Attila himself is said to have claimed the titles "Descendant of the Great Nimrod", and "King of the Huns, the Goths, the Danes, and the Medes" – the last two peoples being mentioned to show the extent of his control over subject nations even on the peripheries of his domain.[52]
Jordanes embellished the report of Priscus, reporting that Attila had possessed the "Holy War Sword of the Scythians", which was given to him by Mars and made him a "prince of the entire world."[53][54]
Attila was the standard source of legitimacy on the European steppe until Genghis Khan. By the end of the 12th century the royal court of Hungary proclaimed their descent from Attila. Lampert of Hersfeld's contemporary chronicles report that shortly before the year 1071, the Sword of Attila had been presented to Otto of Nordheim by the exiled queen of Hungary, Anastasia of Kiev.[55] This sword, a cavalry sabre now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, appears to be the work of Hungarian goldsmiths of the ninth or tenth century.[56]
Illustration of the meeting between Attila and Pope Leo from the Chronicon Pictum, ca. 1360
Later writers developed the meeting of Leo I and Attila into a pious "fable which has been represented by the pencil of Raphael and the chisel of Algardi",[57] reporting that the Pope, aided by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, convinced Attila to turn away from the city.[58]
According to a version of this legend related in the Chronicon Pictum, a mediaeval Hungarian chronicle, the Pope promised Attila that if he left Rome in peace, one of his successors would receive a holy crown (which has been understood as referring to the Holy Crown of Hungary)
Attila in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)
Some histories and chronicles describe him as a great and noble king, and he plays major roles in three Norse sagas: Atlakviða,[59] Völsungasaga,[60] and Atlamál.[61] The Polish Chronicle represents Attila's name as Aquila.[citation needed]
Frutolf of Michelsberg and Otto of Freising pointed out that some songs as "vulgar fables" made Theoderic the Great, Attila and Ermanaric contemporaries, when any reader of Jordanes knew that this was not the case.[62]
In 1812, Ludwig van Beethoven conceived the idea of writing an opera about Attila and approached August von Kotzebue to write the libretto. It was, however, never written.
In World War I, Allied propaganda referred to Germans as the "Huns", based on a 1900 speech by Emperor Wilhelm II praising Attila the Hun's military prowess, according to the Glimpses of World History by Jawaharlal Nehru.[63] Der Spiegel commented on November 6, 1948 that the Sword of Attila was hanging menacingly over Austria.[64]
American writer Cecelia Holland wrote The Death of Attila (1973), a historical novel in which Attila appears as a powerful background figure whose life and death deeply impact the protagonists, a young Hunnish warrior and a Germanic one.
In modern Hungary and in Turkey, "Attila" and its Turkish variation "Atilla" are commonly used as a male first name. In Hungary, several public places are named after Attila; for instance, in Budapest there are 10 Attila Streets, one of which is an important street behind the Buda Castle. When the Turkish Armed Forces invaded Cyprus in 1974, the operations were named after Attila (Atilla I and Atilla II).[65]
The 1954 Universal International film Sign of the Pagan starred Jack Palance as Attila.
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