Zerco

Zerco or Zercon was a Moorish dwarf and the jester of the Hunnic king Attila. ^[1]

Quote

"On the occasion of the banquet he made his appearance, and threw all except Attila into fits of unquenchable laughter by his appearance, his dress, his voice, and his words, which were a confused jumble of Latin, Hunnic, and Gothic." - Priscus

In popular culture

• Zercon is the protagonist of SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter), a composition by singer-songwriter Scott Walker. The 21-minute song appears on his 2012 album Bish Bosch , and follows the jester's attempts to escape the cruelty of Attila's court by ascending through history, eventually becoming the titular brown dwarf star and freezing to death. ^[2]
• Zerco appears in Slave of the Huns by Géza Gárdonyi.
• Zercon is portrayed by Mick Walter in the BBC docudrama series Heroes and Villains.

References

1. "Archived copy". ccat.sas.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on 4 February 2001. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
2. MorbidsoSorbid (2013-02-02), Scott Walker Radio Interview for World Cafe 2013 , retrieved 2016-10-08

Further reading

• Priscus of Paion, Embassy to Attila
• Procopius of Cesarea, De Bello Vandalico, book I, chapter III
• Christopher Kelly, The End of Empire: Attila the Hun & the Fall of Rome, 2008

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20010204040700/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/priscus.html