One Reader’s Opinion-by Simone T. Ribke

The book The White Stag is the mythological story of how the Hun Empire began in the fifth century. When I read the book I kept confusing Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan. Not without good reason, as it turns out. While the two barbarian conquerors lived and ruled about 700 years apart, they both came from nomadic tribes that originated in or around Mongolia. Both are considered two of the most fearsome invaders that Asia and Europe have ever seen.

If this article is about Attila the Hun, why mention Genghis Khan at all? Well, there’s a good reason and I kind of wonder if it’s bounced around in your mind the same way it has in mine. Did you see the Disney movie “Mulan” about the Chinese heroine who fights Genghis Khan’s Horde? Genghis Khan’s armies were known as the Horde. The movie depicted them as fierce, almost inhuman barbarians that just wanted to kill, kill, kill. The Horde rode their fierce ponies in great numbers across the Asian steppe. They terrorized Mulan’s village and (in reality) a huge area of China. In the movie, even the ponies were savage. They had sharp teeth and were painted in drab earth tones.

So now you either have that image in your head, or you’re going to Google images of “Mulan” and Genghis Khan to see what I’m talking about.

Throughout history, the Huns have been depicted in the same way as the Horde in “Mulan.” The Huns were considered fierce and barbaric fighters who ate raw meat, lived on horseback, and enjoyed nothing more than going to battle and destroying villages. There was a bit of truth to that, but it may not be as it appears. The reason for this is perspective.

What we know about the Huns we only know from the perspective of the Romans. Romans wrote most of what we know about the Huns. At the time of Attila the Hun’s rule, the Roman Empire had conquered and ruled over much of Europe and into parts of Asia. Attila largely targeted these regions and the Roman Empire considered the Huns a major threat. The Romans thought of themselves as a highly advanced civilization. They looked down on people who lived differently. From their point of view, the nomadic Huns were uncivilized and barbaric.

Rome had a hard time fighting off the Huns. This was partially due to the Roman style of warfare, which was mostly made up of foot soldiers. The Huns, on the other hand, were a mounted army that could shoot arrows from the saddle and accurately hit a target 200 yards away. On their horses, the Huns could literally run circles around the Roman troops.

But were the Huns truly the barbarians that the Romans made them out to be? Let’s start with the fact that the Romans were pretty barbaric themselves. The Roman Empire criticized the Huns for doing many of the same things that it did regularly, such as raiding new lands; brutally killing, burning, pillaging, terrorizing, and punishing the inhabitants; and taking slaves. I personally think the Romans took their barbaric ways one step further by forcing some of these slaves to fight to the death before large crowds in giant stadiums.

So why does history remember the Huns as horrifying barbarians? Other than what Romans wrote about them, there may be a few good reasons.

The Huns practiced head shaping. Head shaping is the practice of binding an infant’s head tightly with bandages to reshape the skull. Instances of this practice are probably best known from Ancient Egypt. Royal Egyptians bound their babies’ heads and, as a result, had a very elongated skull. The Huns, too, wrapped their babies’ skulls, so as adults, their heads were very long in the back. It made the tops of their heads look taller. To the people under attack, the Huns looked very different and extremely frightening.

The Huns lived in their saddles. The Huns learned to ride horses as soon as they could walk. Being nomads, they were always on the move and learned to do everything from horseback, like eating, cooking, trading, and sleeping. This way of life would have seemed very unsettling to the sedentary (nonnomadic) people they conquered.

The Huns learned to shoot arrows from horseback and their army was extremely lethal. They used a special type of saddle that had a high front and back. This special saddle helped a rider stay steady in the saddle and prevented him from falling off his horse. Warfare in those days was more about hand-to-hand combat. The Huns, however, didn’t need to get too close to their enemies to kill them. This maximized the number of enemy soldiers the Huns could kill and minimized the number of Huns that were killed by the enemy.

The Huns ate raw meat. Well, kind of. The Huns were known to “cook” a slab of meat while on horseback. A Hun would place the piece of meat between his leg and his horse’s side and ride around with it there all day. The heat created between man and horse would “cook” the meat. The horse’s sweat salted the meat, curing it somewhat, and the meat was tenderized by being pounded around all day between leg and horse. While this alone is pretty gross, I can’t help but wonder if they picked all the horsehair off their steaks before eating them.

Despite their strange look, horseback lifestyle, and unsanitary eating habits (and the fact that Attila assassinated his brother so that he, alone, could rule the Hun Empire), the Huns had quite a few things going for them. Attila the Hun, as it turns out, was brilliant in his ruling strategies. Not only was he able to keep his massive empire under control, he also had a brilliant scheme for making money for his empire. If he had a to-do list for his scheme, it would probably look something like this.

1. Attack foreign lands with my massive, well-trained army. Be extra harsh about it so that word spreads far and wide about our brutality and military prowess. Make them think we’re unbeatable.
2. Threaten to conquer new lands. Make their leaders so scared that they’re willing to pay us anything not to attack them.
3. Make a treaty with those leaders. Get them to pay us tons of gold each year. In return, we promise not to attack them. Why attack new lands for gold when we can get them to just give us the gold without all the trouble of fighting?
4. Collect tons of gold. Enjoy life.

Attila’s gold-collecting strategy (also known as extortion) was one of the most effective in history. His fees nearly bankrupted the Roman Empire.

The Huns weren’t unjust barbaric rulers, however. They were apparently fair (Hun-style) to the people who lived under their rule. They allowed the people living in their colonies to practice freedom of religion. The Huns also made a point of learning new technologies and skills from the foreign people they ruled. While they might not have brought much advanced technology with them—other than their special bows—they were very willing and interested to learn modern technology and use it in their daily lives. What’s more, Attila the Hun was able to keep his Empire well organized and controlled for the entire length of his reign (from 434–453 CE), something few “advanced” rulers like the Roman Emperors were able to accomplish.

My conclusion about the Huns is that they weren’t any more or less barbaric than other conquering nations throughout history. Their lifestyle—and looks—may have been different to the European and Roman lands that they conquered, but it doesn’t meant they were more barbaric. It just means they were different.