Zerco - den moriske dvärgen
Jag måste bara dela med mig av ett stycke ur boken The Huns av E. A. Thompson (Blackwell Publishers år 2000).
We know little of the rough, boisterous character of Bleda, except that it was very different from his brother’s. After the great invasion of 441 we find him in possession of a Moorish dwarf named Zerco, the very sight of whom Attila was unable to endure. But Bleda was amused beyond all measure, not merely by Zerco’s stammering talk, but particulary by his twisted and painful walk. He kept him by his side both at his banquets and on his campaigns: he even made him a little suit of armour to increase the grotesqueness of his figure.
Once Zerco escaped with a number of other Roman prisoners. Bleda cared nothing for the others, but he was wild with rage at the loss of Zerco. Horsemen scoured the countryside until the dwarf was found, and Bleda roared with laughter when he saw him brought back in chains. He asked him why he had tried to escape. Zerco, in his strange, halting speech, said that it was because Bleda had never given him a wife. The Hun laughed more loudly than ever. He swore that he would give him one of the ladies-in-waiting from the empress’s palace in Constantinople.
Lek själva med tanken på hur livet kunde ha tett sig för en missbildad stammande dvärg vars öde var att vara till allmänt åtlöje som en gycklare på ett hunniskt hov under Västroms sista skakande årtionden. Detta är historia. Zerco är ta mig tusan en legend. Tänk vilket inflytande en sådan man kunde ha haft. En stammande dvärg i löjliga kläder. Han fick nog en stor inblick i den tidens hovliv och kunde följa spelet mellan Västrom, Östrom och hunnerna från första parkett.
