László Merényi

László Merényi was a Hungarian collector of folk tales, born in Pomáz on August 18, 1837, and remembered for preserving stories that might otherwise have been lost. After private schooling and later legal studies in Pest, he turned toward folklore and language collecting instead.

For six years, he worked on commission for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, gathering Székely dialect words and folk tales in Transylvania. That material reportedly was not published in print, but his work as a collector continued and became the basis of the books that made his name.

Merényi is especially associated with collections such as Eredeti népmesék, Dunamelléki eredeti népmesék, and Sajóvölgyi eredeti népmesék. His work matters not just as literature, but as a record of Hungarian storytelling traditions, full of wonder, earthy humor, and the voice of everyday people.