Category Archives: Polabians

Bertha the Soon-To-Be Queen of the Franks and Her Muslim Diplomacy with Suavic Presents

PublishedMay 3, 2019 Post authortorino

Bertha (circa 863 – 868 – March 925) was the (second) illegitimate daughter of Lothair II, King of Lotharingia by his concubine Waldrada. Though born in suspect circumstances she landed on her feet and became countess of Arles by marriage to Theobald of Arles (who died in 895). After that she became margravine of the mark of Tuscany by marriage (sometime between 895 and 898) to Adalbert II (the Rich!) of Tuscany. After Adalbert’s death in the year 915, she then served as regent of Lucca and Tuscany until 916 (during the minority of her son Guy of Tuscany).

In 906 she appears to have written a letter (claiming to be the Queen of the Franks!), via a captured eunuch from the realm of the Aghlabids of Ifriqiyah, to Caliph al-Muktafi (the same whose army sacked Thessalonica in 904) while showering him with presents and, it seems though this is uncertain, asking to set her up (when Adalbert was still alive!?) with the Aghlabid Emir of Sicily. She was apparently convinced that al-Muktafi could make that happen notwithstanding the fact that the Abbasid Caliphate, though nominally in control, did not have much sway with the Aghlabids of Ifriqiyah (Tunisia) and who controlled Sicily at the time (they fell to the Fatimids soon after). In any event, the embassy reached the Caliph where the letter, after some heavy lifting, was translated by the Caliph’s folks (first from Latin into Greek with which the Moors were familiar and, it seems, only then, into Arabic).

We apparently had no knowledge of Bertha’s activities until the letter’s discovery in 1951 (in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey) and publication in 1953 by Muhammad Hamidullah (“An Embassy of Queen Bertha to the Caliph al-Muktafi billah”). The letter was part of a larger work Kitab al-dhakha’ir wa’l-tuhaf, written by Qadi al-Rashid ibn al-Zubayr (Zubayri) which was published by Hamidullah in 1959. That work, dealing mostly with treasures obtained in various ways by Muslim rulers also contains several interesting examples of Western-Eastern correspondence. Not much is known about Zubayr though he was not an eyewitness to these embassies as he was likely an official in Cairo much later the 1060s/1070s (as per the French Ukrainian historian/archeologist Oleg Grabar). (Though mention of Bertha’s correspondence is also made by ibn al-Nadim in the 10th century).

So what does this have to do with Suavs? Well, the letter itemizes Bertha’s presents for the Caliph in detail and among those we find both Suavic eunuchs and Suavic slave girls.

A bit of uncertainty prevails, however, regarding whether the gifts were ever actually sent for there is another version of the below letter from which we learn that the gifts may have stayed home since the eunuch feared being intercepted by the Ifriqiyahs, his former masters. This other version is found in “The Life of al-Muktafi” which also contains the Caliph’s response to Bertha (along the lines of “with all due respect, I know you are not any Queen of the Franks”) as well as information about the return of the eunuch’s embassy to Bertha – it seems that the eunuch did not survive the return journey. The Caliph al-Muktafi also did not live much longer. Bertha, apparently, outlasted them all. What happened to the Suavs and which Suavic tribe they belonged to we will likely never know.

Note that the letter somehow seems to have escaped Lewicki’s team’s notice and is not found in his compendium of Arab and Muslim sources on the Suavs.

Here is the letter:

“In the name of God the merciful and gracious. May God protect you from all your enemies, o’ king excellent in authority and powerful in lordship, secure your kingdom and you healthy in body and soul.

I Bertha, daughter of Lothar, queen of all the Franks (!), I salute you my lord king. There was friendship between me and the king of Ifriqiyah for until now I did not suspect that there was a greater king than him on Earth. My ships having gone out took the ships of the king of Ifriqiyah whose commander was a eunuch named Ali: I took him prisoner together with one hundred and fifty men who were with him on three ships and they remained held by me for seven years. I found him to be intelligent and a quick study and he informs me that you are king over all [Muslim] kings; and though many people had visited my kingdom, no one had told me the truth of you except this eunuch that [now] brings my letter to you. I have sent with him gifts of various things that are found my country to honor you and obtain your friendship; they consist of the following:

fifty swords
fifty shields
fifty spears (of the type used by the Franks)
twenty gold-woven robes
twenty Suavic eunuchs
twenty beautiful and graceful Suavic slave girls– ten great dogs against which no other beasts can stand
seven hawks
seven sparrow hawks
a silk pavilion with the associated apparatus
twenty woolen garments produced from a shell extracted from the seabed in these parts, with iridescent colors like those of the rainbow, changing colors throughout the day
three birds (from the land of the Franks) who, if they see poisoned food and drink, throw a horrible scream and flap their wings, so that that circumstance becomes known
glass beads that painlessly draw arrows and spearheads, even if the flesh has grown around it.

He [the eunuch Ali] informed me that there is friendship between you and the king of the Byzantines who resides in Constantinople. But my rule is greater and my armies more numerous, for my lordship comprises twenty-four kingdoms, each of which has a different language from that of the kingdom that is near it, and in my kingdom is the city of Rome the Great. God be praised.

He told me about you and that your matters are proceeding well, filling my heart with satisfaction as I ask God to help me obtain your friendship and an agreement between us for however many years I remain alive: whether that happens depends on you. This agreement is a thing that no one in my family, in my clan or in my lineage has ever sought; no one had ever informed me about your armies and the splendor in which you find yourself until this eunuch that I sent to you so informed me.

Now then, oh Lord, by the grace of God, may great well-being be upon you.

Write to me about your well-being and all that you need most from my kingdom and from my country through this eunuch All. Do not keep him by your side, so that he can [return and] bring me your answer. I await his arrival. I also entrusted him with a secret he will tell you when he sees your face and hears your words, so that this secret may remain between us, since I do not want anyone to know of it except for you, me and this here eunuch.

May God’s most great health be upon you and yours and may God humble your enemies and make your feet trample upon them.

Salutations!”

The Sclavi Cubicularii in the Life of John of Gorze

PublishedApril 26, 2019 Post authortorino

John of Gorze was born at Vandières, France to a wealthy family. In 933 he became a Benedictine monk at the Gorze Abbey near Metz (Gorze is a roughly between Metz and Vandières). In 953, John was sent as an ambassador for Emperor Otto I to the Caliph Abd-al-Rahman III of Córdoba.

Reception area in the Córdoba palace

Let’s first give some historical context as this is a bit complicated.

It was a challenging time in Spain with the Moors, having defeated the weak Visigothic state, occupying most of the country and trying to use it as a base to further spread their influence into Europe. It seems that Rahman’s people were raiding Frankish lands from a base at Fraxinetum (La Garde-Freinet on the Côte d’Azur?). Therefore, in 950 the Frankish Emperor Otto I sent an embassy to the Caliph to complain. Rahman then sent a reply but apparently the “terms of the letter were highly offensive to Christianity” and, as a result the Caliph’s emissaries were held in Germany for three years.

In 953, the Emperor eventually released them. They left back for Córdoba but now accompanied by the monk John of Gorze along with his fellow monk, Garamannus. The monks carried Otto’s response to the Caliph. This was a letter prepared by Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne (and Otto’s brother). The letter was, apparently, insulting to Islam. Since John knew the contents, he seems to have understood his embassy more like a suicide mission. Being a fanatical monk, he may have hoped for martyrdom. The embassy reached Córdoba in 953 or 954.

After John’s embassy arrived at Córdoba with the letter (as well as gifts for the Caliph), John was at first forced to deal not with the Caliph but with the Caliph’s plenipotentiary, the local vezir Hasdai bin Shaprut (yes, the same Hasdai of the Gebalim letter fame) whose mission was to investigate the contents of the imperial response before it was presented to the Caliph. In effect, the Muslim ruler, knowing that he pissed Otto off, did not want have Otto’s reply be read in public. John eventually disclosed the letters to Hasdai who urged him not to deliver the letter to the Caliph. John, however, was steadfast stating it seems that the presents that Otto sent could not be delivered without the letter having been given to the Caliph first. It seems that the Muslims were happy to get the gifts but not to have a scandal at the court (the same scandal that Otto apparently had to suffer at the hands of the Moor’s ambassadors).

Presumably as a tit for tat for the Muslim emissaries having been imprisoned by Otto for three years, the Christian embassy was also imprisoned somewhere in the vicinity of the palace for three years until the court dignitaries and the Caliph decided how to deal with the situation. In the meantime, the Caliph’s court Christian, a certain Bishop John (no relation to our John) was sent by his master to sway John of Gorze from delivering the letter. The monk seems to have grown disgusted at the meek nature of his, theoretical, superior and nothing was achieved.

Eventually, John stated that he would do whatever the Emperor told him suggesting that another Moorish embassy be sent to Otto. A local Córdoban court official, perhaps a Visigoth (or, more likely, a Frank), by the name Recemundus (who was a Christian) was sent to Otto for more instructions. He arrived at Gorz in ten weeks and stayed there and in Metz. He was received by Otto in Frankfurt and got further diplomatic missives prepared for Rahman. Recemundus left Frankfurt on Palm Sunday 956 with a companion – Dudo of Verdun – and arrived back at Córdoba in early July 956. Presumably, the new missives were less offensive than the original letter or contained some additional information. In any event, the Caliph eventually deigned to see John and the monk after some further meetings with the Caliph returned to the Frankish realm. He died many years later in 974. Furthermore, Recemundus, as a reward for this and other services was made a bishop in Granada. He was later sent on other missions by the Caliph to Byzantium, Syria and Jerusalem.

We learn the story of the embassy from the Vita of John (Vita Joannis Abbatis Gorziensis) written by his friend, another John, the abbot of the abbey of Saint Arnulph located in Metz. The work was written in the 10th century and is an interesting window into the state of affairs (including the very narrow religious tolerance of the Moors) on the Iberian Peninsula.

What is even more interesting for our purposes is that when John arrives in Córdoba some of the messaging with the Caliph is done by persons described as sclavi cubicularii or, more specifically, to give Pertz’ case sclavos cubicularios. So the question was are these sclavi cubicularii, that is “chamber slaves” or are these Sclavi cubicularii, that is “chamber Suavs.” Since Suavs were sold into Muslim slavery (see here and here and here or in many other places on this website), their name became synonymous with that of “slave” eclipsing the original Latin servus. However, that process took a while and it is not clear when that actually happened. Assuming tenth century authorship of the Life of John of Gorze, that transformation may not yet have taken place. If this is correct, the the slaves are really Suavs, once again, suggesting a significant role for at least some of them in Moorish-occupied Spain. Of course, such Suavs would have been slaves or perhaps, more accurately, servants at the court.

