The Death of Attila

by Cecelia Holland

Attila was dead - his young bride a widow on her wedding night - and the invading Huns were leaderless.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Friendship, Medieval History, Ancient

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Pen name used by Elizabeth Eliot Carter.

Cecelia Holland is one of the world's most highly acclaimed and respected historical novelists, ranked by many alongside other giants in that field such as Mary Renault and Larry McMurtry. Over the span of her thirty year career, she's written almost thirty historical novels, including The Firedrake, Rakessy, Two Ravens, Ghost on the Steppe, Death of Attila, Hammer For Princes, The King's Road, Pillar of the Sky, The Lords of Vaumartin, Pacific Street, Sea Beggars, The Earl, The King in Winter, The Belt of Gold, The Serpent Dreamer, The High City, Kings of the North, and a series of fantasy novels, including The Soul Thief, The Witches Kitchen, The Serpent Dreamer, and Varanger. She also wrote the well-known science fiction novel Floating Worlds, which was nominated for a Locus Award in 1975. Her most recent book is a new fantasy novel, Dragon Heart.

Reviews

[Fonch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ladies and gentlemen, even if I put a star in the novel written by Cecelia Holland it would be more appropriate to put 1.5 on it, in fact, I was hesitant to put two stars or a star on it, but I finally decided on a star. It's not a book I've been horrified or displeased with. Here does not fall the author in certain presentist attitudes that ruined her other novel read this year"Jerusalem" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... It has something in common with the aforementioned novel and is that the author has written two novels about two crucial and fascinating moments of history, but has not achieved that brilliity or give them that literary relevance that those historical moments deserve. However, I have not disliked this novel at any time, it read more or less well, and I certainly would not place it in my top five, or my top ten of worse novels that I have read this year, or that I have less liked, but literaryally it has seemed very poor, and neither has the extension benefited it. Goodreads user thinks you're being charged for this novel as if it were a bestseller has 200 pages, but the result isn't appetizing. You expect infinitely more from a writer of as much fame as this. He is much inferior to other writers who have read and had material to write a colossal novel, but he has wasted it in my opinion. This novel is a want and I can't a novel that could have been, but it wasn't.
What Cecelia Holland tells us is an impossible story of friendship between a Hun, or Xiung with a Germanic, or a member of a Germanic tribe of the icy, called Dietric (or the wolf). It is curious, because this name was also received by a great historical character who went down in the story Theodoric Amalo the Ostrogoth, a character of enormous historical and legend relevance, since he was the victor of Gunter and Hagen in the"The Singing of the Nibelungs" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... and"The Singing of Hildebrando" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... (remember that Hildebrand also comes out in the Song of the Nibelungos,as vassalTheodoric in a very secondary role and with more sorrow than glory, but his great moment will be in this song, where he is the great hero of the conquest of Ravena by his lord Theodoric, facing his own son (Harubrand). In a fratricidal conflict. The poem was unfinished, although it is speculated that on this occasion the father defeated the son so that the prophecy of Malachi did not occur on this occasion and "Godwill return the hearts of the fathers to the children and that of the children to their parents, unless I come and curse this generation," it is said, because there are some later writings hildebrand's lamentations, where the great hero laments for killing his son, although this paternal-filial struggle ends up giving victory to Theodoric over the Odoacro Herulo, who deported the last Roman emperor. On this subject Valerio Massimo Manfredi has already spoken in his wonderful"The Last Legion" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...). In fact, we will see that in this novel will appear the uncle of Theodoric Wadimir the Ostrogoth, although it is only named. However, Holland opted in this novel, to give more strength to fictional characters than to Attila himself. The interesting thing about this novel, and that is a point in its favor is that it does not tell us the fall of Rome (then we can speculate if sui fell or did not fall), but the disappearance of the Huns and this is personified in the relationship between Tacs the Hun Xiung of the frog tribe and Dietric, that in case I didn't say it before was the son of a famous character and spoken of by our fellow historian Daniel Gómez Aragonés in his wonderful "History ofthe Visigoths" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... (if you want to meet other barbaric peoples who will appear in this story Suevos, Vandaslos and Alanos and how Rome fell we recommendthe book"Barbarians in Hispania" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... mean the leader of the icy warlords Ardarico (who is a real character). If you felt deaconsized and dejected by the end of Rome I can give you a comfort and that is that the end of your enemies was even worse. Why that's even the most interesting thing about the book. Tell how the Huns disappeared from history and were blamed, but that wasn't just the fate of the Huns How many villages that passed the limes in 406 survived? Alive, alive, the Franks who minged with Romans and Normans, the others disappeared from history. Some like the Visigoths (who had a second chance after Vouille and built the most splendid Germanic kingdom of all, sometimes surpassing the Franks, and starring in great feats, only the eruption of Islam and intestate querellas, which led to a betrayal in 711, although in 1492 they defeated their Muslim opponents). The Saxons, despite fighting Vikings, Daneses and other barbarians from the north, were eventually defeated at the Battle of Hasting in 1066 and their Saxon cousins were defeated by Charlemagne (remember their bloody campaigns with Widukind, perhaps the toughest and hardest campaign the great Emperor Franco was subjected to), who also defeated Lombardos (to tell Desiderio) , or to the Thuringians, or Bavarians (to tell Tasilón), to the Avaros (another people of Asian descent such as the Huns, Bulgarians, Finesse and the Great Magiars, who would be defeated by Emperor Otto in Lechfeld in 955). These at least these villages left a great legacy in history, but it is normal that they had a brilliant warlord, and on the death of this brilliant warlord they ended up being exterminated, or blamed, becoming one of the hardest and bitterest in history. The story was not very benevolent to the peoples who starred in the Wolkerwanderung. It is not only the case of Attila who describes this novel to us, so will the nemesis of the Huns. It wouldn't take long for the icy to do the same to Ardarico's death. The same as other peoples cited in the novel as Rugios, Cuados, Alanos and other peoples cited in this novel. That climax or context is very well developed by Cecelia Holland, who manages to print this novel a twilight tone, since it is telling the twilight of a civilization. After all, for me this is of great interest, since most users with a little training know what Attila did, but they do not know what happened to his people after his death. It is therefore a complete success on Holland's part that the novel