Vilmos Voigt's recent publication is closely related to his work as a university professor. As head of the Department of Folklore Studies at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest until 2005, he delivered a course of lectures on European folklore every year for decades. As one of his students, I remember how he would arrive with a huge pile of books, which he gradually handed round during his lectures. This was his way of indirectly teaching his initially confused and embarrassed (BA and MA) students to take a look at folklore collections and studies published not only in French, German, and English but also in Swedish, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Irish, Estonian, Finnish, Albanian, Spanish, Ukrainian (and so on). Or, even if we failed to turn their pages, at least to be aware that such sources and studies existed and that we were expected to know about them. In the same way — if it had not already been instilled in us by then — the need to think outside the box was eventually hammered home at the legendary exams held by Vilmos Voigt, which involved unconventional and occasionally apparently surreal questions and observations that have since become part of the folklore of folklore studies. This was all done with disarming ease, a certain nonchalance, as if a permanently international outlook was self-evident — even though (unfortunately) this is not the case in either current post-socialist or earlier socialist Hungarian folklore scholarship.
The European Folklore course was a synopsis of what Vilmos Voigt's students were, or should have been, aware of from the very beginning of every single folklore class during their five years of study: the fact that national (Hungarian) folklore cannot be discussed, understood, or interpreted in the absence of a European context. It is not only folkloristics but also folklore that is international, and the temporal and spatial connections are extremely diverse. Confinement within national traditions and disciplinary boundaries is self-limiting, and it is precisely this that hinders self-reflection. As the author puts it in the foreword to his book: “There is no need to prove the self-evident fact that Hungarian folklore cannot be truly understood without its European associations” (p. 12). This breadth of vision was characteristic of Vilmos Voigt's courses and his way of thinking, and it is also reflected in this book, where examples range from Greek myths through Irish tales to Spanish romances, Danish proverbs, Lithuanian song collections, the Dalmatian Attila tradition, and Sicilian puppet plays.
The notes from the European Folklore lecture course, which was delivered over decades and constantly revised, were not published at the time the course was taught, although some years ago, at the request of his students, Vilmos Voigt compiled this 500-page volume, which he referred to as an introduction for those interested in the subject. In it, he claims to mention only the most important reference works, although this is an understatement. Reading through the chapters brings to mind items on the reading lists of the various university courses he taught (from the ethnology of religion to folktales), although the literature is far richer and includes both rare and little-known works.
Vilmos Voigt presents European folklore in a historical rather than a regional context, as befits his comprehensive knowledge of European social, cultural, and literary history (acquired thanks to his extraordinary command of foreign languages), and with the consistent application of a comparative and historical approach. Although he includes an astonishing amount of information, the material is not presented in the form of a telephone directory; instead, he relies on associations and unexpected, creative connections. The author's examples include not only phenomena that are traditionally considered to be folklore but also works of fiction and fine art, as well as certain aspects of contemporary popular culture and mass culture, accompanied by a hint of sarcasm and the sober observation that to compare everything with everything is pointless and ultimately irrelevant.
The book consists of two main parts. The title of the first part, which comprises five chapters, is European Folklore 1: Beginnings and the Middle Ages. It first approaches Europe in mythological and poetic terms, before providing a geographical and historical introduction. The author discusses the meaning of the word Europe, its definitions and interpretations, and the ancient myth of the rape of Europa; he also analyzes the myth of Cadmus (the founder of Thebes), who arrived from the north — in other words, he examines the founding narratives associated with the emergence of a “non-European European culture,” complementing the text with representations of these myths in European art. In this context, he presents the ancient distinctions between East and West, Asia and Europe, the views held by the Greeks and Romans of the peoples to the east of them, as well as the way in which Greek and Roman epics reflect the search for ancestors and the claim to self-definition of their own European culture.
