MEDIEVAL HUNGARY

The Magyars, their Journey to Europe, and Development into a Nation and a Powerful Kingdom

By: J. C. Chouteu, Janvier Chouteu-Chando

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The Pannonian Basin, which is also known as the Great Hungarian Plain, is one of Europe’s most fertile regions, famous for its rich, loamy soils (Chernozems) deposited by ancient seas and rivers, making it ideal for intensive agriculture. That is why it became central to Europe's Migration Period from 375 to 800 AD, when the migrating Huns—nomadic, equestrian warriors from Central Asia—under the famous Attila, invaded the Central European basin around 370 AD, subjugated or pushed the local Iranian and numerous Germanic tribes (like the Aland and the Goths) into Roman territory, contributing to the Western Roman Empire's collapse, and the instability of the basin.

So, when the Magyars—a nomadic Finno-Ugric people with origins near the Volga and Ural Mountain—fleeing an attack by Pechenegs and Bulgarians in their former homeland (Etelköz), moved into the Pannonian Basin primarily in the late 9th century, pundits thought their presence there would be short-lived too like those of the Turkic, Germanic, Iranian, and Slavic tribes before them. But the Magyars asserted themselves, forced the neighboring polities into accepting their presence, and created a powerful kingdom in the Middle Ages that eventually became an important component of Christian Europe and the monarchies of the continent.

The author’s account of Medieval Hungary succinctly and effortlessly gives the reader a peculiar insight into the making, consolidation, and growth of the Magyars, one of Europe’s enigmatic and influential nations that, to this day, still punches above its weight.