Archaeologist, ethnographer, cultural historian, devoted to Gömör County. In one word: a Gömörologist.
"The material I collected from a most excellent perfomer of Hungarian oral tradition was first published in print in 1998 under the title Szőlő-Szült Kálmány (Coloman-Born-From-Grapes), Five Heroic Tales from Gömör by Madách Publishing in Bratislava. Years later, a thought arose in me, increasingly haunting me (“sígatott”, as we say in Gyömör), it would not leave me in peace. After listening to the recordings repeatedly and reading the material over and over again, I became convinced that this is nothing less than the most complete textual imprint of the supposedly lost Hungarian heroic epic."
The above quote comes from István B. Kovács and refers to his pivotal work Az elveszettnek hitt magyar hőseposz (The Hungarian Heroic Epic Once Thought Lost), published in 2024 by Tortoma Publishing. These few concise sentences vividly illustrate how the facts guiding and determining a researcher’s work can intertwine with dreams and desires, creating a symbiosis – provided that the alignment of the stars and the restless creativity of the individual happen to meet under fortunate circumstances. In this brief passage, one also glimpses into the “hornet’s nest” B. Kovács tapped and how he gradually realized the treasure he had stumbled upon in his youth, when as a university student, he recorded on tape the stories of Viktor Busa, a Hungarian Romani man living in Rimaszécs.
Most importantly, it highlights that B. Kovács is a researcher who dares to dream big. Some scholars fiercely defend their perceived or real truths, even when new research findings would compel them to revise or at least correct their conclusion. B. Kovács, however, dares to doubt; his personal education, professional expertise, and moral character do not allow him to – quoting Pilinszky – “faint and be awakened by the splinters.” Gradually, he realized that he had indeed discovered a treasure – one only needed to stoop to retrieve it, then present and interpret it so that the ancient Hungarian belief system and the painfully missing heroic epic (whose reconstruction many had struggled with, mostly in vain) could be found and revealed. In this work, B. Kovács István essentially accomplished a revolutionary act.
(The Roots)
Let us step back into the past, to the roots! István B. Kovács was born in 1953 in a small, remote village in the former Gömör County, Baraca, which after World War II became part of Czechoslovakia. It was close to both the linguistic border and to the border drawn by the Treaty of Trianon. That year marked the death of dictator Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, and it was an era when after the deportations, disenfranchisement, and decimation of the Hungarian population, the rural people – the peasantry, the nation’s sustaining social stratum – were stripped of everything they possessed. Their lands and possessions were confiscated, and they were uprooted from their ancestral culture and faith, and, rendered rootless, were left to wither away. In return, they received collective oppression and the state-imposed commandment: “Na Slovensku po slovensky!” (In Slovakia, speak Slovak!). István, like many, spent his childhood under this dual oppression, in the “soft gulag” of Slovakian denationalization.
Fortunately, as my own experience also shows, the musical mother tongue survived in our childhoods, the same musical culture that set Béla Bartók on the path of folk-song collection. And then there were folk tales, books, and a thirst for knowledge.
Nevertheless, István grew up in a generation that had been uprooted since birth, a generation burdened with double struggle if it wanted to avoid blending into the socialist world. The homeland was taken from them, leaving only the narrow native land, a tiny patria, with its centuries-old sustaining power. Probably already as a young man, he realized that this small homeland had to be preserved and defended by all means. Perhaps this is why he later chose ethnography, though with a twist: rather than continuing his education at a grammar school emphasizing the humanities, he attended the Hungarian-language Secondary Technical School in Košice. It was a good placement: the legendary “industrial school” produced numerous educated, smart, upright Hungarians for the Felvidék – engineers, priests, poets, mostly individuals with integrity and dedication to the Hungarian cause.
Again quoting B. Kovács: “I am convinced that without Košice and the 'Hungarian Industrial School,' I would never have continued my studies in ethnography and archaeology at Eötvös Loránd University.” There he came under the lifelong influence of Gyula László. Quoting him again: “Before starting our studies, he (Gyula László) asked each of us to write down why we wanted to be archaeologists. I no longer remember what I wrote, but I tried to put into words that I did not want to remain trapped in a single scientific discipline, and that I hoped to apply the knowledge I gained for the benefit of my native people. Later, I called this Gömörology. That I ended up in the right place was soon clear. I could see that Gyula László’s work followed the approach of Ferenc Móra: 'Archaeology is petrified ethnography, and ethnography is living archaeology.' As long as I live, I will never forget that, in the company of many others, he accepted me as his student.”
