defined the criteria of a good collector, whom he ultimately compared to a good storyteller ( Arany, J. 1968a:329). In his critique, János Arany gave a clear mandate to the competent tale collector to formally (re)create the text of the folktale. In addition to reconstructing its content, the duty of a good collector is to create the text of an authentic folktale, for the sake of which he must correct individual mistakes and reformat the orally performed folktale's text in the style of more accomplished storytellers. The eminent folktale scholar Ágnes Kovács believed that László Arany was an extraordinarily gifted storyteller with significant storytelling experience ( Kovács 1982:506). In her view, the integrity of the structure, the internal articulation, the proportion of dialogue and narrative parts, and the internal rhythm of the language in László Arany's tales are the main features that elevate his tales (along with Elek Benedek's tales) above other 19th-century collections of tales ( Kovács 1961:437). Keeping in mind the principle formulated by his father, László Arany approached the linguistic formulation of his fairy tales as a creator, while in terms of tale plot, his practices were closer to the documentary efforts of tale collectors as we understand them today. In talking about János Arany's poem Rózsa and Ibolya, Judit Gulyás compared László Arany's folktale of the same tale type published in 1862, Ráadó and Anyicska, with its manuscript version written by Jánosné Arany Julianna Ercsey in the 1850s. Her main findings about the differences between the text versions also apply to László Arany's fairy tale formation in general, according to which the logic of the narrative in his tales is more refined and rational, using forward and backward references, striving to elaborate implied connections, thereby making the tale's plot more coherent and transparent ( Gulyás 2010:234). Based on a review of the manuscript and published texts of the entire corpus, it seems that a thoughtful tale composition and a clear structure are characteristic not only of the published texts but also of most of the manuscript transcripts of the tales. It is important to emphasize that, although the manuscripts represent an earlier textual phase compared to the published tales, they are by no means the same as the orally performed folktales. The manuscript transcripts of the tales are themselves well-edited, written oral texts, indicating that the transcribers deliberately sought to create literary texts meant for reading. This is also indicated, for example, by the practice of titling the manuscripts, as the transcribers systematically sought to ensure that all fairy tale texts had titles, although this gesture is foreign to orality when it comes to fairy tales ( Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018:34–35). Although in the course of his adaptation of the manuscript tales László Arany did not consider the internal structure of the transcribed tales to be completely untouchable, only a negligible part of his modifications affected the plot, for example when he deleted or repositioned an episode or motif that he deemed atypical or unnecessary, or added a detail relevant to the plot ( Kovács 1982:507; Gulyás 2010:229). In editing his tome, László Arany's most common and most consistently implemented text formation practice was clearly stylistic in nature, aiming to develop a distinct style of fairy tale narration while keeping to the authentic and ideal tone of folktales. The wording of the published fairy tales is often simpler, clearer, more rational, and more precise than the manuscript versions they are based on, and in terms of their style, the published tales have also become much more polished artistically. László Arany omitted superfluous repetitions and irrelevant descriptions, but at the same time the texts of most published tales became longer than in the manuscript. He often added interpretative descriptions and explanations, regularly employed stylistic devices like hyperbole, exaggeration, and repetition, and systematically employed vernacular idioms that he considered typical. In their theoretical writings, János Arany and László Arany most often mobilized the semantic domain of simplicity to characterize the folk performance style they considered authentic. 23 László Arany considered the Grimms' collection of tales to be an exemplary implementation of the narrative style of fairy tales in this respect, too (Y. I. [Arany, L.] 1864:210). In János Arany's view, the faithful, written version of a folktale employs linguistic elements capable of evoking the oral performance of the tale ( Arany, J. 1968a:329–330). To László Arany, the best way to produce a written narrative that is suitable for evoking the oral performance of a folktale was primarily through the imitation of spoken language and the use of vernacular. He believed that employing dialogue instead of indirect speech and using vernacular idioms and phrases were among the characteristic features of simple folk performance that were easiest to grasp linguistically. Through his diverse practices, he was able to create a kind of archaic and seemingly vernacular atmosphere in his tales yet avoiding the stylistic flaws of monotony or overt vernacularization, which both he and his father disapproved of ( Arany, J. 1968a:330; Y. I. [Arany, L.] 1864:210).
