They seem to rain arrows rather than shoot them
Editorial contextJulian's report on how the Tartars fight: they shoot farther than other nations, and in the first clash 'do not seem to shoot but to rain arrows', while swords and lances are said to be less suited to them. Their army is organised so that one Tartar commands ten men and a centurion commands a hundred, so that spies cannot hide among them.
it is said that they shoot farther than other nations are accustomed to. In the first clash of battle, it is said, they do not shoot, but seem as it were to rain arrows.
Working translation
Original wording
dicitur, quod longius jaciunt, quam alie consueverint naciones. In prima congressione belli, ut dicitur, non sagittant, sed quasi pluere sagittas videntur.
About Tartars (Mongols)
A note on this quote
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'Barbarian nations that call themselves Tartars', like locusts
Editorial contextKing Bela IV of Hungary, writing to the German king Conrad IV after the disaster at Mohi, describes the invaders as barbarian nations 'which call themselves Tartars', coming out of the East like locusts from the desert. He lists Greater Hungary, Bulgaria, Cumania, Rus', Poland and Moravia as ravaged, with only some castles and strongholds still holding out, and his own kingdom beyond the Danube occupied.
barbarian nations which call themselves Tartars, coming out of the eastern region like locusts from the desert, having laid waste Greater Hungary, Bulgaria, Cumania, Rus' and also Poland and Moravia, except for certain castles and fortifications which still defend themselves to this day
Working translation
Original wording
barbare nationes, que se Tartaros appellant, de plaga orientali velut locuste ex heremo prodeuntes majore Ungaria, Bulgaria, Cumania, Ruscia nec non Polonia et Moravia, castris et munitionibus quibusdam exceptis, que usque hodie se ipsos defendunt, depopulatis
About Tartars (Mongols of Batu's army)
Friar Julian: the Tartars' first land was 'Gothia'
Editorial contextFriar Julian, a Hungarian Dominican who had travelled to the edge of Rus' looking for the pagan 'Greater Hungarians', tells the papal legate what he learned 'from many': that the Tartars once lived where the Cumans now live, are 'in truth' called Ishmaelites but wish to be called Tartars, and came out of a land called 'Gothia'. He then tells a tangled origin story of a duke named Gurgutha whose vengeance war launched their conquests.
For it is reported by many that the Tartars, who formerly lived in the land the Cumans now inhabit, are in truth called Ishmaelites, but now wish to be called Tartars. The land from which they first came out is called Gothia
Working translation
Original wording
Relatum est enim a pluribus, quod Tartari, qui prius inhabitabant terram quam Cumani nunc inhabitant, dicuntur in veritate illi Ysmahelite, volunt nunc Tartari appellari. Terra autem de qua prius sunt egressi Gothia vocatur
About Tartars (Mongols)
Keep in mind
Hearsay gathered on the Russian frontier; the 'Ishmaelite' label is biblical classification, and the Gurgutha story has no basis in Mongol history. The OCR is badly garbled and the wording is reconstructed from it.
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A people from 'unknown lands' whose reason for coming no one knows
Editorial contextDuke Otto of Bavaria, writing from Straubing on 11 April 1241, two days after Liegnitz, warns the bishop of Augsburg of a barbarous people 'of infinite multitude, coming from distant and unknown parts', whose reason for coming nobody knows except that they persecute and kill Christians. He reports Cracow's land destroyed, the duke of Poland defeated, and the Tartars at the borders of Bohemia in three armies, and fears for all Germany.
a certain barbarous people of the Tartars, exceedingly cruel, of infinite multitude, coming from distant and unknown parts, the cause of whose coming we do not know, except that they wickedly pursue and kill all Christians.
Working translation
Original wording
quedam gens barbara Tartarorum crudelis nimium, multitudinis infinite, de longinquis et ignotis partibus adveniens, cujus causam adventus aliam ignoramus, nisi quod christianos universos impie prosequantur et occidant.
About Tartars (Mongols)
A note on this quote
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Hungary after the Tartars: church towers the only signposts
Editorial contextHormayr's own nineteenth-century retelling of what King Bela found on his return: church towers the only guides, grass growing in the streets, whole days' journeys without a living soul, thousands of unburied corpses, wolves snatching children, and human flesh sold openly. It is vivid but it is Hormayr's rhetoric, built on chronicles like Master Roger's, not an eyewitness text.
church towers were the only signposts, grass and brush on roads and lanes, whole days' journeys without a human soul, but many thousands of unburied, half-rotted, horribly mutilated corpses
Working translation
Original wording
waren Kirchthürme die einzigen Wegweiser, Gras und Gesträuch auf Strassen und Gassen, ganze Tagereisen weit keine menschliche Seele, aber viele tausende, unbegrabene, halb verwesete, grässlich verstümmelte Leichen
About Tartars (Mongols of Batu's army)
Keep in mind
Editorial narrative written six centuries later; the famine cannibalism detail comes from medieval chronicles and is repeated without a source.
Moravian legends: bakers' 'hands, feet and ears' and Tartar arrows in the fields
Editorial contextHormayr collects Moravian memories of the invasion: Stramberk, which alone held out, where bakers every Pentecost bake pastry 'hands, feet and ears' because the Mongols cut these from the dead and sent them to their khan in sacks; a field where tiny horseshoes, swords and very long foreign arrows are dug up; and the legend that Jaroslav of Sternberg killed a Mongol prince at Olomouc. These are local traditions, not medieval evidence.
Stramberk in the Prerov district is the place that alone fended off the Mongols; in its eternal memory the baker every year at Pentecost, the day of deliverance, bakes hands, feet and ears, because the Mongols were wont to cut these off the slain, and probably many of the living
Working translation
Original wording
Stramberg im Preraner-Kreise ist der Ort, der sich der Mongolen allein erwehrte, zu dessen ewigem Gedächtnisse der Bäcker alljährlich um Pfingsten, dem Tage der Erlösung, Hände, Füsse und Ohren bäckt, weil die Mongolen diese den Erschlagenen und wohl auch vielen Lebenden abzuschneiden
About Tartars (Mongols)
Keep in mind
Local folklore reported by a nineteenth-century editor; the Mongol victory at Olomouc and Sternberg's slaying of a khan are later legends.
Rumour: the emperor himself called in the Mongols
Editorial contextHormayr notes that German enthusiasm for the crusade against the Mongols was weakened by a slander spread by papal partisans: that Emperor Frederick II, who liked the company of Arabs, Jews and heretics, had himself summoned the Mongols. He also repeats the chronicle story of an old Englishman, expelled from the crusader army, captured serving the Tartars as interpreter and guide.
the slander spread everywhere by the papal party: that the wicked Emperor Frederick himself, who liked best to keep company with Arabs, Jews and heretics, had called in the Mongols.
Working translation
Original wording
die von den Päpstlichen überall ausgestreute Verläumdung: der mit Arabern, Juden und Ketzern am liebsten verkehrende, ruchlose Kaiser Friedrich selber, habe die Mongolen herbeigerufen.
About Tartars (Mongols); Emperor Frederick II
Keep in mind
Hormayr reports the rumour as propaganda; there is no evidence Frederick invited the Mongols.