All language subtitles for Of The Miraculous Hind, Marcell Jankovics, 2002)

Budapestfilm
presents

Budapestfilm
presents

Sponsored by the
Ministry of Cultural Heritage

a film by Marcell Jankovics
and Levente Szörényi

SONG OF THE HIRACULOUS HIND

LAND OF ORIGIN

The deer is everything.

The deer and fish are
man's main nourishment.

God gave both.

Once there were two shamen,
divine brothers.

They lived on earth,
but had nothing to eat.*

They set out.

One went to the Upper world...

where four-legged creatures
and birds lived.

He became the father
of the reindeer,

he let this great richness
fall to the poor earth.

He saw to it that when
the world of man came

there should be food aplenty.

Sky, sky, make way!

The other brother went
to the Lower world.

Clay, clay, make way!

He became for ever and ever

lord of the waters
and father of the fish,

he gave us all that lives

beneath the earth,
beneath the water.

This is no stupid tale,

old shamen tell it thus.

The deer is more than this.

In the beginning the earth
was covered with smooth ice.

No man lived upon it,
grass did not grow on it.

On the ice stood a ice-walled
house. lnside was a man:

Whiteman was his name.
He said to himself:

Alas, this cannot be!
I must seek a wife.

Who are you, my sister?

I will be mother to every
animal, insect and bird,

they will all be born of me.

I heard of you
and came visiting.

I'd like to play with you.

And a child was born forthwith.

The man saw

that this child was a blade
of grass born of a woman.

Take it with you.

Later grass and trees
will cover your icy land.

So the grass sprouted
and put down roots.

The man watched it every day.

On the seventh day the
grassy stretch was so big

that there was room
for another house.

Then Whiteman spoke thus:

Maybe some flying god

or other such
wants to settle here.

If he does so, my land
won't be big enough.

Why have you come again?

Let us sleep again together,
let us play!

Again a child was born.

The man saw that
it was like a reindeer

but had no antlers.

Take the child,
go to your own home!

By now grass and trees
covered the whole land.

Well, son, this is who I am.
First of all I lived in ice.

My home was made of ice.
I am such, god of the Earth.

You guard the earth's face,
and care for Grasschild.

So your name shall be
Earth's Reindeer.

You will be god
of the New Land.

You must defend the land from
feathered and antlered gods.

Father, without antlers
I cannot fight.

The Antlered god
will take away the land.

Preserve your antlers.

One is from stone, the other
from the tusk of a mammoth.

One day men will be born here.

I will be their father too.

Take care of them,
your siblings.

The deer is more than this.

Not only our sibling,
she is our mother too.

When she came down to earth

When she became flesh,
she turned into earth.

From her flesh and bones
came the very earth,

from her antlers the hills,
from her coat the forests.

From her flowing life juices
the waters of the earth.

Our deer mother is with us
for as long as we live,

inseparably.

My dearest, my mother,
my guardian!

The deer is our soul.

When we die, we are once more
united with our mother deer.

We are the people
of the deer.

Our dead appear
in the form of a deer.

The deer existence is death,
one half of existence.

When our year is done

the deer carries our father
the sun to the next world.

Wherefore the celestial hunter
pursues the deer each winter

to snatch back from him
the sun's stolen soul.

Our mother the deer guards
and shields us like the snow.

She is the winter sky.

She never sheds her antlers,

and they branch out
arborescently.

They hold up the sky...

Our ancestors told us
the world will exist

till the hunter brings down
the deer forebear.

If this be so
the world is eternal,

for as long as man
has lived on earth

star has never
caught up with star.

Earth and sky are born,

Earth and sky are created,

Winged Forefather
and Bloody Hand.

Two men are born.

Forest surround,
around home

Wind blows through
empty barn.

The two men set out

For the heart of
a frosty forest,

To seek a clearing
where elks roam.

Dear doe, dear doe!

I had a bad dream.

What bad dream
could you have seen?

For sure I dreamt

our sky father
sent us a snowstorm,

our sky father
sent us a windstorm.

stealthily wounds you with
a turul-feathered arrow.

stealthily wounds you with
a turul-feathered arrow.

I have seven snow-tripping
hind daughters,

What trouble can befall me?

