Of the North Suavi

After the death of Charles Martel, the Merovingian dynasty was pretty much already extinguished.  However, the final coup de grace was delivered not by Martel but his son Pepin the Short (Charlamagne’s father) with the tonsure of Childeric III, the last Merovingian King.    With the aid of the then Pope, Pepin took the Frankish crown himself in 751.  Before that happened, Pepin outmaneuvered his brothers – the older one Carloman (who, apparently willingly, retired to become a monk in 746) and his younger half-brother Grifo (who had been previously imprisoned by Carloman but escaped in 747).  By 754 Childeric, Grifo and Carloman were dead (though apparently only Grifo of causes unnatural).

Speaking of Grifo.  He appears, after his escape, at some point to have run to the Saxons.  And this is where things get interesting.  He heads north and is followed by Pepin’s forces.  This is partly described in, e.g.:

The Continuations of the Fredegar Chronicle (CFR)

(part III, probably by Hildebrand)

The CFR text is as follows in the relevant portion (31):

“In the same year [in which Carlomann stepped down – 746], the Saxons, [as was their custom, broke the faith which they had given his brother [i.e., Pippin’s brother Carloman] and tried to tell lies.   For this reason, he was forced to [intercept] them by sending an army.  Also the Kings of the Wends or [and?] the [Frisians] unanimously/with one voice came to help him.  When the Saxons saw that they were gripped by common fear.  After many of them [Saxons] were cut down and [many] sent to exile and their countries were burned with flames, they sued for peace as in the ancient times, in the reign of Clothar (Chlotar I, to whom the Saxons paid 500 cows for rebelling against him) and promised to pay us all that was owed us.  And many of them seeing that they were unable to withstand the might of the Franks, deprived of their strength, demanded the sacraments of Christianity [i.e., “demanded” to be converted].”

(Eodem anno Saxones, more consueto, fidem quam germano suo promiserant, mentiri conati sunt.  Qua de causa, adento exercitu, eos praevenire compulsus est; cui etiam reges Winidorum seu Frisionum/Frigionum ad auxiliandum uno animo convenerunt.  Quod videntes Saxones, consueto timore compulsi, multi ex eis iam trucidatis, et in captivitate missis, regionibus eorum igneque concrematis, pacem petentes, iure Francorum sese, ut antiquitus mos fuerat, subdiderunt: et ea tributa quae Chlotario quondam praestiterant, plenissima solutione ab eo tempore deinceps esse reddituros promiserunt.  Ex quibus plurima multitudo videntes se contra impetum Francorum rebellare non posse, propriis viribus destituti, petierunt sibi Christianitatis sacramenta conferre.)

Thus, we have a reference to the Kings of the Wends or (and?) of the Frisians.  That, in and of itself is of interest.  But there is more.  

For one, as can be seen, the above does not mention Grifo.  For Grifo’s connection to the Saxons we have to look at, e.g.:

The Earlier Annals of Metz (Annales Mettenses Priores) (AMP)

The AMP text goes as follows:

“In the same year, Pepin gathered his armies in the town of Duria [Dueren].  He [also] held a synod there to build the church and to improve the condition of the poor, the widows and the orphans and to pass justice.  Grippo [Grifo], however, who had been held in the custody of brotherly affection, filled with tyrannical pride fled with many a noble, and passing over the Rhine [?], came to Saxony.  And many young Frankish nobles followed [him].”

(Hoc anno Pippinus placitum suum habuit in villa quae dicitur Duria.  In qua sinodum congregare iussit pro ecclesiarum restauratione et causis pauperum viduarumque et orphanorum corrigendis iusticiisque faciendis.  Grippo vero, quem de custodia fraterno affectu Pippinus solverat, tirannico fastu multos sibi nobilium sociavit et fuga lapsus, Rethnum transiens, in Saxoniam venit.  Quem plurimi iuvenes ex nobili genere Francorum inconstantia ducti, proprium dominum relinquentes, Gripponem subsecuti sunt.)

