Priszkosz rétor történeti művének recepciója Gárdonyi Géza Láthatatlan ember című regényében
The Reception of the Historical Work of the Rhetorician Priscus in Géza Gárdonyi’s Slave of the Huns

Summary/Abstract: The Reception of the Historical Work of the Rhetorician Priscus in Géza Gárdonyi’s Slave of the Huns II. This article continues the analysis published in Keresztény Magvető’s 2024/3 issue , which explores the extent to which Géza Gárdonyi (1863–1922) made use of the surviving fragments of the historical work of Priscus of Panium (?–472?) in writing his novel Slave of the Huns (the Hungarian title: A láthatatlan ember/The Invisible Man). While the first article focused on the organisation of the diplomatic mission and the uncovering of the conspiracy against Attila, this article centres on the experiences that the Eastern Roman diplomat acquired among the Huns: encounters with prominent figures, participation in diplomatic banquets, depictions of the hospitality of a Hun village, and a series of “minor” vignette-like scenes which, although not essential to the plot, clearly demonstrate that Gárdonyi had an exceptionally detailed knowledge of the extant Priscus fragments and incorporated them into his remarkable historical novel. Although neither the novel itself nor the secondary literature currently available reveals which edition of Priscus Gárdonyi consulted, it is evident that the diplomatic mission portrayed in the novel particularly in its first half) forms the backbone of the narrative. Moreover, Gárdonyi even made use of a Priscus fragment preserved in Jordanes’ (6th century) Getica that did not appear in contemporary editions or translations – although Jordanes himself explicitly stated that the information derived from Priscus. Reading the two texts – Gárdonyi’s novel and the fragments of Priscus’ historical account – side by side, we can observe how Priscus’ objective yet vivid report is infused with life and dramatic tension in the hands of the novelist, and how he captures and animates the compressed intensity of the historian’s terse sentences, while remaining faithful to his source within the bounds of artistic licence.

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