this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
141 points (99.3% liked)

Everett True Comics

712 readers
48 users here now

A place to appreciate the twentieth century comic character Everett True of "The Outbursts of Everett True." Feel free to check out the sticky.

founded 3 months ago
MODERATORS
 

On June 28, 1919, the day this was printed, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France ending the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers of World War I. That's the context for the "hun mine-layer" comment.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What is a Hun-Mine layer? I feel that might be helpful on the punchline....

[–] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 43 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I am pretty sure "Hun" was a way to refer to the Germans in WW1, so a Hun Mine-Layer would be a German who laid mines... But could be totally talking out of my arse so will look it up πŸ˜‚

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lots of fishing boats and merchant men were used (by all sides) to secretly drop off naval mines during WW1, it became synonymous with someone who is being treacherous and secret sabotaging.

All sides would constantly accuse eachother of secretly laying mines with civilian vessels, and all sides would constantly blame the other for accusing innocent people of laying mines. It was probably a constant source of news articles.

[–] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Oh that's actually super interesting :o thanks!

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So is Atilla the Hun just Atilla the German?

[–] OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Other way round. The nickname/insult was saying Germans are warlike barbarians like Atila the Hun and the rest of the the Huns.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Kaiser Wilhelm gave a speech encouraging his soldiers to "be huns" on campaign, which led to it being an insult applied to Germans.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

β€œhun” was the β€œorc” of the pre-Tolkien era

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

1919 was the Tolkien era. He just hadn't published yet

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

Ehhh yes, but the stereotype already existed before that speech: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hun_speech

[–] Ordo_Bellatores@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

'atilla' meant something like 'little Daddy' in visigothic.

Do with that what you will

[–] topherclay@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

That's a little unfair because "daddy" is already a diminutive version of "dad" so you are double dipping on diminutives. It'd be more accurate to say that "atilla" is either like "little dad" or "daddy".

[–] Rolando@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Yeah, that's how I understood it.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org -4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part of Scythia at the time.[1] By 370 AD, the Huns had arrived on the Volga, causing the westwards movement of Goths and Alans.[2] By 430, they had established a vast, but short-lived, empire on the Danubian frontier of the Roman empire in Europe. Either under Hunnic hegemony, or fleeing from it, several central and eastern European peoples established kingdoms in the region, including not only Goths and Alans, but also Vandals, Gepids, Heruli, Suebians and Rugians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huns

Mine layer I think means laying explosive mines? I dunno.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Man, if you don't know the answer, don't fling random shit at the wall just to hear yourself speak.

[–] tenshukun@discuss.online -1 points 2 months ago

It sounds to me like this is more referencing their nomadic aspect. A nomadic people laying mines would be a great idiom.