Campfire Stories? Traces of Oral Transmission during Tenth Century Rus’-Nomadic Alliances

Katona, Csete (2025) Campfire Stories? Traces of Oral Transmission during Tenth Century Rus’-Nomadic Alliances. BYZANTINOSLAVICA: REVUE INTERNATIONALE DES ETUDES BYZANTINES, 83 (1-2). pp. 37-65. ISSN 0007-7712

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Abstract

This study explores the possibility that tenth-century multi-ethnic warrior groups exchanged stories (or story elements) with one another during joint campaigns. This claim is examined through the intersection of oral tradition and written history in the legend of Botond, a fictional tenth-century Magyar hero famed for his raid on Byzantium. Preserved in varied forms in late medieval Hungarian chronicles, the story’s historical reliability has long been contested. Yet key narrative elements – such as a wrestling duel and the symbolic act of striking the gates of Constantinople – have close analogues in the Russian Primary Chronicle. While some similarities likely reflect common literary tropes of medieval historiography, others may preserve authentic memories of tenth-century events. The core narrative of the legend exhibits strong parallels with tenth-century Byzantine sources, suggesting a plausible historical core rooted in real events of the period. Parallels with the cultural practices of the Rus’, Bulgars, and Pechenegs – peoples closely linked to the Magyars and to one another – underscore a shared heroic tradition in which wrestling and symbolic acts of aggression played key roles. These groups, often allied against Byzantium, likely exchanged stories within their multi-ethnic war camps, perhaps around the campfire. Oral narratives then circulated and evolved widely before entering the written traditions of the late Middle Ages.

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