Re: Historical Events Database
Did some of you also read that the name Huns / Avars / Hungarians (/ Goths) are somewhat used as synonyms for tribes living in Pannonia or approaching from Pannonia to Middle/Western Europe?
There seem to be a certain tendency of the some authors during the 8th to 10th centuries to use Avars and Huns etc as synonyms. Nowadays those two tribes are distinguished but then not always.
Other tribes do only have one name, Franks are Franks, Saxons are Saxons, Saracens are Saracens, Greek are Greek, Northmen are Northmen etc. The name is always used consistently. But with Huns, Avars (and sometimes Hungarians) there seem to be more than one name kind of used interchangeably. Maybe these tribes are coming and going and the same tribe name from the former visit is used for the latest tribe, too. Or there is some very different reason for this (maybe these tribes are "not tribes" or they are "tribes bringing disaster with them"). And there are strange little stories in which they are connected with rings - ring hedges or a ring wall. This is weird.
Huns ~ Avars ~ Hungarians ~ Goths
I found 4 sources so far.
These are stories about Huns/Avar connected with "rings":
Did some of you also read that the name Huns / Avars / Hungarians (/ Goths) are somewhat used as synonyms for tribes living in Pannonia or approaching from Pannonia to Middle/Western Europe?
There seem to be a certain tendency of the some authors during the 8th to 10th centuries to use Avars and Huns etc as synonyms. Nowadays those two tribes are distinguished but then not always.
Other tribes do only have one name, Franks are Franks, Saxons are Saxons, Saracens are Saracens, Greek are Greek, Northmen are Northmen etc. The name is always used consistently. But with Huns, Avars (and sometimes Hungarians) there seem to be more than one name kind of used interchangeably. Maybe these tribes are coming and going and the same tribe name from the former visit is used for the latest tribe, too. Or there is some very different reason for this (maybe these tribes are "not tribes" or they are "tribes bringing disaster with them"). And there are strange little stories in which they are connected with rings - ring hedges or a ring wall. This is weird.
Huns ~ Avars ~ Hungarians ~ Goths
I found 4 sources so far.
Einhard: The Life of Charlemagne (He uses Huns instead of Avars.):
"11. Tassilo and the Bavarian Campaign
At this time, on a sudden, the Bavarian war broke out, but came to a speedy end. It was due to the arrogance and folly of Duke Tassilo. His wife [Liutberga], a daughter of King Desiderius, was desirous of avenging her father's banishment through the agency of her husband, and accordingly induced him to make a treaty with the Huns, the neighbors of the Bavarians on the east, and not only to leave the King's commands unfulfilled, but to challenge him to war."
"13. War with the Huns
The war against the Avars, or Huns, followed [791], and, except the Saxon war, was the greatest that he waged; he took it up with more spirit than any of his other wars, and made far greater preparations for it. He conducted one campaign in person in Pannonia, of which the Huns then had possession. "
"20. Conspiracies Against Charlemagne
By one of his concubines he had a son, handsome in face, but hunchbacked, named Pepin, whom I omitted to mention in the list of his children. When Charles was at war with the Huns, and was wintering in Bavaria [792], this Pepin shammed sickness, and plotted against his father in company with some of the leading Franks, who seduced him with vain promises of the royal authority."
The Annals of Fulda (Avars not mentioned before 890):
"894
The Avars, who are called Hungarians, penetrated across the Danube at this time, and did many terrible things. They killed men and old women outright, and carried off the young women alone with them like cattle to satisfy their lusts, and reduced the whole of Pannonia to a desert."
"895
The Avars [Hungarians] invaded the lands of the Bulgars and were driven off by them, and a great part of their army was killed."
Widukind of Corvey: Res gestae Saxonicae /Die Sachsengeschichte/The Deeds of the Saxons:
"Book I (18) As some believe Avars were the remnants of the Huns. The Huns are from the Goths, the Goths however are from the island Sulza, as Jordanes says. After her own duke named Gotha they have been called the Goths."
"Book I (38) The king now had an army ready for a battle on horseback, and so he dared to begin a campaign against his old enemies, the Hungarians. ... [Now] we face a further challenge – we must rise up together against our common enemy, the Avars."
The Monk of Saint Gall: The Life of Charlemagne, 883/4 (He uses Huns instead of Avars.):
"17. This same bishop was left to take care of Hildigard, when the most warlike Charles was engaged in campaigns against the Huns."
"Whereupon the race of the Huns, (21) who had already often ravaged Francia [106] and Aquitania (that is to say the Gauls and the Spains), now poured out with all their forces, devastated the whole land like a wide-sweeping conflagration, and then carried off all their spoils to a very safe hiding-place.
(21) It is unnecessary to disentangle the Monk's strange perversion of history; but it may be noted that he identifies the Avars, whom Charlemagne subdued, with the Huns who followed Attila. But the Huns and the Avars, though allied in race, where two quite distinct nationalities."
"27. The foolish may accuse me of folly because just now I made Charles say that the sea, which that mighty emperor called playfully a little pool, lay between us and the Greeks; but I must tell my critics that at that date the Bulgarians and the Huns and many other powerful races barred the way to Greece with forces yet unattacked and unbroken."