If someone will be killed here,
'tis you...

At break of day
they bind their snowshoes,

Swiftly they slide.

Near a snowy pasture,
near a frosty heath

They come upon
a herd of deer.

Seven snow-tripping hinds

with their six-legged
deer mother,

Their fiery stag father

Break into a headlong gallop.

One arm forward,
birch forest passes,

One leg forward,
pine forest passes.

The two men after them.

Behold,

the fiery deer herd
breaks away from us...

We cannot reach or slay them!

Let me go ahead!

Winged Forefather draws near,

Where he pokes his birch stick
A lake comes forth for roach,

A lake comes forth for loach.

His turul-feathered arrow

Into the right flank
of the hind he shoots.

If gallop you will,
then gallop wildly,

never stopping,
but at the end of the earth,

where earth and sky meet,

there I know my arrow
will find you.

Oh ancestor, Upper sky!
Old ancestor, Upper sky!

If you created me to glitter
in the sky, now I'll escape.

At the world's end
a sky sea is glittering,

let me go to its rim.

Upper Sky their Father,
let so much snow fall,

Between uprooted trees
there rose a snow wall.

They break through it!
On their heads snow

Falls not, an opening
remains in their wake.

The glittering sky sea at the
world's end they reach.

Down to the face of the sea
they run.

No snowflake upon it,

Nothing but smooth ice.

That monstrous
Winged Forefather

Has also reached the edge
of the glittering sky sea.

But the wind filled
the deer tracks with snow.

So finally he returned.

After a journey
who knows how long,

he came upon the hind he shot.

Upper sky father!

Soon a living-dying world
will come,

soon a man-bringing world
will come!

How can a mortal conquer
a deer like that?

Your giant creation is fit to
stab any man with its antlers...

So the maimed four-legged deer

now glistened in the sky,

and the snowshoe track of the
pursuing Winged Forefather

now glistened in the sky.

The rest of the story tells
of the origin of our people.

How weary I am.

My land is far behind me.

What land can this be?
I know it not.

Who knows how many days
I have been hunting this deer?

And though I have killed it,

my home is far away
so I cannot take it with me.

He set off in the direction
in which he came.

After he had been going
for who knows how long,

all of a sudden came upon
Bloody-handed Solitude,

Walking Forefather.

He was still tracking the deer.

Did you kill the deer or
let slip the chance?

I killed it,

but so far away that the best
of its meat I left behind.

And now I am going home.

But if you want deer meat,
go take it.

On my return journey

I made a sign with my wing
in the snow.

If you follow the trail
you will come to it.

You can eat and stay there,

for a man on foot will never
get home again from there.

And he drew out of his snow
boot the other severed leg

and gave it to Walker

for him to eat until
he came upon the meat.

My home is far from here.

I will never get back on foot.

This too is land.

There is fish, there is game,
it won't be bad here.

I shall stay.

From these two men derive
the two clans of our people.

The sun shines,
swiftly ascending.

lce cracks,
a spring is gushing.

Trickling, dripping,
melting, flowing,

Splashing, bubbling,
swelling, foaming.

Vapour, dew, froth rising,

Running, floating,
ebbing, drying.

Grove, bush, leaf
with buds are bursting,

Root and bulb and seed
are sprouting.

Gentle spring,
summer abounding,

With the hum of the bee,
the country resounding,

The living awake,
moving, stirring,

Giving birth, calving,
happily musing.

HUNOR AND MAGYAR

White stallion colt at drinking
place, towards the sunrise,

in the abode of our mother
river Dona, Elk hind,

a jewel among girls,
to fetch water came down.

White stallion colt,
when he saw her,

forgot to drink water.

Gazing at the young filly,

he let his eyes rest upon her,

let them drink her in slowly.

I sigh my sigh for you

till my time is over

till my unlit fire is lit.

No such beautiful colt
shall I see

till my future bridal bed.

Could I lead him by his bridle

I would bless Sky father.

Elk hind, elk hind, you hide,

No trace of your water-image
in the water.

You are hiding in hiding

Wind has blown away your
grass-image in the grass.

Elk hind, my love,

Must I take aim at you?
Must I seek you,

You starry-haired,
seven-calved one?

