Here we present entries related to Slavs (or of interest to Slavs, see 889 regarding the name “Germany” – similar word play again to germs/spores) from the less known Chronicle of Regino of Prüm (circa 840 – 915) and from the Continuation of the same Chronicle by Adalbert of Magdeburg (910 – 981). The translation and annotations are by Simon MacLean.
Book I
605-611
…King Dagobert fought with the Slavs and overcame them. At that time a dux named Samo ruled over them. He also restrained the rebellious Gascons with the sword. The Huns and Bulgars joined in battle among themselves. The Huns defeated the Bulgars. Utterly defeated and driven from Pannonia, nine thousand with their wives and children appealed to King Dagobert for land they needed to live on. The king ordered that they be received in scattered houses in Bavaria for the winter, and one nigh he ordered them all to be killed together with their wives and children…
Book II
860
In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 860, Eigil voluntarily renounced the abbacy of Prüm, and Ansbald, a man notable in all sanctity and goodness, succeeded him in command. In these times the elder Louis [the German], brother of Emperor Lothar [I], very strenuously prosecuted many wars against the Slavic peoples. Accordingly, he invaded the lands of the Moravians and completely tamed everything by force of arms, capturing their leader Rastiz and ordering his eyes to be gouged out for violating treaties…
876
…After this, the three aforementioned brothers met in the place called Schwaifeld, and there they divided the paternal kingdom. Karlmann received Bavaria, Pannonia and Carnuntum [Carinthia], which in bad style is called Carantanum, and also the realms of the Slavs, Bohemians and Moravians. Louis got east Francia, Thuringia, Saxony, Frisoia and part of Lothar’s kingdom. To Charles’s portion fell Alemnania and some cities in the kingdom of Lothar.
880
In the year of the Lord’ incarnation 880, King Karlmann ended his last day on 22 March after a decline into paralysis. He was buried with due honour in Bavaria, in the place called Altoetting. That most excellent king was learned in letters, dedicated to the Christian religion, just. peace-loving, and in all of his habits adorned with probity. The beauty of his body was extraordinary, and his strength too was remarkable; no less so was his greatness of his spirit. In fact he fought very many battles together with his father, and still more without him, in the lands of the Slavs and always brought back the triumph of victory. He added to and extended thus the borders of his kingdom with the sword. He appeared mild to his own people., terrible to his enemies. He was affable in speech, decorated with humility, and unusually gifted in ordering the affairs of the realm. In short, nothing which was appropriate to royal majesty seemed to lack in him…
…When Louis [the Younger] heard that his brother had died, he went to Bavaria and came to Regensburg, where all the leading men of the kingdom flocked to him and put themselves under his command. The king conceded Carinthia to Arnulf because his father had already conceded it to him.; there lies the very well defended stronghold of Moosburg, so called because of the impenetrable bog which surrounds it and offers very difficult entry to those who approach it.
889
…This is why such great numbers of peoples spring up under the northern skies, so that it is quite correct to call that entire region from the Don to the west by the general name of Germany, though individual places in it also have their own names. Because Germany is so populous, innumerable groups of captives are often taken from there and sold to southern peoples for money. Peoples have frequently led this region because it produces so many human beings that there re barely enough resources to feed them. These groups have afflicted Asia, but mainly they have troubled adjacent parts of Europe. Ruined cities throughout Illyricum and Gail testify to this, but a hove all unhappy Italy has experienced the savagery of almost all of these peoples.
The Hungarians were thus driven from their home in these lands by a neighboring people called the Petchenegs, because they were superior to them in strength and number and because, as we said before, their own country was not sufficient to accommodate their swelling numbers.