These are stories about Huns/Avar connected with "rings":
Widukind of Corvey: Res gestae Saxonicae /Die Sachsengeschichte/The Deeds of the Saxons (my translation :/):
(18) As some believe Avars were the remnants of the Huns. The Huns are from the Goths, the Goths however are from the island Sulza, as Jordanes says. After her own duke named Gotha they have been called the Goths. When some women in his army were accused as poisoner before him, he interrogated them and found them guilty. Since there were many, he refrained from the deserved punishment, but banned all from the army. But the outcasts went into the nearby forest. As this was surrounded by the sea and the maeotic marshes, there was no possibility to escape. But some of them were already pregnant and gave birth here. As their descendants offspring was born, a powerful tribe emerged. As they lived like wild animals, uneducated and undisciplined, they became very eager hunters. They lived there many centuries and knew no other part of the world. Then it happened that they pursued a doe on the hunt, and when following her they found the way and crossed through through the maeotic swamps, which was impassable for all earlier people. There they saw castles and towns, and a previously unknown people. They returned on the same path and reported this to their companions. A lot of them departed out of curiosity to check what they heared. The inhabitants saw the unknown crowd and their statures, terrible in clothes and movement; they thought they were evil spirits, and fled. But those were amazed and astounded due to the novel appearance of things and initially abstained of murder and robbery. But when no one offered resistance, they were packed by human greed and murdered the inhabitants and spared no one any more. And they returned to their homes with great booty. Because they saw that they had success they came back with their wives and children and the farm equipment, looted all-around the neighboring tribes, and finally began to settle in Pannonia.
(19) Defeated by Charlemagne, driven across the Danube and enclosed within a large ring wall, they had to discontinuee their usual raids of other tribes. But the wall was destroyed under the reign of Arnulf and their way was cleared to do damage. This was because the the Emperor was angry with Moravian king Svatopluk. Which destruction and disaster they thereupon brought to the Frankish Empire is testifyed today by the ruined castles and landscapes. ...
The Monk of Saint Gall: The Life of Charlemagne, 883/4:
Book II
Concerning the Wars and Military Exploits of Charles
As I am going to found this narrative on the story told by a man of the world, who had little skill in letters, I think it will be well that I should first recount something of earlier history on the credit of written books. When Julian (20), whom God hated, was slain in the Persian war by a blow from heaven, not only did the transmarine provinces fall away from the Roman Empire, but also the neighbouring provinces of Pannonia, Noricum, Rhætia, or in other words the Germans and the Franks or Gauls. Then too the kings of the Franks (or Gauls) began to decay in power because they had slain Saint Didier, Bishop of Vienna, and had expelled those most holy visitors, Columban and Gall. Whereupon the race of the Huns (21), who had already often ravaged Francia [106] and Aquitania (that is to say the Gauls and the Spains), now poured out with all their forces, devastated the whole land like a wide-sweeping conflagration, and then carried off all their spoils to a very safe hiding-place. Now Adalbert, whom I have already mentioned, used to explain the nature of this hiding-place as follows: -- "The land of the Huns," he would say, "was surrounded by nine rings." I could not think of any rings except our ordinary wicker rings for sheepfolds; and so I asked: "What, in the name of wonder, do you mean, sire?" "Well," he said, "it was fortified by nine hedges." I could not think of any hedges except those that protect our cornfields, so again I asked and he answered: "One ring was as wide, that is, it contained as much within it, as all the country between Tours and Constance. It was fashioned with logs of oak and ash and yew and was twenty feet wide and the same in height. All the space within was filled with hard stones and binding clay; and the surface of these great ramparts was covered with sods and grass. Within the limits of the ring shrubs were planted of such a kind that, when lopped and bent down, they still threw out twigs and leaves. Then between these ramparts hamlets and houses were so arranged that a man's [107] voice could be made to reach from one to the other. And opposite to the houses, at intervals in those unconquerable walls, were constructed doors of no great size; and through these doors the inhabitants from far and near would pour out on marauding expeditions. The second ring was like the first and was distant twenty Teutonic miles (or forty Italian) from the third ring; and so on to the ninth: though of course the successive rings were each much narrower than the preceding one. But in all the circles the estates and houses were everywhere so arranged that the peal of the trumpet would carry the news of any event from one to the other."
For two hundred years and more the Huns had swept the wealth of the western states within these fortifications, and as the Goths and Vandals were disturbing the repose of the world at the same time the western world was almost turned into a desert. But the most unconquerable Charles so subdued them in eight years that he allowed scarcely any traces of them to remain. He withdrew his hand from the Bulgarians, because after the destruction of the Huns they did not seem likely to do any harm to the kingdom of the Franks. All the booty of the Huns, which he found in Pannonia, [108] he divided most liberally among the bishoprics and the monasteries.
(20) Julian's death took place in 367. It need scarcely be pointed out that the Monks' historical narrative is here of the very wildest description.
(21) It is unnecessary to disentangle the Monk's strange perversion of history; but it may be noted that he identifies the Avars, whom Charlemagne subdued, with the Huns who followed Attila. But the Huns and the Avars, though allied in race, where two quite distinct nationalities.