The Hungarian Student, 1958 (3. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
1958-10-01 / 1. szám
The Hungarian Legend In The Days of Árpád In THE DAYS of Árpád, when the Magyars had arrived in Central Europe, they had reached the highest level of nomadic culture. They had succeeded in breeding a type of horse most useful for their purposes. These horses were very fast, strong and clever, and had great endurance. Thanks to these lovely animals the warriors were able to stay in the saddle for many days on end and to cover great stretches of land. At first the Hungarians found it very difficult to stay put in their new home. They could not settle down immediately and from time to time went out on raids. For half a century they kept surprising the peaceful monks by their sudden appearances, but the monks could not help admiring the great accomplishments of these warriors on horseback. They were so adept with bow and arrow that they could shoot backwards without turning in the. saddle. This became their characteristic way of fighting and in battles, when the enemy saw only their backs and thought they were retreating, he would be surprised by a shower of arrows loosed by the Hungarian warriors. At about this time (889-970 A.D.) the Magyars rode through almost all of Europe. They appeared in Lombardy and at the Rhine. They pressed as far as Central Italy, to the west as far as France and Belgium and to the east until they reached Constantinople. In the year 955 they were vanquished at Lechfeld, near Augsburg, by Otto I, first Roman Emperor of the German nation. They realized that their nomadic life had come to an end. Turning back, they took possession of the land to which they had first come, and fortified their borders. A legend relates how the Hungarians offered a beautiful white horse with a gilded saddle and harness to the Slavic King Svatopluk, who then owned the land, in exchange for earth, grass and water. Svatopluk agreed and took the white horse. And so the Hungarians received the land for the horse; the Danube, the Tisza and all the other rivers for the saddle; and for the harness they received the strong grass of the plains of their beautiful new home. In the Age of Adventure, between 889 and 970 A.D., the still-pagan Hungarian tribes rode and were feared throughout Western Europe. 14 the Hungarian student