“Pepin gathered his armies and entered Thuringia and Saxony and arrived with a firm hand at the ends of the Saxons who are called North Swebians [Suevians].  There he met the dukes of the Slavs, a rough people who came united/with one mind to help him against the Saxons, all valiant warriors [who could fight] as if they were one hundred thousand.  Saxons who are called North Swebians [Suevians] were broken, subjugated and brought under his [Pepin’s] control.  Many were baptized by priests and converted to the Christian faith.  At this time he [Pepin] took the castle called Hocseburgh [Hoohseoburg, Hohseoburg, Ocsioburg] and the Franks caught the treacherous Theodoric the Saxon [duke of Saxony] for the third time now [previously, Pepin and Carloman defeated Theodoric in 743 and again in 744].  From there he reached the river which is called the Obacra [German Ocker, Slavic Okra] and set up camp on the same river.  he Saxons with Grifo were camped on the other [right] side [of the river] and they and the Franks were set waiting.  But at night, those who thought they were not [least?] able to defend [?] fled the camp.  And Pepin, went with his army destroyed their towns and villages and for forty days he ravaged almost all Saxony and  thereafter he returned as victor to his own lands.”

(Pippinus vero adunato exercitu per Toringiam ad Saxoniam venit et in fines Saxonum quos Nordosquavos vocant cum valida manu intravit.  Ibi duces gentis asperae Sclavorum in occursum eius venerunt, unianimiter auxilium sibi contra Saxones ferre parati, pugnatores quasi C milia.  Saxones vero qui Nordosuavi vocantur sub suam ditionem subactos contritosque subegit, ex quibus plurimi per manus sacerdotum baptizati ad fidem Christianam conversi sunt.  In eodem itinere cepit castrum quod vocatur Hocseburgh et perfidum Theodericum Saxonem tertia iam vice a Francis captum conprehendit.  Inde proficiscens pervenit ad fluvium quod dicitur Obacra [Ocker] et castrametatus est iuxta ripam eiusdem fluminis.  Saxones vero cum Grippone ex alia ripa erant, ubi maximam inter se et Francos firmitatem statuerunt.  Sed dum eos eadem firmitas minime defendere posse arbitrati sunt, per noctem fuga lapsi castra desruerunt.  Pippinus vero cum exercitu suo totam pene Saxoniam per dies quadraginta vastavit et castella eorum destruxit, indeque victor remeavit ad propria.)  

So, once again, as with the Danubian Suevi, we have an intersection of the Slavs and the Suevi.  Here, there are no Wends and no Frigians/Frisians either (as opposed to the above text of CFR) but Slavs.  

A much the same story is also told in:

The Royal Frankish Annals (RFA)

where, under year 747, we read that (we do not include a Latin version as these passages do not mention the Slavs, Wends or Suevi so are given here for context only):

“Grifo fled to Saxony, and Pepin entered Saxony through Thuringia, going as far as the River Meissau [elsewhere, Missaha] near Schoeningen [elsewhere Scahaningi].  Grifo joined the Saxons on the River Oker near Ohrum.”

And in the revised version of the RFA, we read also:

“Grifo, Carloman’s and Pepin’s brother, did mot want to be under the thumb of his brother Pepin, although he held an honorable place.  He gathered a handful of men and fled to Saxony.  In Saxony he raised an army of natives and positioned himself on the River Oker near Ohrum.  But Pepin marched through Thuringia with the Frankish host, entered Saxony in spite of his brother’s machinations, and positioned himself on the River Meissau [elsewhere, Missaha] near Schoeningen [elsewhere Scahaningi].  Nevertheless, there was no battle between them; instead, they separated after making a treaty.”

The Annals of Fulda

The North Suevi are also mentioned in the Annals of Fulda, under the year 852:

“From here he [King Louis] went through the lands of the Angrians, the Harudi, the Suabians and the Hochseegau… and came to Thuringia.”

