Laszlo Krasznahorkai

The 2025 Nobel laureate in Literature is a Hungarian, Laszlo Kra... Krasz... Krazsnahorkai! Seriously, what kind of name is that?!

We're gonna have to take it apart: kraszna = red, horka = hill. The Krasna Horka castle (or Krasznahorka, if you want to go Hungarian) is a 14th century fortification on top of a (red?) hill in Slovakia, close to the Hungarian border. Lovely, isn't it?

Laszlo is indeed named after that castle, but the name doesn't exactly go back centuries. His grandfather changed it in 1931 from Korin.

Korin? What exactly was wrong with that?

It's a variant of Korn, Yiddish for "grain", a rather common Jewish name in central Europe. Laszlo's grandfather changed it to one with Hungarian aristocratic roots in order to hide his Jewish origins.

A rare case where the Yiddish version is much easier on the ear than the goyishe one!

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