The Dream of Emese –The Hungarian Origin Myth of the Árpád-dynasty

           Origin or founding myths play a crucial role in national identity as they elevate an event from the past on a highly symbolic level bearing essential information about the values of the nation. In the rich Hungarian storytelling tradition, the Dream of Emese occupies an important place because it traces back the origin of the Árpád-dynasty with the glorious future envisioned for the Hungarians with the birth of Álmos, Árpád’s father.

            The myth is not only significant because of the conception of the founding ancestor of the Hungarian Kingdom but also because of the turul, the mythological bird and also the military ensign of the nation. As the legend says, a turul bird appeared to Emese, wife of Ügyek or Ugek, in a dream and inseminated her after which glorious kings arose from her womb and a great stream of water started to flow from her loin and lead through fertile pastures and rich lands. The shamans of the tribe interpreted the dream as a prophecy about Emese’s child who would be a great and noble man leading his people to their new prosperous homeland from Levedia. Thus the child to be born was named Álmos, from the Hungarian word ‘álom’ which means dream. Among the peoples in Inner Asia, the symbol of water means power and the great flow of water from Emese’ womb can be interpreted as the unstoppable strength with which the Magyars advanced to the Carpathian Basin. The myth of Emese is mentioned in two historical sources, in the Gesta Hungarorum and the Chronicum Pictrum, both from medival times ( around the 13^th and the 14^th century) thus the story compounds elements from Christian and nomadic tribal traditions. The Christian influence of the myth lies in the attributed sacredness to the Hungarian kings while the appearance of the turul is rooted in the ancient nomadic totem animal cult. These cults regarded certain animals as sacred and divine and worshipped their animal spirits for help or protection. The word ‘turul’ is of Turkish origins and it was a shared symbol by different ethnicities whose societies worked in the pagan shamanistic framework and inhabited the Eurasian steppe. Thus the bird in the myth is the heritage of the semi-nomadic migrating times of Hungarian history. Besides the birth of Álmos, the turul was involved in the Settlement of the Magyars by showing the direction to the rich land of the Carpathian Basin.

             Although the Hungarian tribal society was patriarchal, the myth’s symbolism shows the significance of matriarchy by originating the Magyars from the ancestress, Emese. According to the myth, the woman is not only the source of the family which is the smallest unit of these nomadic tribes but also the source of life, fertility and greatness. In the myth, her fertility is literal; the stream of water from her womb is the source of a nation.

            This Hungarian myth about the wondrous conception of a leading figure in the Settlement of the tribes is based on the two major symbols, one is a bird of prey and the other is a fertile woman. Similarly to other founding myths, it involves a miraculous experience, a divine messenger, a dream and a prophecy about the nation’s future. The Dream of Emese is one of the most important myths of Hungary with its layered symbolic meanings and its heritage from both nomadic and medieval Christian times.