5 Hungarian urban legends you might never have heard about

People are fascinated by the unknown and try to understand everything around them. But from time to time, people encounter events or phenomena which they cannot explain. When this happens, humankind’s overzealous imagination comes in and creates tales that become myths or embellish stories and create urban legends. Some try to explain some things while others are used to scare children or even adults. In this article, you can read about 5 Hungarian legends that kept the imagination of generations occupied.

The Hungarian Tarzan

There are a lot of similar stories to that of Tarzan from many places around the world. Some are true, some are just to keep children from wandering off into the forest alone. This Hungarian legend has a bit of a twist compared to most abandoned child stories who were then raised by animals. It is the story of Istók Hany.

According to the story, some fishermen from Kapuvár caught a young, 8-10-year-old boy in a lake in Hanság with their nets in 1749. According to the story, the young boy must have been lost and orphaned but somehow managed to survive in the wilderness of the marsh. So much so that it is believed that his skin got thicker, and his body was covered with a lot of hair, and to help him swim better, some sort of web formed between his fingers. According to some witnesses, he was able to catch fish while swimming underwater.

He was baptised the same year he was found and was named István. He was then taken to the Esterházy castle and the castellan took care of him. Istók Hany was unable to speak and he could not be taught to speak – he could only imitate animal sounds. He was a very good swimmer, but he could not really be educated. He was only capable of simple tasks and would only eat grass and raw fish and frogs. He was often mistreated and escaped many times and, in the end, people did not find him anymore.

The bell that tolls in the deep

This story is also connected to a marsh, probably because, for a long time, natural formations like these were mysterious as they were hard to fully map out and were often dangerous as well. This story, however, goes back a little bit further in time – back into the 13th century, during the time of the Mongol invasion of Hungary (tatárjárás), but some legends place it during the Turkish invasion.

There are many variations of this story and many villages believe it to be their own legend. According to one of the stories, when the Mongols attacked, the villagers gathered all of their people and belongings in order to hide from the invaders in the nearby marshland. Before they could leave, the local priest asked the villagers to take the church bell with them as well.

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The villagers agreed to do so, but when they were trying to cross the water in boats, the bell capsised and fell into the depth of the swampland. After this, some people believed to hear the tolling of the bell from time to time. According to the legend, whenever something dangerous approached, the tolling of the bell would become audible, warning the villagers. Also, it is believed to be how Harangod (“your bell”) received its name.