The Danube Read online

  13. For shipping on the Danube, see statistics published by the Danube Commission since 1963.

  14. L. S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1958; C. Hurst, London, 2000, p. 321.

  15. See 〈http://www.firstissues.org/forum/index.php?topic=290.0〉.

  16. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453, p. 323.

  17. The subject has also been addressed in fiction; see Boris Akunin, The Turkish Gambit, 1998, trans. Andrew Bromfield, Random House, New York, 2005.

  18. Ian Hancock, The Pariah Syndrome: An account of Gypsy slavery and persecution, Karoma Publishers, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1987.

  19. Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing – The Gypsies and their Journey, Vintage, New York, 1996.

  20. For a general treatment, not on the Roma in particular, see Gerry Johnstone, Restorative Justice – Ideas, Values, Debates, Willan Publishing, Uffculme, 2002.

  21. Thorpe, Unfinished Revolution, pp. 301–2.

  22. See 〈http://www.jarokalivia.hu/en〉.

  23. See 〈http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/121/3/399.full.pdf〉.

  24. Emil Andreev, ‘The Return of Teddy Braun’, in Lettre Internationale, 2011, trans. Andrea Iván, who kindly brought my attention to it.

  25. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam, Vol. II, pp. 391–402.

  26. The Austrian 100 corona is still being minted, with a 1915 mint mark to enable Austrians to take advantage of a grandfather clause in the law regarding private ownership of gold bullion. See 〈http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_Austro-Hungarian_krone〉, and 〈http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk/1915austrian1ducat.php〉.

  7. River of Dreams

  1. Constantin Brâncuşi, Thus Spoke Brancusi, Fundatia-Editura, Craiova, 2011, p. 234.

  2. Interview with the author, July 2011.

  3. Marian Tutie, Ada-Kaleh, sau Orientul scufundat, Noi Media Print, Bucharest, 2010.

  4. See a short film, Ultima Primavera in Ada Kaleh – Last Spring on Ada Kaleh 〈http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Td7IqThZ8〉.

  5. See Chapter 3, p. 41.

  6. Conversation with the author, July 2012.

  7. Tutie, Ada-Kaleh, p.187.

  8. I have searched in vain for any other reference to him. He has vanished, like his clothes.

  9. Brâncuşi, Thus Spoke Brancusi, p. 105.

  10. Ibid., p. 106.

  11. For information about Tania Rachevskaia, see 〈http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15216513〉.

  12. Cited in The Vineleaf and the Rose, TintoFilms, Budapest, 2003.

  13. Brâncuşi, Thus Spoke Brancusi, p. 95.

  14. Ibid., p. 94.

  15. Gerard Casey, Between the Symplegades – Revisions from a Mythological Story (a translation of George Seferis's poems), Enitharmon Press, London, 1980.

  16. See Mihai Vlasie, How to Get to the Monasteries of Romania, trans. Luminita Irina Niculescu and Diana Presada, Editura Sophia, Bucharest, 2003, pp. 356–57.

  17. Danube Bike Trail, Vol. 4 Bikeline, Verlag Esterbauer, Rodingersdorf, 2008.

  18. For a dramatic nineteenth-century lithograph of the Iron Gates, see ‘Wallachei – das Eiserne Thor’, by Ludwig Erminy / Franz Wolf 1840, in Sketches on the Danube – Vedutas by 19th century artists, Közép-európai Kulurális Intézet, Budapest, 2001.

  19. Conversation with the author, Constant¸a 2003.

  20. Friedrich Hölderlin refers to Hercules in ‘The Ister’:

  Now they call Him the Ister.

  He lives prettily. His pillars' leaves

  Are burning and stirring. Wildly

  The pillars stand upright, together; above them

  A second measure, slinging forth

  From the rock, a roof. No surprise,

  Then, that He

  Invited Hercules to come as a guest,

  Shining from afar, down there at the Olymp,

  Since he who sought Shadow,

  Came all the way from hot Isthmus …

  See 〈http://poetrybeingzen.blogspot.it/2007/11/hÖlderlin-der-ister-translation.html〉.

  21. Brâncuşi, Thus Spoke Brancusi, p. 112.

  22. Mladić was arrested on 26 May 2011; Hadžić was arrested on 20 July 2011.

  23. See 〈http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan%27s_Bridge〉.

  24. Helmuth von Moltke, cited in Die Donau – in Sagen, Mythen und Marchen, ed. Bertram Kirchner, Anaconda Verlag, Cologne, 2007, p. 343.

  25. David Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991.

  26. Dragoslav Srejović, Europe's First Monumental Sculpture – New Discoveries at Lepenski Vir, Lepenski Vir, Belgrade, 1972.

