Hungarian Fairies, The Tündérek Tale

Of course it could be either gender, but there was an old idea that a beautiful woman had something of the spirit world that explained her unusual attractiveness. Many of the old fairy tales combine the power of attraction with something not altogether human to explain it. Old English words, such as ælfsciene ("elf-beautiful"), were used of seductively beautiful women, and that is how the Hungarian fairy appears in tales of Tündér Ilona. The women of great beauty were often described as these semi-divine beings in old folk tales.

I wrote about it when noting what I found about words in the language group of the Ugric/Finno, The Name Ilona. An old name book which I had long since lost track of, cited the meaning of the name "Ilona" as "Beautiful spinner". I wanted to follow that rabbit trail and it led me to seeking out why that old name book made a connection with beauty and the occupation of spinner.

In reading old fairy tales, there are many that tell of fairies that will spin for the lady of the house, often in exchange for something. Getting rid of spinning fairies can be tricky it is said, and the connection is there in many fairytales of different cultures. The stories pulled me in further. Ilona - spinner -fairy... the threads were starting to create the cord I was to follow. Tündér-Ilona arrives on the scene.

The word "Tündér" is sort of a fairy person, and there are stories about a queen of the "nymphs", the beautiful "Tündér-Ilona". Nymphs were often associated with heaven, mountains, and wet places. They are something of a minor nature deity in pagan religions.

Going back in time... what the Hungarians believed....

The Hungarians had an idea of a Creator God who was supreme, but they also had ideas of "spirit beings" such as the tündér. Since it is a fairly well accepted idea that Hungarians were monotheistic from an early time, their ideas of the tündér correlate with a view of good and evil forces in that unseen world, similar to many ancient views revealed in the old myths and legends. One scholar articulates the Hungarian spiritual view like this:

"One of the main features that distinguish the early Hungarians from the other Eurasians and primarily from the Finnic peoples (with whom many scholars have always tried to find a common root) is their ancestral belief.

The chroniclers were not able to mention names of Hun deities, simply because there were not. Notwithstanding, they recognized that the Huns/Magyars indeed had a Divinity whom they worshiped, who was never represented with images and whose name was not revealed. They called Him "Creator of universe", "Lord of all", "Almighty God" and titles like these.

Ibn-Fadlan, the Arab historian of the Rus' people, said: "Hungarians worship God in Heavens above all";
Theophylaktos wrote: "[they] invoke and worship as God the One that created the universe";
the Illustrated Chronicle, the Buda Chronicle and the Chronicle of János Thuroczy report the Hungarian settlement with the statement "Árpád asked the mercy of the Almighty God";
the Gesta Hungarorum states: "Árpád asked the grace of the Almighty God, to give them that land forever".

From these and other records it appears evident that they were monotheist since old, before they had contact with Christianity".

Explaining the unexplainable and ancient ideas required tales

Postcard: Midsummer's Eve

And yet they had folk tales of fairy beings of many sorts, the tündér being the more benevolent of them. In some of the stories spinning is one of the things that a benevolent fairy or elf might do. The name "Ilona" is a remnant of those beliefs and stories. Today it is equated with the name "Helen", the name from a western, very different, language group.

the story teller continues to spin the tale...
Spinning was an important occupational skill for women and many fairy tales have elements of spinning along with fairy activity in them. Sleeping Beauty was wounded by her spindle before she fell into the enchanted sleep. It is no surprise that a fairy name should be connected with the art of spinning.

Fairy picture:Fairy Tale Postcards (Dover Postcards)

Would you like to read a real fairy tale from Hungary? Good! I found one for you...

Folktales and fairytales often express common ideas or concerns of people in an entertaining form. The Hungarian ones will have the plot form that we know so well in movies: boy ( usually a prince) finds girl ( often a fairy princess) boy loses girl, but in the end they reunite, while the impostor or the villain who tried to divide them gets just desserts. There is usually an old woman who makes trouble somewhere in the story, or an unworthy rival.

In Hungarian tales it seems that you get three chances, so there is a little suspense until the hero gets it right, and provides properly for his fairy princess ( the first two potential mates "get away").