For the most part, as compared to the original wording in the manuscript, László Arany replaced words and expressions in Eredeti népmesék he deemed foreign with ones that sounded more Hungarian, and expressions he found too colloquial were often replaced by more vernacular ones, sometimes deliberately modifying the underlying text so that by evoking the more typical material and customary elements of folk culture, the fairy tale would become better suited for depicting the particular emotional and mental state of the folk (Volksgeist/folk spirit). The same practice can be observed in the editing process of the Grimm tales, too, wherein the fairy tales represent the typical toolkit of folk culture or the more typical elements of German folklore. 24 László Arany often used vernacular names for the characters in his tales, a practice that was intended to evoke the idealized peasant environment. Giving more vernacular names to fairy tale characters was also a common practice in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. It is common knowledge about the tale of the frog king (Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich, KHM 1) that the name of the royal servant was borrowed from Hartmann von Aue's 13th-century poem (Der Arme Heinrich), precisely because it sounded vernacular ( Rölleke ed. 1985:866). In László Arany's tale Dongó and Mohácsi, the servant girl who was unnamed in the manuscript version was called Marcsa (the vernacular form of Mary) in the published version; likewise, in the tale The Fawn, Arany chose to give the coachman a nickname when he named the protagonist of the tale Pista (a more direct and familiar form of Stephen). In Jankó and the Three Accursed Princesses, the protagonist's name in the manuscript was originally János (John), which Arany changed to the more vernacular-sounding Jankó (Johnny) in the published text ( Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018:402–423, 260–269, 318–331).
The vocabulary and phraseology of László Arany's fairy tales (opening and closing formulas, idioms and proverbs)
To László Arany, the rhythm ( Kovács 1974:126–135) and visual expression of the language of fairy tales were of paramount importance, which he effectively ensured through a broad variety and creative implementation of idioms and idiomatic phrasemes that often rhymed. Following the Grimm model, László Arany created his unique language of fairy tales through a rich set of phrasemes, the mobilization and consistent implementation of which made his fairy tale portrayals more elaborate and poetic than the ones in the manuscripts, and his depiction of emotions much more nuanced and expressive. László Arany often enhanced his tales with opening and closing formulas, proverbs, proverbial comparisons, and other idioms taken from phrasemes at various stages of entrenchment. This practice can be detected in almost every paragraph of all of his tales; these interpolated idiomatic expressions have no influence on the plot, yet they significantly modify the tales' style, making them more vernacular and graphic, animated, and easy-to-read. I believe that in addition to the clear, simple, and logical structure, it is through the insertion of these expressions that László Arany's tales became the standard for typical Hungarian folktale narration. László Arany systematically enriched his tales with these phraseme interpolations in the same way Wilhelm Grimm did with the texts in KHM. 25 One of the special features of the Grimms' tale editing practice was the addition of popular sayings and proverbs, which Wilhelm committed to in the sixth edition of Kinder und- Hausmärchen (1850) ( Grimm 1980:27). Proverbs systematically interpolated into Grimm tales have been noted by scholarship more than a hundred years ago as a peculiar feature of narrative style ( Tonnelat 1912:150–152), and Lothar Bluhm and Heinz Rölleke have devoted an entire volume to presenting and documenting this practice of Wilhelm's ( Bluhm – Rölleke 1997). Sayings and proverbs, in contrast to other forms of linguistic manifestation, are quite formulaic, and due to their relatively fixed structure, they can be remembered easily and thus recalled easily. By comparing the various editions of KHM and distinguishing the original passages from the amendments and modifications, the Grimm-philology revealed the way in which the brothers incorporated into their tales typical vernacular expressions taken from orality and various literary sources. Nearly 600 such subsequently interpolated idiomatic linguistic data were registered in KHM ( Bluhm – Rölleke 1997:34). Wolfgang Mieder is of the opinion that Wilhelm Grimm considered proverbs to be a typical stylistic hallmark of folktales, so this programmatic editorial practice of his was intended to imitate the language of the common folk in order to evoke the peasant, rural world, the supposed setting of their tales ( Mieder 1991:116). The textual world of László Arany's fairy tales was formed very similarly to the style of the Grimm tales, his idioms and proverbial expressions being one of the most striking features of his fairy tale poetics. In order to identify the typical set of words and phrases in the language of László Arany's fairy tales, I compared the Arany family's manuscripts with the versions of fairy tales published in Eredeti népmesék. I was interested in the linguistic features that characterize the style of László Arany's fairy tales, which is why I compared the extant manuscripts line by line with the published versions formed/rewritten by László Arany. Based on the texts published in Eredeti népmesék, I created a glossary of nearly 450 terms, encompassing the typical phrasemes, proverbs, and idioms that represent linguistic features that are different from the manuscript texts and can be specifically attributed to Arany's editorial practice. I believe that these interpolations, suitable for evoking the living, spoken language, are a fundamental hallmark of the distinct language of László Arany's fairy tales. Due to space limitations, the complete list cannot be reproduced here; the selected examples are intended to illustrate a few of the characteristic practices of Arany's fairy tale textology. 26 All of the tales of Eredeti népmesék abound in idiomatic phrases that were added later and are not found in the manuscript texts. In his published tales, instead of dying, for example, he would use more euphemistic syntagmas, like he is bargaining with otherworldly beings and one foot in the grave; a protagonist is not simply beautiful, but so beautiful that you'd have to look far and wide to find his/her match. The stepdaughter is not just ugly, but uglier than going backwards. To describe happiness and elation, he uses the expression he was in such a good mood that you could make him catch a bird. Some of the idiomatic phrases are typically related to fairy tale genres, including primarily the opening and closing formulas, as well as the transitional formulas linking the different episodes, all of which received particular attention in László Arany's theoretical writings, too (YI [Arany, L.] 1864:210; Arany, L. 1867:227). On the one hand, these opening and closing formulas allow the audience to enter and exit the world of the fairy tale; secondly, they determine the stylistic framework of the folktale; and thirdly, they define the relationship between the narrator and the narrated text, which is a kind of authorization gesture confirming the narrator's/storyteller's own authorship. László Arany often customized the opening and closing formulas while composing his tales. By varying the formulas and the order in which they appeared in the volume, he apparently consciously sought to avoid making his fairy tales monotonous. When it comes to the opening formulas of the published Arany tales, László Arany changed three quarters of the original formulaic tale openings found in the manuscripts, thus ensuring that his tales would start in a variety of ways (with fifteen different opening formulas). It seems that in the case of fairy tale closings, Arany was less concerned with diversity, and therefore customized text formation is less characteristic here: in the case of more than half of the tales, he retained the original closing formulas found in the manuscripts, and most of the tales conclude with variations of the formula and they lived happily ever after/they still live if they hadn't died, or if … had been …, my tale would have lasted longer, too. Arany often coined new words in his tales by doubling or repeating words, for example, to emphasize the emotional state of the tale's characters or to illustrate the passage of time (e.g., sírt-rítt/she wailed and wailed, addig-addig/as long as, vártak-vártak/they waited and waited). László Arany's method involved unifying these forms of expression, and their consistent, repeated use was meant to reinforce and establish their fairy tale character. The stylistic tool of constructing words that create rhythm yet also help convey meaning was obviously not invented by László Arany; nonetheless, it is significant in terms of the poetics of tales that Arany consciously employed these in the composition of his tales in Eredeti népmesék. Special mention should be made of László Arany's set of proverbial expressions, as he apparently ascribed a prominent stylistic value to these linguistic elements. This is indicated by the fact that Eredeti népmesék abound in the use of proverbs even in places where the manuscripts do not. In the entire published text corpus, there are more than half a hundred sayings that were added subsequently, almost as many proverbial comparisons, and dozens of proper proverbs, all of which had to have been included in the published fairy tale texts as a result of Arany's text formation. Some of these are common proverbs (e.g., nothing ventured nothing gained; one good turn deserves another), others are less common (e.g., if you swing an ax at something, you'd better keep moving it; he laid low like a fly after St. Michael's Day). The number of examples for illustrating the assortment of words and phrases found in László Arany's fairy tales could be expanded endlessly, but perhaps this will suffice to demonstrate how the consistent inclusion of formulas, idioms, and proverbs made László Arany's fairy tales more poetic while remaining within the realm of simplicity and folkishness.
