The Huns are a people who suddenly appeared from the depths of Asia, swept a wave across Europe and left many legends about themselves. The most famous Hunnic leader was Attila, the great king of Atli of the Scandinavian sagas.
Many different peoples migrated from Asia at different times, but it was the Huns who left such a vivid mark in history, as if they had dissolved after the mysterious death of their greatest leader.
Such prominent scholars as I. P. Zasetskaya, B. V. Lunin, V. A. Korenyako, S. S. Minyaev, P. N. Savitsky, O. Menchen-Helfen, T. Hayashi were engaged in the issue of the culture and origin of the Huns., T. Barfield, N. N. Kradin, P. B. Konovalov, L. N. Gumilev.
What does their research say?
Origin from the depths of Siberia
In the Mongolian steppes inhabited the Proto-Turkic people of the Huns, pressed from all sides by enemies. The power of the Huns was inherited according to the same principle as later from the Russian princes: from brother to brother, and only then to sons. In the third century BC, Tuman became a chanyu (ruler). He dreamed of getting rid of his eldest son Mode in order to hand over the throne to his youngest son from his beloved concubine. To implement this plan, Tuman sent Mode hostage to the Sogdim and attacked them in the expectation that they would kill his son and save him from further trouble. But Mode quickly assessed the situation, killed his guards, stole the horse and ran to his own. Under pressure from public opinion, Tuman allocated 10,000 warriors to his eldest son, whom Mode began to train according to a new scheme. To begin with, he introduced into use unusual arrows with a slot, which whistled during flight. If the warriors heard the whistle of their prince's arrows, they were obliged to immediately shoot at the same target. And so Mode made a test: he shot at his magnificent argamak. Those who lowered their bows, he cut off their heads. Then he shot his young wife. Those who eluded were also executed. The next target was the argamak of his father Tumany, and every last one was shot. After that Mode killed Tumany himself, his concubine, half-brother, and he himself became a Chanyu.and he himself became a chanyu.and he himself became a chanyu.
Mode ruled the power of the Huns for 40 years and raised it above all the surrounding peoples.
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Several generations later, the situation in the steppe changed. The Huns were defeated and fragmented. Some of them fled to the west and joined the Trans-Ural Ugrians. For two hundred years, the two peoples lived side by side, and then a wave of their joint expansion followed. It was this mixed people who later became known as the Huns.
Huns - possible relatives of the Germanic peoples
Huns and Normans are two ethnic groups that used almost the same runic writing. We are talking about the very runes that, as the Elder Edda says, God Odin brought from Asia. Asian runes are several centuries older: they were found on the graves of Turkic heroes, for example, Kul-Tegin. Perhaps these ancient family ties were the reason that a number of Germanic peoples became allies of the Huns on the territory of Europe. King Atli is one of the favorite romantic characters of the Scandinavian sagas, for example, "Song of the Chlyoda", where the king is shown as a henpecked in some way. Indeed, Attila was in the bosom of his family a very gentle person who loves his children and numerous wives.
Religion from time immemorial
The religion of this nomadic people was Tengrianism - the worship of the Eternal Blue Sky. Mount Khan-Tengri in the Tien Shan was considered the dwelling place of the supreme deity; there were also many temples with idols cast in silver. As a protective symbol, the Huns wore amulets made of precious metals with images of dragons. Among the ruling elite of the Huns there was a supreme shaman who asked the deity for advice for making important decisions. The elements were considered sacred: fire, water, earth.
There was also a cult of sacred trees, horses were sacrificed to them, the skins of which were removed and spread between the branches, and the blood was spilled around.
Calling on the help of the god of war, the Huns used a very ancient custom “tuom”: the shooting of a noble prisoner with “a thousand arrows”. It is logical to assume that the Huns performed the same rite.
An army that does not know how to storm fortresses
The Huns subdued such powerful powers of that era as the Ostrogoth empire and the Alanian Khaganate. Even contemporaries tried to solve the riddle of the success of the "barbarian people": the Roman centurion Ammianus Marcellinus, the Byzantine philosopher Eunapius, the Gothic chroniclers Jordan and Priscus Pannius. They all treated the Huns with hostility and tried to denigrate them in front of their descendants, colorfully describing their ugly appearance and barbaric customs. However, how could the barbarians cope with the strongest states of that era?
The authors explained the successes of the Huns by their specific military tactics: "The Alans, although they were equal in battle … subjugated them, weakening them with frequent skirmishes." This tactic was used by the Massagets in the war against Alexander the Great: the partisan war of light cavalry against heavy infantry was indeed successful. However, the main military force of the Alans was not infantry, but powerful, well-trained heavy cavalry. They used proven Sarmatian close combat tactics. The Alans had fortresses that the Huns did not know how to take, and they left them undefeated in their rear, although the infrastructure of the kaganate was destroyed by them. Many Alans fled west and settled on the Loire.
