In ore gladii: the Magyars as Israelites in the Gesta Hungarorum By Florin Curta

https://www.academia.edu/168478709/In_ore_gladii_the_Magyars_as_Israelites_in_the_Gesta_Hungarorum?email_work_card=title Ever since the publication of the Deeds of the Hungarians in 1746, the work of an unknown notary of King Béla, who called himself “Master P.,” inspired mistrust among historians. Many regard Gesta Hungarorum as “the romantic saga” of Hungarian prehistory and dismiss it for its “fantastic constructions.” Others claim that the Gesta Hungarorum should be studied by literary critics, not by historians. For all the insistence upon Gesta Hungarorum being mere literature, not (truly) history, there is still no attempt to deal with it as a literary text .The problem seems to be the uneasiness that historians feel when dealing with fictionality. At a closer look, the Deeds of the Hungarians appear as a sophisticated piece of medieval literature. The chapter discusses the use of the Scriptures for the creation of parodic effects, and especially of the imagery of the Chosen People applied to the Magyars. ...