Issue Date: July 1988

The legend of the wondrous stag

One of the very first Hungarian heroic legends concerns the lives and deeds of the brothers Hunor and Magor (Magyar)—the alleged ancestors of the Huns and the Hungarians—and their encounter with an elusive white stag.  It was this wondrous stag that led them to their new homeland and to the beautiful daughters of King Dul, their future wives and fellow progenitors.  Elements of this legend were preserved by a number of medieval chroniclers, including those of the sixth-century Goth Jordanes and the thirteenth-century Hungarians Anonymus Magister P. and Simon Kezai.  Many centuries later this simple story was embellished with the free-flowing imagination of Romantic authors, such as the poet Janos Arany (1817-1882), who immortalized it in his epic The Legend of the Wondrous Stag.

The original version of this legend, as found in Kezai’s Gesta Hungarorum, is shorter and less romantic.  It also contains references to other abductions of women by Hunor and Magor, including the daughters-in-law of a certain King Belar.  But in those days this method of taking a wife was so common among the horse nomads of the Eurasian plains that it was treated like an everyday affair.


In times of old there was a beautiful country far in the east.  Surrounded by high mountains in the north, blue seas in the south, and by two magnificent rivers in the east and west, this country was a land of plenty and happiness.  Ruled by the wise Nimrod, it was inhabited by brave, industrious, and contented people.

The wise King Nimrod and his first wife Eneh had two sons, whom they named Hunor and Magor.  While growing up, these sons became great horsemen, mighty warriors, and magnificent hunters, just like their father.  Day after day they would hunt far and wide across their father’s realm.

It so happened that one day when they were out hunting with two hundred warriors, a beautiful white stag suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He was a splendid animal whose silvery-white coat and antlers sparkled like a thousand stars.

As soon as the sons of Nimrod spotted this rare beauty of a stag, the beast disappeared.  Hunor and Magor were so enchanted by his unusual beauty that they began a wild chase. 


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