Elk hind, you are
coming into my life,

The fulfilment of my word.

Elk hind, should you see me,
Should you turn back,

would you flee?

...flee me not!

Horse and cart,
horse and cart...

I harness a horse to the cart

I urge him with a whip,
curb him with a bit.

I saddle a colt.

I feel the smell of the herd,

I milk cow and goat
For their sweet milk.

I turn the earth
with an iron plough,

Millet is ripening, I dig a pit
and bake bread.

Honey from the bees
in my glass,

Pig tusks dig acorns.

Cloaks from felt I make,
canvas I paint,

Armour and a sword
from bronze I beat.

Woman of the farmstead
in golden wave.

Her price, if tis a thousand
gold pieces I still will pay.

"The bird flies from
bough to bough,

The song flies from
mouth to mouth;

Green grass grows
on graves of old,

Songs recall the heroes bold.

To hunt for game
is why they came

Fair Eneh's sons brave:

Hunor and Magyar,
two champions,

Twin brothers, Menrót's sons."

Hunor and Magyar were the
first born of Ménrót and Eneh.

When they grew up
they left their father's home.

Horse and cart,
horse and cart...

It happened one day

that they set out hunting
to the Meótisz marshes...

It is the Sythian custom for
hunters to climb a tree

and wait in hiding. Each
has a horse at the ready -

which has been taught
to lie down -

and a dog.

If the hunter sees the game,
he shoots his arrow,

then sets off in pursuit on
horseback,

while the dog
keeps the scent.

In the forest where
they were waiting in hiding,

the wonderful hind of their
dreams, ran ahead of them.

They followed it, but
could not catch up with it.

The deer, as if wanting
to lure them,

sometimes ran on
and sometimes stopped.

The hind disappeared.

They sought it for a long time,
but found no trace.

Ambling in the countryside
rich in pastureland,

they deemed it suitable
for grazing flocks.

Returning home, they told their
father where they had been

and begged him to let them
settle with their retinue

in that enchanting place
where the deer had led them.

Contemporary sources
remember it differently.

There was another reason for
the migration of our ancestors.

As noted down
by the rhetor Priskos,

a Bizantine envoy who visited
Attila, ruler of the Huns.

The Ogurs and the Onogurs
were forced into migration

because the mists and griffins
rising up from the Baltic Sea

drove out the
Central Asian Avars,

and they the Khazars, and they
the Ogurs and the Onogurs,

in other words our ancestors
were forced to flee.

Some, as they had done earlier
and would do again,

remained where they were
and faced their fate.

Ménrót with the people of his
house acted thus.

His sons, however, did not wait
for the conquerors.

Heeding divine inspiration,
they packed up so that,

following their guiding star,
they could seek a new home.

They had been living in their
new home for five years

when one day they again
set out hunting.

"The bird rises, the song rises

Of the two sons of fair Eneh;

Winging bird from bough to bough,

Ringing song from mouth to mouth.

Soon they wished to venture forth

Being bored of fish and game.

For new adventure, better fight

They rode off to the plain."

Beautiful pearl gems, enchant!

Tiny apples of your bosom.

Neat naval, slim neck entrance.

How many lovely, trim girls;

morals, force
are nothing worth.

Desire fades
with the years.

Open your gate and look at me.

Fight not, trust not,
curb not your desire.

Your sandals I'll undo,
the buckle of your belt.

Your ring is my fetter,
your knee my chair.

Styrup, saddle, carts;

gallop with me,
always love me.

Pain and sorrow will soon fade.

For my part I write
the records.

On the plains the sons of
Belár come upon their wives,

who without their husbands
are revelling in their tents.

The Turk has a shaved head,
ugly, bleary-eyed, freckled!

It was the celebration
of the horn.

Hail, idol of the law,
interpreter of the sky!

I plead for forgiveness. My
witness is the blue of the sea.

Revenge will be forthwith.
The loan repaid.

The women were taken
with their fortunes

at a swift gallop
to the Meótis marshes.

Among the children the two
daughters of Dula,

prince of the Alans,
were captured too.

One of them became
Hunor's wife...

the other was wedded to Magyar.

My dun horse is tethered
to a post.

Ram, wether, lamb, pig, hog,

camel, goat are thronging.
The trough is brimming.