(The Beginning of His Career)
As he himself says, there was never any doubt that after completing his university studies, he would return to his native Gömör, driven by love for his homeland and the goal of applying the knowledge gained in Budapest for the benefit of his people. In 1977, he graduated from Eötvös Loránd University in ethnography–archaeology. Later, in 1985, he earned his PhD in humanities there. His doctoral dissertation was on the Neolithic and Copper Age settlement history of the Rima Basin.
From 1977 to 1988, he worked as an archaeologist-museologist at the Gömör-Kishont Museum in Rimaszombat (in Slovakian: Rimavská Sobota), with a brief one-and-a-half-year detour as head of the Rimaszécs House of Local History. In 1990, he returned to the museum, now as its director. In the same year, he revived the historic Gömör-Kishont Museum Association, serving as its president.
(Detour: The Rimaszécs House of Local History)
After the – to put it mildly – oppressive, communist atmosphere of the Rimaszombat museum, B. Kovács was invited at Christmas 1988 Rimaszécs (Rimavská Seč), a market town once renowned for cattle fairs, where, thanks to the patronage of István Juhász, a local collective farm chairman, a House of Local History was founded. The neglected granary of the Koháry family was chosen for the purpose, where plans were set in motion to create a museum dedicated to southern Gömör. This would have included the works of three Gömör visual artists – Gyula Szabó, Béla Bacskai, and István Dúdor – ethnographic material collected by Aladár Bán-Bódi, and a large library collection. The ambitious plan lasted only a year and a half, and with the political changes of 1990, it collapsed, as the collective farm chairman was removed from office. B. Kovács returned to the post he deserved: director of the Gömör Museum in Rimaszombat.
(Coming into His Own, then Forced Detours)
He reached a position that allowed him to fully realize his vocation and continue the community-building work of his predecessors. Yet the young Slovak state’s impatient nationalism had other plans. In 1994, under the government of Vladimír Mečiar, the Slovak nationalist leadership of the Ministry of Culture removed him from the museum’s directorship. From then on, the path of his career became rocky, a prime example of the purges of Slovak nationalism. From 1995 to 1999, he was a lecturer at the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, and from 2000 to 2002, he returned to the Gömör-Kishont Museum as an archaeologist, while also teaching at the Tompa Mihály Reformed High School in Rimaszombat. In 2002, he became Director of the Scientific Collections of the Reformed Christian Church in Slovakia in Rimaszombat .
In 1999, he launched the quarterly journal Gömörország (The Land of Gömör), of which he was founder and editor-in-chief. The journal, describing itself as “the forum of the northern Hungarian borderland,” lasted 21 volumes. With a small team, he edited a valuable periodical unparalleled in the entire Carpathian Basin. Its demise was due to the narrow-mindedness of the Bratislava Minority Cultural Fund board, which apparently had problems with the journal’s conservative-Christian orientation.
His publishing activity also includes launching the Gömör-Kishont Téka book series, in which 24 volumes have appeared to date, including rare works such as a forgotten novella (Olivér Gömöry: Egy köpőedény története (The Story of a Spittoon), Rimaszombat, 2010).
(Archaeological Research)
As an archaeologist at the Gömör Museum in Rimaszombat , István B. Kovács achieved a breakthrough in 1982 when he conducted excavations on the outskirts of the village of Méhi. On the outskirts of the settlement, Grave No. 1 was uncovered, part of a cemetery of the Baden culture from the Copper Age, in use around 2000 BCE. The grave contained a clay vessel depicting a male and a female deity (almost certainly a divine pair), among them a clay idol representing a young girl, as well as five urns imitating the figures of deities. The closest parallels to this triple deity depiction are known from Asia Minor. Similar graves containing such urns are known only from the Sajó Valley, specifically from the cemeteries of Ózd-Center, Sajógömör, and Ózd-Szentsimon. The archaeologist who excavated the grave published the results in 2002. In his volume, he analyzes the material culture of the population living along the middle course of the Sajó River, their chronological situation, and the possible background of their Mediterranean connections. (Published: The Triad of Deities at Méhi and Its People. Madách-Posonium, 2002, Pozsony (Bratislava))
Another significant study was conducted among the remains of the county head’s castle in Gömör. For a long time, historical scholarship considered the Sajógömör castle among the early ispán (county head) castles. The excavation proved that it was built later, most likely after the establishment of the county in the early 12th century. The claim that a Slavic hillfort had existed on the site before the arrival of the Hungarians was also refuted. The results were published by the lead archaeologist in his book Gömörológia (Madách-Posonium, 2003, Pozsony).
