Hungarian Folk Tales: The Poor Man and His Fiddle (S06E13)

The Hungarian Folk Tales stem from original folktale collections, every episode has its special authentic ornamentation. The trio of folk art, folk music and folk tales are masterfully combined in the episodes.

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Once upon a time a king had three daughters, but the two older ones were so wicked – for they could not have the red skirt – that they would not even scare away from murdering their sister. Despite hiding their sister in a violin, a penniless wood-cutter finds her. During his wonderous travels he visits just the city where the king’s daughter went through this diresome deed. To the ungodliness of the wicked princesses the sad song of exactly the violin, in which they had hidden their sister, brings light. This is how the youngest princess is reborn and returns home, where she gets the red skirt.

Made by the Kecskemét Film Studio.
Directed by: Lajos Nagy
Storyteller: Gyula Szabó
Music: Kaláka band

The makers used the decorative art of a certain countryside region at each episode. The trio of folk art, folk music and folk tales are masterfully combined in the episodes, which have unique imagery, sometimes spicy folk humor in the dialogues. Thanks to the natural presentation of the storytellers, and the music of the Kaláka band, the viewer can experience something unique and special.

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In Hungarian:

[kirtemoon]

Girl: *picks berries*
Her older sisters: so you have chosen, death.

[caramelbrown]

There's a lot of sibling rivalry in Hungary

[seacrystal]

"you killed me and no one knows" very subtle

[JARedwolf]

I think there’s another version to this tale but it’s very different in its setting. The other version goes that it was a poor man who had three beautiful daughters but it was the youngest who was the favorite and got all sorts of attention. The two sisters murder their youngest sister in a fit of jealousy and buried her out in the woods. Years later a magnificent tree grew upon her grave and a craftsman who specialized in fiddles harvested the wood from the tree and made a wondrous fiddle. However, whenever someone played the fiddle it sang a sad song, much like in this story but with more details and how she missed her home. People who bought the fiddle kept returning it for they insisted it was possessed by spirit and they didn’t want it bringing them bad luck.

The craftsmen then throws the fiddle away where it is discovered by a priest. The priest had a history with music and decided to try it out. The fiddle sang and he knew right away the fiddle was possessed by a troubled spirit. He takes the fiddle back to the church and plays the fiddle over and over to hear the spirits story. After hearing the entire song he learned that the spirit was that of a little girl whose family comes to his parish ever Sunday and who had disappeared years ago.

I’ll get to the end now - In the end he locks the church doors and plays the fiddle before the entire congregation where it points out the guild of her two sisters and what really happened to her. After the sisters crime is found out, the entire congregation was ready to lynch them but the fiddle plays automatically and begs for mercy on their part. Instead the sisters are sentenced to a lifetime of penance where they would look after the tree that grew upon their sisters grave, walk barefooted and ware black to Morne their sister. The fiddle ends up burned so as to free the younger sisters spirit and she departs into the next world.

[everrettbreezewood]

What about the poor blind man who had his only source of income stolen? He didn't have a happy ending...

[MrProteeus]

Nothing was more innocent than that little girl who was killed, but chose to forgive them

[Shamrockshame....]

1) That escalated quickly.
2) “They lived Happily Ever After”
Me: Are you sure?!

[glowworm]

This is one heck of a disturbing folktale. It's a good thing this one actually has a happy ending--not all variations of this tale do.

[randy_colocho]

killing your youngest sibling over a skirt? :o

[sarahlamb]

With that prince chasing after the skirt, it's no wonder the sisters were ready to kill for it. lol

[memphisK]

The poor man earned so much money that he still wore torn clothes😂😂
This has Kanye written all over it😂😂

[AlexandraZe]

Everyone saying the sisters killed their youngest one for a skirt, but probably it went deeper than that. Not the first time the girls were put in a competitive situation, probably, and they've had enough of the younger, prettier, smarter sister that their parents probably favourited. Not justifying it lol, but as a psychologist, I always try to find a reason behind a person's bad behaviour.

[nyurma_eden]

Never thanked YouTube shorts for making a short for these amazing tales. Love all these videos!

[NessLover]

How could the older sisters be cruel enough to slaughter their little sister? Cowards.

[springbutterfly]

Youngest one: * has the most berries *
Other two: let's kill her.
Me: *WELL THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY*

[Niruvanism]

"Hey sis, our lil sis is diligent so she'll get a new red skirt."
"Ok let's kill her."

Maybe the skirt is a versace or what

[smitty]

i like how the good girl is always blonde lol

[yumikumi]

Killing someone over a skirt, not royal symbolism, literally a skirt! that's got to be sick. This is a weird story.

[AngelaMerici]

The man "I have now more money than the king himself"!! Hahahaha!!

[hazimhamid]

This is actually kinda dark for a folk tale, but from in my country, some folk tales are just as dark