Gesta Hungarorum
- Gesta Hungarorum may also refer to Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, written by Simon of Kéza.
The Gesta Hungarorum (Latin for The Deeds of the Hungarians), a record of early Hungarian history written by the unknown author Magister P. also called Anonymus. It is preserved in a manuscript from around 1200. It is a mixture of oral tradition, older sources and inventions of the author.
The chronicle was written as a literary work based on similar western chronicles which were fashionable at that time. The author tries to define all local ruling families of the Kingdom of Hungary as descendants of the ruling Árpáds or at least of their allies, and to glorify the merits of the Árpáds with respect to the Magyar occupation of the Carpathian basin in the 10th century.
The "Gesta Hungarorum" contains correct facts, inaccurate facts, and information that cannot be confirmed from other sources. You may choose to believe in this information or not. Some parts of the text are considered by most contemporary authors as simply inventions (by the author or by his predecessors) and contradict the Frankish, Czech and other chronicles. Many personal names are simply derived from local names. Some of the work is directly from earlier sources, and covers the history of the Magyar peoples moving into the Carpathian basin.
Gesta Hungarorum's main subject of controversy concerns the mentioning of the existence of the local rulers of Gelou, Glad and Menumorut in Transylvania at the arrival of the Magyars in the 10th century (see: Origin of Romanians). The existence of these three dukedoms mainly inhabited by Vlachs and Slavs is controversial and denied by virtually all Hungarian and Slovak and some other historians, while some Romanian and Serbian historians exposing the opposite arguments. The main arguments against their existence is the presence of provably wrong information in some other parts of the Gesta, and the fact that Gesta Hungarorum mentions Cumanians among the peoples who lived in Transylvania at that time, while Cumanians actually arrived there 150 years after Hungarians. There is opposite opinion, which claim that author of the Gesta actually confound Cumanians with Pechenegs, which spoke a similar language to that of the Cumanians and lived in approximate same territory.
Hypotheses about the identity of the anonymous author include:
- The notary (chancellor) of King Béla III of Hungary (1172-1196) - this is the generally accepted version nowadays
- The chancellor of King Béla II of Hungary (1131-1141). If this is true, the author could be a certain Petrus who was in 1124 the chancellor of the previous king Stephen II.
- Péter Pósa, bishop of Bosnia
Literature
- O scurta istorie a romanilor, povestita celor tineri de Neagu Djuvara, Bucuresti, 2002.
See also