The manuscript was published in print in 1657 by Philippe Labbe in his Novae bibliothecae manuscriptorum librorum (tomus primus). A year later it came out in the Bollandists’ Acta Sanctorum as part of their “February tomus III” volume. Then it was edited by Pertz for the MGH (Monumenta Germaniae Historica). Both Labbe and the Bollandists opted for “Suavs” but Pertz went with “slaves.”

The Latin is essentially the following:

Primoribus ergo illis palatium petentibus, cum regi super hoc per nuntios suggessissent — nam accessus ad eum ipsum clarissimus, et nisi maximum quid ingruerit nullus, tantum litteris per sclauos cubicularios omnia perferuntur — ille nihil eorum ad se perlatum rescribit.

Here is the Labbe edition text:

And the Bolland edition.

And, finally, here is Pertz.

So what does the original look like?

We’ll get to that but for now let’s take a look at the English translation of the relevant fragments dealing with John’s embassy. Most of this is from “Christians and Moors in Spain,” translated and edited by Colin Smith with Charles Peter Melville as well as Ahmad Ubaydli, Warminster, 1988, volume I (text number 14) (as part of “Niceties of diplomacy (953-56)” which was “reprinted with corrections” in 1993. (I also took some of the information shown up above from these Colin Smith fragments and from the lead in to the same translation). Note that the Smith translation calls Gorze, Görz (German spelling) and calls Córdoba, Cordova – I kept each of those spellings.

[It seems that the contents of Otto’s letter were leaked by a certain priest before the embassy’s (and the returning Rahman emissaries’) arrival and various local court officials managed to intercept the embassy and tried to sway it to turn back. Unfortunately for them, they then stopped to dally in Saragossa and were overtaken by John with his letter who, with this companions, entered Córdoba ahead of them.]

(120) As a result, [the nobles] having deliberated among themselves to determine whether this had [already] come to the attention of the Caliph, and being unable to assure themselves of this, they decided to inform the same [that is the Caliph] of this fact.

It should be noted that the law by which they [Muslims] are governed is so strict, that that which once is imposed as a precept to entire nation, cannot be annulled in any way, and binds equally the Caliph and the people, paying with life for every transgression, which the Caliph punishes when [such transgression] comes from his subjects, just as the people rise up to punish those who commit the same [transgressions]. The first and most terrible prescription of their laws is that no one should dare to utter the slightest word against their religion, a crime that without remission is atoned for by beheading, both among the natives and the foreigners. If the Caliph hears [the case?] and decides to stay the sword till the next day [?], the same penalty is then carried out without the slightest chance of deferral [of the punishment?].

So, then, when those nobles went to the palace and asked the Caliph about it, using intermediaries – for rarely does he deign to let others into his presence and no one is allowed [to see him] without having gone through much trouble, with all matters being dealt with through letters that go through the house Suavs – the Caliph replied that no letter or document had come into his hands, that his friends had announced the arrival of some ambassadors to him, and that they had been received by his son in his [the son’s] own house, but that he [the Caliph] was still ignorant of the object that they carried. With this answer he managed to placate the concerns of the nobles; although the truth was that that rumor had already reached his ears, whose accuracy he would check by means of [his] secret envoys, although the fear of his people made him hide the manner in which he had learned this.”

(121) The Caliph, always timid and uncertain, considered what danger might threaten him, and sought contrivances of all kinds by which he might avoid it. First he sent to them [the Christian emissaries] a certain Jew, Hasdeu [Hasdai bin Shaprut] by name, none more wise was ever seen or heard of than he, as our people testified, in order that he should discuss everything thoroughly with them. On account of his reputation for patience, he had it put about that he was the bearer of the royal commission, so that he could first win John’s confidence, thereby giving him cheer and freeing him from fear, assuring him that no harm would come to him and that they would be sent home with honour. He reminded them of many things concerning the customs of the [Muslim] people and how they should behave in their presence. As young men they should refrain from all manner of idle and lewd gestures or words; no [offense] would be so slight so as not to be reported at once to the Caliph. If there should be ready opportunities for going out, they should not even show any inclination for light-hearted joking with the women, for the sternest punishment would be inflicted upon them. They should in no way depart from the guidance being offered them, for they would be most carefully watched, and would be thought guilty of the smallest fault.

After John had replied to all this as best he could, and had most willingly listened to his adviser, securing the agreement of his companions for their part, and after much else had been added to the above, the Jew cautiously began on the main matter. What, he earnestly asked, had they been sent to do? Since he saw that John was hesitating somewhat – even though the discussion between them was taking place In private – he gave a promise of confidentiality, especially if the matter carried a need of total secrecy. John set it all out in good order: Once the presents had been given to the Caliph, the letter must also be brought to the Caliph’s attention, without that there should be no presents offered, nor would it be right for him to enter the Caliph’s presence. Then he disclosed the message of the letter in his own words. ‘It would be dangerous’, said the Jew [after hearing this?], ‘for you to see the Caliph with this. Surely you must be careful about what reply you make to the Caliph’s messengers when they come to you. I do not doubt that the severity of the law is already well known to you, and you must consider how you can act carefully and avoid that.’

(122) The Jew left, and after a few months [!] a certain bishop John was sent to them. He, after many discussions of mutual interest (as between members of the same faith), both asked for and offered back, brought the Caliph’s order: that the Christian ambassadors should be brought into the royal presence with their gifts alone. ‘What then’, asked John of Gorz, ‘about the letters from the Emperor? Was I not ordered to make a most important issue of them? For if the Emperor sends insults, he, by having these rejected, as the empty fabrications of his error, will be confounded.’ Bishop John answered this in measured tones. ‘Consider’, he said, ‘under what conditions we live. We have been driven to this by our sins, to be subjected to the rule of the pagans. We are forbidden by the Apostle’s words to resist the civil power. Only one cause for solace is left to us, that in the depths of such a great calamity they do not forbid us to exercise our own laws. They can see that we are diligent followers of the Christian faith, and so they cultivate us and associate with us, just as they delight in their own society, while they thoroughly detest the Jews. For the time being, then, we keep the following counsel: that provided no harm is done to our religion, we obey them in all else, and do their commands in all that does not affect our faith. So I advise you now to leave most of these things unsaid, and altogether to suppress that letter, rather than to bring about a most dangerous clash for yourself and for your people when there is absolutely no need to do it.’

(123) Somewhat angered, John of Gorz replied: ‘It would be fitting for someone other than you, a bishop, to utter such sentiments. But since you are a propagandist for the faith, your superior rank should have made you a defender of it, and still less should you obstruct others in preaching the truth out of any human fear, nor should you yourself hold back from doing that. It would be altogether better for a Christian man to suffer the harsh burden of hunger, than to join in the banquets of the gentiles and thus favour the destruction [of the faith?] of others. In this regard – and this is a thing most hateful to the whole Catholic Church, and evil – I hear that you are circumcised according to the custom of Islam, when the forthright statement of the Apostle is: “If you circumcise yourselves, Christ will not help you.” I hear the same of your foodstuffs, some of which you reject for the sake of keeping on good terms with the Moslems: “All things are clean for those who are clean in soul”; “There will be prating sages who will teach this and that in a beguiling way, among other things abstinence from certain foods, even though God created them to be prepared with thanksgiving by His faithful”; and “Let it be made blessed by the Word of God and by prayer”.’ But Bishop John answered: ‘Necessity constrains us, for otherwise there would be no way in which we could live among them. Indeed, we hold it so as something handed down to us and observed by our ancestors from time immemorial.’ ‘Never’, said John of Gorz, ‘could I approve of that: that the divine laws should be transgressed out of fear, or for friendship, or on account of some human favour. […] Even if I accept that you, constrained by necessity, fall in line with them, I, by the grace of God free from such necessity, and with my mind firmly made up, will in no way be deflected by any fear or enticement or favour from those orders of the Emperor which I undertook to obey. So I will not agree to suppress or alter one iota of these letters, and if anyone should have any objection to make against those things which we state concerning our firm Catholic faith, or comes up with some contrary view of our claims, I will publicly oppose him, and will not for the sake of life itself run away from the task of witnessing to the truth.’

(124) These remarks were secretly reported to the Caliph. The messages not having been sent publicly by the Caliph, John of Gorz could not reply publicly, and the bishop had come into the matter solely in order to make exploratory inquiries. The Caliph, in careful consultations (such as are said to be advisable for all mortals), tried to determine how by one means or another he might influence the emissary’s mind, believing that — just as the strongest wall can be shaken by driving siege-engines against it – he would manage to shake John’s firmness of purpose. When after a month or a period of six or seven weeks of sending messengers to him, and trying to secure some concession within the limits the Christians had set for themselves, it became clear that the latter would not make any change from their original position, the Caliph in amazement at such constancy turned to other possibilities. First, one Sunday, he sent a letter to John full of threats, thinking he could fill the Christians with fear, since they were freely practising their religious rites in his realm. They were allowed to go only to the nearest church, St Martin’s, and that only on Sundays or for the important feast-days of our religion, that is Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost, St John, and the days dedicated to the Apostles and the Saints, being accompanied there and back by twelve guards of the sort they call ‘sagiones‘. As John was going to church that Sunday, a letter was handed to him. Because the size of the letter – it was a square of parchment – alarmed him, lest it should call him away from holy communion, to which he was going, he deferred opening it for the time being, until (their holy duties being performed) they returned to their lodging. When he read it, he found certain alarming things which might happen to him, and owned that he had never been so disturbed before by other kinds of fears.

(125) For, after many things with which he was threatened if he refused to obey the Caliph’s commands, by which he declared he was in no way moved, the following was finally stated: that if he should be killed, he [the Caliph] would not leave any Christian in the whole of al-Andalus alive, but would slaughter them all. He added: ‘Think of your responsibility before God for the death of so many souls, of people who, were it not for your obstinacy, [would] not perish on account of any other charge, and who ought to be able to hope for peace and salvation from you. You are at liberty to ask on their behalf for any concession you like, rather than persisting so obstinately in opposition to us.’ John of Gorz turned these things over in his mind as he re-read the letter while walking from the church to his lodging, his mind being torn by great doubts as he tried to decide what to do, and what sort of reply he should make to the Caliph, for he had little experience of such things. But he was suddenly reminded of that axiom – as he often told us – by which all terror and fear might be banished from the mind: he said ‘Cast thy burden upon the Lord’ [Psalms 55.22], and again, ‘Who hath made man’s mouth? Have not I the Lord?’ [Exodus 4.11].