  27. Gimbutas, Goddesses and Gods, pp. 108–11.

  28. Ljubinka Babović, Sanctuaries of Lepenski Vir – Location, Position and Function, National Museum, Belgrade, 2006.

  29. See 〈http://www.memorialmuseums.org/eng/staet­tens/view/1210/Memorial-to-the-Victims-of-the-Kla­dovo-Transport〉.

  30. See 〈http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=73554〉.

  31. See 〈http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3166863.stm〉.

  32. For Djordje Balašević, see, inter alia: 〈http://www.youtube.com/watch?v—nWdq_2otFE〉.

  33. For more tales of Marko Kraljević, see The Ballads of Marko Kraljević, trans. D. H. Low, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1922. Also see 〈http://www.archive.org/stream/ballads­ofmarkokr00lowduoft#page/n7/mode/1up〉.

  34. H. G. Williams, and K. Hunyadi, Dictionary of Weeds of Eastern Europe, Akademia, Budapest, 1987.

  35. See the essay by Marco Merlini in The Danube Script – Neo-Eneolithic Writing in Southeastern Europe, ed. Joan Marler, Institute of Archaeomythology, Sebastopol, California, 2008.

  36. See Gimbutas, Goddesses and Gods, pp. 196–97.

  8. River of Fire

  1. Bernard Lewis, The Muslim Discovery of Europe, W. W. Norton, London and New York, 1982.

  2. See 〈http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golubac_fortress〉.

  3. See 〈http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zawisza_Czarny〉.

  4. In Kusturica's Underground. see 〈http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IltS4FWrwxM〉.

  5. On the first Ottoman soldiers in Europe, see H. T. Norris, Islam in the Balkans – Religion and Society between Europe and the Arab World, Hurst, London, 1993.

  6. During a visit to Edirne in summer 2006, I found at least three major drum-makers in the city.

  7. This story of the Smederevan origin of Tokaj wine is popular in Serbia, but seems little known in Tokaj itself.

  8. See 〈http://www.royalathena.com/pages/prehistoriccatalog/VLF04.html〉.

  9. My estimates, based on Andrej Starović's figures.

  10. András Rónai, Atlas of Central Europe, Teleki Research Institute, Budapest, 1945; digital facsimile edition, Puski, Budapest, 1993.

  11. For obsidian, see John Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska, ‘The Aesthetics of Colour and Brilliance’, Geoarchaeology and Archaeomineralogy, ed., R. I. Kostov, B. Gaydarska and M. Gurova, Proceedings of the International Conference 29–30 October 2008, St Ivan Rilski, Sofia, 2008, pp. 63–66.

  12. Harald Haarmann, ‘Changing the Canon: Research on Ancient Writing Systems beyond the Mesopotamian Bias’ in The Danube Script – Neo-Eneolithic Writing in Southeastern Europe, ed. Joan Marler, Institute of Archaeomythology, Sebastopol, California, 2008, pp. 11–12.

  13. See 〈http://ww3.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2013/03/remembering-dessa-trevisan〉.

  14. Tim Judah, The Serbs – History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1997; Marcus Tanner, Croatia – A Nation Forged in War, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1997; Misha Glenny, The Fall of Yugoslavia, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1996.

  15. John Reed, War in Eastern Europe – Travels through the Balkans in 1915, Scribner, New York, 1915; repr. Orion Books, London, 1995, p. 32.

  16. Information extracted from the museum catalogue in the military museum in Kalemegdan.


  17. Kinross, The Ottoman Empire, p. 353.

  18. For the 2000 Baia Mare disaster, see 〈http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1146979.stm〉.

  9. The Black Army

  1. Kemal Pasha Zade, ‘Poet in the Court of Suleiman the Magnificent’, cited in Mohács Emlékezete, trans. Nick Thorpe, p. 184.

  2. Kinross, The Ottoman Empire p. 170.

  3. Vladimir Nedeljković, Zavod za Culturu Vojvodine (The Boys and Girls from the Danube), 1964–1972 and 1964–80, 2 vols, Novi Sad, 2007/2010. See 〈http://www.vladimirnedeljkovic.com/news/news%20engl.htm〉.

  4. Quotation reproduced at the entrance to the museum in Petrovaradin.

  5. See 〈http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/368817.stm〉.

  6. Tibor Cseres, Cold Days, 1964, first English language edition, Corvina, Budapest, 1993; idem, Titoist Atrocities in Vojrodina, 1944: Serbian Vendetta in Bácska, Hunyadi, Budapest, 1993.

  7. See especially Tanner, Croatia – A Nation Forged in War.

  8. On the trial of Goran Hadžić at the International War Crimes Tribunal, see 〈http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/balkan-transitional-justice/goran-hadzic-at-the-hague-news〉.

  9. For Ovčara farm, see 〈http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=11&dd=18&nav_id=77386〉; also 〈http://iwpr.net/report-news/ovcara-survivor-recalls-day-massacre〉.

