We continue with Saxo and his excellent chronicle:
A Late Night Visitor From Charenza
“When he [Absalon] lay down and slept at the beginning of the following night, there appeared a certain Slav who, with loud cries called on Gotschalk (whom Absalon used as a translator among the Slavs), and asked to speak with him. Gotschalk woke up and cried back to him asking what he wanted, upon which that one demanded to talk to Absalon and when he received permission to approach, the man came up to Absalon (who had come out of his tent) and through the interpreter insisted on getting permission to [leave and] deliver news to the people of Charenza about how the Arkonians were faring and to call upon them [the inhabitants of Charenza] to accept the same terms so as to prevent their destruction and so that they should not forgo mercy for themselves and for the city; and he said that he would return with their answer the next day.”
Granza brought a continental breakfast as a sign of good faith
“And he said too that his name was Granze and his father was Littog and that he had a house in Charenza and was not at all a citizen of Arkona and that he was a stranger there and did not come of his own will but rather with Charenzan reinforcements [for Arkona]. So that he [Absalon] should not think this all a lie, he showed him [Absalon] his wound that he had on his shoulder and that he could not help his fellow citizens [of Charenza] for he could not use it [his shoulder]. Absalon judged that so greatly wounded a man could not offer much help to their enemies and that it did not matter much whether he should cancel them to fight on or to surrender and he sent his request to the King to be decided and ordered that Valdemar should be awakened and told him of the matter. The King decreed that he [Absalon] should do whatever he thought was right and he [Absalon] answered the Slav that the King agreed to his request save only about the three days of armistice that he [Granze] demanded, for he was careful not to give [their] enemies too much time in which to fortify their town; but so as not to entirely deprive them of time [to deliberate], he gave him the entire subsequent day and told him that should he not appear at the designated time on the coast of the sea nearest the town [of Charenza] together with all the Rugian commanders, so will all subsequent negotiations [be deemed] broken.”
Back to the Temple at Hand or
the Toppling of the Svantevit Idol
“The next day the King ordered Esbern and Sine to topple the God statue and when this proved impossible without swords and axes, they ripped open the curtains which hung in the temple, and then clearly commanded the people who were to do this [cut down the statue] to be careful so that when that heavy statue fell it did not crush anyone with its weight so that people could not say that this was a punishment inflicted upon them by an angry God. At the same time there gathered around the temple a great throng of the town’s inhabitants hoping that Svantovit, in His anger and Godly might should punish those that cause such violence upon Him. When the statue was cut in twain by the feet, it toppled against the nearest wall. At that Sune, in order to pull it out [of the temple], commanded his people to destroy the wall but reminded them that in their eagerness to destroy it, they should not forget the warning and that they should not carelessly put themselves in danger of being crushed by the falling statue/idol. The idol fell to the ground with great noise. The temple was entirely covered by purple [curtains] but they were so rotten from having been hung for so long that they did not withstand the contact [of the falling idol and walls]. There were hung there too rare horns of wild animals which also deserved notice for their unique nature but also for the veneration given them. There was seen at the time some sort of a monster in the form of a black animal who ran out of there but just as quickly it disappeared. The inhabitants were now ordered to tie a rope around the idol of the God and to pull It outside of town but they lacked the courage to do this by reason of their old superstition [i.e., their faith] and ordered prisoners and visitors who had come to their town to earn some money, to do it in their stead for they thought to direct the wrath of [their] God onto the heads of such wretched people since they believed that the God that they so greatly worshipped would not hesitate to punish severely those who so humiliated Him. While all this was happening one could hear the inhabitants chatter amongst themselves about with some of them lamenting about the suffering that was being inflicted upon their God while others laughed at Him and there could be no doubt that this wise portion of the populace felt deeply embarrassed by their gullibility in having for so many years been part of such a foolish cult.”
The real thing or as real as we get
“The rest of the day was spent accepting hostages who had not been delivered the prior day. The commanders’ learned men were sent too to the city so as to teach the ignorant people the Christian faith and to convert it from its paganism to the true faith. When the evening approached all the cooks began to chop at the idol with their axes and they cut it into such little pieces as could be used as firewood. I believe the Rugians must have [then] felt ashamed of their ancient cult when they saw the God of their fathers and grandfathers that they were accustomed to venerate so, be humiliated by being tossed into the fire then used to cook a meal for their enemies. Thereafter, the Danes also burned down the temple and built in its place a church from the wood that had been [earlier] used to build siege engines so turning the implements of war into a house of peace and using that which was supposed to have destroyed the bodies of their enemies [instead] to save their souls. Further, on this day too the Rugians had to give up the treasure that had [earlier] been offered and set aside for Svantevit.
Onwards to Charenza
When they were satisfied with their deeds, they decided that Absalon should check the promises of Granza of Charenza and so, after telling the King to follow him at dawn, he [Absalon] sailed at night with thirty ships [to Charenza]. The news of the fall of Arkona created such fear amongst the inhabitants of Charenza that they showed up early at the location designated by Absalon. When they were quite far from land still, Granza who was on horseback yelled out asking who was commanding the fleet and when he found out it was Absalon he answered that his name was Granza and that their leader Tetzlav, his brother Jaromar and all the most honorable Rugian nobles were present there.”
Charenza’s on deck surrender was an original at the time
“Absalon received them in good faith on his ship and when they had accepted all the same conditions of surrender as had the Arkonians then Absalon kept them [on his ship] until the King arrived. This one agreed regarding all the points of the armistice and, thereupon, Absalon picked from among all the Rugian nobles only Jaromar and together with him as eel as with bishop Svend from Aarhus he set out towards Charenza; as for the others, he [Absalon?] ordered his brother, Esbern to receive them as guests and not let them leave before he came back, all this so as to guarantee a safe trip to the city [by Absalon]. He took only thirty of his companions and the majority of them he sent back upon the request of the inhabitants of Charenza so that they would not cause fights in the city; thus did he [Absalon] arrive there having greater trust [for the inhabitants] that armed force.”
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