I like Huns.
Of course, since my own K-12 education is only slightly superior to what you'd see in a person raised by wolves, I don't actually know what a Hun is.
So I probably shouldn't be popping off about Huns and how much I like them.
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more huns
Huns and more Huns!
I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I think the Huns came out of somewhere around the Russian steppes or Turkey or something.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to catch the History Channel's Barbarian series. They cover around 4 of them. The more violent ones seem to get the attention. They're actually fairly distinct, but they all started to look alike after two hours.
There's a good Attila painting floating around somewhere that's from around the Renaissance, I think.
well, I need that painting!
ReplyDeleteI'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."
ReplyDeleteDon'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.
--Tyrian Purple