[In section 126, John dictates an uncompromising letter to the Caliph.]

(127) When this letter reached the Caliph, it did not rouse his mind to anger, as had happened before; instead he referred it to his council. The Caliph was first advised by his councillors, to whom our affairs were already known, to suppress his wrath, lest there should be a risk of a confrontation with our Emperor. He, a most warlike victor over many peoples, bringing together the forces of many realms, might ravage all al-Andalus with diverse disasters, and would perhaps take control of it all by right of conquest, in retaliation for all the wrongs done to him, especially to his emissaries, for no wrong was ever received with greater indignation than this. After much discussion of these matters, someone by chance suggested that since the man [John of Gorz] seemed to be so firm in his purpose, and could not be thought to be any the less in good sense, and had shown himself to be so constant in his faith after such a long period, and would not therefore deny his faith under any merely human pressures, he should himself be asked what he considered should be done. So John heard this final resolution from carefully—chosen emissaries. He replied to them as follows: ‘At last, thanks to sound counsel, you have made some progress. If that sound counsel had been taken at the start, much tedium and anxiety for you and for us might have been avoided. Now a swift and easy plan presents itself. Let an embassy be sent by your Caliph to our Emperor, so that it can bring me back word about what I should do with my orders. As soon as I have letters from the Emperor, I will obey in all things.’

(128) When these developments were reported to the Caliph, he accepted the suggestion as a wise one, and ordered that someone willing to undertake such a long journey should be sought; and since very few or almost none would be willing to come forward, it was proposed that anyone willmg to go should be able to claim, on his return, any honour he chose, and all manner of rewards. Eventually a certain Recemundus – a Catholic, moreover, and exceptionally learned in both Arabic and Latin literature — presented himself from among the palace staff.

[… 129, 130: Recemundus journeyed to Gorz in ten weeks, staying there and in Metz and eventually being received by the Emperor in Frankfurt. ‘Litterae mitiores‘, ‘more diplomatic letters’, were there prepared for the Caliph. Recemundus left on Palm Sunday 956 with a companion, Dudo of Verdun, and reached Cordova in early July.]

(131) When all these matters were explained to him, John, released from almost three years of cloistered seclusion, was ordered to appear in the royal presence. When he was told by the messengers to make hiinself presentable to royalty by cutting his hair, washing his body, and putting on clean clothes, he refused, lest they should tell the Caliph that he had changed in his essential being beneath a mere change of clothes. The Caliph then sent John ten pounds in coin, so that he might purchase clothing to put on and be decent in the royal eyes, for it was not right for people to be presented in slovenly dress. John could not at first decide whether to accept the money, but eventually he reasoned that it would be better spent for the relief of the poor, and sent thanks for the Caliph’s generosity and for the solicitude he had deigned to show him. The monk added in his reply: ‘I do not despise royal gifts, but it is not permitted for a monk to wear anything other than his usual habit, nor indeed could I put on any garment of a colour other than black.’ When this was reported to the Caliph, he remarked: ‘In this reply I perceive his unyielding firmness of mind. Even if he comes dressed in a sack, I will most gladly receive him.’

(132) On the day which had been agreed for John’s presentation at court, all the elaborate preparations for displaying royal splendour were made. Ranks of people crowded the whole way from the lodging to the centre of the city, and from there to the palace. Here stood infantrymen with spears held erect, beside them others brandishing javelins and staging demonstrations of aiming them at each other; after them, others mounted on mules with their light armour; then horsemen urging their steeds on with spurs and shouts, to make them rear up. In this startling way the Moors hoped to put fear into our people by their various martial displays, so strange to our eyes. John and his companions were led to the palace along a very dusty road, which the very dryness of the season alone served to stir up (for it was the summer solstice). High officials came forward to meet them, and all the pavement of the outer area of the palace was carpeted with most costly rugs and coverings.

(133) When John arrived at the dais where the Caliph was seated alone

– almost like a godhead accessible to none or to very few – he saw everything draped with rare coverings, and floor-tiles stretching evenly to the walls. The Caliph himself reclined upon a most richly ornate couch. They do not use thrones or chairs as other peoples do, but recline on divans or couches when conversing or eating, their legs crossed one over the other. As John came into his presence, the Caliph stretched out a hand to be kissed. This hand-kissing not being customarily granted to any of his own people or to foreigners, and never to persons of low and middling rank, but only to the high-born and to those of exceptional dignity, the Caliph none the less gave John his hand to kiss.

(134) Then the Caliph signed to John to be seated. A lengthy silence ensued on both sides. Then the Caliph began: ‘I know your heart has long been hostile to me, and that is why I refused you an audience till now. You yourself know that I could not do otherwise. I appreciate your steadfastness and your learning. I wish you to know that things which may have disturbed you in that letter were not said out of enmity towards you; and not only do I now freely receive you, but assure you that you shall have whatever you ask.’ John — who, as he later told us, had expected to utter something harsh to the Caliph, since he had long harboured such resentment — suddenly became very calm and could never have felt more equable in spirit. So he answered that he could not deny he had at first been greatly exercised by the harsh tone of the emissaries, and had thought it better to remain silent for a long period than to torment himself by feigned rather than true statements of threats in response to the Caliph’s threats; but eventually all the obstacles placed in his way by deeds and words over three years had been removed from above, and now no obstacle based on justified enmity remained to make him doubtful of his status. This being so, he had dismissed these things completely from his mind, and was only glad that he had won such generosity and favour, and that in this matter he had perceived such strength of purpose and moderation in the royal heart, and a most noble character. The Caliph was greatly pleased with these remarks, and addressed John on other subjects. Then he asked him to hand over the presents from the Emperor. When this was done, John instantly requested permission to leave. The Caliph asked in surprise: ‘How does this sudden change come about? Since both of us have waited so long for a sight of each other, and since we have now scarcely met, is it right for us to part as strangers? Now that we are together, there is an opportunity for each of us to acquire a little knowledge of the other’s mind, and we could meet again at greater length, and on a third occasion forge a truly firm bond of understanding and friendship. Then, when I send you back to your master, you could bear yourself thither with all due honour.’ John agreed to this. They ordered the other emissaries to be brought in, and the presents which they were carrying were handed over to the Caliph.

(135) The Christians returned to their lodging, and when after a time John was again called to see the Caliph, he conversed with him on a number of subjects of mutual interest: the power and wisdom of our Emperor, the strength and numbers of his army, his glory and wealth, events of war, and many things of that kind. The Caliph for his part boasted that his army exceeded that of any other of the rulers of the world in strength. John made but little answer to this, saying only what might serve to pacify the Caliph’s mind, but eventually he added: ‘I speak the truth when I say that I know of no monarch in the world who can equal our Emperor In lands or arms or horses.’

What does the original say?

As you can see, we won’t get the answer from this as capitalization had not yet taken hold when the manuscript was put together. For what it’s worth, the question has been around for many years with, for example, the Polish revolutionary and popular historian Karol Szajnocha (who, to be sure, did have some crazy theories) firmly believing that the above reference was to Suavs.

Finally, I will leave you with this thought about Gorze aka Görz. Gorze lies in a portion of France that is replete with -in town names. It lies next to Metz and Vandières. Is Gorze a Celtic or Teutonic name? Well, consider where there are other similarly named towns. For example, we have Gorz in Iran (Baluchistan). We also have Gorizia (also aka Görz) in Italy on the Slovene border. This last town’s name was first recorded as Goriza in a document dated April 28, 1001, in which Otto III donated the castle and the village of Goriza to the Patriarch of Aquileia John II and to Count Verihen of Friuli. That document referred to Gorizia as “the village known as Goriza in the language of the Suavs (Villa quae Sclavorum lingua vocatur Goriza). Gorica (the likely original transcription of Goriza) just means “mountain” in Suavic. (This, quite apart from the fact that one of the first sentences in Polish written apparently about the 13th century was “A great calamity befell upon us!” (Gorze się nam stało!) by Henry the Pious in reference to the defeat of the Silesians by the Mongols. This creates another potential Suavic etymology).

So the question is what is the origin of the name of the French Gorze? The first time this town was mentioned seems to have been in 762 (“Monasterium in Gorzia“).

Remains of the abbey church at Gorze

Seehausen Horns Aplenty

PublishedApril 12, 2019 Post authortorino

An interesting figurine was found by a certain Mr. Günter Wagener at Seehausen (county of Börde) just west of Magdeburg. I’ve had a picture or two of it before but think it’s interesting to see again.

Labeled, for obvious reasons, as the Trinkhornmann von Seehausen this is what it looks like:

The obvious item here is the potential cornucopia, the horn of plenty. A horn in Suavic mythology appears in a number of places:

Svantevit description in Saxo
Zbruch idol
Altenkirchen stone

More recently, another find is the “mini-horn” from Groß Strömkendorf (in county Nordwestmecklenburg).

Arkona’s Jasmund

PublishedMarch 8, 2019 Post authortorino

On the East side of Cape Arkona, lies Jasmund, the site of Jasmund National Park.

For those wanting to identify the Polabian Svantevit (worshipped at Arkona) with the Polish Jas, this presents a golden (or rather silver) opportunity. What is the origin of the word Jasmund?

Vasmer thought that the name Jasmund was of a Scandinavian origin with a Suavic overlay. Specifically, he thought the root was Norse comparing it to a name – Asmundr – that he was aware of. The “J”, however, he took for a Suavic addition. This may or may not be the case. There is no specific reason and Vasmer did not suggest such a reason why the cape should have anything to do with some guy by the name Asmundr. However, there is a connection to Svantevit, who rode out by night, if we explain the as- with a jas- that is as a reflection, so to speak, of light – jasny – just means light or bright in Suavic.

Moreover, although the word mund may mean “mind” or “mouth”, the Mond is also the German word for the “moon”. (Incidentally, why the same word may be used for both “mouth” and “moon” should be obvious to anyone who looks up at the moon anytime other than when there is a full moon…) In Polish, the word księżyc means the moon. That word, however, translates as the “little prince.” The original Suavic word seems to have been something like miesiąc (misyats compare this with the Ukrainian місяць) which today means “month” for obvious reasons. Whether these terms reflect the concept of a “man in the moon” (Mensch – compare this with the Suavic mąż which later in Polish at least turned into through a Russianism became mężczyzna.