Conclusion
László Arany ascribed exceptional importance to the work of the Brothers Grimm in the field of collecting and publishing fairy tales, which he put forward in many of his theoretical writings, both as collector and editor. To him, KHM was not just one of the fairy tale collections in a series of similar 19th-century European publications but served as a reference point for tale collection and tale research, as well as a base model for fairy tale editing and publication. This essay demonstrates how the genre and stylistic standards of folktales developed by the Brothers Grimm influenced the editorial and text formation practices implemented in the collection called Eredeti népmesék, published in 1862 under the authorship of László Arany. Given that the narrative style of László Arany's folktales has become the definitive narrative voice of Hungarian folktales in the last century and a half, the narrative text formation practices of the Brothers Grimm also played a role, albeit indirectly, in the development of the written, literary form of Hungarian folktales.
Acknowledgement
This paper was supported by NKFIH in the framework of grants PD 124746, FK 132220 and the Academic Committee of the János Arany Memorial Year hosted by the Institute of Literary Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. I would like to thank Katalin Vargha and Ildikó Landgraf for their helpful comments and suggestions.
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Appendix
Partial or complete type parallels of the Arany and Grimm tales.
| Title of László Arany's tale | Page numbers of the published tale | Type number | Serial number and title of Grimm tale |
| A vak király [The blind king] | Arany L. 1862:1–29. | ATU 550 | KHM 57 Der goldene Vogel |
| A boltos három lyánya [The shopkeeper's three daughters] | 1862:30–36. | ATU 923 | KHM 179 Die Gänsehirtin am Brunnen |
| Ráadó és Anyicska [Ráadó and Anyicska] | 1862:41–82. | ATU 313 | KHM 193 Der Trommler |
| Az aranyhajú herczegkisasszony [The golden haired princess] | 1862:83–99. | AaTh 403A; ATU 403+404 | KHM 135 Die weiße und die schwarze Braut |
| Az őzike [The fawn] | 1862:100–110. | ATU 450 | KHM 11 Brüderchen und Schwesterchen,
KHM 141 Das Lämmchen und Fischchen. |
| A veres tehén [The ginger cow] | 1862:111–127. | ATU 511+ATU 361* | KHM 130 Einäuglein, Zweiäuglein und Dreiäuglein |
| Az ördög-szerető [The devil lover] | 1862:153–162. | ATU 407 | KHM 160 Rätselmärchen |
| Jankó és a három elátkozott királykisasszony [Johnny and the three accursed princesses] | 1862:163–175. | ATU 400+ATU 518 | KHM 193 Der Trommler |
| Az ördög és a két lyány [The devil and the two girls] | 1862:176–186. | ATU 480D* | KHM 24 Frau Holle |
| Fehérlófia [Son of the white mare] | 1862:202–215. | ATU 301 | KHM 91 Dat Erdmänneken |
| Gagyi gazda [Master Gagyi] | 1862:220–231. | ATU 560 | KHM 104a Die treuen Tiere |
| Babszem Jankó [Johnny Bean] | 1862:232–245. | ATU 700+ATU 650A | KHM 37 Daumesdick |
| Dongó meg Mohácsi [Dongó and Mohácsi] | 1862:246–265. | ATU 1525E+ATU 1641+ ATU 1654 | KHM 98 Doktor Allwissend |
