The following master's thesis reconstructs, as best as possible, origins and ethnic identity of a barbarian military and political leader Odoacer who, in 476 AD, overthrew the last Western Roman emperor. It also tries to – as precisely as possible – reconstruct his early military and political career until the end of 450's. It therefore deals extensively – among other means helping it also with onomastics and etymology – with the Odoacer's family, ethnic origins of its members (especially father Edeco, king of German tribe of Sciri) and the German-Hunnic environment in which the warrior grew up and which must have had a lifelong impact on him. We try to put light on the battle and leadership ordeals in his youth, which very likely started at about 18 years of age at Attila the Hun's Gaul campaign of 451. We try to reconstuct the very badly documented 450's with the indirect data and indications that we have and therefore offer some possible variants of the events that took place – from Odoacer staying in Gaul and possibly leading a plundering group to him participating in the ensuing war operations of the »Scourge of God«, after his death in 453 fighting alongside his father against Attila's sons and then finally helping to firmly establish the Sciri kingdom between the Danube and Tisza rivers.
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