Animals, including bats, make appearances in many of the tales.

Young girls are admonished to make good use of themselves with housekeeping abilities, and to forego such traits as vanity, selfishness, and pride. The humble, and beautiful ones like Cinderella are the ones that get the prince.

Hungarian Fairy Tales with original drawings.

Be careful not to fall asleep, that might be one warning common to fairytales, as some entering a fairy world found out...

FAR, very far away, and long, very long ago, when all the world was inhabited by the fairies, there lived a great and mighty king called Firefly. Now do not run away with the idea that this Firefly was in any way like the little glowing insects that are read about in Natural History books. True, he had wings like those flies nowadays,and also a body something like theirs, but he was a fairy fly, and wore a most beautiful crown on his head, which at night shone as brilliantly as the stars. Then this Firefly had a most gorgeous palace, which lay right in the middle of a wide river. This palace consisted of one magnificent lotus flower, and a more exquisite dwelling place it would be impossible to see. His dearest and most precious treasure was his daughter, a most lovely princess. The king was so proud and fond of her that he would not allow any one even to look at her, but kept her hidden inside the pink petals of his beautiful lotus palace, and there the princess grew up more and more lovely every day, till her fame spread far and wide, and all the flies and moths and beetles of the neighboring kingdoms got out their finest wings in order to go to woo and win this incomparable Firefly miss.

But the princess was very proud and very vain of her own beauty, and she said to her mother one day: It is quite useless for either Dragonfly or Stag-beetle, or, in fact, any of them to try and woo me, for I will not marry anyone unless he perform some perilous task which I will impose upon him. Then if he fails, and dies in the attempt, I shall be thankful to have escaped being married to so foolish and careless a being; or if he should not dare to attempt the task, it will be a proof that he values his life higher than his love, and is therefore not worth having.

As this beautiful princess was very much spoilt at home, her mother and father, King and Queen Firefly, both acceded to her whim, and the king issued a proclamation, by which he declared that no suitor should have the hand of his lovely daughter unless he performed the task she imposed upon him.

Forthwith did Prince Gold-beetle start from his kingdom of Gladiola over the grass, and placed his heart and hand at Princess Firefly's feet. She listened to all he had to say, and smiled very sweetly. Yes, she said, all that you say is very pretty indeed, and I am sure your proposal is exceedingly flattering; but you know the condition,without which I cannot possibly marry you.

Name the condition, lovely princess, said the Gold-beetle; no task, be it ever so hard, would be too much to undertake for such a prize.

You most bring me, from anywhere you like, said the beautiful Firefly, one spark of fire!

Is that all you wish for? said the Goldbeetle. I fly, and before another night has descended and passed by I will lay this spark at your feet. And away he flew, quite confident that he would be able to obtain so simple a thing as a mere little spark of fire, which the moment night came could be found in every house in the neighbourhood. You will hear presently how he fared in his quest.

In the meantime the beautiful Firefly had another suitor. Lord Cockchafer appeared upon the scene, and, obtaining entrance into the Lotus Palace, he boldly asked for the honour of becoming the Princess's husband, but she turned away quite disdainfully from him:

I don't think I should ever care to marry you at all, she said; but I am so very, very anxious to possess a spark of fire, and I really would like to know if you would be brave enough to undertake a perilous task in order to please me.

I will travel night and day, said Lord Cockchafer, till I bring you what you wish.

Away he went, tripping merrily, and blissfully unconscious of the fact that he was not the only one who was bent on this curious errand.

Presently Fire fly had another suitor a beautiful suitor he was too, with his shimmering suit of green and gold,my Lord Dragonfly. He thought to dazzle her by his beauty and make her forget her foolish fancy about this spark of fire. But the princess would not listen even to him; she only smiled, and said

I will only marry him who brings me this spark of fire.

And away he had to go. And thus, day after day, there came a regular crowd of suitors round the beautiful princess; but day after day she sent them off in quest of a spark of fire.

