big antedating of "Hun" = 'German.'

[Amy West]

On 11/13/13 12:01 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Date:    Tue, 12 Nov 2013 15:20:25 -0500
> From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: big antedating of "Hun" = 'German.'
>
> YBQ probably should include the Kaiser's 1900 exhortation to his troops:
>
> "When you meet the enemy,... you will give no pardon and take no prisoners.
> ...As the Huns a thousand years ago under King Etzel [i.e., Attila] made a
> name for themselves that has lasted mightily in memory, so may the name
> 'Germany' be known in China so that no Chinese will ever again even dare to
> look askance at a German."
>
> JL
This is just so bizarre to me rhetorically. In the ON/OIce. Atlakviða
and in the MHG Nibelungenlied, Attila is The Bad Guy. Asking the Germans
to identify with him is like asking Americans to identify with, I dunno,
Lex Luthor or The Joker. (*And* he gets burned to death by G/Kudrun.)

---Amy West

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