After they had been forced to flee by the violence of the Petchenegs, they said goodbye to their homeland and set out to look for lands where they could live and establish settlements. First they roamed the wildernesses of the Pannonians and the Avars, and sought their daily food by hunting and fishing. Then they attacked the lands of the Carinthians, Moravians and Bulgars with the infestation of constant raids, killing a very few with the sword and many thousands with arrows, which they fire from their bows made of horn with such skill that it is almost impossible to avoid being hit by them…
890
In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 890, King Arnulf gave the command [ducats] of the Bohemians to King Zwentibald of the Moravian Slavs. Hitherto, the Bohemians had rulers from among their own kind and people, and had kept the fidelity they promised to the kings of the Franks by inviolable agreement. Arnulf did this because, before he had been raised to the throne of the kingdom, he had been joined to Zwentibald in close friendship. In fact, he raised from the holy font Arnulf’s son, who was born to him by a concubine, and named him Zwentibald after him. This matter [the granting of Bohemia to Zwentibald of Moravia] provided a considerable stimulus for discord and defections. For the Bohemians, on the one hand, withdrew the fealty that they had long kept, and Zwentibald, on the other, believing himself to have gained considerable strength through that acquisition of another realm and puffed up with the arrogance of price, rebelled against Arnulf. When Arnulf learned about this reinvaded the Moravian realm and razed everything outside the cities to the ground. Finally, because even the fruit trees were being uprooted, Zwentibald asked for peace and, having given his son as a hostage, belatedly gained it…
891
…While this [invasion by the Northmen] was going on, King Arnulf was staying in the furthermost parts of Bavaria, restraining the insolence of the Slavs…
892
…At that same time Arn, the venerable bishop of Wuerzburg, set out to fight the Slavs at the urging and encouragement of Poppo dux of the Thuringians, and was killed in battle [July 13]. Count Conrad’s brother Rudolf gained his seat and succeeded him as bishop. Arnulf granted some of Count Megingoz’s offices to his son Zwentibald…”
894
…Also around this time Zwentibald king of the Moravian Slavs, a man most prudent among his people and very cunning by nature, ended his final day. His sons held his kingdom for a short and unhappy time, because the Hungarians utterly destroyed everything in it.*
* Moimir and Zwentopulk. By 906 the Hungarians encouraged by the Franks, had effectively destroyed Moravian power.
Adalbert’s Continuation
907
The Bavarians fought the Hungarians, and many were cut down with a great slaughter. In this battle dux Liutpold [of Bavaria] was killed. His son Arnulf succeeded him in the command [ducatus]*
* The Battle of Bratislava was a major defeat for the Franks.
921
…Meanwhile King Henry strongly persisted in stabilizing peace and restraining the savagery of the Slavs.
928
King Henry attacked the Bohemians with hostile intent and with God’s aid he courageously conquered them. At that time a son named William was born to the same king’s son Otto…
931
King Henry made the king of the Abodrites and the king of the Danes into Christians…
934
King Henry cut the Hungarians down with a great slaughter, and took even more prisoner. In that same year he attacked the Slavs called Vucrani with hostile intent; he defeated them and made them his tributaries…
950
…In the same year Boleslaw, ruler of the Bohemians, rebelled against the king, who went against him with a very strong force and enforced his lordship completely…
955
The Hungarians came forth with such a great multitude that they said they could not be defeated by anyone unless the earth swallow them up or the sky fell and crushed the them. With God’s support they were defatted at the River Lech by the army of the kings with so great a slaughter that never before among our people was such a victory heard of or accomplished. Conrad, the former dux, was killed there. When he had returned from there there king sent his army against the Slavs, where he won a similar victory and struck them down with a great massacre.* Wichmann was expelled. The king’s brother Henry, after recovering from his desperate situation and receiving the dukedom of Bavaria, died. The pious king gave the ducats and the march to Henry’s son Henry. The king’s son Otto [future Otto II] was born.
* The Battle of Recknitz (October 16), at which Otto defatted the Abodrites and their allies.
957
The king attacked the Slavs [Redarii] again…
958
…In that same year, by the doing of Archbishop Brun’s faction, Count Reginar was captured and sent into exile among the Slavs…
959
The king invaded the Slavs again, and Thietmar was killed there.*
*Presumably Otto’s battle against Slavs led by Wichmann the Younger during the previous year.
962
…Their sons Adalbert and Guy wandered aimlessly here and there, but they along with their followers still possessed certain fortifications, namely the strongholds at Garda* and Val Travaglia, and an island on Lake Como…
* notice the Slavic (?) Garda near Lake Como. For Jesen in the area see here.
963
…Back home the Slavs called Lausitzer were also subdued.
965
…In the meantime Bishop Guy of Modena approached the emperor in Saxony on a mission for Adalbert, pretending with fox-like cunning to be loyal to the emperor and boasting that he would betray those who were unfaithful. But he did not share in the emperor’s presence or conversation. Instead, after he had been allowed to return home in shame, he was arrested int he Alps on the other side of Chur and, after being sent back to Saxony, wass placed in custody among the Slavs.
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