The first mention of Jasmund is in 1232 – where see in Yasmunt curiam – as can be seen from the Pommersches Urkundenbuch:

Then in 1249 we have the same name under the term terre Yasmndie.

Whether Sagard, a nearby place has anything to do with Asgard is another question although given the history of Sagard, this is unlikely.

Verschiebung

PublishedJanuary 29, 2019 Post authortorino

An interesting place name is Oederquart. First mentioned in 1331 as Oderkort. Subsequently, as Oderquerd (1332-1333), Oderchurt (1345) and then Oderquord. The suffix -quart is supposed to indicate a hill. What kind of a hill? Well, Oderick’s hill. Hence Oederquart (or Odericks Wurt). But this seems to be folk etymology. The suffix has – quart seems rather to indicate something slightly different, namely, a ford. Why the “q”? Compare this with the German word queren or durchqueren, literally, “to cross” and “to cross over.” Such names appear in many places – for example, Franfurt and so forth. So is there a river next to the town? Usually, there is. But here we have a big one. Specifically, the Elbe. Which raises a question: why is there an Oder-furt on the Elbe? An answer could be that the Elbe was known as Oder before it became the Elbe. As tribes moved eastwards (or were pushed, perhaps by the by the Romans, eastwards), they transferred their Oder name to the next big river over – today’s Odra. This would also provide an etymology for the name of the Obodrites – “the people who live between – obieodry – both/the two Odras”. The original name of today’s Odra river could, in turn, have been moved eastwards and applied to the next big river East – today’s Vistula.

West of Hamburg, West (?) of Bremen

PublishedJanuary 5, 2019 Post authortorino

The commonly accepted boundary of the Germania Suavica – the acknowledged area of Suavic settlement in Germany runs mostly along the Elbe. West of the Elbe, exceptions are made for Wendland around Luneburg but, generally, the understanding is that at that point you get into ethnically German territories in Westphalia, Brunswick and Ostfriesland. But if you look closely you can just make out some interesting place names that are west of Hamburg (that is west of the Elbe) up until Bremen (which sits on the Weser) and perhaps even a bit further. (Curiously, the very name Bremen suggests the Suavic word brama meaning “gate” – perhaps to the lands on the Weser).

For example (red in the picture below):

Bülkau – mentioned first in 1404 as Bulcow and Buklow, later in 1680 as Pilkauw and then in 1702 as Biklau but it was also written as Bolkauw.
Oppeln – first mentioned in 1309 is right next to Bülkau (and WIngst). The German settlers, of course, called the Polish Opole, Oppeln. Was this because those settlers remembered a tiny village west of Hamburg? Or is this western Oppeln also a Germanization of an earlier name?
Am Dobrock – first mentioned in first mentioned in 1626, it sits just northeast of Bülkauand Oppeln , near the confluence of the rivers Oste and Elbe.
Belum – just north of Bülkau. This sounds like the Suavic bel meaning “white”.
Groden – just west of Belum. This is obviously similar to the Suavic grod meaning “burg” or “castle”.
Brest – southeast of these towns. Obviously similar to the Polish/Belorussian Brzesc and the Venetic Brest of Bretagne.
Zeven – first mentioned in 986 as “kivinan à Heeslingen” in the records of the nearby monastery of Heeslingen. Kivinan is not an apparently Suavic name but later the name comes up as Sciuena (1141), Cyuena (1158), Zcivena, Scevena, Skhevena and Tzevena.
Sievern – first mentioned in 1139. This seems connected to the “North” in Suavic just like the tribe of the Severians or Severyans or Siverians or Siewierzanie (*severjane) who are mentioned by Nestor but earlier perhaps also by the “Bavarian Geographer” as the source of all the Suavs (Zeriuani, quod tantum est regnum, ut ex eo cunctae gentes Sclauorum exortae sint et originem, sicut affirmant, ducant; although perhaps also as Zuireani habent ciuitates CCCXXV). But perhaps it comes from “seaver”.

I am not suggesting all these are Suavic (almost all have another etymology) but there is enough of them that an examination seems useful. Moreover, there are other names nearby that may hint at Suavs (or Balts) as well (blue in the picture below):

Soltau – south east of Zeven. First mentioned in 936 as Curtis Salta. However, later the names shows up as Soltouwe.
Bomlitz – next to Soltau. This is often cited as an example of a non-Suavic place name with an -itz suffix. The name was recorded for the first time in the form Bamlinestade from the river Bamlina (meaning, supposedly, a small Baumfluss). Later the town was known as Bommelse. Now (first attested in this form in 1681) both the town and the river are known as Bomlitz. Curiously, Bomlitz River (and the town) are close to the river Böhme (as in Bohemian).
Butjadingen – on the other side of which is also the name of that entire peninsula (Butjadingerland) up to the Jade Bight. Perhaps something to do with the Budinoi.
Dangast – the suffix -gast is frequent in German names but also in Suavic names (Ardagastus). When it comes to place names however most seem to be Suavic or related to Suavs. The locality Dangast sounds similar to another place name – Wolgast which is obviously a Germanization of the Suavic version. Then there is Wogastisburg of Samo’s fame – presumably also a Suavic name.
Ihlow – compare with Ihlow in Brandenburg (between Berlin and Kostrzyn); compare too with Iława (Deutsch Eylau) which was originally called Ylawia, Ilow, Ylaw and Ylow.
Balje – from low German balge but note that the East Prussian Balga supposedly came from the Old Prusian word balgnan. Thus, it seems impossible to assign the language of those who named these places between German and, in this case, Baltic Prussian.

The above mentioned towns in relation to the historical Wendland

Wilhelm Boguslawski named some other names: Steinau, Krempel, Midlum, Spieka, Lehe, Spaden, Grambke as potentially Suavic – I actually think most of these have nothing to do with Suavs. Other names nearby (from the Rastede monastery grant of 1124) that may merit an investigation: Börsten (Bursati), Swidero/Svidero, Brunin, Henchinhusin (because of Henchin-), Nertin, Tvislon, Swirlichin, Smerlachen, Magelissin, Enschinin, Withlike, Benchinhusen (because of Benchin-), Widinchusen/Windenchusen, Wellin, Wisteren/Winstrin, Wadinbech (because of Wadin), Mühlenwisch (because of the -isch), Scrotinh, Nordleda.

The Greater Poland Chronicle provides the following description:

“The Rhine and the Danube are the the greater rivers of the Teutonic nation, whereas the Vandalus (Vistula), the Oder and the Elbe are the great rivers of the countries of Poland and Bohemia. Around these last three rivers, they [Suavs] held also the lands in-between and those countries that bordered them and they hold them still, as is known, from there up to the North Sea. Whereas the Saxons, having left their very small lands and villages and moving to the wide lands of the Suavs, settled permanently in those places.”

Radagost the Green

PublishedDecember 23, 2018 Post authortorino

A most curious name pops up in Adam of Bremen’s “History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen” – the name of an alleged Suavic Deity of the Redarii tribe – Redigast.

Adam’s Deity

As Adam seemed to be describing the same area as that previously described earlier by Thietmar where the Redarii’s’ chief Deity’s name is Zuarazici but this Zuarazici is worshipped in a town named Riedegost, a fight immediately broke out among various Suavic scholars whether the Deity’s name was really Svarozic or Redagost/Radagost.

Thietmar’s town

The German scholar Alexander Brückner famously quipped that Adam got himself mixed up and Redagost/Radagost was the name of the local tavern and the name Svarozic was the right one. He translated Radagost as “Rady Gość” that is essentially meaning “Happy guest.” From there it was a simple path to conclude that Adam mistook the name of an inn or tavern for a Suavic cultic place. Most academics are not exactly Mensa stars and so they largely went along with the mocking conclusions of Brückner’s faux erudition. Some clung on by ascribing to Radagost the celestial portfolio of hospitality. That last bit certainly seems to have been a stretch but whatever one may say about the Deity Name, it seems to me that they were wrong to adopt the tavern explanation.

The answer may be in the word gwozd, gozd or gozdawa, that is a “forest” or, perhaps, a “tree”. Today the name continues in Polish in the word for “nail” (gwóźdź) and for a carnation (goździk, that is a “little tree”). As discussed, the same word appears in the Suavic (and Baltic) word for “star” – gwiazda suggesting that the ancient Suavs looked at the night sky as basically a heavenly wood. Curiously, the Breton (Armorican Venetic?) word for “trees” is, similarly, gwez. Since we do know that ancient Suavs (like “Germans”) worshipped trees and groves, Redagost/Radagost would simply mean a “Happy Grove” – perhaps a place of worship – a sacred grove. Thus, Rethra was the name of the town in this telling, the Sacred Forest was called by its Suavic appellation – Radagast – and the Deity worshipped there could have been, among others, Svarozic.

That the “tavern” etymology is doubtful is indicated by the fact that the name is quite widespread. It appears throughout Central Europe.

Poland

Radogoszcz on the Złota (Golden) River near Łódź
Radogoszcz on Lake Kałęba (German Radegast)
Redgoszcz near a lake of the same name between Poznań and Bydgoszcz
Radgoszcz near Tarnów (incidentally just west of Radomyśl, a name which is also very popular)
Radgoszcz between Łomża and Ostrołęka
Radgoszcz near Międzychód
Radgoszcz (Wünschendorf) Near Luban, Lower Silesia

Czech Republic

Radhošť near the town of Vysoké Mýto
Radhošť a mountain (curiously a chapel and a sculpture of Saints Cyril and Methodius are located on the summit; southeast of that there is also a statute of Radegast)

Germany

Radagost a river that starts south of Gadebusch, passes through the Radegasttal/Rehna and enters the River Stepenitz just below Börzow (also written as Radegast, Radegost, Rodogost)
Radegast NNE of Leipzig
Radegast southwest of Rostock just past Satow
Radegast east of Lüneburg
Radegast west of Lützow

Ukraine

Mala Radohoshch at Khmelnytskyi Oblast near Ostroh
Velyka Radohoshch at Khmelnytskyi Oblast near Ostroh
Radohoshcha at Zhytomyr Oblast
Radohoshch near Chernihiv*

* exact location uncertain – this could have been in Belarus.

