Origin of the Hungarian Nation [antikvár]

ORIGIN OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION INTRODUCTION The ninth century in Europe was an age of tumult and turmoil. Future Framce and future Germany were slowly emerging from the ruins of the Carolingian Empire. The daring Vikings, who at this time, in their dragon boats, ravaged England and other coastal lands of Western Europe, were to be the founding fathers of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Their foe, Alfred the Great, in his small kingdom of Wessex, foreshadowed a future British empire. One group of the rapacious Northern adventurers had just bestowed their name on a future Russia. Moorish emirs reigned on the sunny Iberian peninsula, where the future Spain was to rise. Moorish culture at this time was far superior to any other in the West. But Europe was stirring. Vernacular Latin, impoverished daughter of the glory that was once Rome, was now evolving in new ways, into French and Italian. It was the time of birth for modem nations. At the end of this turbulent ninth century, the Hungarians arrived in Central Europe. They came from the Northeast, with tiie irrestible sweep of a well armed, well organized and populous nation. They took possession of the wide valley of the river Danube in the year 895. The central part of the valley had been empty since the army of Charlemagne had slaughtered the rulers of the Avars — that part was known as the "Deserta Avarorum," the desert lands of the Avars. The valley of the Middle Danube is surrounded by the powerful semicircle of the Carpathian Mountains; a natural boundary, which creates an economic unit and almost a fortress. Within these mountains, the Hungarians, who in their own tongue called themselves Magyars, would establish their homeland, Hungary. Their traditions told them that this rich land had belonged once, long ago, ofe their Scythian ancestors, and they claimed it expressly as their rightful heritage. Scattered on the periphery lived remnants of peoples once powerful in this land: Avars, Huns, Dacians, all of them