Gelou (duke)

Gelou ( ro, Gelu; hu, Gyalu) was the Vlach ruler of Transylvania at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900 AD, according to the ''Gesta Hungarorum''. Although the ''Gesta Hungarorum'', which was written after 1150, does not indicate the enemies of the conquering Hungarians ( Magyars) known from earlier annals and chronicles, it refers to local rulersincluding Gelouwho are not mentioned in other primary sources. Consequently, historians debate whether Gelou was a historical person or an imaginary figure created by the unidentified author of the ''Gesta Hungarorum''. In Romanian historiography, based on the mention of him by Anonymus some 300 years later, Gelou is considered one of three early-10th-century Romanian dukes with lands in the intra-Carpathian region of present-day Romania.

The ''Gesta Hungarorum'' describes pre-conquest Transylvania as a country rich in salt and gold, which was raided by Turkic peoples"Cumans and Pechenegs"before the arrival of the Magyars. Archaeological research indicates that a people who cremated their dead inhabited the regions of the Transylvanian salt mines from the seventh to the ninth centuries. Although excavated weapons suggest a military elite, none of the early-medieval Transylvanian fortresses uncovered can be reliably dated before the 10th century. The ''Gesta Hungarorum'' states that Gelou's duchy was inhabited by Vlachs and Slavs; most toponyms recorded by the chronicler in connection with Gelou's duchy are of Magyar origin. According to the ''Gesta Hungarorum'', Tétény (or Tuhutum), who was one of seven Magyar chieftains, defeated Gelou's army at the Meseș Gates and Gelou was killed at the Căpuș River as he fled towards his unnamed fortress. Gelou's subjects then yielded to Tuhutum without further resistance.

Background

What is known about Gelou comes from the ''Gesta Hungarorum'' (''The Deeds of the Hungarians''), the earliest surviving Hungarian chronicle. The ''Gesta'' was written during the second half of the 12th century or the early 13th century by an unidentified author, now known as Anonymus. It describes the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900.

The Magyars, settled in the Pontic–Caspian steppe by the 830s, began a westward migration after their defeat by a coalition of Pechenegs and Bulgarians in about 895. They crossed the Carpathian Mountains, invading the surrounding area. Gelou is a local ruler described in the ''Gesta Hungarorum'' as an opponent of the invading Magyars. Anonymus did not write about Simeon I of Bulgaria, Svatopluk I of Moravia or other opponents known from contemporary sources, instead chronicling Magyar battles with local rulers (including Gelou, Menumorut and Salan) not mentioned in other primary sources.

Transylvania on the eve of the Hungarian conquest

The nomadic Avars (Carpathians), Avars dominated the Carpathian Basin from about 567. In Transylvania, archaeological evidence attributed to them around 630 is clustered in the region of the salt mines at Ocnișoara, Ocna Mureș and Turda, and along the rivers Mureș and Someș population, were also concentrated around the salt mines in the seventh to ninth centuries. Although the Mediaș cemeteries have been attributed to Slavs, according to Madgearu "the presence of Romanians in this context should not be ruled out". The names of many rivers in Transylvaniafor instance, Bistrița ("swift"), Cerna ("black"), Dobra ("good") and Târnava ("thorny")are of Slavic origin, indicating the historical presence of a Slavic-speaking population. According to Madgearu, two eighth-century spurs unearthed at Șura Mică and Medișoru Mare "suggest the existence of cavalry troops of Slavs and, perhaps, Romanians in Avar service" (since Avar spur use is uncertain).

The Avar Khaganate disintegrated after the Franks invaded its western regions three times between 791 and 803. A stone column erected during the reign of Omurtag of Bulgaria commemorates the 829 death of a Bulgarian commander named Onegavon at the river Tisa, indicating that the Bulgarians invaded the eastern regions of the one-time khaganate. According to the '' Annals of Fulda'', in 894 Emperor Arnulf sent envoys to the Bulgarians to "ask that they should not sell salt to the Moravians"; this demonstrates that the Bulgarians controlled, at a minimum, the roads between the Transylvanian salt mines and Moravia.

According to Kurdt Horedt, István Bóna and other historians, Dridu B pottery unearthed in the Alba Iulia region which was similar to ceramic utensils found along the lower Danube demonstrates that the Bulgarians expanded their authority over this region. Other historians (including Victor Spinei) reject this theory, saying that Dridu B ceramics can only prove cultural influences from the Balkan Peninsula. The so-called "Ciumbrud group" of cemeteries, which were also unearthed near Alba Iulia, yielded earrings and clothing accessories analogous to finds from the lower Danube region and Moravia. Spurs, weapons and other Frankish objects unearthed at Iernut, Tărtăria and other Transylvanian sites demonstrate ninth-century trade with the Carolingian Empire; similar spurs were also commonly used in Bulgaria and by 10th-century Magyars.

According to historians Vlad Georgescu, Ioan-Aurel Pop and Alexandru Madgearu, the existence of a ninth-century Vlach polity in the Carpatho-Danubian region is verified by the ''Gesta Hungarorum'' and contemporary sources. Alfred the Great's translation of the ''Historiae Adversus Paganos''a fifth-century work by Orosiusreferred to "the Dacians, who were formerly Goths" and lived east of the Moravians and the "Vistula country". The 11th-century Persian scholar Gardizi, who studied the works of the late ninth-century Abu Abdallah al-Jayhani, wrote about the ''Nandars''"a people of Rûm who are all Christians"who inhabited the lower Danube and the Carpathians. Pop identifies them as Romanians, but Bóna and Kristó consider them Bulgarians because ''nándor'' was the Bulgarians' Hungarian exonym. An Armenian geographical work mentions "an unknown country called ''Balak''" north of Bulgaria. According to Pop and Georgescu, this demonstrates that a Vlach country existed in the region at the end of the ninth century. Manuscript studies indicate that the reference to ''Balak'' was interpolated after 1000, with the original text describing the "large country of Dacia" and its 25 Slavic tribes. According to the early-12th-century ''Russian Primary Chronicle'', although the Slavs were the first settlers west of the Carpathians, the ''Volokhs'' seized their territory. The ''Volokhs'' were expelled in turn by the Magyars, who "took their lands and settled among the Slavs". Many scholars, including Georgescu and Madgearu, identify the ''Volokhs'' as Vlachs fighting the invading Magyars. Other historians, including Kristó and Dennis Deletant, say that the context indicates that these ''Volokhs'' were Franks driven out of the March of Pannonia by the Magyars.