Wheat is falling
from my sickle.

Hemp in sheaves, I grind the
barley, chaff in the barn.

Around the oats
only nettles in the stubble.

Steer, calf, bull aplenty.

Collecting the milk,
I churn it into butter.

Curd in the making,
my cheese yellowing.

Grass, tree, hawthorn.

Sloe and pear.

Nuts and berries
make good liquor.

Wine I strain
from ripened grapes.

Tasty from wormwood,
down it goes!

Carved tree-trunk my ark,
in my net carp.

Storks and coots
among the bulrushes.

My armies pitch tent,
the camp is colourful.

Guarded by mace,
hatchet and axe.

ON AND ON

In the year of our Lord 819

Ügyek, or according
to others Előd

who some called Levéd
(which may mean goose)

and believe him to be
the son of Ügyek...

I can't help it,
this story is confused!

...was a noble leader of Sythia.

Sythia was a big land
known as Dentümogyer.

lts people never bore the
fetters of any ruling power,

and they still live according
to their own morals today.

The Hungarian nation
derives from

one of the ancestor's of the
people of Scythia, Magyar,

and the Huns derive from
another ancestor, Hunor.

Though many dispute
the latter claim.

The renowned and powerful
Prince Attila

was descended from Hunor's offspring.

He left the land of Sythia
and came to Pannonia

in the year of our Lord 451.

He drove out the Romans and
set up a ruling seat for himself

beside the Danube

in memory of the Don
and other similar named rivers.

After a long while Ügyek,
who was descended from

the heroic Hungarian clan,
took as his wife

chieftain Őnedbelia's
daughter Emes.

She gave birth to a son
who was called Álmos.

He was named Álmos as a
result of a divine miracle.

While Emes slept deeply
The turul bird appeared:

Enclosing in his wings
The child fathered by Lél.

She felt that from her womb
A spring gushed forth,

From her loins a worthy line
Of princes is being born.

And, widening, the spring
Flows from east to west.

All the rivers beside which
the Hungarians lived

they called Etil, similar in
their language

to the name Attila,
the ancestor of Álmos.

They regarded Álmos,
born of a spring,

a reincarnation of King Attila,

and they hoped that,
coming from the sky,

he would revive
and guide his people...

who were now taxpayers
to the Khazars.

"Write!" The Turkic people,
that is the Hungarians,

have found themselves a
dwelling place near Khazaria,

in the place named Levédia

after the first of them
to become vajda.

The Hungarians comprise
seven tribes,

they never had a foreign lord
rule over them.

They were living
alongside the Khazars,

and they fought
all their wars together.

The prince of Khazaria,
the divine khan,

for their heroism and alliance

gave a noble Khazar girl as
a wife for Levédi,

as he did to the Byzantine
emperor too.

so that she would
bear him a child.

But as fate would have it

Levédi did not father a child
with the Khazar woman.

Because the Pechenegs

declared war on the Khazars
and defeated them.

So they were forced

to leave their own land and
settle on the Turkic lands.

When, due to this, war
broke out between them,

the Turkic army
suffered a defeat,

and its people were split
into two halves.

After a while the Khazar khan

sent for the ruler
of the Turkic people.

I have sent for you because

since you are of noble birth,
intelligent and brave,

and, among your Hungarians,
the first in rank,

I will promote you
prince of your people....

and in exchange...you should
obey our words and our laws.

I am honoured by your goodwill,

and am sincerely grateful.

But I have insufficient power
for that honour

so I am unable to obey you.

But there is another lord
who is called Álmos.

Let him rather be the prince
who will obey you.

The khan liked the idea
and he sent his men

to the Hungarians so that

the said Álmos should be
raised to the rank of prince.

You can rule for 40 years.

But if your strength fades
and your judgement weakens

you must die earlier.

So be it.

The seven men, the Hungarians'
seven princes

chose Álmos, being the most
suitable, as their leader -

of their own free will
and without dispute.

According to the ancient rite
they let their blood drip

into one dish
with the blood of Álmos,

and thus his oath was made law.

Our father Álmos was elevated

so that the Hungarian people
should not fade out,

so they should become a nation
again, so that he should guide

and revive his people
who had become slaves!