Belarus

Radohoszcz(a) (Rahodoszcz) near Ivanava (interestingly nearby just west of Kobryn you have Vandalin)
Radohoszcza a river near Grodna (Grodno)*
Radohoszcza on the river Nevda south of Navahrudak (Nowogródek)

* exact location uncertain

Italy

Radigosa – a place near Bologna with a similar name (aka Raigosole, Ragigosa, Rigosa am Lavino).

Here is a map of all of these places (some are an approximation).

These names can rather easily be linked to forest that previously covered vast swaths of these countries or to local worship groves but linking them to roadside inns seems a much tougher goal to achieve.

That all these place names have a Suavic etymology no one seriously doubts. With the exception of the Bologna reference, every place they appear is a place where Suavs have lived or are living still (sometimes, in Germania Suavica, Suavs qua Germans).

But then we come to a puzzle. There is also a much earlier (half a millennium) mention of a Goth, a “true Scythian” who threatened Rome and its senators in the very early 5th century – his name was Radagaisus. This brings up the question of what language the admittedly multi-ethnic Goths really spoke and, as the vast throngs of humanity poured into the Roman Empire how much Goth was there really in the Goths? More on Radagaisus and the sources that mention him soon.

PS That Tolkien took the name of Radagast the Brown from the above ancient European histories is obvious. What some people do not know is that the Tolkien name is likely Old Prussian, derived from the village of Tołkiny (the Old Prussian Tolkyn) in the former East Prussia and today’s north Poland.

All the Wends of Saxo Grammaticus – Books III, IV, V & VI

PublishedDecember 8, 2018 Post authortorino

Here are the remaining books of the Gesta Danorum that mention Wends or related peoples. Since the Russians are referred to in the Latin as Ruthenos, that is kept in the English translation to avoid confusion. Some of these may well be Slavs but most are most likely the “Rus”.

Book III

Chapter 4

1. Now although Odin was regarded as chief among the gods, he would approach seers, soothsayers, and others whom he had discovered strong in the finest arts of prediction, with a view to prosecuting vengeance for his son. Divinity is not always so perfect that it can dispense with human aid. Rosthiof the Finn foretold that Rinda, daughter of the Ruthenian king, must bear him another son, who was destined to take reprisal for his brother’s killing; the gods had ordained that their colleague should be avenged by his future brother’s hand. Acting on this intelligence, Odin muffled his face beneath a hat so that he would not be betrayed by his appearance and went to this king to offer his services as a soldier. By him Odin was made general, took over his master’s army, and achieved a glorious victory over his enemies. On account of his adroit conduct of this battle the monarch admitted him to the highest rank of friendship, honouring him no less generously with gifts than decorations. After a brief lapse of time Odin beat the enemy’s line into flight singlehanded and, after contriving this amazing defeat, also returned to announce it. Everybody was astounded that one man^s strength could have heaped massacre’on such countless numbers. Relying on these achievements Odin whispered to the king the secret of his love. Uplifted by the other’s very friendly encouragement, he tried to kiss he girl and was rewarded with a slap across the face.

15. Later, after he had called his chieftains to a meeting, Høther announced that he was bound to take on Bo and would perish in the fight, a fact he had discovered not by doubtful surmises but from the trustworthy prophecies of seers. He therefore begged them to make his son Rørik ruler of the kingdom and not let the votes of wicked men transfer this privilege to unknown foreign houses, declaring that he would experience more delight in the assurance of his son’s succession than bitterness at his own approaching death. When they had readily acceded to his request he met Bo in battle and was slain. But Bo had little joy in his victory; he was so badly stricken himself that he withdrew from the skirmish, was carried home on his shield in turns by his foot-soldiers and expired next day from the agony of his wounds. At a splendidly prepared funeral the Ruthenian army buried his body in a magnificent barrow erected to his name, so that the record of this noble young man should not soon fade from the memory of later generations.

Chapter 5

1. The Kurlanders and Swedes, who used to show their allegiance to Denmark each year with the payment of taxes, felt as though the death of Høther had liberated them from their oppressive tributary status and had the idea of making an armed attack on the Danes. This gave the Wends also the temerity to rebel and turned many of the other vassal states into enemies. To check their violence Rorik recruited his countrymen and incited them to courageous deeds by reviewing the achievements of their forefathers in a spirited harangue. The barbarians saw that they needed a leader themselves, for they were reluctant to enter the fray without a general, and therefore they elected a king; then, putting the rest of their military strength on display, they hid two companies of soldiers in a dark spot. Rørik saw the trap. When he perceived that his vessels were wedged in the shallows of a narrow creek, he dragged them off the sandbanks where they had grounded and steered them out into deep water, fearing that if they struck into marshy pools the enemy would attack them from a different quarter. He also decided that his comrades should find a site where they could lurk during the day and spring unexpectedly on anyone invading their ships; this way, he said, it was quite possible that the enemy’s deception would rebound on their own heads. The barbarians had been assigned to their place of ambush, unaware that the Danes were on the watch, and as soon as they rashly made an assault, every man was struck down. Because the remaining band of Wends were ignorant of their companions’ slaughter, they hung suspended in great amazement and uncertainty over Rørik’s lateness. While they kept waiting for him, their minds wavering anxiously, the delay became more and more intolerable each day, and they finally determined to hunt him down with their fleet.

2. Among them [the Wends] was a man of outstanding physical appearance, a wizard by vocation. Looking out over the Danish squadrons he cried: ‘As the majority may be bought out of danger at the cost of one or two lives, we could forestall a general catastrophe by hazarding single persons. I won’t flinch from these terms of combat if any of you dare attempt to decide the issue along with me. But my chief demand is that we employ a fixed rule for which I have devised the phrasing: “If I win, grant us immunity from taxes; if I am beaten, the tribute shall be paid to you as of old.” This day I shall either be victorious and relieve my homeland of its slavish yoke, or be conquered and secure it more firmly. Accept me as pledge and security for either outcome.’

3. When one of the Danes, who had a stouter heart than body, heard this, he ventured to ask Rørik what remuneration the man who took on the challenger would receive. Rørik happened to be wearing a bracelet of six rings inextricably interlocked with a chain of knots and he promised this as a reward for whoever dared to enter the contest. But the young man, not so sure of Fate, replied: ‘If things go well for me, Rørik, your generosity must judge what the winner’s prize should be and award a suitable palm. But if this proposal turns out very much against my wishes, what compensation shall be due from you to the defeated, who will be enveloped in cruel death or severe dishonour? These are the usual associates of weakness, the recompense of the vanquished; what is left for such persons but utter disgrace? What payment can a man earn, what thanks can he receive, when his bravery has achieved nothing? Who has ever garlanded the weakling with the ivy crown of war or hung the tokens of victory on him? Decorations go to the hero not to the coward. His mischances carry no glory. Praise and exultation attend the former, a useless death or an odious life the latter. I am not sure which way the fortune of this duel will turn, so that I have no rash aspirations to any reward, having no idea whether it should rightly be my due. Anyone unexpectant of victory cannot be allowed to take the victor’s expected fee. Without assurance of obtaining the trophy I am not going to lay any firm claim to a triumphal wreath. A presentation which could equally signify the wages of death or life, I refuse. Only a fool wants to lay his hands on unripe fruit and pluck something before he knows if he has earned it properly. This arm will secure me laurels or the grave.’

4. With these words he smote the barbarian with his sword, with a more forward disposition than his fortunes warranted. In return the other delivered such a mighty stroke that he took his life at the first blow. This was a woeful spectacle for the Danes, whereas the Wends staged a great procession accompanied by splendid scenes of jubilation for their triumphant comrade. The following day, either carried away by his recent success or fired by greed to achieve a second one, he marched close up to his enemies and began to provoke them with the same challenge as before. Since he believed he had felled the most valiant Dane, he thought no one was left with the fighting spirit to respond to another summons. He trusted that with the eclipse of one champion the whole army’s strength had wilted, and estimated that anything to which he bent his further efforts he would have no trouble at all in dealing with. Nothing feeds arrogance as much as good fortune nor stimulates pride more effectively than success.

5. Rørik grieved that their general bravery could be shaken by one man’s impudence, and that the Danes, despite their fine record of conquests, could be received with insolence and even shamefully despised by races they had once beaten; he was sad too that among such a host of warriors no one could be found with so ready a heart and vigorous an arm that he was capable of wanting to lay down his life for his country. The first noble spirit to remove the damaging illrepute which the Danes’ hesitancy had cast on them was Ubbi. He had a mighty frame and was powerful in the arts of enchantment. When he deliberately enquired what the prize for this match was to be, the king pledged his bracelet again. Ubbi answered: ‘How can I put any faith in your promise, when you carry the stake in your hands and will not trust such a reward to anyone else’s keeping? Deposit it with someone standing by, so that you can’t possibly go back on your word. Champions’ souls are only aroused when they can depend on the gift not being withdrawn.’ Without any doubt he spoke with his tongue in his cheek, since it was sheer valour that had armed him to beat off this insult to his fatherland.

6. Rørik thought that he coveted the gold; as he wanted to prevent any appearance of withholding the reward in an unkingly fashion or revoking his promise, he decided to shake off the bracelet and hurl it hard to his petitioner from his station aboard ship. However, the wide intervening gap thwarted his attempt. It needed a brisker and more forceful fling and the bracelet consequently fell short of its destination and was snatched by the waves; afterwards the nickname ‘Slyngebond’ always stuck to Rørik. This incident gave strong testimony to Ubbi’s courage. The loss of his sunken fee in no way deterred him from his bold intention, for he did not wish his valour to be thought a mere lackey to payment. He therefore made his way to the contest eagerly to show that his mind was set on honour, not gain, and that he put manly resolution before avarice; he would advertise that his confidence was grounded rather in a high heart than in wages. No time was lost before they made an arena, the soldiers milled round, the combatants rushed together, and a din rose as the crowd of onlookers roared support for one or the other competitor. The champions’ spirits blazed and they flew to deal one another injuries, but simultaneously found an end to the duel and their lives, I believe because Fortune contrived that the one should not gain praise and joy through the other’s fate. This affair won over the rebels and restored Rørik’s tribute.

