Századok – 2016
2016 / 2. szám - MŰHELY - Sudár Balázs: Az Árpádok, Attila és a dinasztikus hagyományok
THE ÁRPÁDS, ATTILA AND DYNASTIC TRADITIONS by Sudár Balázs (Summary) AZ ÁRPÁDOK, ATTILA ÉS A DINASZTIKUS HAGYOMÁNYOK 441 The memory of Attila and the Huns as their ancestors has been part of the Hungarians’ self-image for several centuries, at least since the 1200s, and the legends attached to them are part of the Hungarian historical heritage. Obscurity only lingers over the origins of this tradition: was it taken from the East, or rather an intellectual construction elaborated by men of letters trained in Western Europe? While Hungarian scholarship has traditionally favoured the latter version, some recent results have at least partially undermined its validity. Thus, in the present study I explore the question of whether the image of Attila as reflected by the Hungarian chronicles can indeed be an eastern inheritance, and so in accordance with the concepts that dominate the ways in which the dynasties of the steppe traditionally remember their ancestors. In my view, these ancestors can basically be ranged into three groups: 1. the „remote ancestor”, who had made an important step towards raising his family to greatness, but still failed to secure a real position of power. 2. The founder of empire, who creates a position of power himself. He is regarded by his heirs as a point of legitimation 3. The point of junction: in the case of an already existing power situation, the order of inheritance is determined by respective positions on the family tree, whence the necessity to keep account of exact points of junction. On the basis of the present state of our knowledge, however, Attila cannot be ranged into any of these groups, which seems to attest that it was not by way of eastern dynastic thinking that he became part of the Hungarian historical tradition.
