Tradition / Region: Hungarian Mythology
Alternate Names: The Foundling of Hanság; Marsh Child; Haon Ischtok
Category: Swamp dweller
The Myth
On March 15, 1746, two fishermen, Franz Nagy and Michael Molnár, brought a strange boy to the castle of Kapuvár. The child resembled a wild animal more than a human, yet by his size he seemed to be about ten years old. Because he could not speak, he was baptized Hany Istók.
The boy was naked. His head was round, with small eyes, a flat nose, and a wide mouth. His body and head were said to be covered in fish-like scales, and his fingers and toes were unusually long. He would eat nothing but grass, hay, and straw. Whenever he thought himself unobserved, he leapt into the castle moat and swam like a fish.
For almost a year he remained quietly at the castle. In time he began to accept cooked food, and it seemed he might gradually adapt to human life. Because of this, the guards watched him less closely.
Then, without warning, he disappeared.
People believed he had thrown himself into the nearby Rábcza River and escaped back into the marshlands.
A wooden likeness of Hany Istók was later kept at the Esterházy palace of Esterház. From this figure, observers noted strange features: a wrinkled brow, sparse facial hair, and a body whose belly seemed too large for its limbs. These traits made some think the being had not been a child at all, but something older in human form.
After his disappearance, the strange creature was reportedly seen a few more times in the marshes of the Hanság. After that, it vanished entirely, and no one saw it again.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Das Findelkind. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/ungarn/findelkind.htm
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive