Chugur releases Mireji

Csongor releases Mirígy from her chains in an encounter where mercy and threat arrive in the same breath. He frees her, but does not reconcile with her: he orders her to leave the sacred place and warns that if he finds her there again, he will bury her. Mirígy’s response makes the exchange a decisive turn from captivity to declared hostility, even as she departs with her freedom restored.

Background and Stakes

Before the release, Mirígy speaks of a cruel figure who will not loosen her chains, then says she has more to confess. The surrounding exchange links her disclosures to the golden fruit: she describes it being carried back as if it belonged to its bearer, and identifies the golden fruit itself. The scene thus places Csongor’s intervention amid a revelation about the fruit, while leaving the exact scope of Mirígy’s preceding account unstated.

The chains establish the immediate imbalance between the two characters. Mirígy is physically restrained; Csongor has the power to end that restraint. Yet the poem does not present the act as an uncomplicated pardon. His rescue is coupled to a demand that she leave, and his warning makes clear that her presence at this sacred place remains unacceptable to him.

The Release and Expulsion

The stage direction identifies Csongor as the one who strikes Mirígy’s chains off. He then tells her to go quickly, saying that his arm has saved her from the chains. The phrasing gives the rescue a personal, bodily agency: she owes her immediate freedom to the arm that has broken her bonds, not to an agreement or any change in their conflict.

Csongor directs Mirígy to go wherever her feet take her and her eyes can see. The apparent breadth of that permission is sharply limited by what follows. She must leave the sacred place; if he finds her there again, he threatens to bury her. The release therefore changes her condition without granting her welcome or safety in his presence. It is an act of mercy bounded by a territorial command and the prospect of lethal force.

Mirígy’s Answer and Departure

Mirígy answers with a blessing, then immediately promises revenge for the good deed and threatens to strangle Csongor. Her response makes the exchange’s central reversal plain: the person just freed does not offer gratitude as the basis for a new relationship. Instead, kindness becomes the occasion she names for vengeance. The sequence does not explain why she frames the rescue as deserving retaliation, so her motive should not be reduced to a further cause the scene does not supply.

After this threat, Mirígy exits. Her departure fulfills Csongor’s immediate order to leave the sacred place, but resolves neither her hostility nor the danger she poses to him. The scene closes her presence there, not their conflict: she goes free, with revenge still openly declared.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The episode sets a durable pattern for the antagonism between Csongor and Mirígy: he can act against her imprisonment while still treating her as a threat, and her response turns aid into a grievance rather than reconciliation. The broken chains mark a real change in circumstance, but the dialogue denies that this change has repaired their relationship. Freedom and enmity coexist from the moment she is released.

The scene also binds its personal conflict to the sacred place and the golden fruit. Mirígy’s preceding words bring the fruit into the exchange; Csongor’s warning makes remaining at the site the condition that would provoke a further confrontation. By freeing her and driving her away in one continuous act, he alters who is bound without surrendering control of the place. Mirígy’s exit carries the threat forward beyond the scene, while Csongor’s intervention leaves the immediate crisis settled but the larger opposition unresolved.