begins after his failed foray into Rome. It is too bad that this Attila that Holland has painted us is a secondary plot in this novel and I did not take advantage, being more relevant his death, which is the one that marks the future of the novel. Attila takes much more dead value than alive, and his shadow is going to end up destroying the Xiung kingdom, or huno. Holland shows us very well the causes of the destruction of the Huns. The inability of Attila's sons such as Ellac, and Denguezich to replace his father. It doesn't count, but it's going to look like a civil war is going to erupt between the two. We also observed, as the only son who had some of the father's qualities cannot lead them, because he has not yet reached the age of majority. This is the best thing about the novel, also that Holland shows us his culture, his customs, his religion. We see this in the fictional character of the Flautist the shaman of the Huns. It is also appreciated that Attila and Ardarico were planning the final incursion into Rome. In concluding what they could not achieve in their first foray, whether due to the puriric victory according to the Huns (here it makes it clear Attila they won the great battle of this historical period that of the Catalaunic Fields or Le Chalons de Mer) this battle slightly increased the years of life of the Empire of Rome in the West (it is curious , but here Holland makes the Huns call Constantinople, or Byzantium New Rome and I do not think it is a bad name, because it shows that there is no rupture between Rome and the Byzantine Empire and that they are both the same identity. After all, as Hilaire Belloc says in"Europe and Faith" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... Did anyone learn of the deposition of Rómulo Augustulo in 476? The answer is no. No one knew, because these barbarians were more Romanized than the Romans and this is also shown by Holland, when he shows us an Ardarico and a Ditric as admirers and imitators of the Roman way of life. Also Attila himself, who was a friend of Aecio, was, but the true threat of Rome could not destroy the Roman way of life and those who did Genserico, or Alarico I were more Roman than the Romans. With regard to Genserico, for me it is the true scourl of God and the greatest threat that Rome had, and which it failed to destroy. Vandalos wouldn't disappear until his death. I dare say with Daniel Gómez Aragonés that his figure is far superior to that of Attila and that he saw his enemies fall an honor that also fit the Visigoth Eurico who benefited from Rome's power vacuum in the West).
Now, all I've said so far about Holland's novel has been hits, because this novel has them and big hits, but what has failed Holland has been the fictional plots. Neither Tacs nor Dietric are well developed. Their friendship is very poignant their attempt to turn the relationship between Huns and Germans into an allegory fails because of the little charisma of both. We're not interested in their lives or who they relate to, either. I think of Tacs with Yaya and his sick wife tacs is in love with, and she gives me a little Dietric. Anyway, Tacs and Dietric's relationship is very rare. It's not that I'm some kind of Gore Vidal https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (Vidal himself bragging that he had put a homosexual scene between Ben Hur and Mesala in"Ben Hur" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... come on he did so badly, that no one noticed and did not affect the final message of William Wyler's film), that he sees homosexual relationships on all sides. But sometimes I have the feeling that Dietric's interest in Tacs is sexual (I know I have a very dirty mind, but already the author did it in"Jerusalem" where she put me in various homosexual relationships and showing the lifestyle of the twentieth century on the eve of the Third Crusade with agnostic Templars and atheists who do not believe). It's just like in Anouilh's Beckett who gives the feeling that instead of breaking up with a friend he's broken up with a https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... lover (remember Glenville's wonderful film with Richard Burton, and Peter O'Toole in my opinion infinitely superior to that of"A man for all seasons" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... and without it Zineman's film wouldn't have been possible). Against this malicious approach that I have proposed to you I recommend reading the wonderful"The Four Loves" by C.S. Lewis https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... That is the scene with the prostitute in Sirmio is also very poor. Highlight some more things like the appearance of Orestes the Father of the last emperor of Rome, of his brother Onegesio and point out two things that have caught my attention as the Huns saw our God. Here is a promising sub-path with a priest, which unfortunately fits nothing, and which reminded me of a short story I read to Harry Turtledove https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and a beautiful novel that I recommend to my followers. It is curious the case of Brian Moore a man who lost faith, but still wrote a jewel named"Black Robe" https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... (very close to Greene and Shusaku Endo https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...) in which a French Jesuit tries to bring faith to the ferrets, who are going to be destroyed. The same goal that Aurelius the Catholic priest tries with the Huns. Holland's relationship between Arrianos and Catholics is not badly told by Holland. Of course, Holland is neither close to the wonderful lyricism nor to the effect that Brian Moore achieves with his magnificent novel (I do warn you if you read Moore's novel that there is much sex, violence and the loss of faith, although it gives an ending and a comfort that brings him closer to the novels of William Somerset Maugham https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..., and Shusaku Endo, than to other Moore novels. I'm not surprised that my admired Juan Manuel de Prada likes Brian Moore). The same thing is happening to me as Baalam, who tried to curse, or speak ill of this novel and I don't quite get it (see how it wasn't an entirely pure 1). It all has a lot of flaws. His dialogues are very poor, on Attila's death he shows a very confused and accelerated ending, and it would have been very good for Holland to have written more pages, to tie up capes. In his favor I will say that it was not an easy subject my friend Professor Alfonseca had a partial success with "The Crown Tartesia" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... (the last part of the Eolo https://www.goodreads.com/series/2495... family trilogy, intended for a youth audience), however it was Louis de Wohl who hit the https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... key when telling the story of Attila. He got it right with the spirit and captured what Attila was and determined who was the great hero that was Pope Leo I, but despite this great success (I put five stars on him), but he lacked it. A superior literary result with more claw and epic would have been needed and Holland also fails in this. It gives it a Golningnesque climate, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... but the result is cold, lacking emotion. We don't give a about Tacs' luck and the Huns. We have already talked about the poverty of dialogue. That does finally recover some of the good feelings with one of the cruellest and most ruthless endings I've ever read. Bitter as ice. It is the destruction of a civilization and the end of a friendship and the worst thing is that Ardarico may be right in the end and there may never be a true friendship

