Vikings of the Steppe by Csete Katona;

Author:Csete Katona;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2023-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Hungary

The possibility of hiring Scandinavian and Rus’ bodyguards has also been proposed in the case of Hungary, a theory less well known in Western historiography. As early as the 1950s, noted Hungarian medievalist György Györffy asserted that “Varangian-Rus’ mercenaries” were in the service of Grand Prince Géza and the first king, Saint Stephen I, from the end of the tenth century onwards (Györffy 1959, 86–92, 1984, 831–32; [1977] 2013, 313–14). Even though his hypothesis was questioned by Gyula Kristó (another famous Hungarian medievalist and contemporary of Györffy) on chronological and linguistic grounds (Kristó 1983), the thesis is still popular in scholarly circles (for references, see Katona 2017a).

According to this theory, ‘Varangian-Rus’’ bodyguards were present in Hungary in the 980s CE, near the end of Géza’s reign, when the Pechenegs were becoming a serious threat on the Dnieper waterways. This prompted the Rus’ to march from Kiev to Constantinople (and back) through the Magyar territories, which were believed to be more friendly, and some of them entered Géza’s service (Györffy 1959, 92). Migrating Rus’ bodyguards could have come to Hungary in larger numbers with time since, according to the PVL, Stephen (who followed Géza on the throne) maintained good relations with Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev (Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor 1953, 122; Likhachev 1996, 56). The presence of Magyar warriors in Vladimir’s court is supported by archaeological material from the so-called druzhina-graves (Tagán 1941; Borosy 1981, 34; Fodor 2007, 193–99). Besides the bodyguard exchange between the Kievan and the Hungarian courts, a wave of ‘Varangians’ arrived in Hungary with the Byzantine fiancée proposed for Stephen’s son, Emeric (Moravcsik 1938; Györffy 1959, 92; Makk 1999, 37). Since Emeric is labelled as dux Ruizorum, that is, “Prince of the Rus’ ”, in the contemporary Annales Hildesheimenses in the year 1031 CE (Waitz 1878, 36), Györffy claimed that he was the leader of the royal bodyguard, as traditionally the heir to the throne commanded the foreign auxiliaries. The ‘Varangians’ escorting Emeric’s fiancée from Byzantium could have been settled near the central territories of the kingdom, in Tolna and Somogy counties, where the name of two settlements, Várong and Varang, seem to have an Old Norse root – væring (meaning ‘a companion who takes an oath’). In contrast, retinue members arriving from Kiev might have come to reside not far from the contemporary frontiers, as is suggested by settlement names with the Hungarian stem orosz, originating from the word Rus’. The secondary meaning of orosz, ‘bodyguard’ or ‘doorkeeper’, strengthens this point (Györffy 1959, 83–92, 1966–98: I, 126, 464–65, III, 365–66, IV, 169–71), although Kristó argued that this meaning did not appear before the sixteenth century (Kristó 1983, 199–201). The Varangian-Rus’ bodyguard in Hungary was paralleled with analogous institutions in Kiev, Poland and Byzantium (Györffy 1959, 87–92, [1977] 2013, 108, 313, 417).

Although the evidence for this theory accumulated incoherently (Katona 2017a), we should still entertain the possibility that some Scandinavians and Rus’ indeed took service in Hungary. The evidence can be best synthesized by assuming that the

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