Stand by me! I want to be
Prince Álmos!

Hurray!

The Hungarians...

Sagittis Hungarorum
libera nos, Domine!

At that time drought struck
the Hungarians' land.

It was also overburdened with
a mass of foreign peoples,

and they could not feed or
raise their own kind.

Many of the Hungarians,

tiring of their increasing
hunger and harrassment

turned to their princes:

permit us to seek a new home.

The seven princes

who to this day are known as
the seven Hungarians,

seeing the will of the people

and that many of them had
set off without permission,

held a council as to whether
to leave their birthplace,

and take possession of a more
suitable land.

Horse and cart,
horse and cart...

Their choice fell on
the Pannon plain,

not only due to
divine inspiration

but because it reminded them
of Sythia,

and by right of the blood of
Álmos, as Attila's ancestor,

they regarded it as theirs.

They had ridden across it
in battle and knew it well.

Moreover many of them
had settled there earlier.

There was room for all.

As noted by an
Arabian traveller...

Between the borders of the
Moravians and the Bulgars

lies an uninhabited land
to be crossed in ten days

which the unbelievers
call the Avar plain.

In the year of our Lord 884

the seven Hungarians left
Scythia and headed west

with Álmos and his son Árpád
at their head,

and a mass of peoples
from the same land

allied in rebelling
against the Khazars.

Thus the Hungarians came to*

Here they settled for a while.

Many among them did not rest

but went straight on
to Attila's country.

The dauntless continued their
marauding campaigns.

Álmos struck camp in Kiev.

In memory of this the place
is still called Álmos court,

and the stay of the Ugors
in Kiev is remembered

through the names Hungarian
hill and Hungarian place...

Earlier the Hungarians had
defeated

the neighbouring Slavs
time after time.

They treated them like slaves
and levied heavy taxes.

In the time of Álmos, however,
the Slavs,

who also worshipped idols,

and the Hungarians had become
friends to such an extent that

some of the latter were happy
to be in service in Kiev.

The mare is eating oats
from the manger.

The master mucks out,
his mate has the harrow.

Lunch in the kitchen,
the table is knarled,

on it the pot,
in it the pottage.

The vajda and his mate
eat gustily.

The cellar is fusty,
the porch full of ash,

The ridge lies fallow,
and empty the furrow.

Soon the Hungarians had to get
back into their saddles again.

They could not stay
because of the eagles

that were swarming
the trees like flies.

They consumed their cattle,
even the horses.

All because God wanted

them to arrive in Hungary
as soon as possible.

Pure allegory!

In the old days the Hungarians

called the Pechenegs
the eagle people,

and because they again
suffered a defeat

from the attacking eagle
people, that is, Pechenegs,

they were forced to move on.

Thus it happened

that in the year of our Lord
895 the Hungarians,

with the exception of those

who held the land on which they
were living dearer than their lives

- there are always some -

once again set forth to follow
their leader and their star.

By then the Turkic people felt

that Árpád should be the leader
rather than his father

since he was more suited
in respect of his age

for this honour.

They spent three months
crossing the mountains

and they came to the border
of Hungary and Translyvania.

Old Álmos - just as Moses in
his time was unable to enter

the Promised Land -
could not enter Pannonia.

Because of this, for the
benefit of his people,

he was killed in Transylvania.

Álmos, son and
blessing of the sky,

with his sacrifice has won
his people the right

never again to be forced
to leave their new home.

The Hungarians found the
uninhabited plain

too confined for their herds,

and, knowing that the Danube
was a very good river,

and the inhabited parts beyond
it very good land,

they decided to occupy it.

Under the terms of the
agreement

that they made with the
Moravian vajda Svatopluk,

the Lord gave the Hungarians
Pannonia.

The great empire,
the Hungarian homeland,

Where the corn bends
under its own weight.

Where the clusters of grapes
are full of fire,

The heroic Árpád
won this lovely land.

Hungarians, when you hear
this great name,

As if before the altar,
in church you were,

Raise your hats

And thank him
for your homeland.

PANNONlA

It happened in the year
of our Lord 955,

when Fajsz, Árpád's grandson,
was the leading prince,

that Hungary's valiant warriors

suffered a terrible defeat
in the land of Bavaria.