(Ethnographic Research, Collections, Publications)
It is perhaps not far from the truth to say that István B. Kovács’s ethnographic work represents the “heart” of his scholarly endeavours. In this field, he published several pioneering and valuable studies.
The earliest was Malac Julcsa (Julcsa Piglet), published in 1990, which presented a selection of material collected from Margit Csák, wife of Balázs Tóth, who lived in Baraca. His interest in folktales is shown by the fact that the book reached three editions. (Malac Julcsa. Gömör Folktales. Madách Kiadó, 1990, Bratislava; further editions: Madách Kiadó, 2004, 2010, Bratislava.)
In 1991, the volume A Vály-völgy (The Vály Valley) was published, presenting one of the least-known micro-regions of Gömör. “The population of the six steadily shrinking villages possesses an extraordinarily rich historical past, a complex cultural-historical heritage, a peasant culture interwoven with unique traits, remarkable monuments, and notable natives,” writes István B. Kovács in the introduction of the study collection. He is the author of the studies A vály-völgyi népélet történeti rajza (The Historical Portrait of Village Life in the Vály Valley) and A két Bodon emléke (The Memory of the Two Bodons), co-author of Műemlékek Alsókálosától Felsővályig (Monuments from Alsókálos to Felsővály), and he also curated the correspondence between Bodon Ábrahám, elected to parliament in 1848, and his wife. He also compiled the Történeti adattár (Historical Data Collection) and the chapter Vály-völgy története évszámokban (History of the Vály Valley in Dates). (The Vály Valley. Czechoslovak Hungarian Ethnographic Society, 1991)
In 1994, the monograph Baracai népköltészet (Folklore of Baraca) was published jointly by Madách-Posonium and Akadémiai Kiadó, containing the knowledge of an elderly woman living in the author’s village. According to the author, the work was pioneering because it demonstrated a new approach in ethnography called individual-focused study. Instead of concentrating on a single performer’s repertoire limited to one genre, as previous scholars did, he aimed to present the complete knowledge of one person, Margit Csák, regardless of genre limitations. The work appeared in one of the most prestigious series of Hungarian folklore, the Új Magyar Népköltési Gyűjtemény (New Hungarian Folk Poetry Collection).
After being removed from the Gömör Museum, B. Kovács wrote Gömörország. Egy tájhaza arcvonásai tényekben, képekben és gondolatokban (Gömör country: The Features of a Homeland in Facts, Images, and Thoughts) while unemployed. Published by Kalligram Kiadó in 1997, the A4-sized work, printed in full color, aimed to chronologically summarize the events of public and cultural history in the former Gömör–Kishont County deemed most important by the author, introducing the reader to the region’s artistic heritage. A name and subject index facilitates orientation. The book’s popularity is indicated by the fact that it reached four editions in a relatively short time. (Further editions: Gömör-Kishont Museum Association, 2004, 2005, 2009, Rimaszombat)
Hervadatlan rózsagyüker. Gömör–Kishont magyar népköltészete (The Unfading Rosebush: Hungarian Folk Poetry of Gömör–Kishont) is essentially an anthology. The compiler aimed to provide the most comprehensive picture possible of Hungarian folk poetry in the region based on previous collections and research, showcasing its genres and finest works. (Szlovákiai Magyar Tájak Népköltészete (Slovak Hungarian Regions Folk Poetry) 1. Lilium Aurum, 1998, . Dunaszerdahely (Dunajská Streda))
In 1998, Szőlő-Szült-Kálmány. Öt gömöri hősmese (Coloman-Born-From-Grapes: Five Heroic Tales from Gömör) was published by Madách-Posonium. The volume presents material recorded on tape in Gömör in the 1970s. This material was later identified by the author as the textual remnants of the long-lost Hungarian heroic epic.
His short monograph on the pottery tradition of Gömör, Gömörológia. Írások a történelmi Gömör és Kishont vármegye múltjáról és jelenéről (Clay Bread: Chapters from the History of Gömör-Kishont Pottery), was published in 2001 by the Gömör-Kishont Museum Association.
Eighteen of his essays were published in Gömörológia. Írások a történelmi Gömör és Kishont vármegye múltjáról és jelenéről. (Gömörology: Writings on the Past and Present of Historical Gömör and Kishont Counties), a volume covering research on Gömör, the development of the county, Gömör landscapes and people, and tradition.