  10. The conversations that follow are reproduced from my written notes and audio recordings from January 1999.

  11. See 〈http://www.amazon-of-europe.com/en/menu31/〉.

  12. The Croatian Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature can be found at 〈http://www.wiser.org/organization/view/be2c1167157a91f28­5466a5df5181bd5〉.

  13. Marcus Tanner, The Raven King – Matthias and the Fate of his Lost Library, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2009.

  10. Smoke, Ash and a Tale or Two

  1. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book XII.

  2. There are few good English language sources on the battle. In Hungarian there is Mohács Emlékezete – A Mohácsi csatára vonatkozó legfontosabb magyar, nyugati és török források, ed. Tamás Katona and László Girias, Magyar Helikon, Budapest, 1976.

  3. See 〈http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Orlai_perenyine.jpg〉.

  4. For the European Bicycle Route 6, see 〈http://en.eurovelo6.org〉.

  5. ‘Only the conquest of Vienna might have rescued the Hungarian territories from their unenviable position at the center of the battlefield.’ The Ottomans and the Balkans – A Discussion of Historiography, Vol. 25 of The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage, ed. Fikret Adanir and Suraiya Faroqhi, Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2002. p. 54

  6. Adanir and Faroqhi, The Ottomans and the Balkans, p. 317.

  7. Ibid., pp. 305–49.

  8. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV; see 〈http://classics.mit.edu/Antonius/meditations.html〉.

  9. The recipe and other information cited here all come from the museum.

  10. Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus – Observationibus geographicis, astronomicis, hydrographicis, historicis, physicis perlustratus, Amsterdam, 1726. Reprinted as The Discovery of the Danube, Museum of Water Management, Budapest, 2004.

  11. From the Collected Poems of Kenneth Patchen, New Directions, New York, 1968.

  12. Magyar Hajózási Statisztikai Kézikönyv – 1945–1968 (Hungarian Shipping Handbook), Mahart, Budapest, 1971.

  13. Charles (Karl) IV was crowned in St Mátyás church in Buda on 30 December 1916, the last king of Hungary. He abdicated less than two years later, as Austria-Hungary fell apart at the end of the First World War. When he attempted to return to Hungary, to restore the monarchy in October 1921, his small force was overwhelmed by troops loyal to the Regent, Admiral Horthy, and he and his wife were escorted out of the country down the Danube on the British gunboat HMS Glowworm, all the way to Galaţi. He died the following year, in exile on Madeira, of Spanish flu, aged thirty‐six.

  14. See 〈http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/WG/p-nid/149〉.

  15. For László Magyar, see 〈http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2925/〉.

  16. ‘Folksong’, by János Arany, 28 August 1877.

  17. For the fate of Csepel during the siege of Budapest at the end of the Second World War, see Krisztián Ungváry, Battle for Budapest: 100 Days in World War II, trans Ladislaus Lob, I.B. Tauris, London, 2003, pp. 14–17.

  11. The Wind in the Willows

  1. Algernon Blackwood, ‘The Willows’, from Three Supernatural Classics, Dover Mineola, New York, 2008.

  2. See especially István Deák, The Lawful Revolution – Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians, 1848–1849, Columbia University Press, New York, 1979; Phoenix Press, London, 2001.

  3. For the fate of Batthyány's silkworms, see 〈http://www.diszmadarmagazin.hu/hun/cikk.php?id=627〉.

  4. The Venus of Willendorf, a tiny item of exquisite beauty, is on display at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. See Walpurga Antl-Weiser, Die Frau von W., Die Venus von Willendorf, Natural History Museum, Vienna, 2008.

  5. Mária Vida, Spas of Hungary in Ancient Times and Today, Semmelweis Kiadó, Budapest, 1992, pp. 23–25.

  6. Ibid., p. 25.

  7. János Arany, The Legend of the Wonderous Stag: 〈http://mek.oszk.hu/00200/00215/00215.pdf〉.

  8. Author's interview with István Sárvári, 1995.

  9. From the album, Mihály Dresch, Túl a Vizen, 1996.

  10. Gábor Ágoston and Balázs Sudár, Gül Baba, Terebess, Budapest, 2002.

  11. John Kingsley Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, Luzac, London, 1937; reprinted by Luzac Oriental, London, 1996.

  12. Ágoston and Sudár, Gül Baba.

  13. Béla Tóth, Gül Baba, Lampel, Budapest, 1907, pp. 9–20.

  14. See the Mahart website 〈http://www.mahartpassnave.hu/webset32.cgi?MAHART@@EN@@158@@GOOGLEBOT7〉.

  15. See 〈http://www.ferrexpo.com/ukraine.aspx〉.

  16. Photographs of Sylveszter Matuska's trial, and of the man himself, can be seen on the stairs of the Hungarian Lawyers’ Association in Budapest.

