William Penn Life, 2019 (54. évfolyam, 2-5. szám)
2019-03-01 / 3. szám
Tibor S Take with Tibor Check Jr. A FEW YEARS AGO, it seemed that commercial society was fixated on pirates. There were pirate video games, movies and events, all coalesced around a shared nostalgic-and perhaps anachronistic-fascination with the villains of a bygone age. Popular history remembered pirates as antiheroes and not as murderous criminals terrorizing the high seas. Today, pirates have been supplanted by Vikings, or so it seems to me. Television shows like American Gods, Vikings and The Last Kingdom undoubtedly popularize the Scandinavian raiders from Dark Ages Europe and Norse mythology. I must confess that I watch these shows, and I find myself enjoying them in spite of myself. This current interest led me down a rabbit hole that spawned this month's Take. For example, The Last Kingdom is actually filmed in Hungary, and Hungarians make up a great number of supporting cast and crew. Beyond the latest television shows, however, there is some evidence to suggest that Hungarians had some sort of relationship with Vikings. According to one article I've read, there is at least partial evidence that hints at commercial and military cooperation between the early kingdom of Hungary and Vikings who had traveled from Scandinavia into Russia and Ukraine. The epic Saga of the Greenlanders—which describes Vikings led by Leif Ericson "discovering" the Americas roughly 500 years before Columbus—mentions a man named Tyrkir. This man Tyrkir accompanied Leif on his journeys to the New World. Some believe that Tyrkir means "Turk," which at that time was used to describe somebody from Hungary. According to some accounts, Tyrkir even carved runes into a large stone in the New World, a stone which was discovered centuries later in modern day Nova Scotia and is known as the Yarmouth Stone. While there are many theories identifying the characters carved into the stone, one theory states that the characters were indeed Hungarian runes carved by Tyrkir, who was using his native Hungarian to commemorate Leif's historic voyage. The Yarmouth County Historical Society, which continues to house the stone, politely refrains from taking sides in the historical debate. Noah Webster, the creator of the famous Webster's Dictionary, once said: "Language is the expression of ideas, and if the people of one country cannot preserve the identity of ideas, they cannot retain the identity of language." Webster's observation rings especially true when considering the history and future of the Hungarian language, especially as it regards the Hungarian runic alphabet: the rovásírás. The alphabet seems to be quite commonplace at Hungarian events nowadays. Also known as "Old Hungarian", these characters are even used on road signs and other geographical markers, especially in places where Hungarians remain a minority in some other neighboring country. It would appear that the rovásírás is paradoxically a dead alphabet and a modern symbol of Hungarian cultural identity. But, if this old runic alphabet is a symbol, what does it symbolize? After hours of research, I must confess that I am not sure. I am not a linguist, nor am I a professional historian. While I have a lawyerly way of teasing out gaps in narratives and inconsistencies in evidence, anything I type here must be understood as only a rough summary of only a small amount of information I have been able to examine. I have also tried to use only scholarly sources and for good reason. The origins of this "Old Hungarian" language are unclear and uncertain. It dates back to at least the 8th or 9th century and likely came with the Magyars when they occupied the Carpathian Basin. Nevertheless, the rovásírás could have originated with the Avars, a steppe people that had settled in the region a few generations before the Magyars. Others postulate that Old Hungarian represents the writing of the ancient Székely people, a culturally distinct ethnic group that still resides in modern day Transylvania. I also have encountered other theories regarding the origins of the Hungarian runes-that this language is a precursor to or a derivative of Phoenician or Sumerian or Scythian or Turkish or Etruscan. PICTURED ABOVE: The Yarmouth Stone. The runes etched just underneath the top edge of the stone may be the work of a Hungarian named Tyrkir who sailed with Leif Ericson. 6 ° March 2019 0 WILLIAM PENN LIFE Hungary’s runic alphabet
