History UsefulNotes / AttilaTheHun

Attila was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453.[[note]]He shared kingship with his brother Bleda until 447, when Bleda died in a HuntingAccident[[/note]] He was leader of [[TheEmpire the Hunnic Empire]], which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was [[TheDreaded one of the most feared enemies]] of UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire both East and West, earning him the title, "TheScourgeOfGod"; while he wasn't known as this in his own time, a near-contemporary description does ascribe the honorific "scourge of all lands" and the "terror of mankind". Despite all of these premises, he is regarded as a national hero in UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}}; many streets in the country (10 of which in the capital Budapest) are named after him, and Attila itself is a common male first name.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' had a song called "Here Comes Attila" which was about him. He also appeared in another sketch (though [[YouDon'tLookLikeYou looking markedly different)]] dispatching some persistent network censors who were complaining about the excessive violence in the Warners' cartoons.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' had a song called "Here Comes Attila" which was about him.

He subsequently invaded the Italian peninsula, devastating its northern provinces and supposedly expelling the residents of Aquileia, who went on to found the floating city of UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}, but was unable to take Rome, being turned away by an embassy comprising Pope Leo I and two other emissaries; what they said to him remains a RiddleForTheAges.[[note]]This proved to be AllForNothing a year later when Geiseric and the Vandals succeeded in storming Rome, sacking it far worse than Alaric and the Visigoths had half a century prior.[[/note]] He planned for further campaigns against the Romans but died in 453 on the night of his wedding to the Gothic lady Hildico, either from his usual {{Nosebleed}} accidentally flowing down into his windpipe, or by her hand. The Hunnic state fell apart in less than a year after that due to squabbles amongst his sons as well as their mistreatment of their subject peoples; an uprising of the Gepids and the death of his eldest son Ellac at the Battle of Nedao in 454 broke Hunnic hegemony on the Roman borderlands forever.

* DeathByGluttony: Attila drowned in his own blood on his wedding night, in bed with his newest wife Hildico, possibly from drinking too much alcohol; ancient sources state that he usually suffered a {{Nosebleed}} whilst drinking, the difference here being that this time his head tipped forward and it flowed into his windpipe.

Attila was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453.[[note]]He shared kingship with his brother Bleda until 447, when Bleda died in a HuntingAccident[[/note]] He was leader of [[TheEmpire the Hunnic Empire]], which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was [[TheDreaded one of the most feared enemies]] of the UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire both East and West, earning him the title, "TheScourgeOfGod"; while he wasn't known as this in his own time, a near-contemporary description does ascribe the honorific "scourge of all lands" and the "terror of mankind". Despite all of these premises, he is regarded as a national hero in UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}}; many streets in the country (10 of which in the capital Budapest) are named after him, and Attila itself is a common male first name.

* Music/GiuseppeVerdi wrote an opera about Attila the Hun in 1846, simply called ''Theatre/{{Attila}}''. Attila is written as a bass-baritone and his foeman Ezio (Aetius) is also a BadassBaritone.

His impact on popular culture is considerable--in fact, before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII made ThoseWackyNazis the absolute shorthand for "evil", Attila the Hun was one of the most-invoked "historical villains" (along with {{Biblical bad guy}}s, like the NephariousPharaoh from the Literature/BookOfExodus, and Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot from Literature/TheFourGospels) for such comparisons. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the soldiers of UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany were widely referred to as "Huns", in reference to their supposed savagery as invoked by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who told the Germans being shipped off to quell the Boxer Rebellion to retaliate so severely that their renown would be akin to that of Attila's and no Chinese person would ever dare disrespect a German thereafter.

Attila was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453.[[note]]He shared kingship with his brother Bleda until 447, when Bleda died in a HuntingAccident[[/note]] He was leader of [[TheEmpire the Hunnic Empire]], which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was [[TheDreaded one of the most feared enemies]] of the UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire both East and West, earning him the title, "TheScourgeOfGod"; while he wasn't known as this in his own time, a near-contemporary description does ascribe the honorific "scourge of all lands" and the "terror of mankind".

He subsequently invaded the Italian peninsula, devastating its northern provinces and supposedly expelling the residents of Aquileia, who went on to found the floating city of UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}, but was unable to take Rome, being turned away by an embassy comprising Pope Leo I and two other emissaries; what they said to him remains a RiddleForTheAges.[[note]]This proved to be AllForNothing a year later when Geiseric and the Vandals succeeded in storming Rome, sacking it far worse than Alaric and the Visigoths had half a century prior.[[/note]] He planned for further campaigns against the Romans but died in 453 on the night of his wedding to the Gothic lady Hildico, either from his usual nosebleed accidentally flowing down into his windpipe, or by her hand. The Hunnic state fell apart in less than a year after that due to squabbles amongst his sons as well as their mistreatment of their subject peoples; an uprising of the Gepids and the death of his eldest son Ellac at the Battle of Nedao in 454 broke Hunnic hegemony on the Roman borderlands forever.

* The Battle of the Pelennor Fields in ''Literature/TheReturnOfTheKing'' parallels the accounts of the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains fairly closely, especially the plot element involving the leader of the opposing army (Theodoric the Visigoth in real life[[note]]not to be confused with the Ostrogothic king Theoderic the Great[[/note]], Theoden of Rohan in the novel) dying during or after a cavalry charge but his side's army prevailing nevertheless.