The foolish minstrel laments,
his lyre complains.

Czech, German and ltalian
soldiers are sent into battle.

Armoured warriors smite
the jerkined plunderers.

Swords are dented, shoed
hooves crush the knights.

Flag in the dust.

Treacherous rascals!

Lock them up,
into prison with them!

Slaughter the rats!

Behold the example!

The Saxon prince had all the
prisoners killed bar seven.

He cut the ears off these seven

and sent them back to Pannonia
with these words:

Go back to your Hungarians
and tell them

never again to come to
this place of suffering.

To emphasize his words,
contrary to custom,

he had the chieftains
Lél and Bulcsu hung.

In the old days
the leading prince

should have died
for what happened.

But since by now the true faith
filled many souls

he only had to renounce
his high rank.

Amen.

His successor was Taksony,
Zoltan's son,

who was Árpád's son.

Every day of Taksony's life
he tried

with power and persuasion

to preserve his
country's heritage.

He put an end to the
marauding campaigns

and put up defences
against Germany.

Thanks to his father's wisdom
he was able to live

in a good relationship with
the one-time deadly enemy,

the Pechenegs,
to the east of Hungary,

since Zoltán had brought him a
Pecheneg wife.

Two sons were born to Taksony
from that marriage,

the older of which, Géza,
became Hungary's fifth leader.

Many Pecheneg braves arrived
with Taksony's wife,

the majority of whom Taksony
settled in the western marches,

close to the Székelys...

Fearing the Germans,

with the Russian vikings,
and their allies the Pechenegs

they surrounded themselves
with walls and marshes.

Peace reigned in the country
and the borderlands.

Taksony kept his peace with
everyone but Byzantium.

At the news of the defeat
at the Battle of Augsburg

Byzantium stopped paying
the tax due to the Hungarians

(which the Greeks
called a present)

and this not only upset
the generations' long

Hungarian-Byzantine peace,
but also meant that

Taksony and his successors
sought help towards

their peaceful integration
among the Christian peoples

not from Byzantium,
but from Rome,

through the intercession of the
mighty Holy Roman emperor.

When Taksony, growing old,

moved from the prison of his
body to the way of all flesh,

his firstborn son, Géza,

became the prince
of the Hungarians.

Géza, the heroic, got his name
from his Pecheneg mother.

It was earlier the title of the
Turkic lstemi khan ancestor.

As was customary, Géza, the
heir to the throne,

ruled in Bihar.
As a chieftain too

he had his winter quarters here
in the centre of the country,

on Deer Hill, named after
his ancient mother,

the sacred animal of his people.

He was born in the old faith,

and when he was elevated to
princely rank, he had his father

buried according to the law of
our forebears on Csepel lsland.

But he himself,
heeding to his sense

rather than his heart

soon had himself christened.

In Christianity he
was called Stephen

after the first holy martyr,
just as later his son too.

This was fitting for a prince
seeing that

Stephen in Hungarian
means "crowned".

His younger brother,
an outstanding soldier

who commanded the land
on the western frontier,

was given the Christian name
Michael

after the archangel
of the heavenly hosts.

He made sacrifices to the
almighty god

and various imaginary gods.

When the prelate chided
him for this he replied:

I'm rich and powerful
enough for that.

Though prince Géza slipped
into the pagan way of life...

...once he had become
a Christian,

he raged against
his reluctant subjects.

With extreme cruelty.

He used despotic means to
deal with his people,

he mobilized all the leaders
of his armies

in the interest
of the true faith.

Those who dissented

he suppressed with threats
and intimidation.

He killed many.

Yet he treated foreigners with
compassion and generosity,

in particular the Christians.

And - following in his
father's footsteps -

he kept peace with all
the surrounding territories.

At that time Hungary became

a neighbour of the Byzantine
and German Empires.

And since the two empires

had formed a close alliance
through marriage,

Géza, if he did not want to
be caught between the two,

had to make a move.

For known reasons he could
only turn to Otto the Great -

and as we have seen - he had
to get himself christened.

Learning of Géza's intention
the Holy Roman Emperor

sent missionaries to Hungary.

We, Otto, royal emperor
by the grace of God,

to Piligrim, the reverend
bishop of Passau.

