Bethlen Naptár, 1951 (Ligonier)
William Toth: Our historical quest
BETHLEN NAPTÁR 209 OUR HISTORICAL QUEST Dr. William Toth Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. A favorite motif in Hungarian art is the stag. A stately, inspiring figure it is, indeed, usually in a leaping position, as if it were about to reach the unattainable, which, however, eludes its grasp. The legend of this stag goes back many centuries to a time immemorial, when the two adventurous sons of Nimrod, the mighty hunter, went out together with bows and arrows to hunt. In the course of the chase they came upon a stag of unbelievable beauty and they set out in pursuit of it. The stag, however, eluded the hunters’ arrows and at night vanished into nowhere. The next day it appeared again to tempt the hunter in these two young men only to vanish once more when night came. For days this fruitless, but ever enchanting chase continued, until at last the stag disappeared altogether in a clearing situated within the bosom of a great forest. Here, according to the ancient legend, the young hunters found themselves face to face with a large company of dancing and laughing girls. Posthaste each of the hunters chose for himself one of the beauties of the forest and together they set out into the vast unknown to find a suitable home and country. Hungarians for a long time have entertained the idea that they are the descendants of one of these brothers, whose name was Magor. Hence, the ancient name — Magyar. This motif, it has often seemed to me, is particularly fitting when we look at the history of the Magyar people. Throughout a long history of over a thousand years, the Magyars appear to have been in quest of the enchanted stag. From the moment they entered upon the stage of European history in 896, theirs is a story of chasing after something that everlastingly eludes Dr. William Tóth
