They spared the houses to winter in them
Editorial contextRoger watched Tartar and Cuman raiders return from a night of slaughter in the villages, loaded with spoil. Yet they burned neither grain, straw nor houses. He guessed, and later confirmed, that they meant to winter there and needed shelter and food for their horses. It is a telling detail: these herders used the settled country's buildings rather than destroying them.
Yet they burned neither the crops, nor the straw, nor any houses, but brought all these in to keep themselves alive. From this I firmly concluded that they meant to winter in those parts, or leave their families there, so that in winter they would find shelter and provisions for their horses. All of which I afterwards learned to be true.
Working translation
Original wording
Verumtamen nec fruges nec stramina nec domos aliquas combusserunt, sed in praeseruationem vitae omnia haec induxerunt. Pro eo conieci firmiter ipsos velle in illis partibus hiemare, vel familias suas dimittere, ut in hieme pro equis domos et victualia inuenirent. Quod totum postmodum didici esse verum.
About Tartars and Cumans of Batu's army
Dummies on spare horses to fake an army
Editorial contextBishop Benedict of Várad chased a small Tartar band that had sacked Eger. Knowing they were few but had many horses, the Tartars made dummies and figures, set them on the empty horses like riders and hid them behind a low hill. When they pretended to retreat and the 'army' of dummies came out in battle order, the Hungarians thought they had fallen into an ambush and fled, and were cut down.
They made a great many masks and figures, setting them on the empty horses as if they were soldiers. And they left those horses below a little hill, with a few servants left with them … And when these came out from under the hill with the masks, in battle order as had been agreed, the Hungarians, seeing this and thinking an ambush had been laid for them, turned their backs and quickly took to flight.
Working translation
Original wording
Fecerunt autem laruas et monstra quamplurima; ea super equos vacuos tamquam si essent milites ordinando. Et equos illos sub quodam monticulo, paucis cum eis relictis seruientibus dimiserunt … Et dum ipsi cum laruis exierunt sub monte, et ut condictum erat acie ordinata; Hungari hoc videntes, et opinantes eis insidias factas terga dederunt, et fugam velociter inierunt.
About A Tartar (Mongol) raiding party
Keep in mind
Roger was not at this skirmish; he reports it from those who were.
Tartar bailiffs, markets and justice under occupation
Editorial contextAfter the massacres the Tartars lured people back from the woods and set up a working occupation. Each village chose a Tartar 'king'; the invaders appointed about a hundred 'canesii' (Roger glosses them as bailiffs) who kept justice and collected horses, animals, arms and gifts. Roger's own master was one of them and ruled almost a thousand villages. 'We had peace and markets,' he writes. A few lines later the same officials summon villagers with gifts and massacre them.
and each village chose for itself a king from among the Tartars, whomever it wished. … They appointed Canesii, that is bailiffs, to do justice and to procure for them horses, animals, weapons, gifts and useful clothing. My master was one of these lords, and ruled almost a thousand villages. And there were about a hundred Canesii. We had peace and markets, and justice was kept for each person.
Working translation
Original wording
et quaelibet villa elegit sibi regem de Tartaris quem optauit. … Constituerunt Canesios id est Baliuos, qui iustitiam facerent, et eis equos animalia arma exenia et vestimenta utilia procurarent. Et sic procurator meus de istis dominis erat unus, et pene mille villas regebat. Et erant Canesii fere centum. Pacem habebamus et fora, iustaque unicuique iusticia seruabatur.
About Mongol occupiers and their appointed officials
Keep in mind
'Canesii' probably reflects a local title (compare Slavic knez, 'prince, headman'); the peace was brief and ended in treachery, as Roger goes on to tell.
Bait on the ice: how they crossed the frozen Danube
Editorial contextIn a hard winter the Danube froze over, which had not happened for many years, but the Tartars did not dare ride onto the ice. They drove horses and cattle onto the bank and left them unguarded for three days. The Hungarians, thinking the enemy gone, crossed and led the animals over the ice, which showed the Tartars that it would bear horses; they then crossed in one rush (as the next page tells).
And then in winter a great deal of snow and ice came, so that the Danube froze, which had not happened for many years past. … They brought many horses and animals onto the bank of the Danube and left no one to guard them for three days, so that the beasts seemed to be wandering without keepers, and none of the Tartars appeared in those parts.
Working translation
Original wording
Et ecce in hieme niuis et glaciei abundantia superuenit, ita quod Danubius, quod non acciderat a multis retroactis temporibus, gelabatur. … Multos equos et animalia super ripam Danubii adduxerunt, et neminem per tres dies ad eorum custodiam dimiserunt; ita quod bestiae sine custodibus pergere videbantur, nec aliquis eorum in illis partibus apparebat.