  17. On Nagymaros, see ‘Devil Bids Adieu to a Dammed River’, Observer, October 1992.

  18. For the sad fate of the Tatabánya, see 〈http://iho.hu/hir/a-tatabanya-vontato-vegnapjai〉, 26 July 2011.

  19. Marko Pogačnik, Nature Spirits and Elemental Beings – Working with the Intelligence in Nature, Findhorn Press, Findhorn, 2009.

  20. The text of the treaty is at: 〈http://www.gabcikovo.gov.sk/doc/it1977en/treaty.html〉.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Author's conversation with János Betlen.

  23. From the documentary film The Fairy Island, TintoFilms/ Duna TV 1993 – Thorpe/ Weichinger.

  24. Ibid.

  25. See Danubiana 〈http://www.danubiana.sk/eng/index.html〉.

  26. William Blake, ‘The Tyger’ Songs of Experience, 1794.

  27. See 〈http://www.broz.sk/organizacia/en〉.

  28. See 〈http://www.icjcij.org/docket/index.php?p1=3&p2=3&code=hs&case=92&k〉.

  29. For Donauauen National Park, see 〈www.donauauen.at〉.

  12. Danube Fairytales

  1. Friedrich Hölderlin, Book III, Ch. 10.

  2. Bernard Grun, Gold and Silver: The Life and Times of Franz Lehár, David McKay, New York, 1970.

  3. See 〈http://www.hgm.or.at/index.html?&L=1〉.

  4. Kinross, The Ottoman Empire, p. 324.

  5. See 〈http://www.muzeum.krakow.pl/Arms-and-Uniforms-in-Poland.350.0.html?&L=1〉.

  6. Noel Malcolm, Bosnia: A Short History, New York University Press, New York, 1996, pp. 153–55.

  7. See 〈http://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/oesterreich/niederoes­terreich/wienerwald/schleierfuerklostern­euburg.html〉.

  8. See 〈http://www.tibetforum.at/〉.

  9. The Roman Limes along the Danube are receiving increasing attention in each riverside country as a focus for tourists. See in particular 〈http://www.danube-limes.eu/homepage〉
.

  10. See 〈http://www.tulln.at/?lang=1&dok_id=6429&kat=345&anp;mkat=374&op=307〉.

  11. For ‘the miracle of the rain’, see 〈http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/rain.html〉.

  12. For Florianus, see 〈http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=149〉.

  13. Marcel Brion, Attila – The Scourge of God, trans. Harold Ward, Cassell, London, 1929.

  14. Mihály Hoppál, Hungarian Review, 3, 1, January 2012, pp. 79–91.

  15. Notes taken from the Tulln Museum.

  16. See 〈http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16359991〉.

  17. See 〈http://www.hpkuhn-art.de/hpk.html〉.

  18. For Alemu Aga, see 〈http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnes19ERSBM〉.

  19. On Richard the Lionheart's heart, see 〈http://www.nature.com/news/king-s-lionheart-gets-a-forensic-exam-1.12521〉.

  20. See 〈http://www.jstor.org/stable/20538124〉.

  21. For a summary in German, see 〈http://www.arbeitskreis-wachau.at/downloads/Landschaften11_2.pdf〉; 〈www.naturatrails.net〉; 〈www.danubeparks.org〉.

  22. http://www.coronelli.org/index_e.html.

  13. Oh Germany, Pale Mother

  1. Miklós Radnóti, Under Gemini – A Prose Memoir and Selected Poetry, trans. Kenneth McRobbie, Zita McRobbie and Jascha Kessler, Corvina Press with Ohio University Press, Budapest and Ohio, 1985, p. 362.

  2. Mauthausen Guide, Osterreichische Lagergemeinschaft Mauthausen.

  3. Radnóti, Under Gemini, p. 105.

  4. Bertolt Brecht: ‘O Deutschland, Bleiche Mutter!’, in English: 〈http://permanentred.blogspot.com/2009/11/o-germany-pale-mother-by-bertolt-brecht.html〉.

  5. Passau – Mythos & Geschichte, Oberhaus Museum Passau, Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg, 2007.

  6. On wolves in Germany, see, inter alia: http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/the-return-of-wolves-to-germany-fears-are-being-stoked-a-467205.html

  7. Boria Sax, Animals in the Third Reich: Pets, Scapegoats, and the Holocaust, Continuum International, London, 2000.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Interview with the author, Switzerland, October 2011.

  10. Kingdom of Salt – 7000 Years of Hallstatt, ed. Anton Kern, Kerstin Kowarik, Andreas W. Rausch and Hans Reschreiter, Natural History Museum, Vienna, 2009.