John Hunyadi in Hungarian Folklore and Historiography

Abstract The folk epic songs of a nation are often associated with heroic actions of famous historical figures of the given nation, whose names are often known beyond Balkan folklore, thus becoming characters of epic folk songs and tales preserved in South Slavic or Romanian folklore. The paper analyses Hungarian, Serbian, and Romanian folklore sources about John Hunyadi’s ethnic origin, with the intention to present the biography of this historical figure from the aspect of Hungarian historiography and his folklore heritage through the eyes of some Hungarian and Serbian folklorists. One of these emblematic heroes was certainly John Hunyadi, whose feats (as well as the feats of other members of the Hunyadi family) are told throughout the cycles of Hungarian epic folk tales, as well as the folk tales of the peoples in the surrounding area. This paper is based on the analysis of the collection of Hungarian historical folk tales by Dénes Lengyel, which contains a dozen texts about John Hunyadi. These texts have several points of contact with Romanian and Serbian history and folklore. The second part of the paper presents the biography of John Hunyadi in the light of Hungarian historiography as well as the discussion of his origins.