János vitéz
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For the 15th-century archbishop of Esztergom, see János Vitéz (bishop).
János vitéz ("John the Valiant") is an epic poem written in Hungarian by Sándor Petőfi. It was written in 1844, and is notable for its length, 370 quatrains divided into 27 chapters, and for its wordplay. It is a story of the young shepherd who is forced to leave his home and undergoes adventures as he defeats the villains such as Turks and witches while searching for his true love. Petőfi took large inspiration from Homer's Odyssey.
The poem has gained immense popularity in Hungary, and is today considered a classic of Hungarian literature.[1][2] It was adapted into a popular operetta by Pongrác Kacsóh in 1904 and into the animated feature film Johnny Corncob, the first of its kind in Hungary, in 1973.