"Obsidio Szigetiana" : meditáció a Zrínyiász magyar címadásáról

Abstract

This study focuses on the Hungarian title of Obsidio Szigetiana, which 'has been declared the national epic of Hungary. Miklós Zrínyi's original title is in Latin, but in the nineteenth century it needed a Hungarian title in order to become a fundamental work of national literature. Therefore it has been known as "Szigeti veszedelem" ("Sziget in danger") since then, but this title was not given by the famous interpreters of the epic, but by an editor of the text, Gábor Kazinczy. His edition offers a simple solution: the Hungarian version is taken from the first sentence of the preface of the book. My intention is to highlight that this modification overemphasizes the negative aspects of the epic's interpretation, which is darkened not only by the historical background of the author's era but also the unexpected death of the politician-poet and the downfall of Transylvania. Although there were more precise variants invented by Ferenc Kazinczy and János Arany, this version has become canonical. The author of the first literary history of Hungary, Ferenc Toldy had collaborated in Gábor Kazinczy's Zrínyi-edition; that is why he chose not the literal, but the figurative sense of the word 'obsidio.' This paper claims that in the seventeenth century the epic had suggested a much more optimistic future of Hungary than what is seen in the later reception. The later interpretations of the work - which were fortified by the chosen Hungarian title - made this work fit among the famous examples of "heroic pessimism," to be a part of Hungarian self-identity. This paper cannot change it, it only wants to point out the philological base of this re-interpretation.