A Romanian protagonist?
As Magyar Nemzet reported in an earlier article, a historical series about John Hunyadi, which is yet to premier, drew ire from Romanians. On the portal of the daily newspaper Adevarul, Matei Blanaru, a doctoral student at the University of Bucharest, published an article entitled The film about John Hunyadi, Hungarian soft power and Viktor Orban's dream, essentially accusing Hungarians of stealing Romanian culture.
The author of the article assumes that the Rise of the Raven (Hunyadi in Hungarian) series will also present John Hunyadi's childhood, with the characters speaking in their mother tongue, except for Hunyadi who will certainly not use the Romanian language although
it is common knowledge that the protagonist was Romanian.
Our truth is the most important to us
The author of the novels about John Hunyadi, Janos Ban, also known by his pen name Mor Ban, shared his view with the Hungarian weekly Demokrata:
In a Hungarian film, we have a Catholic Hungarian ensign on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. Why doesn't he speak Romanian? The answer is obvious. For the same reason why Sandor Petofi did not recite the Nemzeti dal in the Serb or Slovak languages. For the same reason why Zrinyi spoke to the Hungarian noblemen in Hungarian and not in Croatian. For the same reason why Attila Jozsef wrote his poems in Hungarian. My grandfather used to say that everyone has a bit of the truth. But our truth is the most important to us. This is what we believe,
the writer said.
The author took the view that this a neuralgic point, because from the Hungarian standpoint we have the bitter experience since the Treaty of Trianon that not only our territories and cities were taken, but at the same time the successor states also strive for the appropriation of our past and history.
"Romanians and Slovaks in particular, but also Serbs and Croats, immediately started to appropriate Hungary's historical past, gathering new arguments to justify their territorial claims, their entitlement to the "ancient Romanian, Slovak, etc. lands,"
the writer said.
The descent of the Hunyadi family cannot be translated into national belonging in today's sense
The Romanians are now asking why family members back home in Hunyad (present-day Hunedoara, Romania) do not speak Romanian to each other, when in the series the characters of different nationalities speak more or less in their own languages. First of all,
there is no one who could give a definite answer to the question of what language Hunyadi's mother used with his son half a thousand years ago. Her name is not mentioned in any document or contemporary written source. That given, it is a question of beliefs. We Hungarians believe that she spoke in Hungarian. Romanians would like to think she used Romanian.
The descent of the Hunyadi family cannot be translated into national belonging in today's sense, as nationality did not carry such significance in the 15th century, the novelist explained.
Click here for the full article in Hunagarian.
