In a book I’m reading a character is often refered to as a Taltos. Wikipedia says:
can refer to several things:
* A creature from Hungarian legend (see Taltos (myth)).
* A book by Steven Brust (see Taltos (Steven Brust novel))
* A book by Anne Rice (see Taltos (Anne Rice book)).
The first one is more relevent than the other two, but if I click the link there is no article. Anyone know what the expression means?
A taltos was a priest/shaman/wizard in pre-Christian Hungary.
And as to what your author meant by referring to his character as a Taltos, I think you’re going to have to rely on the context in which the term is used.
Shaman or Wizard makes sense - magic maker of some sort anyway. Thanks.
There’s quite a good discussion of táltos in Tekla Dömötör’s Hungarian Folk Beliefs if you can get a hold of a copy. Basically, they would have been the shamans of pre-Christian times, and survive in legends and folktales as sort of wizard-like figures, and in history as a name for folk healers and white witches (usually male but not always). They can fly and when they fight with each other they often take the form of a fiery wheel. They weren’t supposed to accept payment for their services, and the táltos was “typically a taciturn, misanthropic, solitary individual.” They’re not the same as witches, but apparently they’re very similar to garabonciás.
There’s also the Taltos Horse, a horse from Hungarian myth that gives good advice to down-on-their-luck heroes. Sometimes it tells the hero to kill it, and use its blood to solve whatever puzzle is before them. It’s the same derivation, I’d imagine.