So Where Are We With All Of This?

Who were these Suevi?  And were they Suevi in the sense that history currently understand them?

MGH says these were Suevi who lived in the Suevon district (gau) between the Rivers Saale (Solawa) and Bode (Boda) (Suevi  in  pago  Suevon (‘  Nordschwabengau ‘),  inter  Salam  et Badam, habitants).  Their main seat was around Aschersleben (whether the oak in the coat of arms was really originally an Eschen/Jesion/Ash/Fraxinus we leave for the readers to investigate – for our discussion of the God Jassa – see here).

What were the borders of this Gau?  Most commentary suggests, as mentioned above, the River Bode (Boda) on the North, the River Saale (Solawa) on the East and the upper River Wipper (elsewhere Wippra – Wypra?) on the South.  However, some commentary suggests that the Suevi reached all the way to the River Unstrut (Unstruta).

There is a problem with that last piece of information since that would have infringed on the alleged Frisians’ Gau.  Frisians in Ostphalia?  Well, yes, we are told that these were Frisians from the (much later) Thuringian district/Gau Frisonovelt (between the Wipper and the Unstrut).

And what about the Wends or Slavs?  These, apparently, lived in the district/Gau of Winidengo (Winnethahuson).  This district was very much West of the Elbe and indeed West of the Saale as well.

Based on this commentary we tried to replicate the locations in Thuringia of all these peoples.  Below you have a map with the borders of Thuringia:

• the red squares represent the locations of the Suevi;
• the blue circles show where the Frisian allies of Pepin resided as per the commentary on these events;
• the yellow squares show the Slav towns of district Winidengo; and
• the red star is Schoeningen [elsewhere Scahaningi] where the battle between the Saxons and the Franks almost took place.

Oh, we almost forgot.

• The yellow circles are (some of the) Slavic town names where the Slavs are known to have resided around the area of the events in question.

You will note that all of these are on the left (West) bank of the Elbe.  In fact, the Slavs were present between the Elbe and the Saale as shown in more detail here.  Enjoy the zoom:

So in the middle there we had a mysterious group of Suevi (fighting for the Saxons).  But all around we had Slavs.  But there is more.  The following is from August von Wersebe’s Beschreibung der Gaue zwischen Elbe, Saale und Unstrut, Weser und Werra or the “Description of the Districts Between the Elbe, Saale and Unstrut, Weser and Werra” from the year 1829:

 

In a 937 gift of King Otto I to the Quedlinburg (nuns’) abbey (cloister?) (don’t we all just love presents?), the following towns are apparently listed (among others) – we include also their subsequent names:

• Merselevo (Marsleben);

• Uttislevo (Ussleben);

• Waldislevo (Weddersleben);

The same is confirmed in the Codex Diplomaticus Anhaltinus, Volume 1:

And here is where those were (see the yellowish houses):

(BTW, if you think these names are interesting – take a look at this listing from Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann’s Altdeutsches namenbuch – zweiter band Ortsnamen (just some highlights dotted in):

It, thus, seems that many a -leben suffix is really a – levo in the original.  Now, no doubt, much of this can be explained by references to water (which brings us too to the Swebi but that’s a topic for another post) but it nonetheless all sounds strangely familiar).

Now, getting back to the current topic, it seems that our Suevi del Norte seem to have been  surrounded by Slavs in all, or almost all, directions.  But we know that they were Suevi, right?  How did they get there? The standard answer to this hearkens back to Gregory of Tours and Paul the Deacon.  The usual answer is that they were settled there by the Frankish King Clothar I  (same one as with the sheep above) or, more likely (to fit the timeline of Lombards entering Italy in 568), by his successor Sigibert.  The Suevi settled in places previously held by the Saxons but which had been vacated by the Saxons when these particular Saxons (friends of the Lombards, from the latter’s days on the Elbe?) went down to give the Lombards a hand in Italy (hence, presumably, at or after 568).

