György Gaal's Collection of Hungarian Folk Tales

György Gaal (Georg von Gaal)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5

Word count: 297K words
Chapters: 30

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Gaal György magyar népmese-gyűjteménye (2. kötet) by György GaalAuthor: Gaal, György, 1783-1855,Language: Hungarian, Class: PH: Language and Literatures: Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures, Release Date: Apr 1, 2012

Editor's review

This is the second volume of a Hungarian folk-tale collection compiled by the Hungarian writer and folklorist György Gaal (1783–1855), presented in Hungarian and falling within Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures. Its value lies in preserving early nineteenth-century Hungarian folk narrative texts, offering primary material for the study of Hungarian folklore, folk-literary genres and linguistic style. Its highlight is the plain, oral-tradition character of the tales, making it suitable for textual analysis from comparative-literature and folklore perspectives. It is mainly read as academic reference or as extended reading for those interested in Central and Eastern European folk tales. Because it is an early Hungarian-language original, it is difficult for non-specialists to read directly; a translation or scholarly introduction is recommended alongside it.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars studying Hungarian or Central and Eastern European folk literature
Researchers in comparative folklore and oral literature
Students of language and literature with reading ability in Hungarian
Cultural enthusiasts interested in nineteenth-century European folk-tale collections

Not a good fit for

General readers without Hungarian who need a Chinese translation
Readers expecting modern adaptations or illustrated children's books
Beginners needing systematic scholarly introductions and detailed annotations

Reading tips

First learn the historical background of nineteenth-century Hungarian folklore collecting, then approach the text.
Read it alongside comparable European folk-tale collections to observe similarities and differences in motifs.
Read by tale type in groups to facilitate motif indexing and comparative analysis.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Hungarian or English?

The materials show that the book is in Hungarian, classified under Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures. It is not an English or Chinese translation, and reading it requires Hungarian.

Is this the first or second volume of the collection?

The materials identify the book as the second volume (2. kötet) of György Gaal's Hungarian folk-tale collection, not a single complete volume; readers who want the full content will also need the first volume.

Is it suitable as a bedtime storybook for children?

Not really. This is the original text of an early nineteenth-century folk-tale collection, with archaic language and no modern adaptation or illustrations; it is better suited to research than to children's reading.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

György Gaal (Georg von Gaal) Author · Hungarian · 1783–1855

György Gaal (1783–1855) was a Hungarian collector of folk tales, born in Pozsony (present-day Bratislava), who long served in the imperial government in Vienna. Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, he gathered folk tales over more than two decades from Hungarian soldiers stationed in Vienna and others, publishing a German edition, Märchen der Magyaren, in Vienna in 1822. His Hungarian-language legacy was published in 1857–1860, constituting the first systematic Hungarian collection of folk tales and preserving valuable material for later Hungarian folklore and folk-literature studies. Three of his works are held in this collection, all connected with his folk-tale collection; public information is limited, and details of his life and scholarly assessment await further research.