[Steven Walle · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Eorope fifth century, the Huns, Goths, and Romans were at war. In the midts of the battles a Hun soldier and a German warier a friendship was forged.
I recommend this book to all. It was very well written and captures the spirit of a warier very well.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This goes onto my top 5 HF list. Even though it’s from 1973 with its research consequently outdated. I’ve read much more recent Attila fiction that has much less to say. This is the only fictional Attila I’ve believed in. Besides, what we know of Huns remains scant and fiction must be speculative. Holland’s strength is to have created a society that feels real, and made her Huns real people, full individuals who yet live within a distinct culture. These pages are real from start to last: from Tacs in a difficult journey where we meet him, to Tacs in battle at the end.

“Before they reached the river, the horses had grown used to the corpse. Tacs had not.”

-- first sentences. Tacs is being a Hun in his ideas about corpses, and being himself in determination to get his friend’s corpse across winter mountains home for the funeral rites.

The novel ends in a river too. In which Tacs, and his pony, are tough as nails, tough as Huns. But the story is about Tacs’ friendships: with his gang of youths; with a German; with a shaman.

Landscape is a big feature. So are animals: Tacs’ black pony is as important as a person not only to him but to the action. I have to mention Ummake, the only woman with a sustained part, but again lifelike as a Hun woman.

It’s titled The Death of Attila because we see the before and after of that event: a unifying figure, who is aware that Huns are in diminishment – he doesn’t entirely understand why. Ethnic tensions and petty politics boil over when he is gone. It’s a melancholy trajectory.