Although Romanian scholars have identified about a dozen Transylvanian fort sites in Gelou's duchy, none can be definitively dated before the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries. The forts at Dăbâca and Șirioara were destroyed between the last decades of the 10th century and the first half of the 11th, but their existence before 900 is unproven. At Dăbâca, "the evidence published so far, albeit poorly, ''does'' contain evidence of a ninth-century occupation of the site", according to archaeologist Florin Curta. Curta mentions two pairs of bell-shaped pendants, found outside the fort, which are similar to 9th-century Moravian artefacts. Another Romanian archaeologist, Alexandru Madgearu, writes that the bell-shaped pendants were only made after around 965, because similar jewellery was found at sites dated between the last third of the 10th century and the first half of the 11th century. Pottery finds suggest that the fortress at Cluj-Mănăștur may have been built during the ninth or tenth century. Early-medieval forts at Moigrad, Ortelec, Șimleu Silvaniei and Zalnoc were built at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, and the fort at Moldovenești even later. Legends identify the ruins of forts at Gheorgheni, Gilău and Ugruțiu as Gelou's, but they were built during the Iron Age. According to Vlad Georgescu, more than 40 excavated Transylvanian sites can be identified as settlements in Gelou's duchy.

Anonymus' narrative

Gelou and his duchy

According to Anonymus, "Slavs, Bulgarians, Vlachs, and the shepherds of the Romans" inhabited the Carpathian Basin when the Magyars invaded the territory. The chronicler describes Transylvania (''terra ultrasilvana'', "the land beyond the woods") as a rich country with salt mines and gold-yielding rivers, inhabited by "Vlachs and Slavs" (''blasij et sclaui'')''Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (ch. 25.), p. 61. when the Magyars arrived, and records the names of five Transylvanian rivers or mountain passes. MostAlmaș, Aștileu, Căpuș and Mezeșare of Hungarian origin. In the ''Gesta Hungarorum'' Gelou is described as "a certain Vlach" (''quidam'' ''blacus'')''Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (ch. 24.), p. 59. and "prince of the Vlachs" (''ducem blacorum''),''Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (ch. 26.), p. 63. indicating that the Vlachs were considered the dominant Transylvanian population.

According to Anonymus, Gelou "was not steadfast and did not have around him good warriors". The Vlachs and Slavs of Transylvania were "the basest of the whole world" because "they had nothing else for arms than bows and arrows"; Transylvanian weakness was the result of frequent raids by "the Cumans and Pechenegs". According to Ioan Aurel Pop, Anonymus' description of Gelou's subjects indicates a sedentary people called to arms. Carlile Aylmer Macartney writes that the ''Blasii'' and ''Picenati'' words for Vlachs and Pechenegs and the reference to their "bows and arrows" suggest that Anonymus borrowed the text from a work describing the route of the Third or Fourth Crusade across the Balkans; the late-12th-century ''Historia de expeditione Friderici imperatoris'' refers to Vlachs and Cumanians and their bows and arrows. Based on Anonymus's narrative, Sălăgean says that Gelou's polity was small compared with the other five mentioned in the ''Gesta Hungarorum''.

Conquest of Transylvania

Anonymus and the late 13th-century Simon of Kéza wrote that the Magyars bypassed Transylvania after crossing the northern Carpathians. However, 14th-century Hungarian chronicles preserve a tradition contradicting these narratives. In the ''Illuminated Chronicle'', the Magyars first arrived in Transylvania (''Erdelw'') with their conquest, "remain ngquietly in ''Erdelw'' and rest ngtheir herds"''The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle'' (ch. 28), p. 98. before moving further west.

The ''Gesta Hungarorum'' recounts a meeting of three Hungarian chieftainsTeteny (or Tuhutum), Szabolcs and Tasafter their victory over Menumorut, who is described as lord of Bihor. They decided that "the border of the realm of Prince Árpád" (the head of the Magyars) "should be at the Mezeș Gates",''Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (ch. 22.), p. 57. forcing the local population to build a stone-and-timber enclosure at the new border. Tétény soon sent a spy, "father Agmánd Apafarkas", to reconnoitre the land east of the Mezeș Gates. The spy informed him of Transylvania's wealth and its ruler's weakness. Before the invasion, Tétény "sent his envoys" to Árpád for permission. With Árpád's consent, Tétény hurried to the Mezeș Gates; according to Madgearu, his attack was "clearly targeted toward the salt mine district" of Transylvania.

Gelou "gathered his army and rode speedily" to the border to stop the invaders. Tétény crossed the forest in one day, forcing Gelou to retreat to the Almaș River and fight the Magyars there. The next day, Tétény divided his army and "sent one part a little way upstream"''Anonymus, Notary of King Béla: The Deeds of the Hungarians'' (ch. 27.), p. 63. to cross the Almaș and surprise Gelou. Gelou was defeated, with many of his men killed or captured. Although he fled from the battlefield towards "his castle beside the Someș River

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