The Celts in Hungary

To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to forever remain a child. - Cicero

Ever wonder what the Celts were doing in Europe a long, long time ago? Where did they go? Why? What made them decide to attack some people and not others or settle where they did? Since I haven’t done any kind of history post in a long while, I figured I would add one that includes interactions between Celts and Hungarians.

Did you know that Budapest used to be a Celtic city? It was built on an old Celtic settlement with the name Aquincum. There’s even a street in the 3rd district of Budapest named ‘Kelta’ street. Aquincum, a name from the Roman era, is more than probably a translation of the ancient Celtic name of the settlement, which was Aubwhn, meaning “water home.” The Huns attacked the Roman sentries who guarded the Danube line (400s AD) and –maybe even with the help of the Celts – gained a brilliant victory. The Celts were engaged in a continuous struggle against the Roman occupiers. Because the Celts would not accept Roman rule, the Romans set out to destroy Celtic civilization and any memory of them. You can understand why the Huns and Celts might have banded together. This alliance existed even at the time of Atilla.

The first Celtic settlements appeared in the British Isles in the Early Bronze Age (around 1180 BC). It’s believed that England’s native population at the end of the Stone Age was Celtic. Ephoros, the Greek chronicler of the 4th century BC, counts the Celts among the world’s greatest peoples. They populated Europe from the British Isles to the Lower-Danube and even beyond, toward Scythia and Asia Minor.

In 1538, Márk Kálti wrote Képes Krónika (pictured on the right). It was a medieval illustrated

chronicle from the Kingdom of Hungary of the second half of the fourteenth century. It gives some brief information about the three sons of Noah: “They spread into three directions of the World; Shem received Asia, Ham Africa, and Japheth Europe as their share.” We know from Josephus Flavius (a well-known Roman-Jewish scholar and historian) that in his “The History of the Jews”, Japheth had seven sons (Hittites). In Hungarian, hét means seven. Their lands “stretched from the Taurus and Amanus mountains in Asia to the river Tanais and Gadira in Europe.” These territories were, until then, uninhabited and the people who settled there gave them their own name. Flavius gives us the names of Japheth’s sons too: Gomár, Magóg, Madi, Javán, Tubái, Mosoch and Thyras. Their people received their names from them. Márk Kálti, in Képes Krónika, calls the Galatians “Galls” and writes that they occupied Pannónia (present day western Hungary, eastern Austria, Northern Croatia, north-western Serbia, northern Slovenia, western Slovakia and northern Bosnia and Herzegovina). In summary, the Celts (Galls) were descendents of Gomar and the Magyars (Magors, Scythians) from his brother Magog.

Scythian influence on Celts not only appears in the metal (gold and iron) objects which were unearthed by archaeologists, but in the “kurgan”-style burial custom too. There are a great number of raised gravesites all over the British Isles that also dot Hungary. Celts were very brave warriors, saying the only thing they feared was the sky falling on their heads. Hungarians have parallel sayings, including phrases in old children’s stories like, “The sky is falling! The Earth is moving! There is a knock upon my head. You run too my friend…”

After the death of Atilla and the loss of the Carpathian Basin as part of the Hun Empire, the Celts of Pannónia (along with the Scythian-Hun people) remained in their motherland (Hungary). The memory of the Celts remained not only in the peculiar swords made in Hungarian territories or their art of deer, griffin and ivy motifs. Many present day Hungarian words and town names are from the Celtic language. The workmanship that Celtic goldsmiths learned from Mesopotamians was also passed down to Huns and Magyars.

Gold played a part in the Celts selection of where to settle. They worshiped Gold and brought with them their knowledge of mining. The Danube valley was used as a natural road for all kinds of traffic. This rout became a natural choice since you can pan for gold in the Danube to this day. Celts were equestrian nomads. The fact that they loved their horses came into consideration as they selected a place to permanently settle. They needed a place with ample grasslands and an adequate place to roam. Western Europe was rich in immense forests, bogs and wet meadows, so they moved farther east to Hungary. Furthermore, the music of the Celts is pentatonic and closely resembles Hungarian music, as do their folk art, folk customs, traditions, dances, legends, motifs and equestrian parades.

That was an abbreviated version of what I found on the Celts in Hungary. Perhaps next time I will tackle the Huns in Hungary and see where that takes me since they were involved quite a bit even in this post.

P.S. Second semester is starting on the 20th of January. It’s all downhill from here!