Here is Saxo with some more great news:
Charenza
“Charenza is surrounded from all sides by marshes and bogs, and is accessible only by a single road over a ford that is also swamp like and difficult to cross, and if one carelessly goes down one of the sides, he inevitably drowns in it. When a man has already crossed this bog, he would enter onto a path that led between the swamp and the wall to the gate.”
[note to reader: The town of Charenza was also known as Karenz/Karentia/Gharense; a connection to the Slovene duchy of Karintia/Carinthia/Carantania seems obvious; the nature of that connection, less so]
The Arrival of the Danes – All Fun & Games
“Now, so as to give their surrender a solemn character, the inhabitants of Charenza numbering six thousand came out armed through the gate and lined up with spear tips planted in the ground along both sides of the road over which the Danes were to arrive. Bishop Svend wondered at this sight and asked what it should mean that the enemy came out so, to which Absalon answered that it was no cause for concern for it was all to show their surrender, for if their desire were to cause harm, they could have done that more easily inside the city. What enormous bravery must have been bestowed upon this man for him to have, without further thought, trusted his life to an armed enemy! The warriors filled with courage by his example, without blinking an eye or a nervous movement, followed him with the same decisiveness as he too had displayed for by Absalon’s side their feeling of safety was stronger than any fears in the face of the numbers of the enemy [assembled]. When the Danes went passed the marshes and emerged onto the road that led alongside the walls, the Rugians who everywhere stood in cohorts, fell on their faces, as if to honor higher beings, and, after they stood up again they followed them in a friendly way so that the entrance of Absalon was greeted with great pleasure by the inhabitants who wanted to come meet him [on the road]. He was received by them not as some sort of a special emissary but rather as a one who was bringing peace to the entire land.”
A City of Temples
“The city itself was famous by reason of three greatly venerated temples which were quipped with great artworks/splendour and riches. This great respect which was given to their Gods resulted in them becoming an object of worship no lesser than the common God at Arkona. During the time of peace the city would be rather empty but now it was filled to the brim with people who built themselves houses that had three stories, so that the lowest carried the middle story and the top one. [presumably, these were refugees from other parts of Rugia fleeing the Danes] They stood so close to one another that there was no space there on the ground on which there could fall a a stone were the city to have been assaulted by catapults. And such was the stench that rose from the houses by reason of the filth of the town that it tortured the bodies just as much as fear tortured the souls so that it became clear to the Danes that the inhabitants could not have endured a siege. So that, knowing their unhappy lot they no longer wondered that the townspeople had so quickly surrendered.”
Rugievit & the Swallows
“The biggest of the temples had its holiest place/shrine in its middle and that place, just as the temple itself, had curtains in place of walls and the ceiling was supported only by columns.. Absolon’s men needed, therefore, only to tear down the curtain around the foyer before taking on those covering the shrine. When they were torn down, there appeared statue made of oak embodying the God that was called Rugievit and who, in all respects, made for a disgusting and laughable sight. Thus, swallows built nests under his face and cast a great deal of their excrement down its bosom. Yes, indeed, this God had undoubtedly earned it that his statue should be so repulsively befouled by the birds.”
[note to reader: the Slavic word for swallow is jaskolka/jaskolec and to kill it was considered bad luck, for example, in Pomerania, as late as the early 20th century. It is noteworthy too that jas-kolka features the prefix jas i.e., yas]
“He had seven human faces gathered under a common head, the sculptor having given him seven different swords which hung in their sheaths on one belt and the eight one he held in his outstretched right hand; he was so firmly attached with an iron rivet that it was impossible to pull it out without chopping off the arm, which is also what happened. He [the statue] was of unnatural girth and so tall that Absalon, standing on his toes, could barely touch his chin [or beard] with the little axe that he used to hold in his hand. According to their [Rugians’] belief, this God had the strength as if of Mars, and they maintained that he governed war. And there was nothing in this statue that one could look at with pleasure for he was unshapely and ugly.”
“The Danes began then, to the horror of the entire city, to chop their axes with all their might at his legs and when they were cut through, the whole body fell on the ground with a great crash. When the inhabitants saw this, they spurned the powerlessness of their God and their veneration they exchanged for contempt.”
Onto Porevit & Porenut
“Those warriors who were not satisfied to merely cast him [Rugievit] down took on the statue of Porevit, whose worship took place in the next temple, with an even greater enthusiasm. This one had five heads but no weapons. When he had been cut to pieces, they then went to the temple of Porenut. This God had four faces and one additional one that was placed on his breast. He held it [that face] by the forehead with his left hand, while with the right he held up its [the face’s] chin. This one too fell under the axe blows of the servants of Absalon.”
Righteous Fury & Local Concerns
“Absalon now ordered the inhabitants to burn down these statues but they begged him to free them from this task and that he should have mercy for the overcrowded city and did not put them at risk of dying in a fire just as he had spared them from death by the sword for if the fire were to spread and if any house were to catch on fire then, without a doubt, the whole city would turn to ashes for the houses were standing so close to one another. So he ordered them to pull it out of the city but they [the townsfolk] were not eager and they justified their lack of enthusiasm by superstition for they feared that the God will want to punish them with infirmity of those limbs that they would have used to carry out such an order. Absalon explained to them that the power of [this] God was in fact not great if he could not have helped himself and they became hopeful that they could avoid punishment and they rushed to fulfill his order.”
“Indeed, it was no wonder that they were afraid of the might of these Gods for they only had to think of how often they were punished for their licentiousness/debauchery. For when men of the town had been with women, it chanced that, as with dogs, that they could not again separate and one found them sometimes hung on a pole [this may be a reference to not being withdraw from a (sinful) coitus] to the amusement of others. By reason of this repulsive sign, that in reality is of the satan’s making, did they venerate these pathetic statues and believed that it was a sign of their might.”
Bishop Svend Takes it Up a Notch
“So as to even better demonstrate to them how worthy of contempt were these statues, Bishop Svend stood on one of them when the inhabitants were pulling it out of the city whereby he not only added to the weight that they had to pull but also increased the disgrace. Not only did he give these people more to pull but also he increased their shame being a foreign priest and trampling on the Gods of their ancestors.”
While Absalon is Doing Christ’s Work
“While Svend took on this task, Absalon sanctified three cemeteries in nearby fields and came back only in the evening to Charenza. When the idols/statues had been burned down, he went together with Jaromir and reached the fleet late at night where he urged [them] to supper together. Absalon had not slept three nights in a row and all this wakefulness was showing in his eyes such that he saw virtually nothing.”
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