The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1985 (12. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)

1985-10-01 / 10. szám

TIBOR E. BARATH

THE EARLY

HUNGARIANS

The author gave permission to this magazine to publish segments from the book periodically. We urge our readers to purchase this very valuable book. See Book Order on another page.

The Old Hungarian faith

God’s principal residence was supposed to have been in Heaven, inside the fiery disk, called Nap ‘Sun’. He also had dwellings on Earth, especially in stone idols, called Bálvány (< O.H.: Baluan = Bál-Hon), ‘Idol’, literally ‘God’s home’, in Latin Simulacrum ‘Hiding place’.23 The numerous stone idols served as appropriate places for God to keep a close watch over the behaviour of his creatures. Other earthly houses reserved for God were the temples, built in a round shape and therefore called Rotundae in Latin. The inside diameter of such temples hardly measured over four to six meters and they were erected during the XIXHIth centuries; about a hundred of them have already been identified. In spite of the fact that they were erected in the Christian era, they could not have been intended for Christian rites, because all tne believers could not attend the ceremonies in such a small space. Several place-names refer to the former existence of Rotundae, being compounded with the word Kerek ‘Round’, such as Kerek-Egyháza, ‘Sacred House of the Round Shaped God’; Kerekes-Kápolna ‘Circular Chapel.’ Many other villages in Hungary are called Egerszeg (Ég-Ur-Széke) ‘Throne of the Heavenly Lord’, suggesting that in such places too, regular divine services used to be held. Still other places were reserved for religious feasts. These were often hilltops, as their names indicate, like Bálvüny-Kö ‘Place of Idol’; Áldó Kö ‘Place of Blessings’; Oltár- Kö ‘Altar Stone’; Isten Széke ‘God’s Throne’; Áldomás-Tető ‘Celebration Peak’, etc. (P 082 p. 365 f.).

The general name for God was Isten, with no certain etymology. For this word there was a special sign in the carved script, resembling a combination of three consonantal signs: S-T-N.

23. King Saint Stephen mentions in his gift-charter granted to the nuns of Veszprém-Valley: “Ibi stat meta lapidea, que volgo Baluan vocatur,” “There stands a boundarystone, called Idol by the local population.” — Similarly, King András I ordered in his edict of 1047: “Falsos deos abrogare et Simulacra demoliri”, “to suppress the false gods and to destroy the idols” (P 082 p. 367).

October, 1985

While the special sign for Sun resembled an inverted S crossed with four oblique strokes (see the sign-list, Fig. 14), God’s name was often preceded by the word Ur ‘Lord’ to say Ur-Isten ‘Lord God’. Because of God’s round-shaped appearance, he was called Kör-Isten, ‘Circular Shaped God’, a name, which may be the origin of our word Keresztény (<O.H.: Körösztén), ‘Christian’. Living in the Sky (H.: Eg), God was also called Eg-Ura ‘Sky God’. But he was also referred to by the well-known Oriental name of Ra ‘Sungod’, especially to indicate places, mountains, and rivers enjoying divine protection. Such names were like these: Ra-Monya, Ra-Mocsa, Rá-Tót, Rá-Kos, Rá-Dóc, Ra-Hó; and in reverse word-order: Nyit- Ra, Mu-Ra, Tát-Ra, Fát-Ra, Mát-Ra.

The name of the Sungod was evoked several times each day, whenever people met. In the morning, they greeted one another — as they do even today — with the saying Jó reggelt ‘Good morning’, literally Jó Ra Kelt ‘The good Ra has risen’. And in the evening the greeting formula was — and is — Jó estét ‘I wish a good Sundown’. Of course, the original meaning of these expressions has long been forgotten and nobody thinks of the daily movements of the Sun any more. The ancients, however, automatically linked every phenomenon of the daily life to God’s intervention.

The Sungod in Hungary had over a thousand Sun-symbols. One group of such symbols was usually geometric in design, consisting of spirals, circles, globes, rosettes, inverted S-forms linked to one another, and sun-beams radiating from a central spot. These symbols are seen everywhere, cut in stone, painted, or artistically represented. A typical object upon which several of these elements appear simultaneously is the Sun-gate, as the decorated entrance to many Magyar houses in Eastern Hungary is called. Upon such a door of Csik-Szent-Király (Fig. 18), the rising Sun is represented with its beams, and the door of Harasztosi, in Torda Aranyos county (Fig. 19) has spirals carved upon the door-posts on both sides which are flanked by two attending stone idols, with globe-like heads. And on the top of the door, a series of pigeon-holes allow these birds to nestle there. Birds and deer appear most frequently amongst the animal symbols. Birds without outstretched wings usually indicate sorrow and grief; with outstretched wings (as the eagle and falcon), they symbolize the glorious Sun. The deer as solar symbol was used in the winter solstice ceremony. Its role was to bring back the shining disk of the Sun between its horns, after it was reborn on December 25th. Pa[rp n