Hunor - The Myth

The Myth

In Kézai's version, the twin princes Hunor and Magor were the sons of Nimrod son of Tana and were born in Scythia. (The Chronicon Pictum makes them sons of Iaphet, rather than of Nimrod son of Tana.) Hunters like their father, they were on a hunting trip when they saw an ethereal white stag before them (the Csodaszarvas) and chased it across the Sea of Azov. Finding the newly discovered region to their liking, they decided to stay and married the two daughters of Dula, King of the Alans. From them descended Attila the Hun and High Prince Álmos, the father of Árpád.An earlier version of the legend appears in the Byzantine History of Priscus:

"While the hunters of this tribe were as usual seeking game on the far bank of Lake Maeotis, they saw a deer appear unexpectedly before them and enter the swamp, leading them on as a guide of the way, now advancing and now standing still. The hunters followed it on foot and crossed the Maeotic swamp the swamp surrounding the Straits of Kerch, which join the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, which they had thought was as impassable as the sea. When the unknown Scythian land (Crimea) appeared, the deer disappeared. . . . The Huns, who had been completely ignorant that any other world existed beyond the Maeotic swamp, were filled with admiration of the Scythian country, and, since they were quick of mind, believed that the passage, familiar to no previous age, had been shown to them by the gods. They returned to their own people, told them what had happened, and persuaded them to follow along the way which the deer, as their guide, had shown them. They hastened to Scythia. . . . Soon they crossed the huge swamp and like some tempest overwhelmed the various tribes."

There are also similarities with the Martenitsa legend recorded by Vasil Stanilov.