Miklós Toldi (c. 1320 – November 22, 1390) was a Hungarian nobleman from

Bihar County Bihar was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary and a county of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711), Principality of Transylvania (since the 16th c ...

of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

, who is remembered as a legendary strong hero in Hungarian folklore. Hungarian poet

János Arany János Arany (; archaic English: John Arany; 2 March 1817 – 22 October 1882) was a Hungarian poet, writer, translator and journalist. He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of ballads" – he wrote more than 102 ballads that have been transl ...

based his famous

Toldi trilogy The Toldi trilogy is an epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe ...

on his legend.

Life

Toldi was long regarded as fictional, with scant historical evidence of his life. However, it has been shown from charters that Miklós Toldi and György Toldi were real persons under kings Charles Robert and

Louis the Great Louis I, also Louis the Great (; ; ) or Louis the Hungarian (; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. He was the first child of Charles I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of P ...

.Bertalan Korompay: Adalékok és jegyzetek a Toldi-mondához (Data and notes for Toldi's legend)(Irod. tört. Közl., 1956) He is mentioned in 1354 as the ''alispán'' and ''várnagy'' of

Pozsony County Pozsony county was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now mostly part of Slovakia, while a small area belongs to Hungary. In 1969, the three villages that remained in H ...

, in 1383 and 1385 as the ''főispán'' (English: count) of

Szabolcs County Szabolcs was an administrative county (Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now part of Hungary, except for three villages which are in the Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine. The capital of the county ...

. He took part in the campaigns of Louis the Great in Italy as a mercenary leader. In 1359, on request of the king, he brought two lion cubs from

Firenze Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. He had to flee his home because he killed a soldier of his brother, György.

Legacy

The earliest and most detailed source about Toldi is Péter Ilosvai Selymes's ''Az híres nevezetes Toldi Miklósnak jeles cselekedeteiről és bajnokosodásáról való história'' (''Story of the great deeds and braveries of the fabulous Miklós Toldi'',

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

, 1574). In folklore, Toldi has been remembered the longest in

Nógrád Nógrád (; ) is a village in Nógrád County, Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to ...

and

and they emphasize his physical strength but place him a century later in the age of King

Matthias Corvinus Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and ...

. The most famous work is the

. According to tradition, the Stump Tower (''Csonka-torony'') near Arany's home town of Nagyszalonta had been owned by the Toldi family. Arany's trilogy was adapted into an animated film in the 1980s under the title '' Heroic Times''. The Toldi, a Hungarian light tank developed and used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, was named after him.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toldi, Miklos 14th-century Hungarian people 1320s births 1390 deaths Hungarian nobility Hungarian folklore Hungarian soldiers Medieval legends