Столетия нашей литературы
Eight Centuries of Our Literature

Author(s): Géza Vasy
Subject(s): Hungarian Literature
Published by: Napkút Kiadó Kft.
Summary/Abstract: Why is the oldest surviving fragment of Hungarian literature only 800 years old? After all, scholars have discovered that the Hungarian language became independent about three thousand years ago, and it was clear that already then myths, legends, tales, and songs existed in the language. It was a long road, however, that led to a writt en literature. We have only traces of ancient poetry – to which writt en allusions were made later – but no original texts have survived. And even when we consider the 800 years of writt en literature in Hungarian, it was only later – with the advent of the Enlightenment and, even more so, the Romantic period – that this extremely rich material, the surviving ancient poetry, which had presumably changed a great deal compared with the original, was collected, recorded, and integrated into the literary culture.

• Details
• Contents