The Formation of the Collection of Folk Poetry of Nagytárkány. (The Collection of Péter Lázár and the Folklore Fellows in Eger, 1913–1914)

Roman Catholic priest Péter Lázár (1893–1942), as a student, in the years 1913 and 1914 carried out a collection of folk poetry in his native village of Nagytárkány. The framework of this activity had been provided by a national programme lasting several years. The collection starting in 1912 was organized by the Hungarian Ethnographical Society and the Hungarian Department of Folklore Fellows among secondary school and university students. The winning project of Péter Lázár has been preserved in an excellent condition in two handwritten booklets of 301 pages, and can be found in the Ethnological Archives of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. The beautiful handwritten, orderly collection classified according to theme and genre, contains folk songs, ballades, description of customs and folk beliefs, as well as texts of children´s folklore. In addition to materials of Nagytárkány, the manuscript has included texts from further municipalities too, such as from Keresztespüspöki, Eger, Parád, Ajak and Vásárosnamény. The publication entitled Nagytárkányi népköltési gyűjtemény (English: A Collection of Folk Poetry of Nagytárkány) is an equivalent critical edition of the entire manuscript. The introductory study presents the story of the collection and the biography of Péter Lázár. The collection of more than 500 texts complemented by notes and first line index helps to preserve text tradition, and contributes to further comparative research.