This year my A to Z theme is Small Town Legends. I am exploring folklore from villages and small towns around Hungary, bringing you the most entertaining bits. You can plan your next visit around them!
Istvánkirályfalva (Štefanová in Slovakian) is a municipality of about 400 people in western Slovakia, in a region that used to belong to Hungary before WWI. The name literally means "Village of King Stephen", referring to Hungary's first Christian king, St. Stephen (István).
Here is the story:
Legend says that Prince Vajk, the son of Chief Géza, liked to spend time in the village of Vajk (named after him), going on hunting expeditions along the Danube. But even more than hunting pheasants, he liked visiting the place because of the daughter of the keeper of a farm there. She was beautiful, dark-eyed, and they were in love. However, Prince Vajk was eventually baptised, because his father was preparing him to become the first Christian king of the new kingdom of Hungary. The change in religion ended the romance between the prince and the girl. He tried to convince her to convert too, but she chose to keep her pagan ways. Instead of anger, the prince parted from her in friendship, and gave her the village still bearing his own pagan name. Since his new Christian name was István, he moved over to a new place to found a new village, and named that one Istvánfalva.
(I really like this story because it doesn't end in punishment or tragedy, despite all the tensions that surrounded Hungary's conversion to Christianity)
(Source here)
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Cool story. Glad it ended in friendship and not crazy slaughter the town stuff.
ReplyDeleteJamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun