520. Warlords of the West: Barbarian Heirs of Rome (Part 1)
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What is the story of the Franks about?
Thank you for listening to The Rest Is History. For weekly bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series, and membership of our much-loved chat community, go to therestishistory.com and join the club. That is therestishistory.com.
Did you know that our Sunday Times bestselling book, The Rest Is History Returns, is now out in paperback? From finding out who British history's biggest lad was to tracing the admittedly hazy ancient origins of Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's filled cover to cover with more curious historical moments than you can crack a lasso at, plus puzzles and a pub quiz. The Rest Is History Returns, available now in all good bookshops. Zachary was still shaking his head. Welcome to Thailand. Now let me school you. What you and Sarai could do and get away with in Boulder can't be done here in Phuket. Not if she's going to save face and honor her father. She's a good girl. And here in Thailand, good girls don't fool around with or get involved with farangs.
What the hell is a farang? It's the Thai word for Europeans or non-Thai men. It's mostly used to describe white guys. Since we're black, you and I are actually farang dam. Alexander stared at his twin for a moment. Well, damn, he said, suddenly laughing. Laughing with him, Zachary shrugged. Farang is also the word for guava fruit. Go figure. So that, Dominic, was Guilty Pleasures by Deborah Mello. I'm sure you'll have read it. It's a romance novel describing the rivalry between two American brothers, both of them black, as we heard, Alexander and Zachary the Hammer Barrett. And they're both absolute fitness fanatics like me. And they're both obsessed by the beautiful Sarai Montrai, who is a personal trainer of
and the former Miss Thailand.
So of all the introductory readings we've ever had on the rest of history, that's probably the weirdest. What's going on?
Well, I'm sure what will have stuck out for you was the use of this phrase, Farang Dam, which literally means Black Franks. And it was first used in the 60s to describe Black American servicemen who were being stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War.
Yeah.
And Thai is just one of a number of Asian languages that uses variation of this word Frank to describe Europeans and Americans.
So the Turks, for example, they use the word Franks to mean foreigners or Westerners, outsiders, don't they? And lots of people do that.
Yeah. So the Greeks used to, the Arabs still do. It's a word that's used in Urdu, in Hindi, in Chinese, in Malay. And you'll have noticed in that passage of Immortal Prose I just read, the use of the word farang to describe guava fruit. And the reason for that is because it was introduced to Thailand by the Portuguese in the 16th century. So it's basically a kind of a Frankish fruit. And similarly in Cambodia, I gather a turkey is a Frankish chicken. So essentially anything that comes from what today we might call the West is Frankish. And it's absolutely bizarre because the Franks are a people who... You know, they take us back over a millennium and a half, back to an incredibly distant age and an incredibly distant part of the world.
And the Franks today, and for the next few weeks, are going to be our great theme. And it is an amazing, amazing story.
Well, the story of the Franks is the story in history, I think, that's most reminiscent of the sort of fantasy novels of Tolkien and George R.R. Martin and whatnot. So... It's a world of crumbling empires, of landscapes kind of scarred with ruins, of sorcerers and magic and men with massive axes and warrior queens and people plotting to poison each other and dragons and kind of mountain battles and citadels. And it really has got it all, hasn't it?
The other comparison to fantasy novels is that everybody pretty much in the story has completely mad names. Right. Gundabad. That's a good name. Wulfagund. I think my favourite, Chimney Child, which is a girl's name. So anyone out there looking for a name for a daughter, I think that's a brilliant name.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the story of the Franks about?
0:00–9:15
2
Who were the Franks and where did they come from?
9:15–10:01
3
What role did Julian play in the history of the Franks?
10:01–11:53
4
How did the Franks become allies of Rome?
11:53–26:51
5
Who is Martin and why is he significant?
26:51–36:00
6
What miracles did Martin perform?
36:00–49:19
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Rest Is History
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