Iskola a nyelvhatáron. Emlékezések az Egyesült Protestáns Gimnáziumra (School at the Language Border: Memories of the United Protestant Gymnasium) was published in 2003, presenting the history of the educational institution founded in 1854, including portraits of its notable teachers until the forced nationalization after the tragic Treaty of Trianon. (Compiled and linguistically edited by István B. Kovács). Publisher: Slovak Reformed Christian Church, 2003, Rimaszombat )
B. Kovács is also the author of Rimaszombat ’s first city guide, Rimaszombat. Rendhagyó városkalauz (Rimaszombat : An Unconventional City Guide), published in 2005 by Madách-Posonium.
Rimaszombat is also the subject of the two-volume work Rimaszombat. Várostörténeti barangolások (Rimaszombat : Historical Walks), published 2010–2012, presenting the cultural-historical past of the former county seat of Gömör–Kishont.
Fekete-e a fekete sas? (Is The Black Eagle Truly Black?) is a collection of essays containing three major studies: it examines the origin of the Palóc people, the Hungarian heroic epic, and restores the early history and symbols of Rimaszombat . (Gömör-Kishont Museum Association, 2015)
In 2016, his volume Világ vitéze. Magyar hősepika (Hero of the World: Hungarian Heroic Epics) was published, providing a detailed analysis of ethnographic material collected from oral tradition.
In 2017, the commemorative year of the Reformation, he published Lant és biblia. Tompa-breviárium (Lute and Bible: A Tompa Breviary), presenting a cross-section of Mihály Tompa’s work, including selected correspondence with János Arany and related commemorations.
Also in 2017, the Gömör-Kishont Museum Association published his Szent László-legenda szóban és képekben (The Legend of Saint Ladislaus in Words and Images). According to the author, the source of this long-celebrated Hungarian cultural artifact is the Hungarian heroic epic. Its Christian reinterpretation and presentation on church walls aimed to suppress the still-living pagan tradition.
(The Supposedly Lost Hungarian Heroic Epic – 2025)
Hungarian heroic epics have preoccupied scholars for over two centuries. This interest is by no means uniquely Hungarian; at the dawn of the nation-building era, various European peoples sought in heroic songs, epics, or folk-epics a cornerstone of national identity. Thus, the topic has been pursued since the early 19th century. “Since then, we have diligently collected data from our oldest chronicles, ballads, folktales, and beliefs, not forgetting visual representations, and we have also incorporated the rich epic heritage of related Eastern peoples. We pick up crumbs, while the heroic epic in its entirety has been right before our eyes! Indeed, it survived not as verse, that is, not as a heroic song, but in prose. It is more than a mystery how it remained undiscovered for two centuries,” writes István B. Kovács.
The volume Az elveszettnek hitt magyar hőseposz (The Supposedly Lost Hungarian Heroic Epic) contains five stories. The protagonist, appearing under different names (Szëgény János / Szőlőszűlt-Kálmány / Szëgény Halász Fëri), is one and the same hero: the child of an old Romani woman living along the Rima/Sajó. His earthly father is merely his caretaker, for the hero is of divine origin: “a shaman who knows everything about the world.” His fate, like that of the other characters, is preordained. In accordance with his divine origin and his redemptive-liberating mission, he is called to extraordinary tasks. On his adventurous journey, he is aided by his magical horse and sword, Világszépségë, his godparents, other mythic figures, and mortal heroes. He traverses all three layers of the world, and after defeating his greatest enemy, the hero of the Otherworld, the ruler of the Upper World voluntarily hands him the crown. He earns the title of „egészvilági vitéz” – “Hero of the Entire World” and Világszépségë’s hand in marriage. His character blends mythic and heroic elements. At once, he represents both a divine, mythic hero and an epic hero whose destiny is preordained. He is the one memorialized in our chronicles and on the walls of medieval churches as Saint Ladislaus.
(Public Life and Civic Engagement)
The career portrait would be incomplete without mentioning István B. Kovács’s public and civic engagement. At least briefly, because few carry as many responsibilities as he has. This derives both from his personality and capability, and from the unfortunate reality that the more marginalized a Hungarian-inhabited region is, the fewer “pillars of support” – active intellectuals capable of serving the common good in social and political matters – it possesses. This is especially true for Gömör and its center, Rimaszombat , due to advanced assimilation.
