Anonymus and Master Roger
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