Where are the borders of Europe? And why are they where they are? The author offers an overview of geographical and historical answers to such questions. The western and northern frontiers of Europe are the subject of texts in Irish literature concerning miraculous journeys (immram). The saga manuscripts talk of the settlement of Iceland and Greenland and the discovery of North America (Vinland), raising the problem of the emergence and demise of the Viking settlements in Greenland and the presumed American settlements. In the context of the vast territories covered by the Vikings, the author turns to the southern frontiers of Europe, the importance of the islands and the Mediterranean Sea (its size, navigability, and cultural, economic, and social significance), and the self-perpetuating history of the Mediterranean region. Finally, he refers to the classics of Greek historiography and geography, and to ethno-characteristics in relation to the eastern frontier of Europe.
The discussion of borders is followed by an overview of the main findings of archaeological research into phenomena that can be considered as the initial manifestations of ancient art and of possible ancient European folklore. Here, he touches on views concerning the formation and origins of Indo-European languages, the various writing systems and their deciphering, the role of literacy in the understanding of early cultures, the interaction of literacy and the oral arts in a variety of contexts (religion, economy, science, poetry), and the examination of recent popular, pseudo-scientific notions of prehistory (e.g., paradise in South-East Asia, the Swedish Atlantis). On the theme of ancient folklore, the author investigates the comparability of Greek epic and folklore; the question of Greek irrationalism; slave culture; the appearance of Greco-Roman self-reflection in the formation and chronology of their own society in terms of written monuments and representative architecture; traces of folklore in ancient literature; the influence of late Roman craftsmanship on European culture after the fall of the Roman Empire; and also, following Jung, the way in which Christianity, which came to dominate the Roman Empire, has influenced our conscious or unconscious, typically European symbolic world.
Moving on to medieval European folklore, the author discusses the main types of feudalism in Western Europe, as well as the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the impact of the Crusades (in this context, with reference to Tasso and the knightly romances), the question of nomads and the migrations of peoples, the relationship between the King Midas narrative type and the Attila (the Hun) tradition — to name just a few of the topics covered.
The second part, European Folklore 2: From Modern Times to the Present, contains 21 chapters dealing with the period beginning in the sixteenth century. Topics addressed include the invention of the printing press, which influenced oral communication and folklore; the expansion of trade; the “discovery” of continents and peoples; geographical and scientific explorations, voyages, and colonization; patterns in descriptions of encounters with indigenous peoples and the indigenous peoples' own narratives about these encounters; the Copernican Revolution; the rise of Protestantism; publishing in the vernacular (national languages) and the importance of translations; the perception and demarcation of old and new cultures and customs; the search for tradition; interest in the “exotic savage” and the “native savage”; the popular culture of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries; the intellectual history of European interest in folklore; the emergence of the concept of folklore and its meanings; interest in European folklore and its relationship to the national cultural canon; the problem of dating and locating folklore phenomena; the relationship between folklore and literacy; the multiple links between writer, manuscript, and folklore; views on the origins of certain folklore genres; the problem of working-class culture; the question of immigrants and migrants; and the distinction between old and new folklore.
The wealth of the topics covered and the examples provided is illustrated by the fact that the 500-page book ends with a 40-page index of names, places, and titles, which, besides the authors of academic literature, specifically includes characters from mythology, the Bible, folklore, and film, such as Prince Bolkonsky, Puss in Boots, Abaris, Miss Marple, Scota, King Lear, Patroclus, Dukljan, Kitovras, Bramimonde, Fingal, Grendel, Siegfried, Míl Espáine, Saint Guinefort the greyhound, and Woland.
With his extensive knowledge of foreign languages, his bibliophilia, inexhaustible curiosity towards multilingual international literature and source works, interdisciplinary knowledge, interest in methodology and theory, unique, encyclopedic knowledge, and his creative ideas and provocative questions, Vilmos Voigt is an exceptional scholar of Hungarian folklore studies. In the foreword to this book, dated on his eightieth birthday, he wrote: “European folklore is not to be found in individual folklore accounts and fieldwork journals, but in the ‘great’ paradigms. In my lectures, papers, and books, I have made a determined and consistent effort to show what can be interpreted as a folklorist in European culture” (p. 15). Students of Hungarian folklore can consider themselves fortunate and honored to learn from a true European scholar, who has communicated the lessons of European folklore.