Based on the work of Dr Ida Bobula, "A Magyar ösvallás istenasszonya"
Fred Hamori

In Hungarian mythology the goddess Boldog Asszony is the goddess associated with birth, fertility and harvests. She has been incorporated into Hungarian Catholicism, there are 7 goddesses known to be called by a generic title Boldog Asszony. One of these is called Nagy Boldogaszony, who is also the mother of the rest of them. They are associated with the following;

*the giver and protector of life and the family.
*healing and herbes
*bountifull harvest, fruitgrafting and harvest time
*fertility of man, animal and plants
*selection of brides and mates for man.

There are several hollidays associated with her which also strongly link her with agriculture, such as; "gyümölcsolto"=fruit grafting on May 25th, sarlos =sicle March 25th. Her other titles are linked with families is now unused called Szülö =birthing, which is at December 26th and is only for families. As the religious head of the country "Magyarország Nagyasszonya"= the great queen of Hungary was celebrated on October 17th, while Small/Young Boldogasszony day was September 8th. A few holydays are of Christian origin probably like "candle sanctifying" or " Mount Karmel" Boldogasszony days. It should be assumed that Christianity probably change the general message and form of her traditional worship from the old traditional one.

Her day in the week was Tuesday, it was also associated with taboos against washing (clothes) and dirtying water. Even during the time of St Steven in the 11th century St Gellért who converted Hungarians to western Christianity wrote that Bodog asszony was already being associated by the church with Mary the mother of Christ, and was also called the queen of Hungary, and the world. I believe that this association of Boldog Asszony, was not done at first in central Europe but was already practiced in eastern Christianity before the resetlement to Hungary. This based on the mentioning of "Budux" by the Syrian Christian documents.

In looking for a similar goddess in the past researchers have progressed through several Near Eastern fertility goddesses like Astarte, then the Sumerian Inana, but ultimately went even further to find the old Sumerian goddess BA-Ú as the ideal equivalent of BO-DOG ASSZONY in both name and in function. She also seems to have links with the early preliterate MAA cults of early Anatolia, which was the source of the agricultural revolution which spread into both Europe and Central Asia, resulting in the various clay figurines of ancient fertility goddesses found in both Central Europe and Anatolia.

At this point a few definitions of the name's composition is important.

Hungarian BODOG > BOLDOG = happy, joyous, pregnant.
Hungarian BÖS, BÖ =bountifull, spacious, wide, swolen > pregnant.
Turkic BAYEK/BOL =bountifull, spacious, wide
Dravidian BAYEK, BEYEK=much
Sumerian BA =to give, provide, rations, divide

Hungarian ASSZONY =queen in old Hungarian, married woman today.
Elamite ASAN =goddess.
Sumerian GASAN =queen. ( ge+asan>gasan, ge=female)
Hun & Turk KATUN=queen.
Balkar GOSEN =lady

Hungarian BÁBA = midwife. In the Chango dialect it can also means god.
Hungarian Déli BÁB = the mirage of the noon sun.
Sumerian BABA =a title of BAU as the giver of life.

The Sumerian BAÚ saw her prominence around 2,500 BC and earlier. She was once the third in rank among the ancient Sumerian gods. She is also called GULA by Sumerians and is mentioned to be the goddess of bounty, a healer, provider of harvest and food, giver of birth and fertility etc. She was also BABA the life giver (midwife) who helps bring life into the world, GAL-AMA =the great mother, or NIN-AN-NA the queen/lady of heaven. Sumerian ANg=heaven,high is related to FinnUgor *SANkE, with the loss of the leading S which also occured in Hungarian as well as in several FinnUgor languages as AN, YAN, IN, however since Hungarian normally converts the Ng/Nk sound to G, it became ÉG instead of EN or AN. The Nk/Ng is a vellar-nazal sound which often changes to ny, gy, n, g etc.

In various FinnUgorlanguages she is called by different names like:

Ostjak Kaltes Ankw =birth giving goddess, goddess of fate, goddess of dawn, wife of the sky god.
Votjak Kildisin=birth giving goddess, great mother, creator.
Hungarian Kelt =to cause to bring into being, to incubate an egg, to arise
Sumerian Gúla [k>g] =birth goddess.

Her ancient symbol is a measuring cup written as BA-N, the term BA however means to give. The terminal Ú in her name however means grass, forrage, grazing land, all of which implies food-bounty to early man.

BA=to give, provide, apportion, divide, rations. The sumerian symbol for BAR is an X just as in Hungarian runic writing the B is written as an X which once represented the body of a nobleman/woman since BAR means ruler/king.

DAG'-al=wide broad, copious, breath. (see Hungarian DAG-AD =to swell in size)
DÙG, DU ₁₀= sweet, good, beautifull, gladness, knee, joint, member. (Hungarian BODOG=gladdness)
DUG₄, DU₁₁ = to speak, order, command, engage in sexual intercourse.

GASAN=queen in Sumerian
ASAN =goddes in Elamite.
ASSZONY=queen in old Hungarian /Györfi György
ASENA =the goddess/totem of the Turks and Huns. (royal wolf bitch)
The often stated Osetic-Iranian origin of the word ASSZONY is unlikely, and the direction of word loaning is in reverse order from what historical reference show us. The much earlier Messopotamian link is normally ignored.