| A szomoru királykisasszony [The sad princess] | 1862:266–269. | ATU 571 | KHM 64 Die goldene Gans |
| A farkas-tanya [The wolves' house] | 1862:273–276. | ATU 210 | KHM 41 Herr Korbes |
| Panczimanczi [Panczimanczi] | 1862:277–284. | ATU 500+ATU 501 | KHM 14 Die drei Spinnerinnen
KHM 55 Rumpelstilzchen |
| A hólyag, szalmaszál és a tüzes üszök [The pig bladder, the straw, and the ember] | 1862:285–286. | ATU 295 | KHM 18 Strohhalm, Kohle und Bohne |
| A kakaska és a jérczike [Little rooster and little hen] | 1862:295–298. | ATU 2021 | KHM 80 Von dem Tode des Hühnchens |
| A két koszorú [The two wreaths] | 1862:299–304. | ATU 883B+ATU 510B | KHM 65 Allerleirauh |
| A kis ködmön [The little furcoat] | 1862:308–313. | ATU 1450+ATU 1384 (ATU 1229*+ATU 1245+ATU 1284*) | KHM 34 Die kluge Else |
| Az özvegy ember és az özvegy asszony [The widower and the widow] | manuscript tale, Domokos – Gulyás 2018:482–490. | ATU 480 | KHM 24 Frau Holle |
| Bolond Jankó [Foolish Johnny] | manuscript tale, Domokos – Gulyás 2018:492–498. | ATU 1696+ATU 1691+ATU 1653 | KHM 59 Der Frieder und das Katherlieschen |
János Arany (1817–1882), the greatest figure in Hungarian literature and prime representative of literary folklorism, played a fundamental role in the formation of popular national culture in the 19th century. László Arany (1844–1898), poet, translator, essayist; in the middle of the century, he was also involved in collecting and publishing works of folklore.
For more details, see Judit Gulyás' study in this issue.
László Arany's letter to Mihály Tompa, Pest, 18 July 1862 ( Tompa 1964:378). Nagykőrös (Pest county) is approx. 80 km from Budapest. This potential collection site is supported by the fact that at the time of the presumed creation of the manuscripts, it was the family's place of residence, as János Arany was a literature teacher at the Nagykőrös Reformed Grammar School from 1851 to 1860.
Dorothea Viehmann (1755–1815), who lived in a village called Niederzwehrn near Kassel, was the only storyteller the Brothers Grimm identifed by name in their published collection. She became an iconic figure, her portrait adorning the cover of the KHM volumes from the second edition onward. Thanks to the myth formation not independent of the Grimms, Frau Viehmann became a symbol of German (Hessian) and folk (peasant) storytelling, even though the woman herself – who had French ancestry on her paternal side – was not of the farming peasant class, given that her family were innkeepers and her husband a tailor. For more information on Dorothea Viehmann, see: Lauer 1998 and Erhardt 2012.
A nearly thousand-page-long manuscript folklore collection from all over Hungary, particularly representative of the northern Palóc of the Csallóköz region and the vicinity of Szeged, was exceptional at the time ( Ipolyi 2006).
In his book, Ipolyi interprets fairy tales and legends as fragments of old, lost myths, the scientific relevance of which was introduced by the Grimms ( Ipolyi 1854:VII).
Arany, J. 1968b:66. For more details on the English and Hungarian review, see Gulyás 2016.
