"Ezer telik, ezer nem, kő kövön nem marad." : előjelek, jövendölések a mondákban

Stories about predictions of war and catastrophes form a rich subgroup of Hungarian legends. These stories are mostly on the verge of the genres, belief legend and historical legend. Several variants of the legend are known all over the Carpathian Basin in which the Halley Comet, frequent meteor showers, and other rare astronomical phenomena are interpreted as the omens (heavenly signs) of world wars. Sometimes, in the stories interpreting the predictions of great historical events and changes, epidemics and famines, the end-of-theworld-feeling is also expressed. One specific type of the miner legends is the stories interpreting signs warning of disasters in mines (animals, strange voices, ghosts and other warnings of the coming danger). Besides great historical changes, the arrival of great men and extraordinary heroes were also predicted in the narratives. The characteristic feature of the heroes in historical legends is that the circumstances of their birth predicts their future greatness, the legend foretells their fates, the hero's birth is signalled by a star, he is born with a caul or with one more finger. All the hard historical times had their own heroes to help their peoples. The hero's birth can be anticipated from certain signs, it is awaited, his future great deeds are foretold (see Kossuth, Petőfi, the outlaws, etc.). The faith in re-emerging, immortal heroes (a rich thematic group of historical legends) is connected to this very expectation

Erzsébet, a magyarok királynéja : második Szent Erzsébet

The essay examines the reasons of her popularity among the Hungarian people and her image in the 19th century popular literature (Elizabeth 1837-1898; Austrian empress, Hungarian queen). In the second part of the 19th century a great many books were published about Elizabeth honouring her name-day, birthday, wedding anniversaries and other official occasions. However, most of these books were only published in commemoration after her death. In them Elizabeth is often portrayed as a second Saint Elizabeth, being compared to Saint Elizabeth of the House of Árpád (1207-1231). Many similarities in the details of their lives are commented upon. This resemblance between the two queens is also found in folklore