Book IV

Chapter 9

1. After him Dan assumed the monarchy. While only a 12 year old, he was pestered by insolent envoys who told him he must give the Saxons tribute or war. His sense of honor put battle before payment, driving him to face a turbulent death rather than live a coward. In consequence he staked his lot on warfare; the young warriors of Denmark crowded the River Elbe with such a vast concourse of shops that one could easily cross it over the decks lashed together like a continuous bridge. Eventually the king of Saxony was compelled to accept the same terms he was demanding from the Danes.

Book V

Chapter 4

1. Word came later of an invasion by the Wends. Erik was commissioned to suppress this with the assistance of eight ships, since Frothi appeared to be still raw in matters of fighting. Never wishing to decline real man’s work, Erik undertook the task gladly and executed it bravely. When he perceived seven privateers, he only sailed one of his ships towards them, ordering that the rest be surrounded by defences of timber and camouflaged with the topped branches of trees. He then advanced as if to make a fuller reconnaissance of the enemy fleet’s numbers, but began to beat a hasty retreat back towards his own followers as the Wends gave chase. The foes were oblivious of the trap and, eager to catch the turn-tail, struck the waves with fast, unremitting oars. Erik’s ships with their appearance of a leafy wood could not be clearly distinguished. The pirates had ventured into a narrow, winding inlet when they suddenly discovered themselves hemmed in by Erik’s fleet. At first they were dumbfounded by the extraordinary sight of a wood apparently sailing along and then realized that deceit lay beneath the leaves. Too late they regretted their improvidence and tried to retrace the incautious route they had navigated. But while they were preparing to turn their craft about they witnessed their adversaries leaping on to the decks. Erik, drawing up his ship on to the beach, hurled rocks at the distant enemy from a ballista. The majority of the Wends were slaughtered, but Erik captured forty, who were chained and starved and later gave up their ghosts under various painful tortures.

2. In the meanwhile Frothi had mustered a large fleet equally from the Danes and their neighbours with a view to launching an expedition into Wendish territory. Even the smallest vessel was able to transport twelve sailors and was propelled by the same number of oars. Then Erik told his comrades to wait patiently while he went to meet Frothi with tidings of the destruction they had already wrought. During the voyage, when he happened to catch sight of a pirate ship run aground in shallow waters, in his usual way he pronounced serious comment on chance circumstances: ‘The fate of the meaner sort is ignoble,’/ he remarked, ‘the lot of base individuals squalid.’ Next he steered closer and overpowered the freebooters as they were struggling with poles to extricate their vessel, deeply engrossed in their own preservation.

3. This accomplished, he returned to the royal fleet and, desiring to cheer Frothi with a greeting which heralded his victory, hailed him as one who, unscathed, would be the maker of a most flourishing peace. The king prayed that his words might come true and affirmed that the mind of a wise man was prophetic. Erik declared that his words were indeed true, that a trifling conquest presaged a greater, and that often predictions of mighty events could be gleaned from slender occurrences. He then urged the king to divide his host and gave instructions for the cavalry from Jutland to set out on the overland route, while the remainder of the army should embark on the shorter passage by water. Such a vast concourse of ships filled the sea that there were no harbours capacious enough to accommodate them, no shores wide enough for them to encamp, nor sufficient money to furnish adequate supplies. The land army is said to have been so large that there are reports of hills being flattened to provide short-cuts, marshes made traversable, lakes and enormous chasms filled in with rubble to level the ground.

4. Although Strumik, the Wendish king, sent ambassadors in the meanwhile to ask for a cessation of hostilities, Frothi refused him time to equip himself; an enemy, he said, should not be supplied with a truce. Also, having till now spent his life away from fighting, once he had made the break he shouldn’t let matters hang doubtfully in the air; any combatant who had enjoyed preliminary success had a right to expect his subsequent military fortunes to follow suit. The outcome of the first clashes would give each side a fair prognostication of the war, for initial achievements in battle always boded well for future encounters. Erik praised the wisdom of his reply, stating that he should play the game abroad as it had begun at home, by which he meant that the Danes had been provoked by the Wends. He followed up these words with a ferocious engagement, killed Strumik along with the most valiant of his people, and accepted the allegiance of the remnant.

5. Frothi then announced by herald to the assembled Wends that if any persons among them had persistently indulged in robbery and pillage, they should swiftly reveal themselves, as he promised to recompense such behaviour with maximum distinction. He even told all who were skilled in the pursuit of evil arts to step forward and receive their gifts. The Wends were delighted at the offer. Certain hopefuls, more greedy than prudent, declared themselves even before anyone else could lay information against them. Their strong avarice cheated them into setting profit before shame and imagining that crime was a glorious thing. When these folk had exposed themselves of their own accord, Frothi cried: ‘It’s your business, Wends, to rid the country of these vermin yourselves.’ Immediately he gave orders for them to be seized by the executioners and had them strung up on towering gallows by the people’s hands. You would have calculated that a larger number were punished than went free. So the shrewd king, in denying the self-confessed criminals the general pardon he granted to his conquered foes, wiped out almost the entire stock of the Wendish race. That was how deserved punishment followed the desire for reward without desert, how longing for unearned gain was visited by a well-earned penalty. I should have thought it quite right to consign them to their deaths, if they courted danger by speaking out when they could have stayed alive by holding their tongues.

Chapter 5

1. The king was exhilarated by the fame of his recent victory and, wanting to appear no less efficient in justice than in arms, decided to redraft the army’s code of laws; some of his rules are still practised, others men have chosen to rescind in favour of new ones. He proclaimed that each standard-bearer should receive a larger portion than the other soldiers in the distribution of booty; the leaders who had the standards carried before them in battle, because of their authority, should have all the captured gold. He wished the private soldier to be satisfied with silver. By his orders a copious supply of arms must go to the champions, captured ships to the ordinary people, to whom they were due, inasmuch as these had the right to build and equip vessels.

Chapter 7

1. During this period the king of the Huns heard of his daughter’s dissolved marriage and, joining forces with Olimar, king of the East [Rus], over two years collected the equipment for a war against the Danes. For this reason Frothi enlisted soldiers not merely among his own countrymen but from the Norwegians and Wends too. Erik, dispatched by him to spy out the enemy^s battle array, discovered Olimar, acting as admiral (the Hunnish king led the land troops), not far from Ruthenia; he addressed him with these words:

2. ‘Tell me, what means this weighty provision for war, King Olimar? Where do you race to, captaining this fleet?’

Olimar replied:

‘Assault on Frithlef’s son is the strong desire of our hearts. And who are you to ask these arrogant questions?’

Erik answered:

‘To allow into your mind hope of conquering the unconquerable is fruitless; no man can overpower Frothi.’

Olimar objected:

‘Every thing that happens has its first occurrence; events unhoped-for come to pass quite often.’

3. His idea was to teach him that no one should put too much trust in Fortune. Erik then galloped on to meet and inspect the army of the Huns. As he rode by it he saw the front ranks parade past him at dawn and the rear-guard at sunset. He enquired of those he met what general had command of so many thousands. The Hunnish king, himself called Hun, chanced to see him and, realizing that he had taken on the task of spying, asked the questioner’s name. Erik said he was called the one who visited everywhere and was known nowhere. The king also brought in an interpreter to find out what Frothi’s business was. Erik answered: ‘Frothi never waits at home, lingering in his halls, for a hostile army. Whoever intends to scale another’s pinnacle must be watchful and wakeful. Nobody has ever won victory by snoring, nor has any sleeping wolf found a carcass.’ The king recognized his intelligence from these carefully chosen apothegms and reflected: ‘Here perhaps is the Erik who, so I’ve heard, laid a false charge against my daughter.’ He gave orders for him to be pinioned at once, but Erik pointed out how unsuitable it was for one creature to be manhandled by many. This remark not only allayed the king’s temper, but even inclined him to pardon Erik. But there was no doubt that his going unscathed resulted not from Hun’s kind-heartedness but his shrewdness; the chief reason for Erik’s dismissal was that he might horrify Frothi by reporting the size of the king’s host.

4. After his return he was asked by his lord to reveal what he had discovered; he replied that he had seen six captains of six fleets, any one of which comprised five thousand ships; each ship was known to contain three hundred oarsmen. He said that each millenary of the total assemblage was composed of four squadrons. By ‘millenary’ he indicated twelve hundred men, since each squadron included three hundred. But while Frothi was hesitating over how he should combat these immense levies and was looking about purposefully for reinforcements, Erik said: ‘Boldness helps the virtuous; it takes a fierce hound to set upon a bear; we need mastiffs, not lapdogs.’ After this pronouncement he advised Frothi to collect a navy. Once this had been made ready they sailed off in the direction of their enemies. The islands which lie between Denmark and the East were attacked and subdued. Proceeding farther, they came upon several ships of the Ruthenian fleet. Although Frothi believed it would be unchivalrous to molest such a small squadron, Erik interposed: ‘We must seek our food from the lean and slender. One who falls will rarely grow fat; if he has a great sack thrown over his head, he won’t be able to bite.’ This argument shook the king out of his shame at making an assault, and he was led to strike at the few vessels with his own multitude, after Erik had shown that he must set profitability higher than propriety.

5. Next they advanced against Olimar, who, on account of the slow mobility of his vast forces, chose to await his opponents rather than set upon them; for the Ruthenian vessels were unwieldy and seemed to be harder to row because of their bulk. Even the weight of their numbers was not much help. The amazing horde of Ruthenians was more conspicuous for its abundance than valour and yielded before the vigorous handful of Danes. When he wished to return to his own land, Frothi found an unusual obstruction to his navigation: that whole bight of the sea was strewn with myriads of dead bodies and as many shattered shields and spears tossing on the waves. The harbours were choked and stank, the boats, surrounded by corpses, were Locked in and could not move. Nor were they able to push off the rotten floating carcasses with oars or poles, for when one was removed another quickly rolled into its place to bump against the ships’ sides. You would have imagined that a war against the dead had begun, a new type of contest with lifeless men.

6. (sometimes chapter 8.1) Then Frothi assembled the races he had conquered and decreed by law that any head of a family who had fallen in that year should be consigned to a burial-mound along with his horse and all his panoply of arms. If any greedy wretch of a pall-bearer meddled with the tomb, he should not only pay with his lifeblood but remain unburied, without a grave or last rites. The king believed it just that one who interfered with another’s remains should not receive the benefit of a funeral, but that the treatment of his body should reflect what he had committed on someone else’s. He ordained that a commander or governor should have his corpse laid on a pyre consisting of his own boat. A single vessel must serve for the cremation of ten steersmen, but any general or king who had been killed should be cast on his own ship and burnt. He desired these precise regulations to be met in conducting the obsequies of the slain, for he would not tolerate lack of discrimination in funeral ritual. All the Ruthenian kings had now fallen in battle, apart from Olimar and Dag.