The most prominent international annotation of Grimm tales lists only eight Hungarian Grimm translators, identifying by name only three from the 19th century, the first of whom is István Nagy ( Bolte – Polívka 1930 IV:479).
For details, see: Domokos 2019b. For a standalone source edition of Hungarian Grimm translations in 19th-century chapbooks, see Domokos 2020b.
This sweet anecdote is an internationally acknowledged element of the history of the Grimm cult; other versions also include the date of the visit: 4 July 1858 ( Bolte – Polívka 1930:456). The story was also mentioned in one of Wilhelm Grimm's letters to his girlfriend, dated 2 March 1859 in Berlin. The story appeared in a little-known issue of the Kölnische Zeitung, which may have served as a source for the Vasárnapi Ujság ( Reifferscheid hrsg. 1878:189–190, 253).
For the most recent survey of László Arany's interpretation of fairy tales, see Gulyás 2018.
In his study of fairy tales, László Arany referenced directly the following Grimm tales (the tales are listed based on their standardized serial numbers): KHM 1, 4, 7, 10, 11, 20, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 36, 39, 41, 45, 50, 53, 72, 110.
In the notes to the 1872 volume, László Arany referenced other tales from the Grimm collection in addition to those mentioned above: KHM 17, 21, 35, 44, 62, 73, 74, 75, 81, 94, 97, 112, 136, 148, 183, 189. For the history of the volume, see Domokos 2015:265–343.
Nearly 90% of Georg von Gaal's three-volume collection of tales ( Gaal 1857–1860) and nearly 82% of János Erdélyi's collections ( Erdélyi 1846–1848, 1855) are tales of magic ( Sárkány 1971:162).
Based on this definition, László Arany may have considered the following tales published in Eredeti népmesék to be children's tales: The Piglet and the Wolves (ATU 121), The Cat and the Mouse (ATU 2034), The Wolves' House (ATU 210), The Pig Bladder, the Straw, and the Ember (ATU 295), The Little Haggis (ATU 2028), Farkas-barkas (ATU 20C + 20A), The Little Rooster and the Little Hen (ATU 2021), The Weed and the Little Bird (ATU 2034A*), Iczinke-piczinke (ATU 2016), Why is the Pig Angry at the Dog, the Dog at the Cat, the Cat at the Mouse? (ATU 200) ( Arany, L. 1867:219).
See two letters of János Kriza to Pál Gyulai: Cluj-Napoca, 29 October 1862, and Cluj-Napoca, 19 November 1862 ( Szakál 2012:131, 122).
For details, see: Domokos 2018b:647. The Grimm tales have similarly been incorporated into the repertoire of German-language textbooks, cf. Tomkowiak 1993.
Between 1901 and 2016, nearly seventy different volumes of fairy tales had been published under the name of László Arany, not counting reissued and untitled tales. For a detailed bibliography of these, see: Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018:691–694.
For more details on the manuscripts' origins and their transcribers, see Domokos – Gulyás eds. 2018:27–31, 41–46.
Arany, L. 1901b:139. For more details on László Arany's concept of copyright, see Domokos 2015:362–369.
Among the narratives transcribed from orality, texts that came from literate, young, middle-class informants are dominant; it was primarily the narrative traditions of relocated, wealthy, French Huguenot families that had been recorded.
In the overview of the history of textual folklore paradigms, Lauri Honko refers to this period as the pre-textual phase ( Honko 2000:6–15).
See in particular the Arany critiques of the two László Merényi volumes of tales: Arany, J. 1968a and Y. I. [Arany, L.] 1864.
See, for example, KHM 59 (Der Frieder und das Catherlieschen) or KHM 61 (Das Bürle): Grimm 1980 1:304–311, 335–340.
For the text formation practices of the Brothers Grimm, see, e.g., Lüthi 1968:49; Neumann 1993; Blamires 2003.
I detail László Arany's text formation practice and his proverb interpolations in particular in a separate essay.
