Sebestyén Tinódi

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Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos ("Lute Player Sebastian von Tinód"; * around 1510 in Tinód, † 1556 in Sárvár ) was an important representative of the Hungarian epic poetry of his time as a songwriter and lute player .

Palatine Nádasdy and Tinódi (oil painting by Soma Orlai Petrics , 1855)

The exact place of his birth is not known. Tinód in Weißenburg county and a place of the same name in the historical Baranya county come into question.

Life path

Little is known of Tinódi's younger years. He came from a middle-class family and received a school education. He could read Latin and also notes. He was probably in the service and training of Bálint Török , who is known as the heroic warrior of the Battle of Mohács .

Statue in Dombóvár

Tinódi's first surviving work, The Story of Jason , was written in Dombóvár between 1535 and 1539 . In his version, a soldier is unfit for further military service due to a battle wound.

Until 1541 Tinódi lived at the court of Bálint Török in Szigetvár , according to his own account in great recognition. The conquest of Buda and the fall of his master into captivity marked a turning point in his life. From that point on he wrote political poetry. In his verses he stressed the need for a unified and determined struggle against the Ottomans. He lived in this part of the country for a few more years. When the Ottomans expanded the area they occupied, Tinódi left Transdanubia and moved to Košice , where he started a family. From there he went to political meetings and battlefields. He recorded his experiences in verse. He also composed melodies that he played with his lute . In many places only his songs provided credible information about events in more distant parts of the country.

In 1545, at the National Assembly in Nagyszombat, he met the palatine Tamás Nádasdy , whose favor the chronicler with the lute soon won. In the relatively peaceful period between 1546 and 1551, he dealt with topics from earlier Hungarian history as well as foreign topics. Tinódi immortalized the events of the Ottoman campaign of 1552 again in detailed descriptions. He went to the sites of individual castle sieges and put the collected data together down to the smallest detail. Many details are only known from his songs. Even after the triumphant defense of Eger , he immediately entered the castle before he wrote “The true song of the battle for the Eger Castle” ( Eger vár viadaljáról való ének ) and “The sum of the history of Eger” ( Egri historiának summája ).

Tinódi's coat of arms

The reputation of Tinódis also reached the court of Ferdinand I , who on August 23, 1553, on a recommendation from Nádasdy, raised him to the nobility and gave him a coat of arms.

A page from the Cronica

He also had a good relationship with István Dobó , lord of the castle of Eger. When he was appointed Vajda - a medieval ruler in Transylvania - Tinódi also followed him. There he wrote the song of the "History of Transylvania", in which he recorded the time from Johann Zápolya's death up to 1551. In 1554 an edition of his collected works with the title "Cronica" was published in Cluj- Napoca. The following year he returned from Transylvania and died in Sárvár in 1556.

His work

Tinódi's life's work comprises 1200 lines of verse, which is a relatively small amount compared to the Hungarian literature of the 16th century . The content of his verses is factual and does not contain any decorative images. All in all, they are of poor artistic quality and rather clumsy when presented. The urge for detailed reproduction takes on a level that is comparable to the monotony of files. Even in his day, the core of his work was more of journalistic than poetic importance.

Tinódi himself mentions the following goal in the foreword of the Cronica:

"Ez jelönvaló Koenyvecskét szörzeni nem egyébért gondolám, hanem hogy az hadakozó, bajvívó, várak-, várasokrontó és várban szorult magyar vitézöknek lenneokimdonúság, üdassakellengés, tanúsán ells, üdvassztéges, tanúsán ells.

“[Freely translated]: The present booklet is intended for nothing else than the Hungarian warriors, who are ready for battle and ready to devastate fortresses and cities, are forced into castles to bear witness to how they honorably assert themselves, the pagan Oppose opponents and fight. "

When coming to terms with important events of his time in verse, Tinódi was more concerned with authenticity than with the artistic value of his work. With the verse and song form he was also able to reach the warriors whom his work was primarily intended to serve. Since only very few could read in Tinódi's time, he reached a larger audience with singing.

Statue at the entrance to Szigetvár Castle , artist: István Kiss

As a historian , Tinódi plays a more prominent role. Essentially, he worked on the entire history of Hungary from 1541 to 1552. His descriptions are exactly correct in all testable cases. Other authors also undertook to record the eventful Hungarian history of the 16th century in writing. They concentrated either on the area around their place of residence or on the history of the entire country. One of them was Antal Verancsics (* May 29, 1504, † June 15, 1573), the then bishop of Eger. He collected historical records himself and kept them carefully. The works to be found in the legacy of the bishop are predominantly suggestive and reflect subjective memories. They do not come close to the authenticity and objectivity of Tinódi's work. The texts from Verancsicss legacy are also written in Latin, while Tinódi was the first important chronicler in Hungarian.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tinódi, Sebestyén
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tinódi Lantos, Sebestyén
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian songwriter and lute player
DATE OF BIRTH around 1510
PLACE OF BIRTH Tinód
DATE OF DEATH 1556
Place of death Sárvár