7. (sometimes chapter 8.3) He ordered the Ruthenians to celebrate their wars in the Danish fashion, and that no one should take a wife without purchasing her; it was his belief that where contracts were sealed by payment there was a chance of stronger and securer fidelity. If anyone dared to rape a virgin, the punishment was castration; otherwise the man must make a compensation of a thousand marks for his lechery.

8. (sometimes chapter 8.2) He also ruled that any sworn soldier who sought a name for proven courage must attack a single opponent, take on two, evade three by stepping back a short distance, and only be unashamed when he ran from four adversaries. The vassal kings must observe another usage regarding militiamen’s pay: a native soldier in their own bodyguard should be given 3 silver marks in wintertime, a common soldier or mercenary 2, and a private soldier who had retired from service just 1. This law slighted their bravery, since it took notice of the men’s rank more than their spirits. You could call it a blunder on Frothi’s part to subordinate desert to royal patronage.

Chapter 8

1. (sometimes chapter 7.6) After this, when Frothi asked Erik whether the armies of the Huns were as profuse as Olimar‘s forces, he began to express himself in song:

‘l perceived, so help me, an innumerable throng, a throng which neither land nor sea could contain. Frequent campfires were burning, a whole forest ablaze, betokening a countless troop. The ground was depressed beneath the trample of horses’ hooves, the hurrying wagons creaked along, wheels groaned, the chariot drivers chased the wind, matching the noise of thunder. The cumbered earth could hardly sustain the weight of the warrior hordes running uncontrolled. The very air seemed to crash, the earth tremble as the outlandish army moved its might. Fifteen companies I saw with their flashing banners, and each of these held a hundred smaller standards, with twenty more behind, and a band of generals to equal the number of ensigns.’

2. (sometimes chapter 7.7) As Frothi enquired how he might combat such multitudes, Erik told him that he must return home and first allow the enemy to destroy themselves by their own immensity. His advice was observed and the scheme carried out as readily as it had been approved. Now the Huns, advancing through trackless wastes, could nowhere obtain supplies and began to run the risk of widespread starvation. The territory was vast and swampy, and it was impossible to find anything to relieve their necessity. At length, having slaughtered and eaten the pack animals, they began to scatter owing to shortage of transport as well as food. This straying from the route was as dangerous as the famine; neither horses nor asses were spared and rotting garbage was consumed. Eventually they did not even abstain from dogs; the dying men condoned every monstrosity. Nothing is so unthinkable that it cannot be enforced by dire need. In the end wholesale disaster assailed them, spent as they were with hunger; corpses were carried to burial ceaselessly, and though everyone dreaded death no pity was felt for those who were expiring; fear had shut out all humanity. At first only squads of soldiers withdrew from the king gradually,’then the army melted away by companies. He was abandoned also by the seer Ugger, a man whose unknown years stretched beyond human span; as a deserter he sought out Frothi and informed him of all the Huns’ preparations.

3. (sometimes chapter 7.8) Meanwhile Hithin, king of a sizable people in Norway, approached Frothi’s fleet with a hundred and fifty vessels. Selecting twelve of these, he cruised nearer, raising a shield on his mast to indicate that they came as friends. He was received by Frothi into the closest degree of amity and brought a large contingent to augment his forces. Afterwards this man and Hild fell in love with each other; she was a girl of most excellent repute, the daughter of Hogni, a Jutland princeling; even before they met, each was impassioned by reports of the other. When they actually had a chance to look upon one another, they were unable to withdraw their eyes, so much did clinging affection hold their gaze.

4. (sometimes chapter 7.9) During this time Frothi had spread his soldiery through the townships and was assiduously collecting the money needed for their winter provisions. Yet even this was not sufficient to support a cripplingly expensive army. Ruin almost on a par with the Huns’ calamity beset him. To discourage foreigners from making inroads he sent to the Elbe a fleet under the command of Revil and Mevil, to make sure that no one crossed it. When the winter had relaxed its grip, Hithin and Hegni decided to cooperate in a pirating expedition. Hegni was unaware that his colleague was deeply in love with his daughter. He was a strapping fellow, but headstrong in temperament, Hithin very handsome, but short.

5. (sometimes chapter 7.10) Since Frothi realized that it was becoming more and more difficult to maintain the costs of the army as days went by, he directed Roller to go to Norway, Olimar to Sweden, King Ønef and the pirate chieftain Glomer to Orkney to seek supplies, assigning each man his own troops. Thirty kings, his devoted friends or vassals, followed Frothi. Immediately Hun heard that Frothi had dispersed his forces, he gathered together a fresh mass of fighting men. Høgni betrothed his daughter to Hithin and each swore that if one perished by the sword, the other would avenge him.

6. (sometimes chapter 7.12) In the autumn the hunters of supplies returned, richer in victories than actual provisions. Roller had killed Arnthor, king of the provinces of Sørmøre and Nordmøre, and laid these under tribute. Olimar, that renowned tamer of savage peoples, vanquished Thori the Tall, king of the Jämts and Hälsings, with two other leaders just as powerful, not to mention also Estland, Kurland, Öland, and the islands that fringe the Swedish coast. He therefore returned with seventy ships, double the number he had sailed out with. Trophies of victory in Orkney went to Ønef, Glomer, Hithin, and Høgni. These carried home ninety vessels. The revenues brought in from far and wide and gathered by plunder were now amply sufficient to meet the costs of nourishing the troops. Frothi had added twenty countries to his empire, and their thirty kings, besides those mentioned above, now fought on the Danish side.

7. (sometimes chapter 7.12) Relying in this way on his powers, he joined battle with the Huns. The first day saw a crescendo of such savage bloodshed that three principal Ruthenian rivers were paved with corpses, as though they had been bridged to make them solid and passable. Furthermore, you might have seen an area stretching the distance of a three days’ horse-ride completely strewn with human bodies. So extensive were the traces of carnage. When the fighting had been protracted for seven days, King Hun fell. His brother of the same name saw that the Huns’ line had given way and lost no time before surrendering with his company. In that war a hundred and seventy kings, either from the Huns or who had served with them, capitulated to the Danish monarch. These Erik had specified in his earlier account of the standards, when he was enumerating the host of Huns in answer to Frothi’s questions.

8. (sometimes chapter 7. 13) Summoning these kings to a meeting Frothi imposed on them a prescription to live under one and the same law. He made Olimar regent of Holmgård, Ønef of Kønugård, assigned Saxony to Hun, his captive, and Orkney to Revil. A man named Dimar was put in charge of the provinces of the Hälsings, the Jarnbers, the Jämts, and both of the Lapp peoples; the rule of Estland was bequeathed to Dag. On each of them he laid fixed obligations of tribute, demanding allegiance as a condition of his liberality. Frothi’s domains now embraced Ruthenia to the east and were bounded by the River Rhine in the west.

Chapter 9

1. Meanwhile certain slanderers brought to Høgni a trumped-up charge that Hithin had dishonoured his daughter before the espousal ceremony by enticing her to fornication, an act which in those days held among all nations to be monstrous. Høgni lent credulous ears to the lying tale and, as Hithin was collecting the royal taxes among the Wends, attacked him with his fleet; when they came to grips Høgni was defeated and made for Jutland. So the peace which Frothi had established was shaken by a domestic feud; they were the first men in his own country who spurned the king’s law. Frothi therefore sent officers to summon them both to him and enquired painstakingly into the reason for their quarrel. When he had leamt this, he pronounced judgement according to the terms of the law he had passed. However, seeing that even this would not reconcile them as long as the father obstinately demanded back his daughter, he decreed that the dispute should be settled by a sword fight. It seemed the only way of bringing their strife to an end. After they had commenced battle, Hithin was wounded by an exceptionally violent blow; he was losing the blood and strength from his body when he found unexpected mercy from his opponent. Although Høgni had the opportunity for a quick kill, pity for Hithin’s fine appearance and youthfulness compelled him to calm his ferocity. He held back his sword, loth to destroy a youngster shuddering with his last gasps. At one time a man blushed to take the life of one who was immature or feeble. So consciously did the brave champions of ancient days retain all the instincts of shame. His friends saw to it that Hithin, preserved by his foe’s clemency, was carried back to the ships. Seven years later they fell to battle again on the island of Hiddensee and slashed each other to death. It would have been more auspicious [meaning ‘wiser’] for Høgni had he exercised cruelty instead of kindness on the one occasion when he overcame Hithin. According to popular belief Hild yearned so ardently for her husband that she conjured up the spirits of the dead men at night so that they could renew their fighting.

Book VI

Chapter 1

1. After Frothi had expired, the Danes wrongly believed that Frithlef, who was being brought up in Ruthenia, had died; the kingdom now seemed crippled for want of an heir and it looked impossible for it to continue under the royal line; they therefore decided that the man most suitable to take up the sceptre would be someone who could attach to Frothi’s new burial mound an elegy of praise glorifying him, one which would leave a handsome testimony of the departed king’s fame for later generations. Hiarni, a bard expert in Danish poetry, was moved by the magnificence of the prize to adorn the man’s brilliance with a distinguished verbal memorial and invented verses in his rude vernacular. I have expressed the general sense of its four lines in this translation:

Because they wished to extend Frothi’s life, the Danes long carried his remains through their countryside. This great prince’s body, now buried under turf, is covered by bare earth beneath the lucent sky.

Chapter 2

1. At the same time Erik, who held the governorship of Sweden, died of an illness. His son Halfdan took over his father’s powers, but was alarmed by frequent clashes with twelve brothers who originated in Norway, for he had no means of punishing their violence; he therefore took refuge with Frithlef, who was still living in Ruthenia, hoping to derive some assistance from that quarter. Approaching with a suppliant’s countenance, he brought to him the sad tale of his injuries and complained of how he had been pounded and shattered by a foreign foe. Through this petitioner Frithlef heard the news of his father’s death, and accompanying him with armed reinforcements made for Norway.