Prince Gold-beetle waited till night set in, then flew off gaily to the nearest city. He came up near a lovely little house, standing in a large garden; he looked in at the window, and there he saw a large table laid out with tea and cakes, sweets and fruit, and twelve little girls and boys sitting round, having their tea; on the table a large lamp was burning very brightly.

Why, this is just what I want, said Prince Gold-beetle; and as the window was open he flew in. The lamp burnt beautifully, it quite fascinated him; he flew quite close, in order to get a better view of the bright flame.

Oh, what a lovely beetle, he heard one of the little children say, Mother, do look! What beautiful wings it has!

Oh, dear, it is flying so near the lamp I am sure it will burn its wings, said another.

The Gold-beetle took no notice of what they said, but drew nearer and nearer to the coveted prize; there was a spark of lovely fire, how pleased the beautiful princess would be when he brought it home for her. At last he made a bold dash to catch the flame, when lo! alas! he felt his poor wings all singed and burnt; he could not fly any more, but fell fainting on the tablecloth. He heard the little children say to each other

Stupid beetle to go flying into the lamp; now it has burnt its lovely wings.

Then somebody else said, Throw away the nasty thing, or put it out of its misery.

That was the end of poor Prince Gold-beetle's life.

Another suitor of Firefly, a Hawkmoth, while fluttering about one evening, wandered into a room where, at first, he could see nothing, it seemed pitch dark; presently he noticed a large luminous object, which turned out to be long blue flames, apparently emerging from a large bowl, filled with plums; all round he saw eager little laughing faces, and every now and then little fingers would boldly make a dash into the bowl and bring out a flaring sugar plum. Hawkmoth watched them for a time, very much interested; you see, they don't play snapdragon in the Lotus kingdom. Then he suddenly thought this would be a grand opportunity to steal a lovely spark of blue fire, and with it claim the hand of the proud princess. He fluttered round the bowl for some time, but no one paid any attention to him, they were all so merry pulling out the plums and eating them. It seemed so easy that Hawkmoth determined to try his luck, and boldly flew into the flames. Alas! poor fellow, he was burnt to a cinder, you could hardly tell him from a raisin.

One after another the suitors tried, and one after another they failed. There was a Horn-bug who actually, one night, saw a green light in a cat's eye; he tried to snatch that, but you may well imagine how pussy, very much annoyed, made a short meal of my lord Horn-bug. A venturesome Carrion beetle having drifted towards the seashore, late one night, saw some fish lying there apparently all glowing with fire. He picked off one of the glistening scales, and went away proud and happy, quite convinced that the necessary prize the much-sought-for spark of fire was at last in his grasp. He was hurrying to get to Lotus land as fast as his legs could carry him, when he met a Stagbeetle, who apparently was also carrying a luminous object in front of him. The fact of the matter was, that Mr. Stagbeetle had also fallen madly in love with the beautiful but capricious princess, and had determined to succeed in bringing her a spark of fire, even if it should cost him his wings!

"What Happened Then?" Read on...

After several unsuccessful attempts he had found at the foot of a large tree, a funny little bit of old wood, which gave out a beautiful little bright blue light. He approached very carefully (as he had been severely burnt several times), and you may be sure he was delighted when he found that it did not give out any heat, so that he was able to carry it off without burning himself. He was hurrying off with his prize to claim the Princess, when he met Mr. Carrion beetle bent on a similar errand.

They both stopped short, and glared at each other. No explanation was necessary. Each knew where the other one was hurrying to, and each was determined to get there first. They could not both marry Princess Firefly, that was very evident, so, after talking matters over for a while, they determined to fight it out till one of them remained dead on the battlefield. It was pitch dark, but the fishscale and the bit of wood were quite enough light to kill one another by, so they each put down their prize, and began boxing in true beetlelike fashion.

