text: gelou gelou ( romanian : ; hungarian : gyalu ) was the vlach ruler of transylvania at the time of the hungarian conquest of the carpathian basin around 900 ad , according to the gesta hungarorum . although the gesta hungarorum , which was written after 1150 , does not indicate the enemies of the conquering hungarians ( magyars ) known from earlier annals and chronicles , it refers to local rulers — including gelou — who are not mentioned in other primary sources . consequently , historians debate whether gelou was a historical person or an imaginary figure created by the unidentified author of the gesta hungarorum . in romanian historiography , gelou is one of three early - 10th - century romanian dukes with lands in the intra - carpathian region of present - day romania . the gesta hungarorum describes pre - conquest transylvania as a country rich in salt and gold , which was raided by turkic peoples — " cumans and pechenegs " — before the arrival of the magyars . archaeological research indicates that a people who cremated their dead inhabited the regions of the transylvanian salt mines from the seventh to the ninth centuries . although excavated weapons suggest a military elite , none of the early - medieval transylvanian fortresses uncovered can be reliably dated before the 10th century . the gesta hungarorum states that gelou 's duchy was inhabited by vlachs and slavs ; most toponyms recorded by the chronicler in connection with gelou 's duchy are of magyar origin . according to the gesta hungarorum , tétény ( or tuhutum ) , who was one of seven magyar chieftains , defeated gelou 's army at the mezeş gates and gelou was killed at the river as he fled towards his unnamed fortress . gelou 's subjects then yielded to tuhutum without further resistance . background what is known about gelou comes from the gesta hungarorum ( the deeds of the hungarians ) , the earliest surviving hungarian chronicle . the gesta was written during the second half of the 12th century or the early 13th century by an unidentified author , now known as anonymus . it describes the magyar conquest of the carpathian basin around 900 . the magyars , settled in the pontic - caspian steppe by the 830s , began a westward migration after their defeat by a coalition of pechenegs and bulgarians in about 895 . they crossed the carpathian mountains , invading the surrounding area . gelou is a local ruler described in the gesta hungarorum as an opponent of the invading magyars . anonymus did not write about simeon i of bulgaria , svatopluk i of moravia or other opponents known from contemporary sources , instead chronicling magyar battles with local rulers ( including gelou , menumorut and salan ) not mentioned in other primary sources . transylvania on the eve of the hungarian conquest the nomadic avars dominated the carpathian basin from about 567 . in transylvania , archaeological evidence attributed to them around 630 is clustered in the region of the salt mines at , ocna mureș and turda , and along the rivers mureș and someș . the cremation cemeteries of the mediaș group , a sedentary population , were also concentrated around the salt mines in the seventh to ninth centuries . although the mediaș cemeteries have been attributed to slavs , according to madgearu " the presence of romanians in this context should not be ruled out " . the names of many rivers in transylvania — for instance , bistrița ( " swift " ) , cerna ( " black " ) , dobra ( " good " ) and ( " thorny " ) — are of slavic origin , indicating the historical presence of a slavic - speaking population . according to madgearu , two eighth - century spurs unearthed at mică and mare " suggest the existence of cavalry troops of slavs and , perhaps , romanians in avar service " ( since avar spur use is uncertain ) . the avar khaganate disintegrated after the franks invaded its western regions three times between 791 and 803 . a stone column erected during the reign of omurtag of bulgaria commemorates the 829 death of a bulgarian commander named at the river tisa , indicating that the bulgarians invaded the eastern regions of the one - time khaganate . according to the annals of fulda , in 894 emperor arnulf sent envoys to the bulgarians to " ask that they should not sell salt to the moravians " ; this demonstrates that the bulgarians controlled , at a minimum , the roads between the transylvanian salt mines and moravia . according to kurdt , istván bóna and other historians , dridu b pottery unearthed in the alba iulia region which was similar to ceramic utensils found along the lower danube demonstrates that the bulgarians expanded their authority over this region . other historians ( including victor spinei ) reject this theory , saying that dridu b ceramics can only prove cultural influences from the balkan peninsula . the so - called " ciumbrud group " of cemeteries , which were also unearthed near alba iulia , yielded earrings and clothing accessories analogous to finds from the lower danube region and moravia . spurs , weapons and other frankish objects unearthed at , and other transylvanian sites demonstrate ninth - century trade with the carolingian empire ; similar spurs were also commonly used in bulgaria and by 10th - century magyars . according to historians vlad georgescu , ioan - aurel pop and alexandru madgearu , the existence of a ninth - century vlach polity in the carpatho - danubian region is verified by the gesta hungarorum and contemporary sources . alfred the great 's translation of the historiae adversus paganos — a fifth - century work by orosius — referred to " the dacians , who were formerly goths " and lived east of the moravians and the " vistula country " . the 11th - century persian scholar gardizi , who studied the works of the late ninth - century al - jayhani , wrote about the — " a people of rûm who are all christians " — who inhabited the lower danube and the carpathians . pop identifies them as romanians , but bóna and kristó consider them bulgarians because was the bulgarians ' hungarian exonym . an armenian geographical work mentions " an unknown country called balak " north of bulgaria . according to pop and georgescu , this demonstrates that a vlach country existed in the region at the end of the ninth century . manuscript studies indicate that the reference to balak was interpolated after 1000 , with the original text describing the " large country of dacia " and its 25 slavic tribes . according to the early - 12th - century russian primary chronicle , although the slavs were the first settlers west of the carpathians , the volokhs seized their territory . the volokhs were expelled in turn by the magyars , who " took their lands and settled among the slavs " . many scholars , including georgescu and madgearu , identify the volokhs as vlachs fighting the invading magyars . other historians , including kristó and dennis deletant , say that the context indicates that these volokhs were franks driven out of the march of pannonia by the magyars . although romanian scholars have identified about a dozen transylvanian fort sites in gelou 's duchy , none can be definitively dated before the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries . the forts at dăbâca and were destroyed between the last decades of the 10th century and the first half of the 11th , but their existence before 900 is unproven . at dăbâca , " the evidence published so far , albeit poorly , does contain evidence of a ninth - century occupation of the site " , according to archaeologist florin curta . curta mentions two pairs of bell - shaped pendants , found outside the fort , which are similar to 9th - century moravian artefacts . an other romanian archaeologist , alexandru madgearu , writes that the bell - shaped pendants were only made after around 965 , because similar jewellery was found at sites dated between the last third of the 10th century and the first half of the 11th century . pottery finds suggest that the fortress at cluj - may have been built during the ninth or tenth century . early - medieval forts at , , silvaniei and were built at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries , and the fort at even later . legends identify the ruins of forts at , gilău and as gelou 's , but they were built during the iron age . according to vlad georgescu , more than 40 excavated transylvanian sites can be identified as settlements in gelou 's duchy . anonymus ' narrative gelou and his duchy according to anonymus , " slavs , bulgarians , vlachs , and the shepherds of the romans " inhabited the carpathian basin when the magyars invaded the territory . the chronicler describes transylvania ( terra , " the land beyond the woods " ) as a rich country with salt mines and gold - yielding rivers , inhabited by " vlachs and slavs " when the magyars arrived , and records the names of five transylvanian rivers or mountain passes . most — almaş , , and mezeş — are of hungarian origin . in the gesta hungarorum gelou is described as " a certain vlach " and " prince of the vlachs " , indicating that the vlachs were considered the dominant transylvanian population . according to anonymus , gelou " was not steadfast and did not have around him good warriors " . the vlachs and slavs of transylvania were " the basest of the whole world " because " they had nothing else for arms than bows and arrows " ; transylvanian weakness was the result of frequent raids by " the cumans and pechenegs " . according to ioan aurel pop , anonymus ' description of gelou 's subjects indicates a sedentary people called to arms . carlile aylmer macartney writes that the blasii and words for vlachs and pechenegs and the reference to their " bows and arrows " suggest that anonymus borrowed the text from a work describing the route of the third or fourth crusade across the