There are also signs that in an earlier age when matriarchial systems were more common she may have been the chief goddess. Just as early Anatolian immages show a female mothergoddess as the chief god. This of course is not the case in Hungarian times. The early Anatolian mother goddess is also shown with similar animals as BAU like a wolf or dog and various birds and a horned goat?ibex.

The Sumerian BAÚ is generally mated with the Sumerian nin-Urta (NIMRUD) and this connection is maintained long after the Sumerians by such later Semitic nations as the Assyrians. They and others like the Babilonians and Iranians also give her new names such as ANUTA, which is recalled in Hungarian mythology as ENETH as the traditional name of Nimrod's wife. The ENÉH, ÜNÖ word in Hungarian seems to be related to cow or female deer and is also in Turkic ENEH. According to tradition from Nimrud and ANUTA are born the great hunting twins in Assyrian and Hungarian mythology who are lead by the female deer to the land of their brides. In Hungarian mythology they the twins are called Hunor and Magor and are supposed to be the ancestors of the nations of the Huns and Magyars. "Magur" in FinnUgor means "seed, semen, self, body". The seed of man and nation. The name is not unique to Hungarian!

To the Sumerians BA-Ú was the goddess of plenty, the great giver (life, fertility, food, harvest, etc).
After the raging of the storm god NinUrta, she smiles down upon them as the rainbow or as in Hungary in the mirage of the sun called the "déli BÁB" on the the moist lowlands of Hortobágy. She feeds them, brings new life and is the protector of birth, the mother, the baby and life in general. In all the folds of her skirt are hidden unborn children . Various Sumerian hymns praise her as the giant Gúla, who heals, she is the queen of heaven, and is the "light of the world". She is also called the quickener of the dead, which may refer to the idea that she may quicken the rebirth of the spirit of the dead and shorten their stay in the underworld. In the southern Hungarian city of Szeged it was recorded that the women celebrated her in a closed ceremony, where only mothers were allowed. The eldest most respected mother offers to Boldog Asszony a plate of pastries and wine to thank the successfull birth of the new mother. Not performing this ritual means that the girl or boy will not find a suitable mate in their adult life. Similarly in Sumerian cylinder seals show a row of women lined up to offer cake and drink to the goddess BAÚ sitting on an elevated throne.

In an old Hungarian folk dance, Boldog Asszony is recreated in the following manner; The human mother while standing in the center of a ring made up of her daughters, who are dancing around her, is talking to Boldog Asszony who is walking outside of the ring. The mother says. "Boldogasszony, why do you circle and turn in the vicinity of my house! Do not deny, do not deny it." Boldogasszony talks to her but in the symbolic dance takes away her doughters one by one for her own beutific service.

So what was this all about but the function of boldogasszony to mate and join together men and women, and take away the young maids from their mother for their future tasks as wives and mothers. Similarly in a Sumerian poem, the following hymn recounts a similar function. This also recalls the old Hungarian admonishment to those who do not thank Boldogasszony for their newborn children, to suffer not receiveing an adequate bride or husband when they become adults. The Sumerian poem says;

"the lord of my palace is perfect.
It's hand, which protects the country is perfect.
The rain which I give to the gratefull trees is perfect.
The wife, which I give to her husband is perfect."

Her main cult center was in the Sumerian city of Lagash. The Lagash written material today is kept in the French Louvre museum. The patron god of Lagash was nin-Urta who is associated by Langdon to be the Biblical Nimrod. Every year there were holidays in Lagash celebrating the local hero-god, Nin-Urta and the great queen of heaven Baú, who descended to take part in her celebration. During this time the local god-hero nin-Urta represents the requests of the king and the people to the great queen of heaven.

A possible explanation of the association of Nimrud with the "ancestor of various nations" in Hungarian mythology where he is claimed to be the ancestor of the Scythians, Iranians, Huns and Magyars is to be found in his name and its various interpretations. Sumerian at times changes the letter M to an N which may have caused the name NIN-URTA rather than NIM-URTA > NIMRUTA > NIMRUD>NIMROD variations, which was known in other places like Babilon and Assyria.

Uralic NIME =name, ( Indo European also has NAMA =name, )
Ugrian NUM =to be high. NUMI-TAREM=god of the highest heaven, creator.
Hungarian NEM-es=pure, noble, nobility + TEREMTÖ=creator.

Hungarian NEM- =type, form, gender .. [-m>v] NÉV =name
Hungarian NEM-Z =to procreate ... NEMZ-ET=nation (of common/related blood)
Sumerian NAM =type, form, prefix of generic terms,
Sumerian NIM =to multiply, to be high, above, prince (noble/pure)
Chaldee NAM-RI =nation (of common blood)
Mede NIM-AN =nation (of common blood)

The New Arab Encyclopedia has a section on the Armenian area known as Hunoracerta and the Sevordik people, who are aboriginals to the area and Sevordik is also the ancestor of the Subartu and is called the son of Nimrod. Also this book mentions that the Hungarians of Europe originate from this area of what is now Armenia In Armenia there was a Hungarian province up into the 15th century called "Madjar" Agadzor. The Hungarian prince Termatzu who visited the Byzanteen Emperor "Purporigenitos" =born in purple, also was asked about the history and origin of his people, and he replied that their older name was Subartu Asfaloi, which is none other than the region of northern Messopotamia known as Subartu, which also has a river known as Asfalu, in Arabic. The lower Zab river. Variations of the Magyar name are found in the Caucaus Mountain areas for long periods of time before their appearance in the area north of the Black Sea in the company of the Onogurs.

