Hungarian literature

Hungarian literature is literature written in the Hungarian language, predominantly by Hungarians. Hungarian literature may also include literature written in another language than Hungarian (mostly Latin) which is significant due to its Hungary-related topic or if it includes fragments in Hungarian. While virtually unknown in the Anglosphere for centuries, Hungary's literature gained renown by the end of the 20th century thanks to a new wave of internationally accessible writers like Antal Szerb, Sándor Márai, Imre Kertész and Magda Szabó.

Middle Ages and before

The beginning of the history of Hungarian language as such (and so the proto-Hungarian period) is set to 1000 B.C., when – according to current scientific understanding – it separated from its closest relatives, the Ob-Ugric languages.

In the earliest times Hungarian language was written in a runic-like script (although it was not used for literature purposes in the modern interpretation). The country switched to the Latin alphabet 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 counted from 896 A.D., when the Hungarians occupied the Carpathian Basin, settled down and started to build their own state. Not long after followed the creation of the first written extant records.

The oldest written record in Hungarian is a fragment in the founding document 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 sound as "a Fehérvárra menő had [i] útra" in today's Hungarian.) The rest of the document was written in Latin.

The oldest complete text is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer "(Halotti beszéd és könyörgés)" (1192–1195), a translation of a Latin sermon. (See also Funerary text and the links below.)

The oldest poem is the Old Hungarian Laments of Mary "(Ómagyar Mária-siralom)", also a (not very strict) translation from Latin, from the 13th century. It is also the oldest surviving Finno-Ugric 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 fit to represent all the sounds in Hungarian language, as diacritic marks and double letters had not been developed yet.

During the Middle Ages and well into the Renaissace the language of writing was mostly Latin. Important Latin-language 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 the unknown author usually called "Anonymus", 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 "Képes krónika" (Illustrated Chronicle), which was written for Louis the Great.

Renaissance and Baroque

Renaissance literature flourished under the reign of King Matthias (1458–1490). Janus Pannonius, although 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' reign, by András Hess, in Buda. The first book printed in Hungary was the "Chronica Hungarorum".

In the 1526 most of Hungary fell under Ottoman occupation, which date is where the beginning of Middle Hungarian Period is set, in connection with various cultural changes.

The most important poets of the period was Bálint Balassi (1554–1594) and Miklós Zrínyi (1620–1664). Balassi's poetry shows Mediaeval influences, his poems can be divided into three sections: love poems, war poems and religious poems. Zrínyi's most significant work, the epic "Szigeti veszedelem" ("Peril of Sziget", written in 1648/49) is written in a fashion similar to "The Iliad", and recounts the heroic Battle of Szigetvár, where his great-grandfather died while defending the castle of Szigetvár.Among the religious literary works the most important is the Bible translation by Gáspár Károli, the Protestant pastor of Gönc, in 1590. The translation is called the "Bible of Vizsoly", after the town where it was first published. (See Hungarian Bible translations for more details.) Another important religious work is the "Legend of Saint Margaret", copied by Lea Ráskai around 1510 from an earlier work that didn't survive.

Enlightenment and the language reform

The Hungarian enlightenment delayed about fifty years compared to the Western European enlightenment. The new thoughts arrived to Hungary across Vienna. The first enlightened writers were Maria Theresia's bodyguards (György Bessenyei, János Batsányi and so on). The greatest poets of the time was Mihály Csokonai Vitéz and Dániel Berzsenyi.

The greatest figure of the language reform was Ferenc Kazinczy. The Hungarian language became feasible for scientific explanations this time, farther a lot of new words were coined for describing new inventions (for example, "mozdony", which means locomotive. Previously the term "lokomotív" was used.)

Romanticism and Reform period

20th century

Gallery

ee also

*List of Hungarian writers,
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External links

General

* [http://mek.oszk.hu/02000/02042/html/index.html A History of Hungarian Literature (From the Earliest Times to the mid-1970s) by Lóránt Czigány]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/00000/00017/ Albert Tezla: Hungarian authors – A bibliographical handbook]
* [http://www.ssees.ac.uk/abondolo.htm An overview of Hungarian literature by Daniel Abondolo]
* [http://www.ssees.ac.uk/bahees.htm A brefer view, from the 'same' source]
* [http://www.magyarorszag.hu/angol/orszaginfo/kultura/irodalom Hungarian literature] summarized at the administrative website of Hungary
* [http://www.hlo.hu/ Hungarian Literature Online]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/html/vgi/kereses/keresesujt.phtml The Hungarian Electronic Library]
* [http://translations.bookfinder.hu/indexa.htm Database for translations of Hungarian literary works]
* [http://www.hungarianbookfoundation.hu/Html/Hunagrian_authors.htm Selected bibliographies of important Hungarian authors]

pecific sources

* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01955/html/index282.html Funeral Oration and Prayer]
* [http://users.tpg.com.au/etr/oldhu/halotti.html Sermon above the grave or the Funeral Oration]
* [http://www.brindin.com/pwpoth.htm#hungarian Hungarian poems in English]

Literary chapters from the "Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica" (1–5)

* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01993/html/index3.html The Remains of Oral Tradition; The Beginning of Literacy (from the beginnings till 1038)]
* [http://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)]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01949/html/index3.html The Level of Education; Authors, Genres, Works (1301-1437)]
* [http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01919/html/index3.html Hungarian Literature; Latin Literature; Humanist Literature (1437-1526)]
* [http://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.)