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In this group of historical songs and songs of valour (vitézi énekek), we find a good number of songs, some that are partly folk in origin, some that have become folklore, and some connected with other events than their genre would indicate. At the same time they illuminate the historical awareness and knowledge of the people, which barely extends further than three or four generations, so that it is in vain to expect in these songs names of persons or exact time sequences. Folk poetry is not some kind of history of events but rather an emotional judgement of certain situations and groups of events, which can be manifested in identical or similar ways in difficult eras. Yet in spite of all this, in Hungarian folk poetry the turning points of history have been well selected, those moments when the cause of the people, the cause of freedom, came to a decisive turn. This is why we find a good number of folksongs referring to the devastation caused by the Mongolians and Turks, songs recording the feelings during the time of the 17th and 18th century insurrections under Thököly and Rákóczi, and during the 1848 War of Independence. Folk poetry selects heroes who truly represent the people: King Matthias, Rákóczi, Kossuth and others.
King Matthias (Mátyás), the Renaissance ruler who lived in the 15th century, is a frequent figure in folk poetry, but we meet him first of all in legends. The song below was supposedly sung at the time of his election as king, but it has also found its way into collections of folk poetry:
| All his lands, not one excepted, |
| Mátyás as their king elected; |
| He it was that God has sent us |
| For to keep Hungary protected. |
| That is why we’ve chosen him, too, |
| As a gift from God in heaven. |
| Thanks be given for it to Him |
| Ever and aye say we: Amen! |
{487.} The devastation caused by Turkish-Mongol troops has been preserved more by legend than by song; politically motivated and military men liked to repeat these even later on, which is why collectors found few such songs, and these are likely to have been born in later times:
| Do you see, my true-love, |
| Yonder dry old asp-tree? |
| When its leaves are greening, |
| Then shall I, dear, see thee. |
| God, I know my own tree |
| Will again all green be, |
| With the blooming spring-time |
| Back again thou will be. |
| Let us fell it, true-love, |
| Yonder dry old asp-tree, |
| Let us make it into |
| A gallows high and sturdy! |
| Let’s the Turkish sultan |
| Hang upon them gallows, |
| Let him cause no mothers |
| No more griefs nor sorrows. |
Hódmezővásárhely (Csongrád County) |
A few scanty memories have remained from the time of Turkish rule, not infrequently in the songs of outlaws (betyárdal):
| Word I’ll send the pasha up in Gyula town: |
| He had better leave us outlaws well alone; |
| If he does not, lordamighty! he’ll repent it sore! |
| I shall go and bring his head back beard, mustache and whiskers, all! |
Nagyszalonta (former Bihar County) |
At the time of the Rákóczi War of Liberation (1703–1711) the hope glimmered that the Hungarians and the Carpatho-Ruthenian and Slovak peoples, who lived together with them, would be freed from Habsburg oppression. This is why the serfs poured out to serve under the flags of Prince Rákóczi and why songs about this can be found in the folk poetry of all three nations. The following is a successful version of a written work which became folklore:
The following is the folksong most commonly known and most widely spread in the country, considered to be of Kuruc origin (the Kuruc were Rákóczi’s soldiers).
| Such fine man as you, Tyukodi comrade! |
| Not a Blaise Kucuk, who has us betrayed. |
| Let there be then in our land feast, |
| Wine to celebrate! |
| Many fillérs, many thalers |
| Costs this war, comrade! |
Tyukod (Szatmár County) |
After the defeat of the insurrection, Ferenc Rákóczi died in Turkish exile, but hope for his return echoed in folksongs for a long time to come:
| O Rákóczi! O Bercsényi! |
| Victors proud of brave campaigns, ye! |
| Our wounds are still a -gaping, |
| Our pains are not abating. |
| O Rákóczi! O Bercsényi! |
| Victors brave of proud campaigns, ye! |
| Were you still among the living, |
| You would be this land defending. |
Mezőberény (Békés County) |
Soldiers’ songs (katonadal) after the Kuruc era, just like songs later on, talk about the miseries of soldiering for foreign interests:
The youngest shoots of the historical and heroic songs that live to this day are connected to the 1848–49 Hungarian War of Independence. At this time the Hungarian serfs were liberated from under feudal authority, and memories of this act are preserved in folksongs:
| Eighteen hundred eight and forty |
| Was the year that freedom won we; |
| Serve we shall no lordships ever, |
| All the world is free forever! |
| I have land to plough at leisure, |
| Bide my lunch-time at my pleasure. |
| Love is all I have for dinner: |
| Hug my sweet rose for to win her. |
Kalotaszentkirály (former Kolozs County) |
Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the nation that was fighting for its liberty, stands in the centre of the songs; more than five hundred songs about him have been recorded by the collectors. Over the entire country the well-known “Kossuth Song” in particular became virtually the symbol of the War of Independence. The following is one among the many versions:
| Lajos Kossuth sent a summons: |
| He is short of troops, battalions. |
| If it’s two or three that’s missin’, |
| Gladly we shall thirteen send him. |
| Long live the Magyar! |
| Lajos Kossuth sent a summons: |
| He has too few troops, battalions. |
| If he once more sends his callin’, |
| All of us must go and fall in. |
| Long live the Magyar! |
The Great Plain |
The mention of the second message refers to an old tradition, namely, that, when in the Middle Ages the king called the nobility to arms, they gathered only at the second call. We also find the “Kossuth Song” among the neighbouring Carpatho-Ukrainians (Ruthenians) and Slovaks. The young men voluntarily joined up under the flag of Kossuth, because they knew that their blood would be spilled in the cause of liberty:
This successful, half-folk creation already appeared in newspapers during the War of Independence, and it spread widely among the people. And when, faced with the superior number of the enemy, the Hungarians surrendered on the field of Világos, near Arad, songs like the following took wing:
| Silken flags in battlefield are fluttering, |
| Round them mourning Magyar lads are gathering. |
| Don’t be crying cavalrymen’s faithful band, |
| With your blood must you redeem your motherland! |
| Arad heard the band still play a merry tune; |
| Then Világos came to be the country’s tomb. |
| God Himself bemoaned us and he seemed to doubt |
| If one Magyar e’er could ride that tempest out. |
| Sorrow gripped the heart of every soldier |
| When he fled to Hungary’s fair frontier. |
| Up to knees his horse had waded in the blood, |
| Yet they nipped the country’s freedom in the bud. |
Galgahévíz (Pest County) |
Afterwards the Hungarians in their songs continued to expect Kossuth’s return, along with the return of his generals and that of the leader of the Italian wars of unification, Garibaldi:
The songs of the War of Independence were collected primarily from the centre of the country, from the Great Plain, and only much less frequently has a version or two come to light from the peripheries of the linguistic territory.
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