The égig érő fa ("sky-high tree"), also called életfa ("

tree of life The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythology, mythological, religion, religious, and philosophy, philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The ...

"), világfa (" world tree"), or tetejetlen fa ("tree without a top"), is an element of Hungarian

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

and native faith, and a typical element of Hungarian folk art and folk tales, and also a distinct folk tale type. Several of these tales have versions in the

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

n, Germanic,

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, Romani, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Turkish and other cultures in Asia, but the origin of the Hungarian tales goes back to the táltos traditions of Hungarians. The ''

táltos The táltos (; also "tátos") is a figure in Hungarian mythology, a person with supernatural power similar to a shaman. Description The most reliable account of the táltos is given by Roman Catholic priest Arnold Ipolyi in his collection of fol ...

ok'' (shamans) are the humans who are entitled to climb up the ''égig érő fa'' and wander in the seven or nine layers of the sky. One version of these tale is about the ''kiskondás'' (small

swineherd A swineherd is a person who raises and herds pigs as livestock. Swineherds in literature * In the New Testament are mentioned shepherd of pigs, mentioned in the Pig (Gadarene) the story shows Jesus exorcising a demon or demons from a man a ...

) who climbs up the tree to save the princess who is held captive by a dragon (as told in the Világhírű Szép Miklós tale). The tree is a frequent element of certain funny tales, in which for example a gypsy climbs up into heaven and then down into hell. The world tree often grows out of a reindeer or a horse. It often carries among its branches the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

and the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. This latter concept is typical of

Uralic The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers abo ...

and Siberian peoples. The tree often stands on the world mountain, with its top in the sky and its roots in

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

, where snakes and toads live. In the tales birds often sit on the tree, for example eagles, hawks or the mythical Hungarian bird, the ''

turul The Turul is a mythological bird of prey, mostly depicted as a falcon, in Hungarian tradition and Turkic tradition, and a national symbol of Hungarians. Origin The Turul is probably based on a large falcon. The Hungarian word ''turul'' meant ...

''.

Scholarly analysis

Hungarian scholarship argues that the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index tale type AaTh 468, a tale type that involves climbing a giant tree, is a reflexion of ancient

shamanistic Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

practices. In particular, Hungarian-American scholar

Linda Dégh Linda Dégh (18 March 1918 – 19 August 2014) was a folklorist and professor of Folklore & Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, USA. Dégh was born in Budapest, Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning muc ...

, based on an analysis of ca. 70 variants of Hungary and nearby countries, concluded that the type AaTh 468, "The Tree That Reached to the Sky" is a "Hungarian ethnic tale", associated with "the prehistoric shamanistic religion of ancient Hungarians and their linguistic kindred". Slavicist Karel Horálek, studying variants of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index tale type ATU 302, "Ogre's Heart in the Egg", remarked that a particular Central European (in Hungary and neighbouring countries) version of this type shows the hero climbing a giant tree and arriving at a hidden upper realm. After a series of adventures, he marries a princess of this upper realm and she gives him a set of keys, warning him never to open a certain door. He disobeys her and releases the villain of the tale - an episode very similar to the Russian tale Marya Morevna. Hungarian ethnographer Gyula Ortutay was of the opinion that this narrative was "a valuable Hungarian tale". On the other hand, Karel Horálek suggested that this narrative developed as a Hungarian oikotype, with its prominent feature the tall tree and the actions that surround it.

Tale combinations

According to scholar Christine Goldberg, further studies of tale type AaTh 468 using the

historic-geographic method Julius Leopold Fredrik Krohn (19 April 1835 – 28 August 1888) was a Finland, Finnish folk poetry researcher, professor of Finnish literature, poet, hymn writer, translator and journalist. He was born in Viipuri and was of Baltic German origin. ...

concluded that "its characteristic motif" is a shaman's tree; the tale type is "not widely known outside Hungary"; it shares episodes with other tale types, namely AT 300-310. In the same vein, Linda Dégh, in her tabulation of all known variants available to her, indicated that type 468 included, in its narrative sequence, episodes of "a small circle" of other tale types: ''The Dragon Slayer'' (types 300-302), the ''I Don't Know'' complex (types 314, 530, 532), ''The Bride of the Other World'' (type 400), ''The Magic Flight'' (type 313). According to her, combination with type 301 appears in South Slavic variants, and with type 400 in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

.Degh, Linda. "The Tree that Reached Up to the Sky: Type 468 (1963)". In: Degh, Linda (ed.). ''Studies in East European Folk Narrative''. .l. American Folklore Society, 1978. p. 312.

Adaptations

The tree features in an episode of the Hungarian television series ''Magyar népmesék'' ("Hungarian Folk Tales") ( hu), with the title ''Az égig érő fa'' ("The Giant Tree").

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Egig ero fa Trees of life Hungarian mythology ATU 300-399 ATU 460-499 tr:Yaşam ağacı