When summer arrived in Bavaria in late June ad 955, thousands of unwelcome barbarians from the Carpathian basin were gathering on its eastern fringe, poised to invade the southern part of the East Frankish kingdom once again. The Magyars had slowly migrated west over nearly a millennium from their homeland beyond the Ural Mountains of Central Asia to resettle in the steppes on the fringe of Western Europe. Now they had assembled in force on the eastern bank of the Enns River, ready to fan out across the rolling hills looking for any opportunity to steal and rob those living in exposed villages and farms.
The farmers and peasants had vivid recollections of Magyar raids punctuated by orgies of death and destruction much like those perpetrated by the Huns and Avars who had preceded them centuries before. In mortal fear of the Magyars, the majority of the Bavarian farmers and villagers packed up their belongings and moved into cramped quarters inside walled cities and strongholds scattered throughout the duchy. They awaited salvation from 43-year-old Saxon King Otto, whose sword had been dipped many times in the blood of Magyars, Slavs, and rebels from within his own realm.
