228 HUNGARIAN LITERATO RE days in the hero's life. The subject was taken from an old sixteenth-century rhymed chronicle, but Arany greatly improved it, giving the events their psychologkal basis, and linking the fragmentary incidents of the chronide by an inner thread of motive. In the old narrative of llosvay the hero is a peasa nt lad of immense strength . Ara ny's hero is the younger son of a country family of some standing, a noble-minded youth, but brought up to work almost like a peasant on the family estate. Th rough his trials and sufferings, he is ennobled and made a true knight. There are two brothers, George and Nicholas Toldi. The elder, George, who lives at the Court of Louis the Great, keep s his younger brother on the estate in order that he shall always remain a farmer ; otherwise he does not treat bim harshly. George comes with his retinue to visit his mother, and in a masterly scene th e two brothers are brought face to face, and passionate words pass. George scoffs at his brother until the youth maddened by insults, seizes the mill-sto ne on which he has been sitting in a remote corn er of the courtyard and flings it among his brother's servants, unfortunately killing one of the m. Nicholas then leaves the house, feeling that he must atone for this action by noble deeds. After several days' wandering he arríves at Pest, where, at a tournament, he defeats a Bohemian knigh t who has been victor in man y combats during the previous days. Louis the Great knights bim for winning back the country's trophy, wh ite the elder brother is punished for certain misdeeds. The struggles of a noble nature, the pardonable fault, and the final triumph of the youth, are symb ol ical of the poet's own life, for he had to endure many a hardship before success was attained.
