Anonymus and Master Roger

The Deeds of the Hungarians. Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament upon the Destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Tatars
ISBN: 
978-963-9776-95-1
cloth
$90.00 / €79.00 / £71.00
CEMT Vol. V.
Publication date: 
2010
322 pages

This volume contains two very different narratives; both are for the first time presented in an updated Latin text with an annotated English translation.

An anonymous notary of King Bela of Hungary wrote a Latin Gesta Hungarorum (ca. 1200/10), a literary composition about the mythical origins of the Hungarians and their conquest of the Carpathian Basin. Anonymus tried to (re)construct the events and protagonists—including ethnic groups—of several centuries before from the names of places, rivers, and mountains of his time, assuming that these retained the memory of times past. One of his major “inventions” was the inclusion of Attila the Hun into the Hungarian royal genealogy, a feature later developed into the myth of Hun-Hungarian continuity.

The Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament upon the Destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Tartars of Master Roger includes an eyewitness account of the Mongol invasion in 1241–2, beginning with an analysis of the political conditions under King Bela IV and ending with the king’s return to the devastated country.

General Editors’ Preface
Abbreviations
List of Maps and Illustrations

Anonymus

Introduction

Gesta Hungarorum

The Deeds of the Hungarians / Gesta Hungarorum

Master Roger

Introduction

Epistola in Miserabile Carmen super destructione regni Hungarie per Tartaros facta / Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament upon the Destruction of the kingdom of Hungary by the Tartars

Epistola in Miserabile Carmen / Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament

Select Bibliography
Index of Proper Names
Index of Geographical Names
Gazetteer of Geographical Names

"...series of critical Latin texts with English translations are much needed to give undergraduates access to these sources, and I am personally very glad to see work progress on this series. The translations of both Anonymus' and Rogerius' works are generally well done with introductions that are judicious in detail and scope, and they would make wonderful additions to students' readings lists. The critical Latin edition makes this work useful to scholars as well."