balkans ; the late - 12th - century historia de expeditione friderici refers to vlachs and and their bows and arrows . based on anonymus 's narrative , sălăgean says that gelou 's polity was small compared with the other five mentioned in the gesta hungarorum . conquest of transylvania anonymus and the late 13th - century simon of kéza wrote that the magyars bypassed transylvania after crossing the northern carpathians . however , 14th - century hungarian chronicles preserve a tradition contradicting these narratives . in the illuminated chronicle , the magyars first arrived in transylvania ( erdelw ) with their conquest , " remain [ ing ] quietly in erdelw and rest [ ing ] their herds " before moving further west . the gesta hungarorum recounts a meeting of three hungarian chieftains — ( or tuhutum ) , szabolcs and tas — after their victory over menumorut , who is described as lord of bihor . they decided that " the border of the realm of prince árpád " ( the head of the magyars ) " should be at the mezeş gates " , forcing the local population to build a stone - and - timber enclosure at the new border . tétény soon sent a spy , " father " , to reconnoitre the land east of the mezeş gates . the spy informed him of transylvania 's wealth and its ruler 's weakness . before the invasion , tétény " sent his envoys " to árpád for permission . with árpád 's consent , tétény hurried to the mezeş gates ; according to madgearu , his attack was " clearly targeted toward the salt mine district " of transylvania . gelou " gathered his army and rode speedily " to the border to stop the invaders . tétény crossed the forest in one day , forcing gelou to retreat to the almaş river and fight the magyars there . the next day , tétény divided his army and " sent one part a little way upstream " to cross the almaş and surprise gelou . gelou was defeated , with many of his men killed or captured . although he fled from the battlefield towards " his castle beside the someş river " , tétény 's soldiers chased and killed him on the banks of the river , near the place where the village gilău ( which was first mentioned in the 13th century ) is located . when they heard about their lord 's death the inhabitants of transylvania conceded , acknowledging tétény as their new lord . they swore an oath of loyalty to him at a place later named ( in hungarian , , which derived from , meaning " oath " in hungarian , according to anonymus ) . anonymus ends his account of the hungarian conquest of transylvania by saying that tétény governed transylvania " peacefully and happily from that day , but his posterity possessed it only up to the times of the holy king stephen " ( who conquered the province around 1000 ) . in modern historiography the gesta hungarorum 's reliability — particularly regarding gelou , glad , menumorut and the other rulers described as fighting the conquering magyars — has been debated by scholars since the publication of the chronicle during the late 18th century . most romanian historians ( including vlad georgescu , alexandru madgearu and victor spinei ) believe that anonymus ' story of the three dukes and their realms is reliable . according to florin curta , romanian archaeologists " made every possible effort ... to prove that the gesta was a reliable source for the medieval history of ( romanian ) transylvania " during the excavations at dăbâca ( gelou 's assumed seat ) between the late 1960s and 1980s , but they were " embarrassed that no substantial evidence was found to prove the gesta right " . madgearu says that anonymus ' " account about the conquest " of transylvania " combines data taken from oral tradition with invented facts " , but " gelou was a real person and his name could be considered authentic " . spinei also writes that most reports in the gesta hungarorum " are not inventions , but they have a real support , even if here and there some anachronisms occurred . " he cites the role of the cumans as an example , saying that the hungarian word translated by anonymus as " cumans " ( kun ) originally referred to any nomadic turkic tribe . other historians ( including istván bóna , dennis deletant , pál engel and gyula kristó ) write that anonymus had no real knowledge of the carpathian basin ( including transylvania ) at the time of the hungarian conquest and invented all the opponents of the hungarians because he needed characters to be defeated by the conquerors . according to this view , gelou is one of a half - dozen " imaginary figures " — including , menumorut and zobor — named by anonymus for a river , hill or settlement . if this theory is true , gelou was named after gilău ( gyalu in hungarian ) , a transylvanian village in which gelou dies in the gesta . according to tudor sălăgean , the village of gilău was apparently named for the duke . zoltán says that the names of the village and the duke may have hungarian or turkic origins .