Hungarian Heritage Review, 1991 (20. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1991-01-01 / 1. szám
immemorial. Surprisingly, Hungarians are proud of their origin despite the bad reputation given to the Huns and their leader, Attila, by Western history books. Most writings descibe Attila the Hun as cruel and ruthless, with one notable exception—the famous German Nibelungen-Lied mentions him thus: "There was a mighty king in the land of the Huns whose goodness and wisdom had no equal." Wherever the truth may lie, cruelty and man's inhumanity to man have always been characteristics of human behavior. Actually, the Vandals were much worse than the Huns, so much so that their terrible "character" has been immortalized by the word "vandal" itself. In comparison, Attila was also less cruel than Cortez, Pizarro, and Ivan the Terrible. Would these conquerors have shown Rome mercy, as Attila did, when the Pope pleaded with him outside the gates of the Eternal City? Genserich, Belizar, the Saracens, the Norsemen, and 1,000 years later (in 1527) the German and Spanish mercenary troops all pillaged Rome without heed. In the midst of Oriental and barbaric splendor, Attila's simplicity stamped him a true soldier. Delegates from Byzantium related with wonder that the mighty Hun chief used only a wooden goblet and wooden plate during the sumptuous banquets they had attended. At that time, Attila's empire extended from the Rhine River to the Caspian Sea, and from the Baltic Sea to the Lower Danube. But, as with many quickly created empires, Attila's realm fell to pieces soon after his early death on his nuptial night in 453 A.D. Rivalry broke out among his sons, and the Huns who had threatened Gaul and Rome withdrew to the East between the Don and Kuban rivers. There they disintegrated into various nomadic tribes. After the tide of the Huns had peaked and ebbed, further waves of peoples moved in to take their place, but all were crushed by the Avars, a quickly emerging branch of the Ural-Altaic group. They succeeded in founding an empire whose heart was in the area once held by the Huns: the territory between the Danube and Tisza rivers in the Carpathian Basin. The Avars' peculiar weapon was the gladius hunnicus, the Huns' curved sabre. They raised circular bulwarks and dug entrenchments, the traces of which can still be seen in scattered locations. The Avars' downfall was hastened by the developement of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire. Their armies clashed in a fierce war of attrition that lasted seven years, from 796 to 803 A.D. After their defeat by Frankish troops, most Avar tribes returned to the slopes of the Caucasian Mountains. Some others, however, stayed and mingled with the Slavs of the area and later with the Magyars. When the Magyars under Arpad arrived in their new homeland, they found that they were welcomed as brethren by the sparse population in some areas. According to the Teri-i-Ungurusz chronicle: "When they arrived in the land, they saw its many rivers teeming with fish, the land rich in fruits and vegetables, and members of other tribes, some of whom understood their language." But this seemingly simple progression into the Carpathian Basin is only part of the story, as we shall see. Black Magyars and White Magyars Ancient Chinese geographical directions, not skin color, from the basis for the distinction between the " black" branch and the "white" branch of the Magyars. Contrary to the Western compass, the Chinese held that there were five cardinal directions, the fifth being "the center of the universe", China itself. Each of the five directions was symbolized by a color. The central point, China, was indicated by yellow, for the gold that befit His Imperial Highness. The North, so often shrouded by the dark of Arctic nights, was black. The West was given white, a color that reflected the blinding white sands of the vast deserts on the western horizon. Red denoted the sunny —continued next page JANUARY 1991 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 27
