János Erdélyi was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 poet, critic, author, philosopher and ethnographist.

He was born in 1814 at Nagykapos, in the county of Ung, and educated at the Protestant college of Sárospatak

Sárospatak

----Sárospatak is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, northern Hungary. It lies northeast from Miskolc, in the Bodrog river valley. The town, often called simply Patak, is an important cultural centre.- History :The area has been inhabited since ancient times...

. In 1833 he removed to Pest

Pest (city)

Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and...

, where he was, in 1839, elected member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest.-History:...

. He began his literary career with poems written in folk style (published in 1844).

His literary fame was made by his collection of Hungarian national poems and folk-tales, Magyar népköltési gyűjtemény, népdalok és mondák ("Collection of Hungarian Folklore, Folk Songs and Tales", Pest, 1846–1847). This work, published by the Kisfaludy Society, was supplemented his ilnon Hiinaarian national ooetrv afterwards partially translated into German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 by Stier (Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, 1851). Erdélyi also compiled for the Kisfaludy Society an extensive collection of Hungarian proverbs Magyar közmondások könyve ("Book of Hungarian Proverbs", Pest, 1851),and was for some time editor of the Szépirodalmi Szemle ("Review of Polite Literature"). In 1848 he was appointed director of the national theatre at Pest; but after 1849 he resided at his native town. He died on the 23rd of January 1868. A collection of folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 was published the year after his death, entitled A nép költészete: népdalok, népmesék és közmondások ("Poetry of the People: Folk Songs, Tales and Proverbs", Pest, 1869). This work contains 300 national songs, 19 folk-tales and 7362 Hungarian proverb

Proverb

A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...

s.

As a philosopher he was an utopistic socialist, influenced by Hegel.

Quotes

• "It was said that education harms folk poetry, and it's true, but should we curse the Sun for banishing the dawn?" (Mondatott: a műveltség árt a népköltészetnek, s ez igaz, de miért átkoznók a napot, hogy a hajnalt elűzi egünkről.)