The book explores the ties between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Principality of Halych (Galicia), which later became the Principality of Galicia?Volhynia. The focus is on an investigation of cooperation and conflict between the two dynasties, the House of Árpád and the Rurikids. Dynastic interests are revealed in the changing relationships between neighbours in the region, including Lesser Poland, Mazovia, the steppe peoples and Byzantium. Occasionally the discussion turns to the policies of the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy.

Márta Font is Professor of History at the University of Pécs. Her research interests include the Kievan Rus' (and its south-western principalities), the Kingdom of Hungary, and East Central Europe in the 11th?13th centuries. With a background in philology, she contributed - both as an author of commentaries (Povest' vremennykh let) and as a translator (Kievan Chronicle) - to an edition of early East Slavic chronicles.