Gelou
Encyclopedia
Gelou or Gelu was a Romanian
duke mentioned in Gesta Hungarorum
(“The Deeds of the Hungarians”) as having opposed the conquest of Transylvania
by Tuhutum, one of the “seven dukes
” of the Magyars. His story was recorded only by the anonymous writer of the 13th century Gesta. According to a Hungarian source his name may have been of Turkic
or Hungarian
origin.
, the Magyars found there three voivodates: that of Menumorut
in Crişana
, of Glad
in the Banat
, and of Gelou in central Transylvania. Duke Gelou is described as being a “certain Romanian”.
It is evident from the Gesta, that Tuhutum’s attack was clearly targeted toward the salt mine
district in Transylvania. According to the anonymous author of the Gesta, Transylvania was inhabited by Vlachs and Slavs
at that time.
The Magyar troops led by Tuhutum defeated Duke Gelou by the river Almaş
.
(1172–1196) wrote in the Gesta Ungarorum, based on ancient chronicles and oral tradition, that the Magyars, when they settled on the plains of the Tisza
and Danube
rivers, found there “Slavs, Bulgarians and Vlachs, and the shepherds of the Romans” Although the Gesta Ungarorum is in sharp contrast with the chronicle of Simon of Kéza
and of other 14th century chronicles, it is a mistake to treat Gelou as a purely fictional character whose name derived from that of the Transylvanian town Gilău
(Gyalu in Hungarian) Moreover, it would make no sense for the author of the Gesta to invent entire populations or to lie about the situation. Romanian archaeologists
made every possible effort to prove that the Gesta was a reliable source for the medieval history of Transylvania and to turn Dăbâca
into a Transylvanian Troy
. Archaeological research has located his voivodate, unearthing more than 40 settlements there.
Another view that, the author of the Gesta related, around the year 1200, in a novelistic form what he thought had happened at the time of the Magyar Conquest around 895. He seems to have no idea about the real state of affairs in the Carpathian Basin at the time of the Magyar Conquest: instead of Simeon I of Bulgaria
, Arnulf
and Svatopluk
, of whom he had no knowledge, he invented imaginary figures as enemies of the Hungarians. In the construction of his stories, he sometimes drew on legendary elements, but more frequently he worked with toponyms
.
The excavations at Dăbâca evidence habitation from the ninth century, but the excavators were overwhelmed by the complexity of the site and embarrassed that no substantial evidence was found to prove the "Gesta" right. There are four enclosures
at Dăbâca, each one associated with earthwork fortifications; the excavators dated the third enclosure to the 9th or 10th century, while also claiming that it post-dated the second enclosure - the only defense work to have produced clearly datable artifacts, namely a silver
penny of King Peter (1038–1041 and 1044–1046).
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
duke mentioned in Gesta Hungarorum
Gesta Hungarorum
Gesta Hungarorum is a record of early Hungarian history by an unknown author who describes himself as Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii , but is generally cited as Anonymus...
(“The Deeds of the Hungarians”) as having opposed the conquest of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
by Tuhutum, one of the “seven dukes
Magyar tribes
The Magyar tribes were the fundamental political units whose framework the Hungarians lived within, until these clans from Asia, more accurately from the region of Ural Mountains, invaded the Carpathian Basin and established the Principality of Hungary.The locality in which the Hungarians, the...
” of the Magyars. His story was recorded only by the anonymous writer of the 13th century Gesta. According to a Hungarian source his name may have been of Turkic
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
or Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
origin.
Gelou in the Gesta Ungarorum
According to the Gesta, on reaching the Carpathian MountainsCarpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
, the Magyars found there three voivodates: that of Menumorut
Menumorut
For the residential district named after him, see Menumorut, Satu MareMenumorut or Menumorout ruled, according to the 13th century Gesta Ungarorum , the land between the rivers Tisa, Mureş and Someş when the Magyars invaded the Carpathian Basin around 895...
in Crişana
Crisana
Crișana is a geographical and historical region divided today between Romania and Hungary, named after the Criș River and its three tributaries: the Crișul Alb, Crișul Negru and Crișul Repede....
