The following quotation is from chapter 15 of The Timeless Nation, by Zoltán Bodolai, 1978, Sydney: Hungaria Publishing Co., and is taken from the on-line Corvinus Library of Hungarian History. The site's home page bears the following notice: "COPYRIGHT © 1996-1999 HUNGARY.NETWORK AND HUNYADI OCS. MK. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED."
- A specially Magyar character of the tale is the "Taltos", a person (or a horse) possessing magic powers. He reminds us of the "shaman", the medicine-man priest of the ancient Asian religions. The "Taltos" may have been born with his special talents, in which case he is a "Garaboncias", but more often he acquires these gifts by performing certain difficult tasks. The (good) hero may also receive help from a "Taltos horse" which gives him sound advice or practical help, when needed. The "Tunder" (Fairy) appears in many shapes, pleasant or unpleasant. One of the latter is the "Liderc", a haunting, ghost-like creature.
Besides Bölk in Brokedown Palace, the legendary táltos also figures prominently in two of Brust's non-Dragaera novels, The Gypsy (with Megan Lindholm) and The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. The Gypsy also has tunder and liderc characters, though the latter does not match Bodolai's description.
Notably, in Brokedown Palace, Miska asks Miklós if he is a garaboncias. Miklós laughs and says he thinks that he is, emphasizing that he has travelled far away, and returned. This would be consonant with another definition of garabonciás, that is, a "Wandering Scholar" - one who learns magical powers, rather than having them inherent. Since Miklós has travelled to Faerie and returned (the "Wandering" part) and learned the Power of Faerie (the "Scholar" part), it seems likely that this was the meaning that Miklós intended in Brokedown Palace.