„… egy áldott emlékezetű királyné…”
“...a queen of blessed memory...”

Additions to the development of Mór Jókai’s mythical picture of Elisabeth

Summary/Abstract: Mór Jókai played a crucial role in Queen Elisabeth's cult in Hungary, almost unnoticed did he become one of its main ideologist by formulating the identification elements that had always represented the dominant segment of Elisabeth's reception in Hungary. In this respect, his activity after Elisabeth's death is well known: his public appearances, his numerous publications, including his obituaries, are rich sources from which passages reappear time and again as oft-quoted sentences in books dedicated to her memory, though occasionally in corrupted or truncated forms. But even his earlier writings are rather remarkable and – foreshadowing the ever more evident expressions of his sympathy with the Habsburgs – can be regarded, alongside the court anecdotes, as the main current of the cult's (text) corpus. At the time, the portrayals of Elisabeth were always characterized by an ecstatic approach and passionate idealization (obviously, even in the case of Jókai). Only within this framework was there any room for diversity, with the extension of previously described elements, which meant an ever broadening scope, continuously enriching the picture of Elisabeth. At the same time, the repetition of the previous motifs of reverence was also more obvious. At first, this could have seemed a compulsion, but later it became an integral part of the cult.

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