Hungarian Legends

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” ― Dr. Seuss

I’m going to tell you about two Hungarian legends that children celebrate every year in schools across Hungary. They may not be completely accurate, but there are many interesting things we can learn about Hungarian history from them.

A beautiful stag pranced around with a shiny-haloed

crown of antlers on its head. Two princes, ready to hunt, galloped on two chargers in its steps. The stag led them, lured them on for days, deep into a marsh. Suddenly it vanished. There was no trace, no footprint left for the princes to track the stag. These men were named Hunor and Magor. As they began to feel extremely disappointed in their venture, they heard delighted laughing and singing. Dismounting, they followed what they heard and came across a lake in which two beautiful maidens were splashing. Screaming, the daughters of King Dul ran. The princes mounted their horses and met with the daughters after a short distance. They fell in love immediately. Hunor took one as his wife, and Magor the other. The Huns are Hunor’s descendants, and Magyars are Magor’s. They settled in the region the stag had led them, which was Hungary.

This same legend, told by Simon Kézai in his chronicle Gesta Hungarorum in 1283, is a bit more somber and much more realistic. It just isn’t as fun for children.

Hunor and Magor are Chief Ménrót’s sons. They went out to hunt and caught sight of a red deer. She fled into the Maeotian marshes, but lost her there. (These marshes are located at the mouth of the Don River and the entire Sea of Azov in Russia.) They explored the marshes further and thought the area was suitable to raise livestock. They moved into the marshes with all their animals and settled there. This region teamed with grass, trees, fish, fowl and game. It had absolutely no streams but was surrounded by sea. They stayed there for five years. In the sixth year, they wandered out and came upon the wives and children of Belár’s sons. They were at home without their husband’s because they were away at war. Hunor and Magor took the wives, children and their belongings to the Meaotian marshes. It so happened that among the children they also seized the two daughters of Dula, the Prince of the Alans (an ancient northern Iranian tribe). Hunor married one and Magor the other. All the Huns descend from these women.

The next legend includes a magical creature. The “Turul” is a giant mythical falcon that sits on top of the tree of life along with the other spirits of unborn children in the form of birds. The sun in illustrations of the tree of life often replaces her. In Altaic languages, the Turul is a vulture, and in Sumerian it is a giant bird with the head of a lion. In Asian legends the Turul brings the priesthood first to the woman Emeshe and her son by causing her to be fertile. Her descendants are the first preists. The Turul is also the symbol of the house of Atilla as well as the Hungarian Árpád dynasty and the kings of Hungary. Legend says the origin of the Árpád clan was divine intervention, through the Turul. The royal family ruled from then on

and the bird clutching a sword (also called "the flaming sword of God") became their symbol.

Reality Check. Here is what I found about the actual origin of the Hungarian people.

In 819, Ügyek, the descendant of King Magog (who lived in Northern Mesopotamia during the reign of the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal) and a royal leader of the land of Scythia married the daughter of Ened-Belia, whose name was Emeshe. From her was born their first son Álmos (which means “dreamer”). The boy obtained his name because of the unusual circumstances of his birth. His mother saw, in a vision, the great Turul descended from heaven and made her fertile. A great spring welled from her womb and began flowing westward. It grew and grew until it became a torrent, which swept over the snow-covered mountains into the beautiful lowlands on the other side. The waters stopped there and a wondrous tree grew with golden branches. She imagined that famed kings were to be born from her descendants. They would rule not here in their present lands but over that distant land (to the west) in her dreams, surrounded with tall mountains (the Carpathian Mountains).

Álmos, the new son, was born to Emeshe and he grew up to be a dark complexioned, handsome black-eyed man. He was slender and very tall. He became a wise leader and brave warrior. When he matured, he became the most powerful leader in Scythia. He married the daughter of a prominent family and from their marriage, their son Árpád was born. They all moved to Pannonia (Hungary). Legend makes Attila the sixth-generation ancestor of Árpád, conqueror of the modern Pannonian Basin. Álmos was ruler of the Magyars from around 850 to 895. Árpád was the ruler from around 895 to 907. This story reaffirms the Hun and Magyar kinship, and the knowledge that the Magyars reconquered Hungary as their rightful inheritance from Atill’s great Hun Empire.

Fun stuff!