Székely Zoltán: Arrabona - Múzeumi Közlemények 50/1. (Győr, 2012)
Tanulmányok - Perger Gyula: Méry Etel ismeretlen népköltési gyűjteménye
ARRABONA 2012. 50/1. TANULMÁNYOK AN UNKNOWN FOLKLORE COLLECTION OF ETEL MÉRY Etel Méry Benedictine monk (1834-1883), following his appointment as a teacher and the curator of the antiquities collection of the Benedictine Grammar School of Győr, undertook not only the education of the youth, but as the leader of the study circle of the school he mobilised his students and even the inhabitants of the city for the collection of the spiritual traditions of the region. In June 1865 he published a call in the local periodical called Győri Közlöny for collecting folklore songs and tales. The call itself was a pioneer act which went far ahead of the idea of creating regional and national collections. Some pieces of the projected collection have come to light recently from the uncategorised document material of the one-time Benedictine School. The surviving material suggests that the most prominent students of the school - who took leading role even in the study circle -, noted down the children play and folk song material of their home environment during the vacations following Méry’s guidance. Beside the letters of the student to their teacher, the surviving manuscript fragments show that Méry started to edit the collected material, but - probably due to his untimely death - he was unable to finish it. Although fragmental the collected folk song and children’s play texts are of a great value even in this form, since they represent the earliest systematically collected folklore works of the Transdanubian region (including Somogy, Veszprém, Győr and Sopron Counties). Gyula Perger