How the Huns defeated the Crimean Goths: wade across the sea
After the subordination of the Alanian Kaganate, the Huns, led by Balamber, went into direct conflict with the Ostrogoths of King Germanarich. The Goths occupied the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region. The Huns could not take the peninsula from the side of the Don floodplain: they were not able to fight in the swampy area, which was also defended by the warlike Herul people. The Huns had no means of transporting the army by sea. Thus, the Goths on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula felt safe. This killed them.
The ancient Slavs - the Antes, were forcibly subordinated to the Goths and treated this situation without any enthusiasm. As soon as the Huns appeared on the political horizon, the Antes joined them. The Gothic chronicler Jordan calls the ants "treacherous" and considers the main reason for the fall of the Gothic state. Perhaps it was the Antes who provided the Huns with information that allowed the latter to wade the Crimean Peninsula from the side of the Kerch Strait.
According to Jordan's report, in 371, the Hunnic horsemen, while hunting on the Taman Peninsula, chased the deer and drove her to the very cape. The deer entered the sea and, carefully stepping and groping for the bottom, crossed to the land of the Crimea, thereby indicating the ford: along this path the Hunnic army passed to the rear of its opponents and captured the Crimean peninsula. King Germanarich, who at that time was more than 110 years old, in desperation, pierced himself with a sword.
The Huns did not destroy or expel the Goths, but only subordinated them to their power. Vinitarius succeeded Germanarich. He has a fairly powerful army and power structure. He tried to deprive the Huns of their most important ally and attacked the Antes, took prisoner and crucified the King of God with his sons and 70 elders. The Huns, in turn, attacked Vinitarius and killed him in a battle on the Erak River (Dnieper). Some of the surviving Ostrogoths moved into the possession of the Romans, the rest submitted to the Hunnic leader.
Huns are a people with a high level of diplomatic culture
If we consider the Huns as semi-savage barbarians, as Jordan and Ammianus Marcellinus did, it is impossible to understand the secret of their success. The main reason is the talent of their leaders, as well as the level of diplomacy that was not inferior to the leading European states.
The Huns perfectly knew the whole “cuisine” of the relations of the neighboring peoples, knew how to obtain the necessary information and acted skillfully not only in battle, but also through negotiations. The empire of King Germanarich was based solely on submission to brute force. The leader of the Huns Balamber attracted to his side all the peoples, offended and oppressed by the Goths, and there were many of them.
Other Hunnic leaders adhered to a similar scheme and did not seek to fight where there was a chance to agree on an amicable basis. Rugila in 430 established diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire and even helped troops to suppress the Bagaud uprising in Gaul. Rome by this moment was already in a state of disintegration, but many of its citizens joined the Huns, preferring their ordered power to the arbitrariness of their own officials.
In 447, Attila with his army reached the walls of Constantinople. He did not have a chance to take powerful fortifications, but he managed to conclude a humiliating peace with Emperor Theodosius with the payment of tribute and the transfer of part of the territory to the Huns.
The reason for the new trip to the west: look for a woman
After 3 years, the Byzantine emperor Marcian terminated the peace treaty with the Huns, but Attila found it more tempting to go to Gaul: a part of the Alans, whom Attila wanted to defeat, went there, in addition, there was another reason.
Princess Justa Grata Honoria was the sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, her husband could lay claim to imperial power. To avoid possible competition, Valentinian was going to marry his sister to an elderly and trustworthy Senator Herculanus, which she did not want at all. Honoria sent Attila her ring and a call for marriage. And as a result, the Hunnic horde passed the entire north of Italy, plundered the Po valley, simultaneously defeated the kingdom of the Burgundians, and reached Orleans, but the Huns could not take it. Valentinian did not allow Attila to marry Honoria, the princess herself escaped torture, and maybe execution, only thanks to the intercession of her mother.
The orientalist Otto Mönchen-Helfen considers the outbreak of the plague to be the reason for the Huns' departure from Italy.
Death of the leader and disintegration of the state
After leaving Italy, Attila decided to marry the beautiful Ildiko (Hilda), the daughter of the King of Burgundy, but died on their wedding night from nosebleeds. Jordan narrates that the leader of the Huns died of intemperance and drunkenness. But in the works of Germanic mythology, "Elder Edda" and other kings, Atli was killed by his wife Gudrun, who avenged the death of her brothers.
In the next year, 454, the Hunnic empire ceased to exist. The most prominent sons of Attila, Ellak and Dengizikh, soon died in battle. But the Huns and their famous leader became part of the history and mythology of many peoples.
What European peoples borrowed from the Huns
In the Roman army, the commander Fabius Aetius introduced the Hunnic composite short bows with a reverse bend, well adapted for shooting from a horse.
The ancestors of the Huns, the Huns, are the inventors of the stirrups: it was from them that this part of the harness spread among other peoples.
The names of the Hunnic leaders became fashionable in Europe and became common: Baltazar, Donat, and of course Attila: this name is especially popular in Hungary.