Gecse Annabella et al. (szerk.): Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 18. (Szolnok, 2009)

Néprajz - Örsi Zsolt: A Kara János-mocsár

Tisicum XVIII.

Zsolt Örsi

The Kara János marshland

Before the river regulation construction works started in the region, the vast majority of the territory of the Hungarian Plain could be deemed as the flood area of the river Tisza. The military surveying of the 18th century and a variety of hand-drawn maps show this accurately. Part of this flood basin is the Kara János marshland situated between Karcag and Kisújszállás. The famous, I should say, notorious military road crossed this marsh, and travellers tried to avoid this area in spring and autumn.

As for the name of this marsh, there is a legend that Serbian outlaw chief, Kara János, having desolated all over the region known as Nagykunság, was on his way home with his prey when at this location the heyducks of Szoboszló overtook and drowned him. This oral tradition, however, has a belletristic version from the beginning of the 19th century: Péter Új’s piece entitled Zádor and Ágota. In this romance, some geographical names of outer Karcag appear, or some geographical names of the area used as names of people. As a result, we can state that the plot of Zádor and Ágota is based upon a real story. Péter Új created a rhymed story based on the historical traditions and used some explanations of names from the auricular tradition tailoring the story according to those explanations.

After the regulation works of the river, the marsh nearly completely disappeared; today only its deepest spot can be found, a fishpond called Kecskeri pond surrounded by embankments in the area of Hortobágy National Park.

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