In 2004, the Hungarian parliament passed a resolution affirming the national symbolic value of many animal breeds native to Hungary.
Note the Turul feather in Árpád’s helmet. Below: Mihály Munkácsy, Honfoglalás (Conquest of the Magyars), 1893. In this story, Turuls led a group of wandering tribes into the Carpathian basin, showing them the land of their future country.Ībove: The fifty forint coin with the regular and the temporary designs commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Hungarian Red Cross. 1 The second narrative is “The Conquest of the Magyars” (“Honfoglalás”), which concerns the territorial legitimation of the Hungarian state. The first is “Emese’s Dream,” in which the progenitress of the Hungarian people is impregnated by a Turul and gives birth to the Árpád Clan, which ruled Hungary during the country’s golden age, from the tenth to the thirteen century CE. The Turul as a symbol is present in two main narratives from ancient Hungarian legend. Its origins and age are still debated, but it probably dates from the Avar Khaganate, sixth to seventh century CE.Īccording to researchers, the cult of the Turul is based on the totemistic relationship between the nomadic Hungarian tribes and the Saker Falcon, a hunting bird of the Central Asian steppe. The earliest known representation of the Turul bird on one of the vessels found among the Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós.