, of Glad
Glad (duke)
Glad was a duke of Bulgarian origin who, according to the 13th-century chronicle Gesta Ungarorum "", ruled in the territory of modern Banat at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 896...
in the Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
, and of Gelou in central Transylvania. Duke Gelou is described as being a “certain Romanian”.
It is evident from the Gesta, that Tuhutum’s attack was clearly targeted toward the salt mine
Salt mine
A salt mine is a mining operation involved in the extraction of rock salt or halite from evaporite deposits.-Occurrence:Areas known for their salt mines include Kilroot near Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland ; Khewra and Warcha in Pakistan; Tuzla in Bosnia; Wieliczka and Bochnia in Poland A salt mine...
district in Transylvania. According to the anonymous author of the Gesta, Transylvania was inhabited by Vlachs and Slavs
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
at that time.
The Magyar troops led by Tuhutum defeated Duke Gelou by the river Almaş
Almas River (Mures)
The Almaş River is a tributary of the Mureş River in Transylvania, Romania. The name in Hungarian means "Apple Creek". The Romanian name derives from that.-References:...
.
Controversy around his story
One view is that the anonymous notary of the Hungarian king Béla IIIBéla III of Hungary
Béla III was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was educated in the court of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I who was planning to ensure his succession in the Byzantine Empire till the birth of his own son...
(1172–1196) wrote in the Gesta Ungarorum, based on ancient chronicles and oral tradition, that the Magyars, when they settled on the plains of the Tisza
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...
and Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
rivers, found there “Slavs, Bulgarians and Vlachs, and the shepherds of the Romans” Although the Gesta Ungarorum is in sharp contrast with the chronicle of Simon of Kéza
Simon of Kéza
Simon of Kéza was the most famous Hungarian chronicler in the 13th century. He was a priest in the royal court of king Ladislaus IV of Hungary....
and of other 14th century chronicles, it is a mistake to treat Gelou as a purely fictional character whose name derived from that of the Transylvanian town Gilău
Gilau, Cluj
Gilău is a commune in Cluj County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Gilău, Someşu Cald and Someşu Rece.- Demographics :According to the census from 2002 there was a total population of 7,861 people living in this town. Of this population, 83.43% are ethnic Romanians, 9.45% are ethnic...
(Gyalu in Hungarian) Moreover, it would make no sense for the author of the Gesta to invent entire populations or to lie about the situation. Romanian archaeologists
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
made every possible effort to prove that the Gesta was a reliable source for the medieval history of Transylvania and to turn Dăbâca
Dabâca, Cluj
Dăbâca is a commune in Cluj County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Dăbâca, Luna de Jos and Pâglişa.- Demographics :According to the census from 2002 there was a total population of 1,804 people living in this town. Of this population, 87.91% are ethnic Romanians, 7.53% are ethnic...
into a Transylvanian Troy
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
. Archaeological research has located his voivodate, unearthing more than 40 settlements there.
Another view that, the author of the Gesta related, around the year 1200, in a novelistic form what he thought had happened at the time of the Magyar Conquest around 895. He seems to have no idea about the real state of affairs in the Carpathian Basin at the time of the Magyar Conquest: instead of Simeon I of Bulgaria
Simeon I of Bulgaria
Simeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon's successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern Europe...
, Arnulf
Arnulf of Carinthia
Arnulf of Carinthia was the Carolingian King of East Francia from 887, the disputed King of Italy from 894 and the disputed Holy Roman Emperor from February 22, 896 until his death.-Birth and Illegitimacy:...
and Svatopluk
Svatopluk II
Svatopluk II ruled the Principality of Nitra from 894 to 906 and strove to control all of Great Moravia.Svatopluk II was a younger son of Svatopluk I. As Prince of Nitra, Svatopluk II was subordinated to his older brother Mojmír II, the King of Great Moravia which contained the principality as its...
, of whom he had no knowledge, he invented imaginary figures as enemies of the Hungarians. In the construction of his stories, he sometimes drew on legendary elements, but more frequently he worked with toponyms
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
.
