The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1984 (11. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1984-06-01 / 6. szám
able to conquer and hold more than some parts of the Carpathian Basin. The Carpathians are lower than the Rocky Mountains of America or the Alps of Europe, their highest peaks reaching only about 8,000 feet. The map shows the Danube River flowing through the Basin, entering from the west at Dévény, dubbed Porta Hungarica (Hungarian Gate) and leaving at the Iron Gate in the Southeast. The Basin is a perfect hydrographic unit, its drainage system centering on the Danube into which flow all but two insignificant rivers of the Basin, including the greatest and “most Magyar" of Hungarian rivers, the Tisza. The Basin can be considered the geographical heartland of Europe because it is at the meeting point of Europe's three great regions: its mountains on the northwest tie it to Western Europe; the Great Russian Plain (Steppe) ends at the eastern foothills of the Carpathians and the southern opening of the Basin forms the gateway to Southern Europe, including the Balkans. In the geographical sense, then, any reference to Hungary as part of Eastern Europe is incorrect; Budapest is as far from Portugal as it is from the Ural, Europe's easternmost frontier. A Cultural Borderline Certain characteristics of the Basin, however, cannot be perceived by looking at the map alone. While the Basin connects these geographic regions, it also stands as a dividing line between two cultural worlds determined by religion; Western Christianity and Eastern Byzantine Orthodoxy. The mountain walls to the east and southeast of the Carpathians mark the easternmost limit of Western culture where the Gothic, the Renaissance, the Reformation and other spiritual trends have found acceptance. Beyond Transylvania a different, Byzantine world begins in Rumania proper. Transylvania’s natural gates open toward the Hungarian Plains, whereas only narrow, forbidding passes connect it with Byzantine Rumania (Wallachia) to the south and southeast. Moreover, all Transylvanian waters empty into the Tisza and the Danube. The Carpathian Basin is also the meeting ground of three different Indo-European linguistic families plus the Magyar tongue, making it a racial buffer-zone. The Basin is a land of transition between the steppes of Eastern Europe, toward which it is closed, and Alpine Europe, toward which it is relatively open. This westward geographical lay of the land made it logical for the peoples of the region — the Magyars, Slovaks, Croatians and Germans — to develop a Western political and cultural orientation. As a direct result, the Basin has played the role of the Bastion of Western Europe for a thousand years. The Carpathian Basin under Hungarian rule embraced many nationalities in addition to the Magyars: Slovaks, Croats, Germans, Serbians, Ruthenians and Wallachians (Rumanians). In this context, the coronation of Saint István with the Crown sent by Pope Sylvester II in the year 1,000 A.D. was an epochal event which the British historian Christopher Dawson called "the birthyear of Christian Europe." The Carpathian Mystique Whatever historical meaning the Carpathians may have, Hungarians have always regarded these mountains in a sentimental, almost mystical fashion. Witness how the most famous Hungarian novelist, Mór Jókai, describes them: The Carpathians are different from other mountains. The Alps, the Appennines, the Caucasians have their peaks capped by eternal ice and snow which slide into deep precipices, filling them up to make them passable. The Carpathians have no ranges and peaks covered by eternal snow and ice. Warm summer winds blowing from the Great Hungarian Plains melt the crown of snow from the rocky ridges of the Tatra in Upper Hungary. Avalanches seldom occur to fill the deep fissures in the mountainsides, leaving them impassable at all times. This wilderness of massive rocks, tumbled about in an immense upheaval eons ago, puts every human creation to shame. If we succeed in climbing to the top of a rocky peak to look down into the infinite, uninhabited world, our nerves may cause us tremble: this phenomenon is called “rock-fever." The bottoms of inaccessible valleys are shrouded by the veil of eternal darkness reigning there. Nowhere can we see mountain huts or grazing cattle and sheep on the barren slopes; even the game avoid this forbidding terrain. And all around deadly silence prevails disturbed only by the muffled thunder of cascading waters in the distance. On summer days the whole landscape is veiled in mountain-mist, a transparent fog covers the distances and the depths in a mysterious, opaline hue, while the rays of the setting sun set the horizon aflame. And when the mist and night settles in the valleys, the peak of Lomnic (Lomnici csúcs), the pink colored altar of the Great Kriván, pierces the dark blue sky... (From the novel A jövő század regénye — 'The Story of the Next Century’.) Jókai also wrote: r } The Tatra is our good friend now, it lends cloudcover to the Hungarian fugitive, and its caves offer a resting place for a while. But the next day, the mountain shows its face to those who want to hunt the refugee down — and when the Carpathians are an enemy, they are a terrible enemy. Some may say that there is no soul, not even in human beings. But we believe that not only humans but even the Carpathians have a soul... German and English scientists have proven with meteorological data that the magnetic effect of the Carpathians lends a magic power to the land and people within their protective walls, contributing to the aroma of its fiery wines, its superb fruits and steely grain, and to the special endurance of its sons and daughters in peaceful work and during the hardships of war. The “sympathy" of the Carpathians is ours! The magic of is mountains has been transferred into our veins! I Romantic nonsense? Perhaps, but still an expression of the Hungarians' love affair with the Carpathians. The lines above describe the scenery of the Northern Tatra, the most Page 6 Eighth Hungarian Tribe