About Mongol army
Arrows like locusts at the river Sajó
Editorial contextAt the battle by the river Sajó (Mohi), the Tartars crossed at night by a ford, surrounded the royal camp at dawn and shot into it. Roger says the arrows were so thick they almost shaded the fighters and flew through the air like swarms of locusts, so that the king could not even draw up his lines. He was not in the battle himself and writes from survivors' reports.
For so dense was the shooting of arrows that it almost made shade for the fighters; and the arrows flew through the air as locusts and grasshoppers go in swarms. And so, unable to bear the strikes of the arrows, they fell back inside the ring of the army. The king could not draw up his battle lines
Working translation
Original wording
Tanta enim erat crebrosa emissio sagittarum, quod fere umbram pugnantibus faciebant; et sagittae sicut locustae et bruchus congregatim vadunt, per aera volabant. Et sic sagittarum ictus minime sufferre valentes, infra circulum exercitus retro ibant. Rex vero acies non poterat ordinare
About Mongol army under Batu
"Held not by Tartars but in Tartarus"
Editorial contextIn his opening letter Roger plays on the old pun that made 'Tartars' out of 'Tatars': whoever falls into their hands will feel he is held not by Tartars but in Tartarus, the pit of the underworld. He stresses that he writes from experience, having lived among them 'for a time and half a time', a biblical phrase for a long ordeal. The pun shows how the name itself carried a hellish ring for Latin Christians.
And let everyone know that I do not report these things rashly: whoever comes into the hands of these Tartars, it would have been better for him not to have been born, and he will feel himself held not by Tartars but in Tartarus. I report this as one who went through it. For I was among them for a time and half a time, in which death would have been a comfort, just as life was a punishment.
Working translation
Original wording
Et sciant cuncti haec me temere non referre; quod quisquis ad manus ipsorum deuenerit Tartarorum, si natus non fuisset melius esset ei; et sentiet se non a Tartaris sed in tartaro detineri. Hoc refero ut expertus. Fui enim per tempus et dimidium temporis inter eos; in quo mori solatium exstitisset, sicut supplicium fuit vita.
About Tartars (Mongols of Batu's army)
Batu, 'king of kings', and the princes who invaded
Editorial contextRoger lists the Tartar leaders who entered Hungary. Batu is the 'king of kings'; under him a commander Roger calls Bochetor held most power, and Kadan was the bravest. Several more names follow in garbled Latin forms, and Roger gives the army as 500,000 men. It shows how a Latin writer who had met the invaders understood their chain of command.
The king of kings and lord of the Tartars who entered Hungary was called by name Bathus [Batu]. Under him the commander more powerful in the army was called Bochetor. Cadan [Kadan] was said to be the most valiant. Coacton, Feycan, Peta, Hermeus, Cheb and Ocadar were counted as the greater kings among the Tartars; though there were among them very many other kings, princes and mighty men, who invaded the kingdom of Hungary with five hundred thousand armed men.
Working translation
Original wording
Rex regum et dominus Tartarorum qui Hungariam intrauerunt Bathus suo nomine vocabatur. Rector erat sub ipso in militia potentior Bochetor appellatus. Cadan in probitate melior dicebatur. Coacton Feycan Peta Hermeus Cheb Ocadar maiores reges inter Tartaros censebantur; quamquam essent inter eos alii reges quamplurimi, principes et potentes, qui cum quinquies centenis millibus armatorum regnum Hungariae inuaserunt.
About Mongol princes (Batu, Kadan and others)
Keep in mind
The figure of 500,000 is a wild overestimate. Only Batu and Kadan are securely identified; the other names are Latin garblings of Mongol princes and generals.
Turning over corpses for buried flour
Editorial contextAfter the Tartars stormed the island refuge where he had sheltered, Roger lived as a fugitive in the woods. Hunger drove him to creep back onto the island at night and turn over the bodies of the dead in search of buried flour and meat. He hid in caves, dug holes or crept into hollow trees, while (he says on the next page) the Tartars combed the thickets like dogs hunting hares and boars.
So, with hunger and thirst pressing me hard, I was forced at night to go onto the island and turn over the bodies of the dead, to find buried flour and meat to eat, or anything else edible … I had to find caves, or dig pits, or look for hollow trees in which I could hide
Working translation
Original wording
Ita quod necessitate famis et sitis me acrius perurgente de nocte compellebar intrare insulam, et corpora euertere mortuorum, ut sepultam farinam et carnes ad esum mihi, vel aliud comestibile inuenirem … Oportebat me inuenire cauernas, vel foveas facere, vel arbores quaerere perforatas in quas me possem recipere
About Survivors hunted by the Mongols