The excavations at Dăbâca evidence habitation from the ninth century, but the excavators were overwhelmed by the complexity of the site and embarrassed that no substantial evidence was found to prove the "Gesta" right. There are four enclosures
Enclosure (archaeology)
In archaeology, an enclosure is one of the most common types of archaeological site. It is any area of land separated from surrounding land by earthworks, walls or fencing. Such a simple feature is found all over the world and during almost all archaeological periods...
at Dăbâca, each one associated with earthwork fortifications; the excavators dated the third enclosure to the 9th or 10th century, while also claiming that it post-dated the second enclosure - the only defense work to have produced clearly datable artifacts, namely a silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
penny of King Peter (1038–1041 and 1044–1046).
See also
- Romania in the Early Middle AgesRomania in the Early Middle AgesThe Early Middle Ages in Romania spans the period from the withdrawal of the Roman administration from the province of Dacia in the 271–275 AD, thenceforward modern Romania's territories were to be crisscrossed by migrating populations for almost 1,000 years...
- Literary sources for the origin of the RomaniansLiterary sources for the origin of the RomaniansMost of the literary sources for the origin of the Romanians have been interpreted in various ways by the adherents of divergent scholarly theories...
- Gesta HungarorumGesta HungarorumGesta Hungarorum is a record of early Hungarian history by an unknown author who describes himself as Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii , but is generally cited as Anonymus...
- Glad (duke)Glad (duke)Glad was a duke of Bulgarian origin who, according to the 13th-century chronicle Gesta Ungarorum "", ruled in the territory of modern Banat at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 896...
- MenumorutMenumorutFor the residential district named after him, see Menumorut, Satu MareMenumorut or Menumorout ruled, according to the 13th century Gesta Ungarorum , the land between the rivers Tisa, Mureş and Someş when the Magyars invaded the Carpathian Basin around 895...
Sources
- Curta, Florin: Transylvania around A.D. 1000; in: Urbańczyk, Przemysław (Editor): Europe around the year 1000; Wydawn. DiG, 2001; ISBN 978-837-1-8121-18.
- Engel, Pál: The Realm of St. Stephen - A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526; I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2001, London and New York; ISBN 1-86064-061-3.
- Georgescu, Vlad (Author) - Calinescu, Matei (Editor) - Bley-Vroman, Alexandra (Translator): The Romanians – A History; Ohio State University Press, 1991, Columbus; ISBN 0-8142-0511-9 (https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/1811/24814/1/THE_ROMANIANS_A_HISTORY.pdf, retrieved on 2009-04-02).
- Klepper, Nicolae: Romania: An Illustrated History; Hippocrene Books, Inc, 2005, New York, NY; ISBN 0-7818-0935-5.
- Kristó, Gyula (General Editor) - Engel, Pál - Makk, Ferenc (Editors): Korai Magyar történeti lexikon (9-14. század) /Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History (9th-14th centuries)/; Akadémiai Kiadó, 1994, Budapest; ISBN 963-05-6722-9 (the entry “Gyalu” was written by Zoltán Kordé).
- Madgearu, Alexandru: Salt Trade and Warfare: The Rise of Romanian-Slavic Military Organization in Early Medieval Transylvania; in: Curta, Florin (Editor): East Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Middle Ages; The University of Michigan Press, 2005; ISBN 978-0-472-11498-6.
External links
- Duchy of Gelu (map)
- "The Map of the Road of the Magyar Conquest - According to the Anonymous Notary" Köpeczi, Béla (General Editor) - Makkai, László; Mócsy, András; Szász, Zoltán (Editors) - Barta, Gábor (Assistant Editor): “History of Transylvania” Köpeczi, Béla - Barta, Gábor; Bóna, Istán; Makkai, László; Miskolczy, Ambrus; Mócsy, András; Péter, Katalin; Szász, Zoltán; Tóth, Endre; Trócsányi, Zsolt; Várkonyi R., Ágnes; Vékony, Gábor: “Histoire de la Transylvanie” Köpeczi, Béla - Barta, Gábor; Bóna, Istán; Makkai, László; Miskolczy, Ambrus; Mócsy, András; Péter, Katalin; Szász, Zoltán; Tóth, Endre; Trócsányi, Zsolt; Várkonyi R., Ágnes; Vékony, Gábor: “Kurze Geschichte Siebenbürgens”
