Kralj Matjaž
Kralj Matjaž is a legendary hero in Slovenia, possibly based on a real life king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.[1] The legend says that he is asleep in Mount Peca in the Alps. When his beard grows nine times around the stone table, he shall awake and bring a golden era to the Slovenes.
[edit] The legend
King Matjaž was a good king. Everyone that came was welcome and King Matjaž was ready to help. He also had his own currency coined. His time was a golden era for Carinthia. But other kings were very envious of his power and so they united their armies against him. With only a hundred of his surviving soldiers, he had to hide in a cave that opened up under Mount Peca. The cave hid them from the enemies. In the cave Matjaž sat at a table with the others around him and they fell asleep. The legend says that when his beard has grown around the table nine times he will wake up. At the same time a linden tree will grow in front of his cave in middle of the winter. From midnight to one in the morning it will blossom then it will wither. At this time King Matjaž will come out of his cave and defeat all his enemies, banish away injustice, and again rule over the Slovenes. This is how there will again be a golden age in Carinthia.
[edit] The origin
In the 1920s, the Prekmurje ethnologist Ágoston Pável advanced the hypothesis that the legend of King Matjaž is a reference to the Hungarian king Mathias Corvinus who reigned over most of the Slovenian lands (Carinthia, Styria and Carniola) for a short period in the Late Middle Ages. Although this theory has been rebutted[citation needed] by most scholars,[by whom?] it gained widespread popularity among the public and it is still frequently quoted as a reference.
[edit] References
- ^ Lukács, István. 2010. King Matthias Corvinus in the Collective Memory of the Slovenian Nation. Studia Slavica 55(2): 371–379.
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