I see ‘lean’ and ‘taut’ are popular adjectives for her style. This is under 300 pp, with nothing extraneous even though her plot might seem to wander. Her themes don't wander. I think powerful has to be my word.

[Uğur Karabürk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beklentimi hiç karşılamadı

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Typically lean and sleek novel from Holland, this time set in the 5th century, as Atilla contemplates another invasion of Italy with his Huns and Germans. Tacs, a Hun scout left to make his own way back with the body of his dead friend after the last attempt to reach Rome, forms an unlikely friendship with the son of a German king. Their two tribes could not be more different, and with the fundamental and recurring problem of European history, the strong leader who puts together a prototype viable state only for the whole thing to fall apart on his death about to repeat, the whole thing ends in a welter of violence and tested loyalties.

Holland's smooth, polished, diamond-hard prose sucks the melodrama and extraneous details out of historical fiction like venom from a snake's fang, leaving a strong, muscular, stripped-down tale of young men finding their places in a turbulent world.

[Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always feel that I should enjoy Cecelia Holland's books more than I actually do - I am always fascinated by the periods that she chooses to write about, and she's great at building atmosphere, and The Death of Attila was no exception. However, she also has a tendency to string together a bunch of scenes that don't really have a plot, and The Death of Attila was no exception to that either - I couldn't figure out what it was that she was trying to tell us about the Huns and the Gepids and Tacs and Dietar's relationship or why she began and ended where she did so even though there was a very definite finishing point to the novel, it still seemed unfinished, if that makes sense!

[Debbie Notkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago, I embarked on the long slow project of reading (sometimes rereading) Cecelia Holland's many books in the order she wrote them. I'm not very far along.

Alan and I read this one (and earlier, ANTICHRIST) out loud to each other while doing chores, so it took a long time. It's set in Hungary at the end of Attila's life (so the early 450s). It follows Tacs, a Hun who lives in Attila's orbit, and Dietrich, the son of a German king. Tacs and Dietrich forge an odd and unlikely friendship, and most of the book is about the difficulties they have in keeping and growing that friendship. There's also a fascinating side plot late in the book, in which a Christian monk is committed to converting the Huns; Holland got me thinking about the true innovations of Christianity, one of which may well have been the concept of a God who loves his worshippers personally and directly.

Not one of Holland's very best, but all of her books (especially her early books) are good.

[Lindy High · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cecelia Holland is an astonishing writer of historical novels. Rather than staying in one period, her topics range form crusaders in Jerusalem to the Mongol invasion of Europe to Norman Italy to early California and, in this case, the run-up to the fifth century rebellion of Germanic tribes after Atilla’s death in 453. It is a story of the clash of cultures — and the misunderstandings that arise — and of the friendship between one Hun and the German son of a subjugated tribe. As is the case in her other novels, the characters evolve throughout the tale, particularly Dietric as he becomes more attached to his Hun friend Tacs.

[Gabi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was very atmospheric, and there were lots of beautiful "show don't tell" passages. At the same time, I just couldn't see where the plot was going. There were these themes of friendship, loyalty, and beliefs, which were interesting, but the pieces just didn't make up a compelling story for me.
Slave of the Huns by Géza Gárdonyi is set around Attila's death too, and I found that book unputdownable.

[Michael Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great interaction betwern nationalities

Fascinating character. The Fluteplayer in particular, resonates. Curious to know what the White Brother intoxicant was. Also loved how the Huns and Christians struggled to understand each other's worldview.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've now read in rapid succession three of Cecilia Holland's historical novels and like the others, the description here of a long vanished society seems both well grounded in research and quite compelling, and the battle scenes are vivid. But her male protagonists thus far seem to be pretty dull fellows. All swordplay and no romance etc. I think she would have benefited by drawing more on her own experience to create female characters who could bring some emotional life to these situations. And this applies not just to her Attila tale but to the one about Byzantium and the one about the crusader kingdom in Jerusalem.

[Richard R., Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book but not, in my opinion, a great book. I enjoyed it but am not really motivated to go out and read some of the other books by the author. What keeps me from giving a hardy endorsement to this book is a series of incomplete scenes that are never really explained. For example, Yaya, a Hun is killed in the Hun camp and whispers that the Germans did it but there is never a further explanation how the Germans got into the Hun camp.

[Sdprince · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine historical novel from Holland. Again, she provides a well-researched, unromantic look at this fascinating historical figure.

[Laura Koerber · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite writer of historical fiction. This is one of my favorites of her books. I have read it several times. She writes simply, clearly, with just the right word choice to be both vivid and brief. The plot pivots on a friendship between a Magyar soldier and the son of a German chief just as Attila's death threw central Europe into chaos.