Szélatya, wind father and wind king of the fairy tales

Szélatya is a god of Hungarian folk tradition.

The giant who covers the wind hole in the mountain with his hat.

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Szélatya

Szélatya, also written more simply as Szelatya, is the male personification of the wind in Hungarian folk belief. In the genuine material, the figure is attested chiefly as wind king or wind son: a giant who covers the wind hole in the mountain with his hat and produces wind when he lifts it.

Unlike the wind mother Szélanya, who manages the winds from her cave, the wind father is the lord who releases or withholds them. An important point of classification: this figure is genuine as a fairy-tale motif; the independent wind god Szélatya with Turkic trappings, by contrast, is a modern construction.

At a glance: Szélatya

Type: Wind father, wind king, male personification of the wind
Origin: Hungarian folk belief, collected in the 19th and 20th centuries
Texts: Ethnographic lexicon, fairy tales, collections of incantations
Period: Collections from the 19th and 20th centuries
Appearance: Wind king or giant at the wind hole with the hat motif

Source context

Period of the Texts

Hungarian folk belief concerning the wind was collected in the 19th and 20th centuries; the male wind personification is recorded there as wind king and wind son.

Area of Diffusion

The Hungarian-speaking area: there, the wind king appears in fairy tales and folk belief, at the same wind hole in the mountain as the wind mother.

Sources

Genuine as a fairy-tale and folk-belief figure, not as a deity: the ethnographic lexicon lists wind king and wind son as personification and fairy-tale motif; the god Yel Ata is a Turkic-Tengrist overlay.

Name and variants

Hungarian: szél means wind, atya or apa father, hence wind father; alongside these stand szélkirály, wind king, and szél fiú, wind son. The male personification actually attested in folk belief is the wind king or wind son.

Nature and effect

Appearance

In the genuine material, it is the wind king or giant at the wind hole with the hat motif: he covers the wind hole in the mountain with his hat and produces wind when he lifts it. The description of a youthful, handsome man with silver weapons is a Turkic and neo-pagan overlay.

Effect

Szélatya is the lord over the winds, releasing or withholding them; he belongs to the same illness-bringing wind complex as the wind mother. A distinct father role is not sharply delineated in the material on illness and incantation; the actor there is usually the wind in a generic sense, the beautiful women, the witch or the devil.

Profile: Szélatya

The key aspects of the wind father at a glance.

Tradition

Male wind personification of Hungarian folk belief, listed in the ethnographic lexicon as wind king and wind son, and internationally anchored in fairy-tale typology.

Object of Influence

The winds themselves: the wind king releases or withholds them, depending on whether he covers the wind hole in the mountain with his hat.

Depiction

Wind king or giant at the wind hole with the hat motif; the youthful, handsome man with silver weapons is a modern overlay.

Function

Lord over the winds in fairy tales; in belief about illness he recedes behind the generic wind, the beautiful women, witch and devil.

Practice

The same defence as with the wind mother: throw an axe into the whirlwind, do not spit into it, do not curse the wind, send the affliction away.

Distinctions

Szélanya manages the winds from her cave; Szélatya releases or withholds them. The god Yel Ata is the Turkic overlay.

Wind king, wind son and the hat motif

Szél means wind, atya or apa father, hence wind father; alongside these stand szélkirály, the wind king, and szél fiú, the wind son. The male personification actually attested in folk belief is the wind king or wind son, listed in the ethnographic lexicon as personification and fairy-tale motif: a giant covers the wind hole in the mountain with his hat and produces wind when he lifts it.

To be distinguished from this is the second layer: Szélatya as an independent god, as Yel Ata with silver weapons and thunder horses, son of Kayra, is a Turkic-Tengrist overlay and not Hungarian folk belief. The genuine material knows no wind god, only a fairy-tale figure at the wind hole.

Between ethnography and Turanism

As with the wind mother, reception is split: ethnographically the figure counts as a personification, while in neo-pagan and Turanist circles it counts as a wind god; there is also a fairy-tale reception of the wind king, whom the hero encounters.

From a religious-studies perspective, the wind king and the wind son are genuine folk-belief and fairy-tale personifications. An important clarification: Szélatya as a wind god with silver weapons and a Turkic pantheon is a modern Turanist-neo-pagan construction, reinforced by Ipolyi’s romantic reconstruction, and is not attested as an independent Hungarian deity.

Defence within the illness-bringing wind complex

No documented cult exists. The defence is the same as for the Wind Mother: throw an axe into the whirlwind, do not spit into it, do not curse the wind, and send the personified evil away. A conjuring formula specifically naming Szélatya or the Wind King as the invoked instance cannot be found as a secure record; in the texts it is the wind itself that is addressed.

From Aiolos to Yel Ata: parallels

The closest relative is Szélanya, the Wind Mother: she is the keeper of the winds in her cave, while the Wind Father, as Wind King, releases or withholds the winds; both are personifications of the same wind complex, not a divine couple. Szélatya corresponds to the Turkic-Altaic Yel Ata; the wind hole and the cave recall the Greek Aiolos and his bag of winds. In terms of fairy-tale typology he belongs to the international type of the Wind King whom the hero encounters; as a northern counterpart of a lord of the winds, the Sámi Bieggolmai may be named.

Frequently asked questions about Szélatya

Who is Szélatya?

The Wind Father, attested in genuine Hungarian folk belief mainly as Wind King or Wind Son: the lord who releases or withholds the winds.

Is he an independent god?

As a fairy-tale figure, yes; the wind god with Turkic attributes is a modern construction.

What is the hat motif?

A giant covers the wind hole in the mountain with his hat and produces wind whenever he lifts it.

Further links

Literature (selection)

Further standard works in the bibliography.

As the Hungarian Wind Father and Wind King of folk belief, Szélatya represents the male side of wind personification: the giant at the wind hole, whose hat decides between storm and calm, a fairy-tale figure, not a cult god.