Attila's speech

[ualarauans]

Hi all,

As I said it's highly probable that the language of Attila's court 
was Gothic. There was a lot of East Germanic kings round there, and 
they may have had a pretty strong influence upon the Hun's decisions 
and actions. You all remember the famous bloodthirsty speech that 
Attila made before the Catalaunic battle (Getica, 202-206). Of 
course it was never spoken in the form which is delivered to us by 
Jordanes. Perhaps, there was no speech at all (I personally can't 
imagine how it was possible to speak before tens of thousands of 
warriors, without modern devices, so that any significant number of 
them would hear). Whatever it was, let us fancy that Attila did 
really speak a speech and that he spoke exactly what is written in 
Getica. What language could it be in? We'll never know. His auditory 
must have been so multilingual that no single language could help. 
But maybe his principal addressees were the "narrow circle" of 
closest advisors, favorites and most important warlords – chiefs of 
the coalition's strongest tribes. In this case he could well speak 
Gothic to them. Not the Gothic of the Bible, but a colloquial 
version of it. I tried to translate it "back" into Gothic from the 
corrupt Latin version of Jordanes. As the speech is rather long, it 
would be convenient to divide it into several postings. Below you 
can see the Latin text of Getica (my "Vorlage"), just to compare if 
you like.

Getica, 202-206
post uictorias tantarum gentium, post orbem, si consistatis, 
edomitum, ineptum iudicaueram tamquam ignaros rei uerbis acuere. 
quaerat hoc aut nouus ductor aut inexpertus exercitus. nec mihi fas 
est aliquid uulgare dicere, nec uobis oportet audire. quid autem 
aliud uos quam bellare consuetum? aut quid uiro forti suauius, quam 
uindicta manu querere? magnum munus a natura animos ultione satiare. 
adgrediamur igitur hostem alacres: audaciores sunt semper, qui 
inferunt bellum. adunatas dispicite dissonas gentes: indicium 
pauoris est societate defendi. en ante impetum nostrum terroribus 
iam feruntur, excelsa quaerunt, tumulos capiunt et sera paenitudine 
in campos monitiones efflagitant. nota uobis sunt quam sint leuia 
Romanorum arma: primo etiam non dico uulnere, sed ipso puluere 
grauantur, dum in ordine coeunt et acies testudineque conectunt. uos 
confligite perstantibus animis, ut soletis, despicientesque eorum 
aciem Alanos inuadite, in Uesegothas incumbite. inde nobis cita 
uictoria quaerere, unde se continet bellum. abscisa autem neruis mox 
membra relabuntur, nec potest stare corpus, cui ossa subtraxeris. 
consurgant animi, furor solitus intumescat. nunc consilia, Hunni, 
nunc arma depromite: aut uulneratus quis aduersarii mortem reposcat 
aut inlaesus hostium clade satietur. uicturos nulla tela conueniunt, 
morituros et in otio fata praecipitant. postremo cur fortuna Hunnos 
tot gentium uictores adseret, nisi ad certaminis huius gaudia 
praeparasset? quis denique Meotidarum iter maiores nostros aperuit 
tot saeculis clausum secretum? quis adhuc inermibus cedere faciebat 
armatos? faciem Hunnorum non poterat ferre adunata collectio. non 
fallor euentu: hic campus est, quem nobis tot prospera promiserunt. 
primus in hoste tela coiciam. si quis potuerit Attila pugnante otio 
ferre, sepultus est.

You can find it also at 
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/iordanes1.html#XXXIX

An English version is available at 
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html#attila
(not very precise, in my view).

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