The association of Nimrod with Northern Messopotamia is also reflected by a mountain called Nimrud Dag and the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud. Subartu or the Subarians, are better known as Supri in Assyrian, and are called by them the aboriginals of northern Messopotamia. This term Sapir is also known in Ob-Ugrian as a very advanced and admired people of antiquity who apparently also helped and visited them and thought them much. Which also explains why their language today has the most common links with Hungarian, even though they are racially unlike Hungarians. Many other Messopotamian languages used the term SUBAR in a geographical sense rather than an ethnic sense, to refer to Northern Messopotamia by it. The Egyptians hower at times used the term Magar for this region. (See An Hieroglyphic dictionary, by Wallace Budge, geographical section)

In Hungary, Bodog asszony is also the goddess of the harvest, who is celebrated as the goddess of the sicle. In early times women harvested with the sicle, NOT the men. There are also many healing herbs which include her name in them. Hungarian FÜ is Sumerian Ú means grass/herb. This supposedly comes from Ugrian POM however Dravidian as PUL =grass, herbe is also very similar sounding. According to Hungarian mythology she has 7 daughters and similarly in Assyrian mythology there are 7 daughters born to Nimrud and BAU, who are the seven days of the week and are all helping, healing, bountiful, fertilizing goddesses. In Hungarian her youngest daughter is called Beautifull and is mischievious and sometimes trouble making, resembling the beautifull goddess Inana of the Sumerians, who was at times a war goddess and troublemaker also. Yet the Sumerian Inana was the daughter of the moon god NANA, not the god of storm nin_Urta. Inana perhaps is best compared to the Hungarian queen of the spirits/nymphs the enchantingly beautiful Tündér Ilona. The Sumerian Dingir/Dimir Inana ="goddess Inana" also was known for her many charms, which she used to her advantage. She is often shown with wings and partially or wholy naked at times.

Among the most prominent animal symbols found associated with BAÚ are the dog?wolf, and various birds like PA (swallow?), also the great eagle of Lagash known as the im-DUG-UD (?tog-rul). I cannot help feeling that BAU was the old mother goddess of the Sumerians, who like the old sky god AN became pushed into the background over time and replaced by younger/newer goddesses like Inana. As such her memory was remembered not just by the Sumerians but by the people distantly related to them in their previous homelands in the north, near the Caucasus Mountains and Black Sea. This homeland is being researched by the National Geographic explorers in the flooded basin of the Black Sea using submersibles, based on the clues supplied by the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh. The Black Sea Basin flooded after 7,000BC from elevated waters of the Meditteranean Sea, causing the Sumerian story of the great flood as well as the migration of the once neighboring nations to new lands.

Could she be related to the Hungarian BODOG ASSZONY or the Turkic ASENA, who is also associated with canines, in the form of a mythical wolf, the female totem animal of the Turks and Huns? Also could the great Im-DUG-UD eagle be the royal falcon of the Turks, Huns, Avars and Magyars as the TOGRUL or TUR-UL, who in Hungarian mythology resides on the tree of life brooding over the spirits of unborn children in the form of birds? Also her small bird PA could just as well be the FinnUgor PÄC'-KE =the swallow, (Hungarian fecs-ke) whose name is related to nest/womb in the Sumerian PEš, FinnUgor PESÄ. A bird generally associated with the mother goddess in Hungary even today along with the stork called GOLYA (GAL-HU=big bird or GULA-HU =bird of GULA/BAU in Sumerian).

Sumerian peš = womb, small, to expand, precious, three;
Sumerian peš ₇ = child, son
Sumerian péš, piš =pregnant, to conceive
Sumerian pisuse =glad heart [ Hungarian mos-oly, pis-oly =a smile], also in Hurrian and Ugrian.
Sumerian púš =tightness, pain, difficult circumstances (?swelling & pain of pregnancy)

FinnUogr pesä =nest, womb
Hungarian fész-ek=nest, womb
Hungarian poc-ak=swolen stomack< pregnant [Dravidian poccai=pot belly]
Hungarian fesz- =to be stretched out, swolen. [ Ugrian *pec^e, Dravidian *pad ]
Hungarian feszült-ség =stress, difficulties, being stretched/stressed out
Hungarian pici =tiny, babe [Dravidian poti, picca =small, little]
Hungarian fiú =son < F.U. *poika

This is an abbreviated version of Dr Bobula's article, with key points listed only. Much of it could be expanded and linguistically and mythologically further analyzed. I have added extra words and their definitions but most of thehistorical contents were from her work.

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