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Thursday, April 12, 2018

K is for Kalamona (WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales)

Welcome to this year's A to Z Challenge titled WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales! You can find all other participating blogs on the A to Z Challenge main blog.

 I mentioned Kalamona earlier this week, and now I'm circling back to him. Her. It. (The Hungarian language doesn't have gendered pronouns)
Honestly, no one is even sure what Kalamona is.

Szélkötő Kalamona (Wind-binding Kalamona) is the villain of one of our famous fairy tales, to which it gave its title. Story begins with the King of All Kings, who is visited by a terrifying monster with a mouth large enough to swallow a cart. Kalamona demands the King's daughter; locked out of the castle, it comes down the chimney, and threatens to destroy the kingdom if it does not get the princess. The King still refuses. Kalamona then goes off and shackles all the winds, except for the North Wind. The crops don't grow, rain doesn't fall, the people of the kingdom begin to starve, and then to freeze.

So, obviously, a hero has to set out to free the winds.

After many adventures, our hero, Rontó arrives on his magic horse with his magic sword to fight Kalamona and release the winds. Kalamona lives in a diamond palace on a mountain; it kidnaps a princess every year, and when it is bored of her, it sends her to another palace, made of ice. The ice palace is full of old princesses, and they have to blow on the castle constantly to keep it nice and cool.
We also find out that Kalamona keeps its incredible strength in the string of its pants. Talk about symbolism. The great part in this tale is that when Rontó defeats Kalamona, he throws it to the princesses that have been living in captivity for years... and the princesses tear the villain apart.

No one is entirely sure what Kalamona is. The most popular theory is that Kalamona is a dragon, one of those part-beast part-wizard storm-related dragon archetypes we have in many Hungarian folktales. It binds the winds and creates devastation, and a hero has to fight it to set nature right again (much like all the stories where celestial bodies have to be released).
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11 comments:

  1. Nilanjana BoseApril 12, 2018 at 7:19 AM

    My mother tongue - Bengali, doesn't have genderised pronouns either. Makes life a lot easier even though a bit ambiguous :) Besides I like a little ambiguity in my folktales...

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  2. Mail AdventuresApril 12, 2018 at 9:43 AM

    An interesting character. I love the illustration, even if nobody is sure that Kalamona looks like it :)

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  3. Iain KellyApril 12, 2018 at 1:11 PM

    Enjoyed this one, I tried to write a futuristic story in English where gender identifiers were no longer used - no he or she - but gave up, it just doesn't make for good writing!
    https://iainkellywriting.com/2018/04/12/k-is-for-komarno-slovakia-and-komarom-hungary/

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  4. AnonymousApril 12, 2018 at 1:27 PM

    This is my favourite one so far. I love this character.

    Kickstarts by The Wanted

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  5. Sue BursztynskiApril 12, 2018 at 2:09 PM

    Very strange! I can't help picturing all those princesses blowing on the castle to ... keep it cool? I suppose if it starts to melt, they will be in big trouble! But the image is bizarre!

    There is definitely something coarse about Hungarian folktales, if the ones you have described are any example! ;-)

    K Is For Robin Klein

    https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-2018-k-is-for.html

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  6. Deborah WeberApril 12, 2018 at 7:25 PM

    I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but I have to say I do like a hero who frees the winds and old princesses.

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  7. KristinApril 12, 2018 at 7:30 PM

    Interesting that Hungarian has no gender identifiers.
    http://findingeliza.com/

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  8. Heather EricksonApril 12, 2018 at 8:51 PM

    I like the idea of shackling the wind!

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  9. Tasha Duncan-DrakeApril 19, 2018 at 4:04 PM

    Yay for death by princesses!
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings - Movie Monsters

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  10. J.L. WeigtMay 3, 2018 at 2:49 AM

    Another great story. Love the "symbolism" and the sweet revenge, served cold, of the princesses.
    Jamie Lyn Weigt | Theme: Odds and Ends Dragons | Writing Dragons

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  11. UnknownApril 7, 2022 at 11:44 AM

    There is an hungarian deathcore band named Mhorai, and they have a song called Kalamona. here are the lyrics:

    Deep down in the sorrow from hapiness
    Teardrops fall to soil
    She had bounded the winds
    From the East, from the West and the South

    Deep down in the sorrow from hapiness
    Teardrops fall to soil
    She had bounded the winds
    From the East, from the West and the South

    She came to the palace with a promise
    The threat was real for the King of Kings
    Finding all the gates closing in
    Made the beast raging

    One year without harvest
    One year became hopeless
    The maiden was taken to another land
    Taken to a foreign land

    KALAMONA
    KALAMONA

    Deep down in the sorrow from hapiness
    Teardrops fall to soil
    She had bounded the winds
    From the East, from the West and the South

    Three days of riding ceaselessly
    On one purpose the boy was rushing
    Going down to the depths of hell
    Taking over the devil himself

    The devil himself

    There is now a sword in his hand
    He’s forgetting
    Forgetting his fears
    He is calling out the beast

    One year without harvest
    One year became hopeless
    Fire’s burning in his eyes
    No mercy in the Castle of Ice

    KALAMONA
    KALAMONA

    They saw her rising
    Rising from her ashes
    Noone can kill the horror
    What’s already dead

    KALAMONA


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