As they both were equally tall, and equally strong, the fight lasted a considerable time. When lo! behold! as the first ray of dawn illumined the eastern sky, and the two combatants turned for a rest, previous to renewing hostilities, there, on the ground, instead of the two tiny sparks of blue flame, lay only a nasty fish's scale and an ugly bit of wood. King Phosphorus had vanished with the dawn. Further fighting was useless. Carrion beetle and Stagbeetle each went his own way to seek fortune elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the Princess, in her beautiful palace, waited in vain for the return of one of her many suitors. When she heard of the sad fate of Prince Gold-beetle, she wept bitterly, for though she was so proud and vain, she was not wholly devoid of feeling, and of the many who had come wooing her she had preferred Prince Gold-beetle. When the Queen saw her tears, she tried to make her forego her purpose; but all her persuasions were of no avail, for the Princess was very obstinate, and would not own to being in the wrong.

Suitor after suitor came, and they were one and all sent off on the same hopeless errand. One day a most beautiful Red Admiral was on the point of committing suicide on the thorn of a rosebush, being so fearfully despondent on account of his non-success, when he caught sight of a luminous object underneath the very branch upon which he meant to end his life. His joy was great; what was it? Would it hurt him? He thought not, it looked so beautiful as it lay and sparkled in the sun. All round it was a hoop of gold. He went closer; no, it did not burn. Then came the question, how was he to convey it to the Princess? It was far too heavy for him to carry. Whilst he was considering how he could possibly convey it, he heard footsteps, and in another second a little child's voice exclaim, Why, look! here is your diamond ring you lost; . . . . how lucky it is I have found it, and the child picked it up and gave it to a grownup lady who was a little way off. This was the last straw for the beautiful Red Admiral, and in another minute he had committed suicide.

And thus it was with one and all some were frightened, and never attempted the task, others were badly singed, some died, none succeeded, and even to this day, in faroff lands, where the lotus grows, we always say when we see a crowd of insects fluttering round a flame: Ah! Princess Firefly has many suitors tonight!

Original google doc (PDF)

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Hungarian

erdő - woods
boszorka - witch
varázslat - witchcraft, sorcery
lovag - knight
palota - castle
vrázsige - spell
mumus - bogeyman
szűz - maiden
kobold - goblin
sárkány - dragon
törpe - dwarf
kard - sword
tündér - elf
óriás - giant
törpe - gnome
tündér - fairy
varázslat - magic
szörny - monster
óriás - ogre
varázsital - potion
hercegnő- princess
herceg - prince
manó - troll
méreg - poison

Frank Hamori has a study of Finn-Ugor names.
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Levegõ Tündérke is the Air Fairy, a little goddess, daughter of the King Sun.. Her brother was Napkirály; a story tells "about Napkirály searching for a wife. He finds Tündér Ilona (Fairy Helen) on the seashore, and falls in love with her at first sight. But Tündér Ilona does not love him, and jumps into the river during the wedding ceremony - then she becomes the Moon, always running from the Sun, only can be seen when the Sun is on the other side of the Earth. " ~ from the Encyclopedia Mythica

"Fairy Ilona is not simply a character from a fairy tale. Géza Róheim, in Hungarian and Vogul Mythology, identifies her as "the Hungarian version of the fairy queen of European folktale," who lived in Csallóköz. There, she swam in the Danube in the shape of a swan... the word tündér, he tells us, is not exactly equivalent to the English "fairy"; rather, it seems to refer to a female supernatural being who is capable of appearing and disappearing, or making things appear and disappear, and is associated with fate itself. In Transylvania, ... the Milky Way is called the Fairy's Way."

"Fairy is also a popular woman's name, Tündér or its diminutive, Tünde. Fairies are particularly associated with two areas: Transylvania, now part of Romania, and Csallóköz, now part of Slovakia, which were traditionally identified as the "Hungarian Fairyland." It is interesting to note that although Transylvania is associated in the Western European imagination with vampires, in Hungarian folk belief it was inhabited by fairies." -Hungarian Fairies

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Whether or not you believe there are fairies, a fairy garden is simply a miniature sized garden either in a large container or occupying a small corner of your yard. Like many miniature things it holds a sense of fascination for both children and adults, but especially children.

Take a little time to consider planning out a project with the many tiny accessories and diminutive plants available to harbor some fairies in your own yard.

How to make a fairy garden.