CHAPTER I

Bibliography

General histories of Hungary. Undoubtedly the best is C. A. Macartney’s Hungary: A Short History (Edinburgh, 1962); D. Sinor’s History of Hungary (1959) is a concise summary by a non-specialist. For the early history of Hungarians cf. C. A. Macartney’s The Magyars in the Ninth Century (Cambridge,1930; reprint: 1968). It includes all the relevant source-material in translation. Lucid, controversial analysis. For Hungarian folklore, the introduction by Linda Dégh to her Folktales of Hungary (U. of Chicago, 1965). Finno-Ugrians and psychoactive drugs, R. Gordon Wasson: Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality (N. Y.,1968); and L. G. Czigány: ‘The Use of Hallucinogens and the Shamanistic Tradition of the Finno-Ugrian People’ (The Slavonic and East European Review, 1980). For a Freudian analysis of the Hungarian shamanistic tradition, Géza Róheim: Hungarian and Vogul Mythology (N. Y., 1954; reprinted: 1966). On the Hungarian language, L. Benkő and S. Imre: The Hungarian Language (The Hague, 1972) is the standard work. On the Finno-Ugrian languages, B. Collinder: Comparative Grammar of the Uralic Languages (Stockholm, 1960) and Péter Hajdu: Finno-Ugrian Languages and Peoples (1975).

There is no study in English on the beginnings of Hungarian literature. In Hungarian, J. Horváth’s A magyar irodalmi műveltség kezdetei (1931; 2nd ed. 1944) is still best. For the Lament of Mary cf. G. Mészöly: Ómagyar szövegek nyelvtörténeti magyarázatokkal (1956). On Hungarian words in English, I. Ullmann’s article in Hungarian Quarterly (1939/40). On English loanwords, L. Országh: Angol eredetű elemek a magyar szókészletben (1977). For the chronicles and related questions, C. A. Macartney: The Medieval Hungarian Historians (Cambridge, 1953) with original views, and with a critical guide to the various theories. For a Hungarian view, the penetrating studies of G. Győrffy, particularly his Krónikáink és a magyar őstörténet (1948). On the Hungarian vernacular poetry: R. Gerézdi: A magyar világi líra kezdetei (1962). Sir Philip Sidney’s testimony was first mentioned in this context by J. Pardoe in her article on early Hungarian literature in the Foreign Quarterly Review (1842). The best description of Sidney’s Hungarian sojourn is perhaps É. Róna’s ‘Sir Philip Sidney and Hungary’ (Annales Universitatis Scientiarum Budapestiensis. Sectio Philologica, vol. 2, 1960) with a good bibliography.

On Nicolaus de Hungaria’s record at Oxford in 1193 cf. H. Rashdall: The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (OUP, 1936). On the Hungarian medieval universities, A. Gábriel: The Medieval Universities of Pécs and Pozsony (Notre Dame, Ind., 1969).

Texts

The best edition of the earliest Hungarian texts, E. Jakubovich and D. Pais: Ómagyar olvasókönyv (Pécs,1929; reprint: 1971). D. Dercsényi, ed. The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (Taplinger, N.Y., 1970). Facsimile of the Latin original with English translation and extensive annotations. Hungarian legends in a popular adaptation, J. Domján: Hungarian Heroes and Legends (Princeton, NJ, 1963).