Hungarian mythology

Hungarian mythology includes the myths, legends, folk tales, fairy tales and gods of the Hungarians. Many parts of it are thought to be lost, i.e. only some texts remained which can be classified as a myth. However, Hungarian mythology was successfully recovered in the last hundred years. The most important sources are:

*Folklore, as a lot of mythological persons remained in folk tales, folk songs, legends, also special traditions linked to special dates which are not known elsewhere
*Medieval chronicles, codexes
*Writings about Hungarians by non-Hungarian authors (mostly before 850)
*Archeology helped to assemble the religion.

Hungarians were converted to Christianity in the 11th century under their first monarch, Saint-King Stephen I.

The mythology in brief

The world is divided into three spheres: the first is the Upper World ("Felső világ"), the home of the gods; the second is the Middle World ("Középső világ") where is the world we know, and finally the underworld ("Alsó világ"). In the center of the world, a tall tree is standing: the World Tree / Tree of Life / Life Tree ("Világfa"). Its foliage is the Upper World. The Middle World is located at its trunk and the underworld is around its roots. In some stories, the tree has fruits: these are the golden apples.

Upper World

The gods and the good souls live in the Upper World. Gods have the same rank, although the most important figure of them is "Isten" (meaning 'God' in Hungarian). He controls the world, shapes the fate of humans, observes the Middle World from the sky, and sometimes gives warning by lightning ("mennykő"). Isten created the world with the help of "Ördög" ("the devil" Evil). Other gods include: Istenanya (Mother God), Hadúr (War Lord or Army Lord) and Boldogasszony (Virgin Mary, Blessed Lady, Bountiful Queen).

The major celestial bodies, the Sun and the Moon), are also located in the Upper World. The sky was thought to be a big tent held up by the Tree of Life. There are several holes on it: those are the stars.

Middle World

The Middle World is shared among humans and many mythological creatures, the latter are often supernatural. There are ghosts of the forests and waters, who are ordered to scare humans. They have different names in different places. There are females, for example, the "sellő" (mermaid), which lives in waters and has a human torso with the tail of a fish. The wind is controlled by an old lady called "Szélanya" (Wind Mother) or "Szélkirály" (Wind King). The "Sárkány" (dragon) is a frightening beast: he is the enemy of many heroes in fairy tales, symbolising the psychical inner struggle of the hero. The "lidérc" is a ghostly, mysterious creature with several different appearances, its works are always malicious. The "manó"k (elves) and the "törpe"k (dwarfs) are foxy beings living in woods or under the ground. "Óriások" (giants) live in the mountains. They have both good and bad qualities. The most favourite creatures are the "tündérek", who are beautiful and young virgins or female angels. They aid humans, who sometimes can ask three wishes from them. Their opposites are the "bábak", who are equated with catty, old witches.

Underworld

The Underworld is the place of bad souls (this includes evil spirits and the souls of dead people who were cruel and evil in their lives) and the home of Ördög. He is the creator of everything that is bad for humans: for example, the creator of the annoying animals (such as fleas, lice, and flies).

Religion

One of the theory of the ancient Hungarian religion is that it was a form of Tengriism, a shamanistic religion common among the early Turkic, Uralic and Mongol people, that was influenced by Zoroastrianism from the Persians whom the Magyars had encountered during their westward migration.

The main character of the religion were the "táltos". Their souls were thought to be able to travel between the three spheres ("révülés"). Táltos' were doctors too, and they served well. They were selected by fate; their slight abnormalities at birth (neonatal teeth, caulbearer, etc.) were believed to be the sign of a divine order. The steps of their introduction:
# Climbing up on the "shaman ladder/shaman tree" symbolized the World Tree;
# Drenching the ghosts: drinking the blood of the sacrificed animal.They had the ability to contact spirits by specific rituals and praying. Thus, they interpreted dreams, mediated between humans and spirits, cured and removed curses, and had an ability to find and bring back lost souls. They directed animal sacrifices and guessed the reason of an ancestor's anger.

After death, the human soul leaves the body. The body is buried by relatives on the other bank of a river, looking towards east. If the soul had been good, it gets to the Other World (Túlvilág), for eternal peace. If it had been bad, it must suffer in the underworld (Alsó Világ, Alvilág), where Ördög ("the devil") and numerous evil ghosts live.

Persons, creatures, gods

Remnants in folkore

Shamanistic remnants

Comparative methods can reveal, that some motifs of folktales, some fragments of songs or rhymes of folk customs preserved fragments of the old belief system. Some records narrate us about shaman-like figures directly. Shamanistic remnants in Hungarian folklore was researched among others by Diószegi Vilmos, based on ethnographic records in Hungary and comparative works with various shamanisms of some Siberian peoples. [Diószegi 1998] Hoppál continued his work of studying Hungarian shamanistic belief remnants, [Hoppál 1998] comparing shamanistic beliefs of Uralic language relatives of Hungarians [Hoppál 1975] with those of several non-Uralic Siberian peoples as well. [Hoppál 2005] [Hoppál 1994]

ee also

* Pole, Hungarian, two good friends

Notes

References

*hu icon Zoltán Pintér: "Mitológiai kislexikon." Szalay Könyvkiadó és Kereskedőház Kft., 1996.
* The title means: “Remnants of shamanistic beliefs in Hungarian folklore”.
* The title means: “"Uralic peoples. Culture and traditions of our linguistic relatives"”; the chapter means “Linguistical background of the relationship”.
*
* The title means “Shamans in Eurasia”, the book is written in Hungarian, but it is published also in German, Estonian and Finnish. [http://www.akkrt.hu/main.php?folderID=906&pn=2&cnt=31&catID=&prodID=17202&pdetails=1 Site of publisher with short description on the book (in Hungarian)]
* The title means: “Uralic peoples / Culture and traditions of our linguistic relatives”; the chapter means “The belief system of Uralic peoples and the shamanism”.