The Legend of the Wonderous Hind

By Fred Hámori
Reproduced by permission

The stories of the pursuit of the legendary ram are but the tip of the iceberg, because there is a lot more corroborating information about this legend from ancient Messopotamia, also from Assyrian and Babilonian records. The legend amongst our language relatives including FinnUgor, Huns, and others varies but is generally a star myth where the "great hunter" hunts the heavenly stagg (Ursa Major) and kills it around Christmas time. The sun which is held in its horns now escapes and becomes stronger, ushering in spring. However the calve of the stagg repeats the event every year.

In Hun art all the way from Mongolia and DungHuan caves of western China show the magical hunt of the stagg by two twins. Even our "western?" constellations Nimrod(Orion), Twins (Gemini) and the horned animal

(Taurus) show the hunt. The myth is Asian and Scythian but even Babilonians and others had the twin hunters part of their star lore.

Scythian Stagg found in Hungary

The Hungarian Legend of the Wondrous Stag is one of the oldest legends of the nation. It is so old that it is found in various forms among those nations who were the distant relatives or neighbors of the Hungarians, long before their settlement in Hungary. The meaning and the wording of the legends may have changed slightly but they all have much in common. Today the remaining legend is relatively short, whereas in the past it was probably much more extensive. However the Hungarian legend despite it's brevity includes in it many important points some of which can be found in most of the related legends found in other cultures. It is these points which show that once, in the remote antiquity, these people were neighbors or some were even related.

The symbol of the cosmos and the mother of the sun was symbolized as a large horned female doe. The great horned doe often was shown carrying the sun in her horns, in some cases the sun itself was symbolized as a stag the son of the doe of the legend.

The following Christmas song told by the Hungarian regos (bards) illustrate the stag as the carrier of the sun.

Csángo Hungarian "Rege"
Csoda fia szarvas, ezer ága boga
Ezer ága boga, ezer fénylö gyertya
Szarva közöt hozza áldot napnak fényét
Homlokán a csillag, mellén a hold,
S elindul az égi Duna fenyes partjátol,
Hogy égi küldötként hírt adjon
A teremtö és gondviselö istenünkröl.

Which translated, means:

Wondrous headed doe, with horns of a thousand branches and knobs
Thousand branches and knobs and of a thousand bright candles
Amongst its horns it carries the light of the blessed sun
On it's forehead there is a star, on it's chest the moon
And it starts along the banks of the shining heavenly Danube
That it may be the messenger of heaven and bringer of news
About our creator and caring god

The hind represents not the sun, but it's mother, the heavenly firmament, the cosmos, which carries the stars, the sun and the moon in it's "horns". For these reasons the Scythian stags often represented the horns of the stag like flames.