Whose Is Mikuláš Šubić Zrínsky? (On the Sources of Inspiration and Conceptual Background of the Historical Epic Gróf Mikuláš Šubić Zrínsky na Sihoti [Count Nikola Šubić Zrinski at Sziget] by Andrej Sládkovič)

Accounts of the character and deeds of Nikola IV Zrinski (1508 – 1566) who became renowned for his heroic guarding of Szigetvár in 1566 and of the work and life of his great-grandson Nikola VII Zrinski (1620 – 1664), a 17th-century baroque poet, had long played central roles in the building of national awareness and political ideology in Hungary. The Slavic inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary were familiar with the general who fought against the Ottoman Empire since the 16th century, but in the 19th century, in the context of the idea of Slavic mutuality and Pan-Slavism, this historical figure became more important. In 1866, Andrej Sládkovič (1820 – 1872) wrote a historical epic Gróf Mikuláš Šubić Zrínsky na Sihoti [Count Nikola Šubić Zrinski at Sziget] in which he described Zrinski’s heroic deeds from the perspective of Pan-Slavic identity in detail. He drew on Ján Kollár’s sonnet “My sme dali Uhrům Zríniho” [We gave Zrinski to the Hungarians] included in his Slávy dcera ([The daughter of Sláva] final version published in 1852). The sonnet asserts that the Slavs left Zrinski to the Hungarians, just like they left Ján Hus to the Germans and Nicolaus Copernicus to the Italians and that they also gave up Zrinski’s legacy. Sládkovič, in his epic poem, returned Zrinski of Szigetvár to the Slavic Pantheon, based on the text of Zrinski the poet.