Gesta Hungarorum

Gesta Hungarorum can refer to the Gesta Hunnorum and Hungarorum, written by Simon de Kéza.

The Gesta Hungarorum (Latin for the gesture of the Hungarians ), a chronicle of the primitive Hungarian history written by the unknown author Magister P. , which could be Gallus Anonymus. It is contained in a manuscript written in the neighborhoods of 1200. It is a mixture of oral traditions, old sources, and inventions on behalf of its author.

The chronicle was written according to a popular literary kind at this time, the life of a hero. The author tries to define the reigning families of the kingdom of Hungary like the descendants of the Árpáds or their allies, and of glorifier the merits of Árpáds in connection with the Magyar occupation of the basin of the Carpates at the 10th century.

The " Gesta Hungarorum" contains authentic facts, inaccurate facts, and information which cannot be recut by other sources. Some parts of the text are regarded by the majority of the contemporary authors as pure fabrications (by the author or its predecessors), and contradict the other franques and Czech chronicles. Many names of people are simply only derivations of local toponyms.

The great subject of controversy of Gesta Hungarorum relates to the mention of the existence of the local sovereigns of Gelou, Glad and Menumorut in Transylvania on arrival of the Magyars at the 10th century (see: Origins of the Roumanians). The existence of these three duchies inhabited mainly by Wallachian and Slaves is discussed, and denied by almost all the Hungarian and Slovak historians, whereas Rumanian and Serb historians support the opposite thesis. The principal arguments against this existence is the presence of information proven like false in Gesta Hungarorum, and the fact that Gesta Hungarorum mentions the presence of Coumans among the people which would have lived in Transylvania in this time, then Coumans arrived only 150 years after the Hungarians. The unfavourable opinion supports that Gesta confuses in fact Coumans with the Petchenègues, which spoke a language very close to that about Coumans, and which lived on an about identical territory.

The assumptions on the real identity of the author include:

the notary (chancellor) of the king King Bleated III of Hungary (1172-1196) - This version is that accepted generally today
the chancellor of the king Bela II of Hungary (1131-1141). If this were true, the author could be certain Petrus, chancellor in 1124 of the former king Etienne II of Hungary.
Peter Pósa, bishop of Bosnia

Literature

Neagu Djuvara . O scurtă istorie has românilor, povestită celor tineri. Bucureşti, 2002.

See too

Chronicon Pictum or enluminée Chronicle of Vienna

External bonds

Notes on Gesta Hungarorum in relation to Transylvania and Banat
text of Gesta Hungarorum text (in Hungarian)
Roumanians in the work of the notary Anonymus

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