Contains two very different narratives; both are for the first time presented in an updated Latin text with an annotated English translation.An anonymous notary of King Bela of Hungary wrote a Latin Gesta Hungarorum (ca. 1200/10), a literary composition about the mythical origins of the Hungarians and their conquest of the Carpathian Basin. Anonymus tried to (re)construct the events and protagonists—including ethnic groups—of several centuries before from the names of places, rivers, and mountains of his time, assuming that these retained the memory of times past. One of his major "inventions" was the inclusion of Attila the Hun into the Hungarian royal genealogy, a feature later developed into the myth of Hun-Hungarian continuity.The Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament upon the Destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Tartars of Master Roger includes an eyewitness account of the Mongol invasion in 1241–2, beginning with an analysis of the political conditions under King Bela IV and ending with the king's return to the devastated country.

Martyn Rady is Emeritus Professor of Central European History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London.

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János M. Bak, professor emeritus CEU (Budapest) and UBC (Vancouver) was editor in chief of Decreta Regni Mediaevalis Hungariae. The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary (DRMH), and member of the editorial board of Central European Medieval Texts.

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László Veszprémy, DSc is medievalist, paleographer, visiting professor at CEU, Department of Medieval Studies, director of the Institute of Military History. Books: co-author of the series Mittelalterliche lateinische Handschriftenfragmente (1988-98); editor, among other books, of Simonis de Kéza, Gesta Hungarorum (1999 CEMT 1); and (with B. K. Király) A Millennium of Hungarian Military History (2002).

General Editors’ Preface
Abbreviations
List of Maps and Illustrations

Anonymus

Introduction

Gesta Hungarorum

The Deeds of the Hungarians / Gesta Hungarorum

Master Roger

Introduction

Epistola in Miserabile Carmen super destructione regni Hungarie per Tartaros facta / Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament upon the Destruction of the kingdom of Hungary by the Tartars

Epistola in Miserabile Carmen / Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament

Select Bibliography
Index of Proper Names
Index of Geographical Names
Gazetteer of Geographical Names