Before the political transition of 1989, Hungarian intellectuals (in the absence of civil organizations) mostly worked in the cultural association of Hungarians in Slovakia, Csemadok, preserving national and cultural identity. After the fall of the communist system, both responsibilities and opportunities multiplied. István B. Kovács thus became one of the intellectual pillars of Rimaszombat and Gömör. He actively participated in the transition, founding and operating civil organizations, engaging in local government work, and national politics. His commitment to Hungarian identity brought him numerous attacks. For example, in the summer of 1995, he was unemployed for six months after being unjustly and arbitrarily removed from his position as museum director and dismissed from the museum. In 1999, he faced unemployment again for two months. With some wry humor, he remarks: such is the typical fate of a Hungarian intellectual in Upper Hungary.
His “offense” was that in the years following 1989, he actively worked to rehabilitate the Hungarian past in Gömör and dismantle the legacy of communist power. In 1989, he initiated the revival of the tradition represented by the former United Protestant Gymnasium. As the intellectual heir of the school, the Tompa Mihály Reformed Gymnasium opened in 1999/2000 as the first secondary school of the Reformed Christian Church in Slovakia. Between 1999 and 2005, he also taught history there as a visiting instructor.
He was a founder of Független Magyar Kezdeményezés (Independent Hungarian Initiative) and the Együttélés Politikai Mozgalom (Political Movement for Coexistence). He was elected to the Rimaszombat municipal government and served for a time as deputy mayor. He earned the trust of Rimaszombat ’s citizens over multiple election cycles. Following the political transition, he played a key role in naming public spaces after notable figures and ensuring that many Hungarian cultural luminaries, such as János Arany, Béla Bartók, Miklós Izsó, Sándor Petőfi, Miklós Radnóti, and the Tóth family, received statues or commemorative plaques in the region. At his suggestion, Tompa Mihály’s statue, removed during communist years, was returned to its proper place. He proposed the execution of the will of Ilona Széplakyné Süteő, which entrusted the Gömör-Kishont Museum Association (now the City Gallery).
István B. Kovács is president of the Simonyi Foundation, originally aimed at raising funds for an independent Hungarian university in Slovakia through public donations. On his initiative, the so-called Millennium Forum was convened in April 1999 to establish the framework for Hungarian cultural self-governance in Slovakia, though the initiative failed due to opposition from political elites and the liberal-left wing of Slovak Hungarian public life. For several years, on behalf of the MKP (Party of the Hungarian Coalition), he represented the Hungarian national community of Slovakia on the governing body of Duna TV and the board of trustees of the Hungária Television Public Foundation. He was also a member of the Cultural Committee of MÁÉRT (Cultural Committee of the Hungarian Standing Conference).
In September 2005, he initiated the founding of Gömör as a virtual European country. He participated in the Eurozug-Gombaszög Társulás (Eurozug-Gombaszög Association) as a representative of the Gömör-Kishont Museum Association. The association’s goal later materialized in the organization of the Gombaszög Youth Camp by the Sine Metu Civic Association. He founded the Rimaszombat és Vidéke Polgári Társulás (Rimaszombat and Region Civic Association), which also served as a designated fund for the Csehországi és Szlovákiai Magyar Kultúráért Alapítvány (Foundation Hungarian Culture in Czechia and Slovakia), serving as its president for years. In 2004, as chair of the Petőfi-szoborbizottság (Petőfi Statue Committee), he oversaw the erection of the full-figure public statue of the poet created by Miklós Izsó. The association also undertook the restoration of the Petőfi House, renamed the House of Muses. On his initiative, commemorative plaques and statues were erected for Miklós Radnóti in Nemesradnót, Miklós Izsó in Zsíp, János Arany in Hanva, Sándor A. Tóth, Béla Bartók, and Ditta Pásztory in Rimaszombat.
Since 2013, he served as an elder of the Rimaszombat Reformed Church. During the Reformation commemorative year, the Csillagház (Star House) conference center was inaugurated, featuring the renewed exhibition spaces of the Reformed Scientific Collections. Beside the building, Gályarabok emlékműve (Memorial to the Galley Slaves) was unveiled.
“Typical career of a Hungarian intellectual in Upper Hungary” – I quoted István B. Kovács earlier. Partly true, yet few intellectuals in Upper Hungary have borne as many responsibilities as he has. It will be the task of future generations to continue the struggle for survival, and ideally, for development and intellectual growth. The task is difficult, but the example has been set!