We present the relevant passages below.  Note, however, that nowhere does it say where these Suevi came from.  Must they have come from Swabia?  Perhaps, instead, from Pannonia (the Danube Suevi)?  Or perhaps the below Suevi/Suavi have nothing to do with our North Suevi?

There is too the interesting fact that all of this is around the town of Quedlinburg – the alleged place of origin (?) of the very Suevic Quadi (yes, Quedlin- burg but never mind the Slavic -in ending, we are told) so, if the Quadi were Suevi, which seems to be the case, and if Quedlinburg is really related to the Quadi, then, why must the Suevi be shipped from somewhere else to get to Quedlinburg?

And, in any event, where else were there Suevi?

Gregory of Tours History of the Franks (Book V, Chapter 15)

“Inasmuch as Clothar and Sigibert had settled the Suevi and other tribes on their land when Albin had gone to Italy, they who returned in the time of Sigibert, namely the men who had been with Albin rose against them, wishing to thrust them out from that country and destroy them.  But they offered the Saxons a third of the land, saying: ‘We can live together without interfering with one another.’ But the Saxons were angry at them because they had themselves held this land before and they were by no means willing to be pacified.  Then the Suevi made them a second offer of a half and then of two-thirds, leaving one-third for themselves.  And when the Saxons refused this, they offered all their flocks and herds with the land, provided only they would refrain from attacking them. But they would not agree even to this and demanded battle. And before the battle, thinking that they had the Suevi already as good as slain, they discussed among themselves how they should divide their wives and what each should receive after their defeat.  But God’s mercy which does justice turned their thoughts another way. For when they fought there were 26,000 Saxons of whom 20,000 fell and of the Suevi 6000 of whom 480 only were laid low; and the remainder won the victory. The Saxons who were left took oath that they would cut neither beard nor hair until they had taken vengeance on their adversaries. But when they fought again they were defeated with greater loss and so the war was ended.”

Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards (Book 2 Chapter 6)

Qualiter Saxones agros dividunt, et quia triformi genere ac lege vivunt

“Saxones igitur possessa terra summa pace quieverunt, societate Francorum atque amicitia usi. Parte quoque agrorum cum amicis auxiliariis vel manumissis distributa, reliquias pulsae gentis tributis condempnaverunt. Unde usque hodie gens Saxonica triformi genere ac lege preter conditionem servilem dividitur. A tribus etiam principibus totius gentis ducatus administrabatur, certis terminis exercitus congregandi potestate contenti, quos suis locis ac vocabulis novimus signatos, in orientales scilicet populos, Angarios atque Westfalos. Si autem universale bellum ingruerit, sorte eligitur, cui omnes obedire oportuit, ad administrandum inminens bellum. Quo peracto, aequo iure ac lege propria contentus potestate unusquisque vivebat. De legum vero varietate nostrum non est in hoc libello disserere, cum apud plures inveniatur lex Saxonica diligenter descripta. Suavi vero Transbadani/Transalbini illam quam incolunt regionem eo tempore invaserunt, quo Saxones cum Longobardis Italiam adierunt, ut eorum narrat historia, et ideo aliis legibus quam Saxones utuntur. Igitur Saxones variam fidem Francorum experti, de quibus nobis non est dicendum, cum in eorum gestis inveniatur scriptum, paterno errore obligati usque ad tempora Karoli Magni perdurabant.”

The North Suevi are also mentioned by the Frankish King Theudebert, the Merovingian ruler (533-547/548) of Austrasia, in his letter to Emperor Justinian (Duchesne I, 862) but here the reference is to Norsavorum – as in the Sava River:

“Norsavorum (Nordsuavorum?) gentis bobus placata majestas colla subdidit.”

So that’s it for now.

P.S. Did we mention that the word sąsědъ/sąsiad/sused/soused (“neighbor” in Slavic languages) may be derived from the Slavic word for Saxon, i.e., Sas? – literally, sąsědъ, the one (Sas) who sits next [to us].

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