Obodriti

Obodriti - April 19, 2022 Obodriti: what state did the Polabian Slavs create? In the Middle Ages, the Polabian Slavs fell victim to the Germanic expansion from the west, which stopped in the Polan state. As a result of the aggression of the emperors and margraves, the strongest state of this region, created by the Obodrites, also fell. But where did the Slavs come from? The oldest country of Połabia The principality of Obodrzyców was not only one of the two (next to the alleged "great principality" of Wielety) the earliest appearing in written records in the Slavic state of Połaby - it also turned out to be the longest-existing of them. We also have the most source data about him. Most of them concern the fights that Obodrzyce waged with its neighbors, and the number of these mentions shows an image of a warlike, strong people, able to fight not only on land, but also at sea. The one-sidedness of the messages, primarily about military operations, means that we only have a residual image of the Obodrzyckie society, its power structure, the functioning of castles1 or the range of trade contacts. I will deal with these issues only in the context of the policy pursued by individual Slavic states or in text frames, where by combining the information from the sparse written records with the results of archaeological research, I will allow myself to draw certain conclusions on issues not directly related to wars and politics. west Slavic state. They were surrounded on all sides by enemies - Saxons, Danes and Slavic Wieleci - and therefore it owed its long existence only to its own military potential. Obodrzyców lands (author: Marcel Rogge, Zweedorf22; CC BY-SA 3.0) Obodrzyckie peoples appeared in the territories near the Elbe region probably in the first half of the 7th century. Their oldest craft and trade centers were established at the beginning of the 8th century and started to flourish in the middle of this century. It is not known where exactly Obodrzyce came from, but both the archaeological monuments and the name of the main people of the principality seem to indicate that one of their last "stops" was the territory of north-west Poland. One of the theories derives their name from the Ob Odr-, meaning "on the Oder", which may suggest that they lived on this river for some time (probably on its lower reaches) and at that time their name was born, and probably also a sense of community The term Obodrzyce (Obodrzyca, Obodryci, Obotryci) was used to describe a group of four tribes forming a principality, also referred to in studies as "the great principality" (as the German chronicler Helmold wrote about it) or the Obodrzycki Association. The whole country was named after the strongest people of the federation - the proper Obodrzyca, i.e. the Reregs, although it seems that the latter name was used primarily by the Danes. Obodrzyce proper occupied the areas on the eastern and southern coast of the Bay of Lübeck, and included such forts as Mechlin (later German name: Mecklenburg), Swarzyn (Schwerin), Dubin (Dobin), Wyszomierz (Wismar), Iłów (Illow) and a non-defensive emporium Trade Reric. To the southeast, Obodrzyce bordered the much less numerous people of the union, the Varna, who had their seats on the upper course of the Warnava River. Presumably the main stronghold of this tribe was the center on an island in Lake Binnensee (Groß Radener See) existing from the end of the 8th century, in archeology referred to as Groß Raden from the name of the nearby town, and possibly originally called Radomin. Within the outskirts of the mainland, there was a large temple, probably built just after the Great Slavic Uprising of 983, and probably serving as the cult center of Varna. Helmold's Slavic Chronicle from the 12th century The Polabians were the third tribe of the state. The southern border of their lands was the Elbe, the northern - the foreland of the Trawna River, the western - the Limes Saxoniae ("limes of the Saxon land" - a belt of transitions established by Charlemagne from above, separating the northern part of the Saxon principality from the lands of the Slavs), and the eastern forest belt, beyond which Obodrzyce lived right and Cops. The main stronghold of Połabian was Racibórz (Ratzeburg). The fourth and last of the basic peoples of the union were Wagrowie, after Obodrzyce proper the strongest people of the state. They occupied the western shores of the Bay of Lübeck north of the Trawna River and east of Limes Saxoniae, as well as the island of Wębrza (Wembrza, Imbrę, German Fehmarn), the nest of Slavic pirates famous in the Middle Ages. The center of the tribe was in Stargard (Altinburg, Oldenburg) called Wagryjskie, a large stronghold was also Płonia (Plön), and with time the most important center of their land became Lübeck (by the Germans called Old Lübeck - Alt Lübeck), later also the capital whole