Our greetings and our grace.

We are sending Bishop Bruno
of Sankt Gallen to you

and ask you to be
of the utmost help to him

to guide him respectfully
and with circumspection

as near as possible to the
Hungarians,

with the necessary provisions
for his journey.

We are delegating him there
in order that their king

may have contact with our
power as soon as possible.

You should take
the greatest trouble

to ensure that this
mission be fruitful

because - if our intention
meets with success -

it could be extremely useful
to you too...

God be with you!

Prince Géza ordered

that every Christian who
wanted to enter his kingdom

should be recieved hospitably
and assured of safety.

He authorized his priests to
present themselves:

he was happy to
hear their chants

by the light of torches
at vespers,

being pleased that the seed
of the blessing of God

sown in the garden of his
bosom was sprouting.

Why should I say more?

The time ordained
by heaven came,

he, together with his family,
was a believer.

Believer? At any rate
he had himself christened,

in the service
of the Christian faith.

in the service
of the Christian faith.

And, choosing 12 noblemen
from the clans loyal to him,

he sent them to the royal
meeting

held at the imperial court of
Quedlinburg in the year 973.

The Danish and Czech rulers
and the Polish heir apparent

attended the meeting,
and many rulers

who called themselves free
and independent sent envoys:

thus the Byzantine emperor
and the hastily christened

Hungarian "kral" prince Géza.

His absence in person meant

that Hungary wanted to be
part of Christian Europe,

but would not be the vassal of
anyone,

not even the Holy Roman Emperor.

One night the Lord comforted
him with a wonderful vision.

Peace be with you,
Christ's chosen one.

I command your problems
to cease.

It is not for you to undertake
what is on your mind.

Just as biblical David's,

your hands too are
sullied by human blood.

But you will have a son,
as David had Solomon,

to whom the Lord will
entrust all these things

according to the intentions
of his divine providence.

He will be one of the Lord's
chosen kings,

and will exchange the crown of
earthly life

for an everlasting one.

Soon another envoy will come
to you on a spiritual mission.

He will show you
what you must do.

Not long after this

Prince Géza and his brother
Michael

set out from their winter
quarters on Deer Hill

to go hunting.

Greetings, prince!

In this deer whom
you were hunting,

I was hunting you.

I am the envoy of
the heavenly Father.

I have brought you a message.

Here in this place
you should build your city,

and raise a church to the first
bishop of the Hungarians.

It was surely no deer,
it was the angel of God.

the meaning of the candles
we saw on the deer's antlers?

They were not antlers,
but wings,

not burning candles,
but glittering feathers.

And it planted its feet there

so we should build my seat
there and nowhere else.

The surest sign of Géza's turn
to the west

was that he built his new
permanent seat

west of the centre of the
country, at Esztergom.

Because the Danube links that
place

with the centre of the
Holy Roman Empire,

From here in a few year's time

From here in a few year's time

he brought his son
a wife of royal blood.

Thus he bound his country for
more that a thousand years

to the bloodstream of Europe.

Today, exactly a thousand
years after

St. Stephen founded
his European state,

on St Stephen's Day
"his servants", the minstrels

still recall the Hungarians'
age-old leader animal,

the miraculous hind.

Where comes to life
an ornate wide path

beside it comes to life
a shallow fish pond.

Here in abundance
grows the tiny sedge

of which the miraculous stag
is very fond.

Hey, trilling minstrel,
trilling minstrel!

Should you go out,
my lord, King St. Stephen

hunting or bird catching,

you'll not find
either game or birds

you'll only find
the miraculous stag.

Hey, trilling minstrel,
trilling minstrel!

Hurry not, hurry not,
my lord, King St. Stephen,

hurry not my death.
I'm surely not

the game you are shooting,
but I am an envoy

sent from god the Father.

Hey, trilling minstrel,
trilling minstrel!

On my forehead shining
the bright rising sun,

on my side glowing
the beautiful moon,

on my right kidney
the heavenly night stars.

Hey, trilling minstrel,
trilling minstrel!

On my antlers,

thousand antlers,
on their tips growing

a hundred thousand bushes,

fire red, fire red,
sleep the sleep of the dead.