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You should know that my son resembles my grandfather a lot. Even as a small child, I could tell by looking at him that he would become a great warrior. When my grandfather was in his prime, he fought so valiantly that even the Eastern Romans feared him. He always returned home from battles with rich spoils, and the most beautiful ring, with a large red stone, was his wedding gift for my grandmother. She was from the Gepid tribe, who were said to have come from the north and were related to the Goths. They had many children together, but only six survived.
My father continued the family tradition and was the quickest swordsman. The year I was born, Bleda and his brother Attila had just become rulers over the Huns. Whenever my father went to battle, I was always afraid that he wouldn’t return, but fate was kind to us and he always came back with more and more riches. At one point, Attila became the sole ruler of the Huns and was rumoured to have killed his brother, but my father never spoke of such things in front of us, so I can’t tell you what the truth is.
One thing is certain: our star rose even higher when Ardaric, the king of the Gepids and one of Attila’s favourites, took notice of our family. He always appreciated my father’s bravery on the battlefield and the fact that my mother came from a prominent Gepid family.
We all knew that Attila was gathering a great army to invade the western Romans, when news came that the earth was shaken in Constantinople and that the great wall surrounding the city had collapsed. Attila, not wasting any time, seized this opportunity and directed his entire army towards the eastern Romans. From my father’s stories, I know that our people took control of the stone cities of the Romans.
At that time, I was of marrying age. Due to my family’s rank, I came to the court of Kreka, Attila’s first wife, who lived in a splendid wooden palace. One day, while us girls were sitting in the palace on rugs, embroidering clothes with coloured threads, an envoy from Constantinople came to Kreka, bringing her precious gifts. He spoke a language that I didn’t understand, even though, being at the royal court, I knew how to speak the languages of the Huns, Gepids, Goths, and even a bit of the Romans’ language. Only later did I find out that the envoy spoke Greek, which was commonly used by the eastern Romans. Luckily, he brought an interpreter along who translated everything he said. Thus, I found out that his name was Priskos and that he had come to deliver a message from the emperor. Everywhere he went, he was followed by a scribe who diligently recorded everything that happened. Only in my old age did I find out that this Priskos had written the story of our times.