Benedek Elek (

eastern name order A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is know ...

; western name order "Elek Benedek"; 30 September 1859 – 17 August 1929) was a Hungarian journalist and writer, widely known as "The Great Folk-Tale Teller" of The " Szekely Hungarian" Fairy-Tales.

Biography

Born in Kisbacon,

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the A ...

(today Bățanii Mici,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

), he studied in Székelyudvarhely (today,

Odorheiu Secuiesc Odorheiu Secuiesc (; hu, Székelyudvarhely, ; german: Odorhellen) is the second largest municipality in Harghita County, Transylvania, Romania. In its short form, it is also known as ''Odorhei'' in Romanian and ''Udvarhely'' in Hungarian. The Hun ...

), and later in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

. He went as a student with Job Sebesi to collect folklore elements. The result was a collection of "Transylvanian Folk Tales", which was met with so much positive critique, that the young Elek Benedek cut short his studies. He worked at first as a journalist for ''Budapest Hírlap'' ("Budapest Newspaper") and for other newspapers. He was a member of the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest between 1887 and 1892. In his speeches he engaged in favor of youth literature and "Folk-Poetry", folk language and public education.

As editor and writer

In 1889 he founded, together with Lajos Pósa, the first Hungarian literary magazine for young people, ''Az Én Újságom'' ("My Magazine"). He was the editor of ''Jó Pajtás'' ("Good Fellow") with Zsigmond Sebők. He also edited a series of books for youth, called ''Kis Könyvtár'' ("Small Library"); this later appeared as ''Benedek Elek Kis Könyvtára'' ("Small Library of Benedek Elek"). In 1900 he joined the "Kisfaludy Group/Kisfaludy Tarsasag", a group of famous Hungarian writers and poets. He also wrote poems, dramas, novels and historical fiction books, but the most famous were his "Szekely Fairy-Tales". In 1885 it was published the compilation ''Székely Tündérország'' ("Szekler Fairy-land"), which contained the first original fairy tales from the authors. Six years later, in 1891, the ''Székely mesemondó'' ("Szekler Storyteller") appeared. Benedek's biggest challenge was the ''Magyar mese- és mondavilág'' (''World of Hungarian Tales and Legends''), a collection in 5 volumes published between 1894 and 1896 and dedicated to the Hungarian Millennia. Next to the original stories he made translations, including many tales from ''

Grimm's Fairy Tales ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (german: Kinder- und Hausmärchen, lead=yes, ), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob and Wilhelm, first publi ...

'' and ''

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' to Hungarian. After the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It forma ...

of 1920 (which transferred sovereignty over Transylvania to Romania), he went back to his native village, Kisbacon, where he edited the youth magazine ''Cimbora'' ("Friend") until he died.

References

West Hungarian University
homepage
Homepage of Bardócz Orsolya
the great-granddaughter of the author

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benedek, Elek 1859 births 1929 deaths People from Covasna County Hungarian politicians Hungarian journalists Romanian journalists Hungarian children's writers