Dr. Szabó Lajos: A magyar ifjúság testi nevelésének története (A Sportmúzeum Kincsei 5. Budapest, 2004)

Testkultúra-testnevelés Magyarországon a honfoglalás, kalandozások időszakában

ACCORDING TO ONE-TIME SOURCES the settling Hungarians were on a high stagee of economic-, social and political development. Belonging to the family of horse-riding, pastoral steppe people, animal (horse)-breeding played an important role in their life-style. The Magyars went through a big social and political transformation durign settlement and the following centuries, the outlines of the early-feudal class-society, that led to the foundation of the state, to the taking of western Christianity and to the strengthening of feudal class relations. For a long time several of the Hungarians kept their steppe-like manners as they were described mainly in the chronicles of the neighbouring countries. Leon (the Wise), Byzantine emperor, writes about the fighting-style of the Hungarians in his Tactics m the end of the 9th cent. From the description it turns out that Hungarians were excellent in using bow, spear and sword, that could be attained only through continuous training. So preparatory fight-exercises (wrestling, swimming, thowing and riding) got a main role in educating boys. Their ability to shoot with a bow turning back on the horse was admired and feared through whole Europe. Settling and the new lifestyle was not without difficulties. (Adventuring continued even in the 10th century.) Monk Ekkehard who was the witness of one of the victorious adventures of the Hungarains at St. Gallen monastery wrote that after the battle there were wrestling and and other armed combats organized in the prescence of their leaders. Several archeological finds represent that life-style (e.g. the Cold Treasury of Nagyszentmiklós, which is now kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna) The decorations all represented the ancient life-style of Hungarians.