Tóth Arnold: Vőfélykönyvek és vőfélyversek a 19. században - Officina Musei 22. (Miskolc, 2015)

Summary

versions between print and manuscript would require a multitude of original publications that had been in active use for decades.

The examination of handwritten sources (mostly by means of a meticulous comparison of tables of contents) has helped outline the main types of manuscripts. Manuscript vőfély books can be divided into a total of six categories according to function, origination and authorship:

Scenario-type collections

Miscellaneous collections

Collections written down (copied) in one go

Continuously expanding collections

Single-authored collections

Multi-authored (multi-generation) manuscripts

The above simple categories are likely to be applicable not only to wedding usher books, but also to other genres of folk writings, provided that account is taken of the specificities of other manuscript types. Accordingly, ‘scenario-type’ should be replaced with a term appropriate for the subject of research. For instance, handwritten battlefield diaries or PoW diaries either follow a temporal sequence (i.e. are chronological/scenario-like) or are compiled randomly (i.e. miscellaneous).

A folkloristic mode of creative writing, already documented in academic literature relating to research into peasants’ biographies, is evidenced in a certain group of vőfély books. This associative mode of writing is also characteristic of true stories and accounts of experiences, creating the narrative on a one-thought-leads-to- another basis. Wedding usher verses provide an excellent opportunity to research this phenomenon, as vőfély books are often found to be structured in a seemingly discursive, but actually associative manner, despite the fact that the most obvious basis for a structure would be the chronology of the events of a wedding, which would also facilitate both the writing down and the learning of texts.

Regional variation of texts, though often discussed in the literature, cannot be substantiated. The body of 19th-century vőfély verse manuscripts shows considerable uniformity, which is clearly due to the unifying influence of chapbooks. The multitude of‘one-oiF texts found in certain manuscripts does not result from regional differentiation, but from individual authorship and variation causing the formation of a vast number of invariants. It is true, though, that the Great Plain is the only region of Plungary from where manuscript vőfély books dating from the mid- or early 19th century are available. Old manuscripts that may possibly be unearthed in other main regions (Transylvania, in particular) will be bound to further refine this simplified conclusion.

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