Gog and Magog are really Ung and Mungul
Editorial contextIn Tenduc, which he says was once Prester John's capital, Polo meets the legend of Gog and Magog, the wild nations Alexander walled in. He offers a down-to-earth explanation: the local names Ung and Mungul, two peoples who lived there before the Tartar migration, had been misheard in the West as Gog and Magog. Yule's notes identify the Ung as the Ongut.
Here also is what we call the country of Gog and Magog ; they, however, call it Ung and Mungul, after the names of two races of people that existed in that Province before the migration of the Tartars. Ung was the title of the people of the country, and Mungul a name sometimes applied to the Tartars.
About Ongut and Mongols
Keep in mind
Polo's 'Prester John' line here is King George of the Ongut, a Nestorian Christian prince.