There is no universally accepted image of Attila, although he is normally depicted as a large hairy barbarian similar in appearance to UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, another horseback archer barbarian conqueror. Even the ethno-linguistic identity of the Huns he ruled remains under hot debate to this day, with the three known recorded "Hunnic" words being Indo-European and the vast majority of Hunnic names either being Turkic or Germanic[[note]]This isn't even getting into other people called Huns in antiquity, like the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephthalites White Huns/Hephthalites]] who menaced India, and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Caucasian_Huns North Caucasian Huns]][[/note]]. Among peoples who claim to be his descendants were the Bulgar khans, predecessors of modern UsefulNotes/{{Bulgaria}}, through his son Ernak; UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}}'s first dynasty, the Árpáds, through his more mythical son Csaba (the Hungarian minority in UsefulNotes/{{Romania}} known as Székelys claimed to outright ''be'' Huns during the Middle Ages); and UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} more generally through their Turkic heritage, although his branch of Turkic is represented nowadays only by the [[UsefulNotes/TurkicPeoples Chuvash people]] resident in Russia, hence his appearance in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' featuring that language.

* British Prime Minister UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher was known as "Attila the H'''e'''n" [[http://web.archive.org/web/20070930222431/https://www.newstatesman.com/200005080049 by her detractors]].

* In the episode "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Attila is one of several simulations of evil characters accidentally brought to life (others included UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper and [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Professor Moriarty]]). He [[HiddenDepths points out]] to [[MilesGloriousus Zapp Brannigan]] that firing a gun at them inside the spaceship will cause explosive decompression.

* In the episode "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Attila was one of several simulations of evil characters accidentally brought to life (others included UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper and [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Professor Moriarty]])

His impact on popular culture is considerable--in fact, before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII made ThoseWackyNazis the absolute shorthand for "evil", Attila the Hun was one of the most-invoked "historical villains" along with {{Biblical bad guy}}s, like the NephariousPharaoh from the Literature/BookOfExodus, and Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot from Literature/TheFourGospels for such comparisons. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the soldiers of UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany were widely referred to as "Huns", in reference to their supposed savagery as invoked by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who told the Germans being shipped off to quell the Boxer Rebellion to retaliate so severely that their renown would be akin to that of Attila's and no Chinese person would ever dare disrespect a German thereafter.

* Attila was inevitably brought up in the final episode of ''The WebAnimation/UnbiasedHistory of Rome''. Given [[NonIndicativeName the nature of the series]], Attila was portrayed as a villainous sorcerer who can summon earthquakes to bring down the walls of Constantinople. And then after being driven off in the Catalaunian Plains he met with Pope Leo at the River Po... revealing that he was a Spurdo Sparde who wasn't interested in conquering Rome in the first place.

** Attila's is one of the historical campaigns you can play in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII: The Conquerors'', showcasing the Hun faction that was included in that expansion.

* Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus once did a parody of a typical American sitcom called ''The Attila the Hun Show'', with Creator/JohnCleese as the eponymous conqueror in the starring role as a suburban father.

* Attila's is one of the historical campaigns you can play in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII: The Conquerors'', showcasing the Hun faction that was included in that expansion.

* He is playable in the Chalons Historical Battle in ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar Barbarian Invasion''.

* Serves as the namesake of ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila'', and is essentially the FinalBoss in the campaign. Unless you play as the Huns, in which case he is an InfinityPlusOneSword.

** Subverted in its actual facts; the scourge of all nations didn't die in battle or in any sort of fight or conflict, nor did he have any pithy FamousLastWords--he went to bed on his wedding night and never woke up. Fictionalised accounts of his life in the sagas generally spice this up by having him being trapped in his keep with his children while his vengeful wife sets it on fire.

* CoolSword: He's reputed to have possessed the Sword of Mars, which might be one and the same as the sacred sword of the war god worshipped by the Scythians he subjugated. It was rumored to be made out of meteorite iron, and had been acting as a grave marker of the previous owner, also having struck by lightning whilst it stood there. A supposed "Sword of Attila" is kept in a museum in Vienna, but has been dated to half a millennium after he died.

Attila was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453.[[note]]He [[BigBadDuumvirate shared kingship]] with his brother Bleda until 447, when [[CainAndAbel Bleda died]] under [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident mysterious circumstances]][[/note]] He was leader of [[TheEmpire the Hunnic Empire]], which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was [[TheDreaded one of the most feared enemies]] of the UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire both East and West, earning him the title, "TheScourgeOfGod"; while he wasn't known as this in his own time, a near-contemporary description does ascribe the honorific "scourge of all lands" and the "terror of mankind".

* The French comic "Attila Mon Amour" is about a Roman noblewoman betrayed by her people who ends up siding with the Huns to get her revenge.
* The French comic "Le Fléau des Dieux" (The Scourge of Gods) is Attila RecycledInSpace, although the story takes a turn for the weird when Attila and the Roman woman worshipped as a goddess by his tribe turn out to be unkillable (much to their surprise).

* Attila and his hordes occasionally show up on ''{{Series/Kaamelott}}'', where he is an easily fooled short Asian man and his hordes consist of a single bodyguard... yet is apparently a legitimate Scourge of God.