We come at last to our journey’s (almost) end with Saxo’s description of the bittersweet partings of the best of friends:
Baptisms, Pomeranian Downers and Cold-Hard Cash
“On the morrow of the next day, there gathered learned men and chaplains of all the commanders in their holy robes and baptized the people of the country and likewise in many places they erected churches and so the houses of the lord were created in place of these abandoned ruins. On the same day too the remaining hostages were accepted.”
“At the same time the Pomeranian dukes demanded to be released home and, after they had been friends of the King, they left in anger for they counted on Tetzlav being dethroned and that they should themselves rule Rugia in recognition of their war service. Thereafter, this became the source of a long running war between them and the Danes.”
“In the evening, the Danes raised anchor and they sailed to that island which was closest to land. Here the Rugians delivered to the King seven chests of the same great size full of money which [previously] were offerings to their Gods. When this was done, the King ordered it be announced that now people could return home.”
Rugian Nobles are sad to see Absalon return to Denmark
Absalon’s Thoughts Are Always with the People of Rugia
“When Absalon returned to Denmark, he sent new priests to Rugia and those who he had left there, he ordered to be recalled. These new ones took with them not only priestly garb but also foodstuffs so that they should not burden those whom they were to teach Christianity by ordering them to provide for them [the priests]. And miracles were not lacking there to confirm their teachings, for many of the Rugians that were feeble and ailing were brought back to health by their fervent prayers which, I believe, God caused more to convince the people than by reason of any holiness of the priests. But those that rejected Christianity were punished with great feebleness so that it was clear that God rewarded those who accepted his word and punished those that made light of it.”
On Ordeals of Iron
“There happened there too a famous miracle that has never till then been heard of. A certain woman unjustly accused by her husband of adultery was a required to undertake a trial of iron and then the iron that he was supposed to have carried, suddenly hovered on it own in the air as if it tried to avoid touching her innocent arm and it followed her in the distance wherever she went and when she came close to the altar where she was supposed to have dropped in [in the trial of iron], it fell on its own to the ground to the reverent wonderment of all those present. This occurrence not only brought honor back to the accused woman but also those who saw this happen were fortified in their faith and truly one cannot say that this woman – who must have had an unusually great faith in the purity of her spirit and body – acted recklessly by submitting to this trial so as to establish her innocence.”
Old Men Do Not Go To War
“When, even after Rugia had been conquered, all the waters of the [Danish] Kingdom continued to be harassed by pirates, the Danes wisely decided that they should count the entire fleet and that every fourth boat should patrol the waters for so long as the season allowed it and those that did this all the time saved work for all the others who would have had to instead perform it. The Danes, namely, were able to achieve now with fewer people [the patrollers] who were constantly at sea, the same as previously in their great but sporadic expeditions. It was decided that for this task there should be chosen young men, without wives yet, so that their longing for their wives did not weaken their war bravery and zeal. They received Absalon and Christoffer as commanders and they were not satisfied merely to patrol the internal waters but also visited the coasts of Rugia and the various bays of the land of the Liutizi.”
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