Huns and more Huns!

from commenter Tyrian Purple:

I've seen an episode or two of that Barbarian series (I keep missing it). One of the historians on it, Peter Heather, has a book I'm reading, "The Fall of the Roman Empire."

Don't feel bad about not knowing who the Huns are, because apparently, their precise origins are unknown. Many people speculate they came from China (or near China) originally. Hungary's name comes from Hun, and that's not a coincidence; they settled there among other places. The other part of Hungary's name is from the Magyars. Heather says that even the Romans weren't sure where the Huns came from exactly, just that they guessed the Huns came from beyond the Black Sea. The Huns confused the matter by taking on Germanic names, so tracing them is even more difficult. Apparently the Huns are important because they drove the Goths toward the Roman Empire, although this was not a part of a grand master plan, it just happened that way.

The Huns were nomads, and the Romans thought they were vicious. Heather says they didn't have a single leader, just a series of "ranked kings" who could act on their own, so some Huns acted as allies on behalf of some Goths, against other Huns.

The Huns were horse-bound archers. They used these innovative kick-butt bows. If you've seen pictures of Cupid's bow, that's the kind of bow the Scythians--the Ukraine--had, which was powerful. The Huns lengthened the same kind of bow, but shortened the bottom part of it. Modifying the bow let them shoot farther and hit harder, which allowed them to use their favorite battle tactic: hit and run. When they offed enough of the enemy with their arrows, they closed in on horseback, with their swords.

Hope that helps.

It does help!

Thank you!

And may I say....

Wow.

Huns.

I must be entering my spring hypomanic phase, to be thinking good thoughts about Huns.



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Huns and more Huns!