Chapter 5

2. It is definitely recorded that he [Starkath son of Storværk] came from the region which borders eastern Sweden, that which now contains the wide-flung dwellings of the Estlanders and other numerous savage hordes. But a preposterous common conjecture has invented details about his origin which are unreasonable and downright incredible. Some folk tell how he was born of giants and revealed his monster kind by an extraordinary number of hands; they assert that the god Thor broke the sinews which joined four of these freakish extensions of overproductive Nature and tore them off, plucking away the unnatural bunches of fingers from the body proper; with only two arms left, his frame, which before had run to a gargantuan enormity and been shaped with a grotesque crowd of limbs, was afterwards corrected according to a better model and contained within the more limited dimensions of men.

9. When they had devastated whole provinces, their lust for domination also made them invade Ruthenia; the natives had little confidence in their fortifications and arms as means of stopping the enemy’s inroads and so they started to cast unusually sharp nails in their path; if they could not check their onset in battle, they would impede their advance by quietly causing the ground to damage their feet, since they shrank from resistance in the open field. Yet even this kind of obstacle did not help rid them of their foes. For the Danes were cunning enough to foil the Ruthenians‘ endeavours. They at once fitted wooden clogs on their feet and trod on the spikes without injury. Those pieces of iron were each arranged with four prongs, so fashioned that on whatever side they happened to land they immediately stood balanced on three feet. Striking into pathless glades where the forests grew thickest, they rooted out Flokk, the Ruthenian leader, from the mountain retreat into which he had crept. From this stronghold they claimed so much booty that every single man regained his ship laden with gold and silver.

14. Later Starkath together with Vin, chief of the Wends, was assigned to curb a revolt in the East. Taking on the combined armies of the Kurlanders, Samlanders, Semgalli, and finally all the peoples of the East, he won glorious victories on many fronts. A notorious desperado in Ruthenia called Visin had built his hideout on a cliff known as Anafial, from which he inflicted all kinds of outrage on regions far and near. He could blunt the edge of any weapon merely by gazing on it. With no fear of being wounded he combined his strength with so much insolence that he would even seize the wives of eminent men and drag them to be raped before their husbands’ eyes. Roused by reports of this wickedness Starkath journeyed to Ruthenia to exterminate the villain. Since there was nothing which Starkath thought it difficult to subdue, he challenged Visin to single combat, counteracted the help of his magic, and dispatched him. To prevent his sword being visible to the magician he wrapped it in a very fine skin, so that neither the power of Visin‘s sorcery nor his great strength could stop him yielding to Starkath.

15. Afterwards at Byzantium, relying on his stamina, he [Starkath] wrestled with and overthrew a supposedly invincible giant, Tanna, and compelled him to seek unknown lands by branding him an outlaw. As no cruelty of fate had hitherto managed to cheat this mighty man [Starkath] of his conquests, he entered Polish territory and there fought in a duel and defeated a champion called by our people Vaske, a name familiar to the Teutons under the different spelling of Wilzce.

Arnoldus Lubicensis

PublishedSeptember 27, 2018 Post authortorino

Here are some fragments from the Arnold of Lübeck’s Chronicle that discuss Suavic religion including the unknown Deity Gutdracco (probably the name of a local river). The chronicle itself is a continuation of Helmold’s Chronicle and covers the years 1179 to 1209. The green portions below correspond to the portions published by Karl Heinrich Meyer in his Fontes historiae religionis Slavicae. The first piece deals with the siege of Lübeck and may loosely suggest that the city stood where once a Slavic cultic center was found. The second piece either confirms Slavic worship of rivers or else is the only mention of a Slavic Deity by the name Gutdracco.

Book II, 21
Concerning the Siege of Lübeck by the Emperor

“The emperor crossed the river and arrived at Luebeck. An army of Slavs and Holsteiners hastened to meet him. Also King Waldemar of Denmark came with a great fleet to the mouth of the Trave and so the city came to be surrounded from land and sea. Trapped inside were Count Simon of Tekeneburg, Count Bernhard of Aldenburg, and Count Bernhard of Wilpe with Markrad the governor of Holstein and Emeco of Nemore [Holstein?] with several very brave Holsteiners and a countless throng of citizens. King Waldemar appeared with a great retinue and presented himself lavishly with great pageantry in front of the emperor. Then he betrothed his daughter with the Duke of Swabia, the emperor’s son and then the wedding vows were solemnly consecrated and confirmed in the presence of the bishops. During the siege bishop Henry found himself in the city and it was to him that the citizens came saying: ‘We beg your holiness, most revered father to go to the emperor and to say to him in our name: ‘Lord, we are your servants. We are ready to obey your imperial majesty. And what have we done so wrong that we should be visited by you with this great siege. We have had this city in our possession thanks to the generous grace of our lord, Duke Henry and we have erected it as a firm stronghold of Christianity on what was once a place of fright and an empty wasteland; on this place where, now, as we hope, there is a house of God but where before there was a seat of Satan on account of the pagan false belief. And so this city we shall not deliver into your hands but we will instead persevere in defending its freedom with arms, as long as we are able to. But it is for this reason that we ask your eminence to permit us the grant of safety so that we can go to see our lord, the Duke, so as to learn from him what to do and how we may best take care of ourselves and of our city in this hour of need. And if he should promise us relief then it would be proper that we should protect the city for him and if not then we will do what pleases you. If you should not permit this, then know that we would rather die honorably protecting our city than live in ignominy having broken our allegiance.’ And so the bishop went to the emperor and conveyed the same carefully…”

De obsidione civitatis ab imperatore

Imperator autem transito flumine venit Lubeke, et occurrit ei exercitus Sclavorum et Holtsatorum. Waldemarus quoque rex Danorum cum multa classe venit ad ostium Travene, et obsessa est civitas terra marique. In civitate vero erant Simon comes de Tekeneburg et Bernardus comes de Aldenburg et equivocus eius comes de Wilepe cum Marcrado prefecto Holzatorum et Emecone de Nemore cum quibusdam Holzatis strenuissimis et multitudine infinita civium. Rex vero Waldemarus cum multo comitatu veniens in presentiam imperatoris, cum magna iactantia glorie sue ei se exhibuit et filiam suam filio ipsius, duci videlicet Suevie, desponsavit, et episcoporum iuramentis firmata sunt sacramenta coniugalia. In ipso autem tempore obsidionis domnus Heinricus episcopus in civitate constitutus erat, quem adierunt burgenses [scil. Lubicenses] dicentes: Rogamus sanctitatem tuam, reverendissime patrum, ut ad domnum imperatorem o exeatis et ei verbis nostris dicatis: „Domine, servi vestri sumus, imperatorie maiestati vestre servire parati sumus; sed quid commisimus, quod tanta obsidione a vobis conclusi sumus? Civitatem istam hactenus ex munificentia domini nostri Heinrici ducis possidemus, quam etiam ad honorem Dei et robur christianitatis in loco hoc horroris et vaste solitudinis edificavimus, in qua ut speramus nunc habitatio Dei, sed prius per errorem gentilitatis sedes Sathane fuit. Hanc igitur in manus vestras non trademus, sed eius libertatem viribus et armis, quantum possumus, constantissime tuebimur. Hoc tamen u rogamus apud magnificentiam vestram, ut data occasione pacis, eamus ad dominum nostrum ducem, percunctaturi ab eo, quid sit faciendum, qualiter vel nobis vel civitati nostre in presenti necessitate sit consulendum. Qui si liberationem nobis promiserit, iustum est, ut civitatem ei servemus; sin autem, quod placitum est in oculis vestris faciemus. Quod si facere nolueritis, sciatis, omnes nos pro defensione civitatis nostre magis optare honeste mori, quam fidei violatores inhoneste vivere.” Episcopus ergo veniens ad imperatorem hec diligentissime peroravit…

Book V, 24
Concerning the Death of Bishop Berno and Duke Henry

“At this time, Berno, bishop of Schwerin died. He had been the first bishop there. For the bishop of Schwerin was, in the days of the Ottonians, called the Mecklenburg bishop. But the seat of the bishop was moved [from Mecklenburg to Schwerin] out of fear of the Slavs who frequently attacked that bishop. Bishop Berno who’d been installed by Duke Henry was the first Christian teacher whom these people received. He suffered being beaten and slapped and was mockingly forced to witness their demonic sacrifices. Nevertheless, strengthened by his Christian faith, he eradicated the worship of demons, cut down the holy groves and made it so that they honored Bishop Gotthard* instead of Gutdracco** so that the Faithful were confident that he led his life well.”

* Saint Gotthard of Hildesheim
** This is unexplained. It may be the name of a river worshipped by the Suavic Warnowi – probably the Warnow river. The reason for this hypothesis is that a similar name appears in the Knýtlinga saga (chapter 119 has “Guðakrsá“) and in Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum (Book 14, chapter 25, section 16 has “inde ad Gudacram amnem nauigatione discessum” – “From there they sailed off as far as the River Gudacra.”).

Heinrich Bangert edition

De Morte Bernonis Episcopi et Heinrici Ducis

Hoc dierum curriculo mortuus est domnus Berno Zverinensis episcopus, primus eiusdem tituli antistes. Qui enim nunc est Zverinensis, olim tempore Ottonum dicebatur Magnopolitanus. Unde eadem sedes propter timorem Sclavorum translata est, a quibus idem antistes sepius contumeliatus. Qui a duce Heinrico episcopus eis prefectus, primus nostris in temporibus doctor illis exstitit catholicus, alapas, colaphos ab eis pertulit, ita ut frequenter ludibrio habitus ad sacrificia demonum artaretur. Ille tamen per Christum confortatus, culturas demonum eliminavit, lucos succidit et pro Gutdracco Godehardum episcopum venerari constituit, ideoque bono fine cursum certaminis terminasse fidelibus placuit.

The Annales Augustani Endorse Horse Theft

PublishedSeptember 25, 2018 Post authortorino

The Annals of Augsburg (Annales Augustani) report (written in 1135) for the winter of the year 1068 of a curious excursion undertaken by Burchard II bishop of Halberstadt (MG SS III 1839, 1068 (p 128)).

“Burchard, bishop of Halberstadt, entered the lands of the Lutici, set them on fire, ravaged them, carried away that horse who in Rethra they celebrated as a God, and rode off on it returning to Saxony.”

Burchardus Halberstatensis episcopus, Liuticiorum provintiam ingressus, incendit, vastatit, avecto que equo, quem pro Deo in Rheda* colebant, super eum sedens in Saxoniam rediit.

* Rethra, the capital of the Redari

According to the historian James Westfall, Bishop Burchard was also very fond of children.

Horse theft was just one of the crimes that caught up with Burchard along with the Lutici posse