Einhard on the Slavs

Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, is one of the principal sources of knowledge about the life and times of Karl der Grosse (Vita Karoli Magni).  He knew Charlemagne and his court intimately (he may have also gotten to know intimately Charlemagne’s daughter).

So the question arises what information was conveyed by him about the Slavs?  Well, not much.

Some of it is in Chapter 12, some in Chapter 14 and a few mentions in Chapter 15.  The  first story told is that of Charlamagne’s campaign against the Welatabi “on behalf of” the Obotrites.  (Perhaps this was the time of King Majik mentioned as the ruler of all Slavs in the Muslim writings that we saw earlier?).  Then there is mention in passing that the Danes had earlier subjugated the Obotrites.  Then we learn that the Saale (Solawa/Solava…) separates the Sorbs from the Thuringians.  Finally, there is some interesting anthropological information on the Slavs and their main tribes.

Chapter 12 of Vita Karoli Magni

English:

“After the insurrection [of duke Tasillo of the Bavarians who confronted Charlemagne at the River Lech in 787], [the king] declared war against the Slavs, whom we normally refer to as the Wilzi, but who are properly called Welatabi in their own language.  In that war the Saxons fought as auxiliaries alongside the other peoples who were ordered to march in the king’s army, but the obedience [of the Saxons] was insincere and lacking in complete commitment.  That war came about because they [the Slavs] were constatntly harassing and attacking the Abotrites, who had once allied themselves with the Franks.  They [the Slavs] were not inclined to listen to the commands [of Charlemagne].”

“A certain gulf [i.e., the Baltic] with an unknown length and a width no more than a hundred miles wide and in many places [much] narrower runs from the western ocean towards the east. Many peoples live around this sea.  In fact, the Danes and the Swedes, whom we call Northmen, live along the northern shore [of the sea].  The Slavs, Estonians and other peoples live along the southern shore.  The Welatabi were the most prominent of these peoples and it was against them that the  king now took up war.  He beat them and brought them under his control in the one and only campaign he personally waged [against them], that from that point on they never thought of refusing to obey his commands.”

Latin:

“His motibus ita conpositis, Sclavis, qui nostra consuetudine Wilzi, proprie vero, id est sua locutione, Welatabi dicuntur, bellum inlatum est. In quo et Saxones velut auxiliares inter ceteras nationes, quae regis signa iussae sequebantur, quamquam ficta et minus devota oboedientia, militabant. Causa belli erat, quod Abodritos, qui cum Francis olim foederati erant, adsidua incursione lacessebant nec iussionibus coerceri poterant.”

“Sinus quidam ab occidentali oceano orientem versus porrigitur, longitudinis quidem inconpertae, latitudinis vero quae nusquam centum milia passuum excedat, cum in multis locis contractior inveniatur. Hunc multae circumsedent nationes; Dani siquidem ac Sueones, ques Nordmannos vocamus, et septentrionale litus et omnes in eo insulas tenent. At litus australe Sclavi et Aisti et aliae diversae incolunt nationes; inter quos vel praecipui sunt, quibus tunc a rege bellum inferebatur, Welatabi. Quos ille una tantum et quam per se gesserat expeditione ita contudit ac domuit, ut ulterius imperata facere minime rennuendum iudicarent.”

Chapter 14 of Vita Karoli Magni

English:

“Charlemagne’s final war was the one taken up against the Northmen who are called Danes.  First they had operated as pirates, but then they raided the coasts of Gaul and Germany with larger fleets.  Their king, Godefrid, was s filled with vain ambition, that he vowed to take control of all Germany.  Indeed, he already thought of Frisia and Saxony as his one provinces and had first brought the Abotrites, who were his neighbors, under his power and made them pay tribute to him.  He even bragged that he would soon come to Aachen, where the King [Charlamagne] held court, with a vast army.  Some stock was put in his boast, although it was idle, for it was believed that he was about to start something like this, but was suddenly stopped by death.  For he was murdered by one of his own attendants and, thus, both his life and the war he had begun came to a sudden end.”

Latin:

“Post quod et Saxonicum suae prolixitati convenientem finem accepit. Boemanicum quoque et Linonicum, quae postea exorta sunt, diu durare non potuerunt. Quorum utrumque ductu Karoli iunioris celeri fine conpletum est. Ultimum contra Nordmannos, qui Dani vocantur, primo pyraticam exercentes, deinde maiori classe litora Galliae atque Germaniae vastantes, bellum susceptum est. Quorum rex Godofridus adeo vana spe inflatus erat, ut sibi totius Germaniae promitteret potestatem. Frisiam quoque atque Saxoniam haud aliter atque suas provincias aestimabat. Iam Abodritos, vicinos suos, in suam ditionem redegerat, iam eos sibi vectigales fecerat. Iactabat etiam se brevi Aquasgrani, ubi regis comitatus erat, cum maximis copiis adventurum. Nec dictis eius, quamvis vanissimis, omnino fides abnuebatur, quin potius putaretur tale aliquid inchoaturus, nisi festinata fuisset morte praeventus. Nam a proprio satellite interfectus et suae vitae et belli a se inchoati finem acceleravit.”

Chapter 15 of Vita Karoli Magni

English:

“Previously the so-called eastern Franks had occupied no more than part of Gaul bounded by the Rhine, the Loire, the [Atlantic] ocean, and the Balearic sea and that part of Germany bounded by Saxony, the Danube, Rhine and Saal (the river that divides the Thuringians and the Sorbs).”

Latin:

“Nam cum prius non amplius quam ea pars Galliae, quae inter Rhenum et Ligerem oceanumque ac mare Balearicum iacet, et pars Germaniae, quae inter Saxoniam et Danubium Rhenumque ac Salam fluvium, qui Thuringos et Sorabos dividit, posita a Francis qui Orientales dicuntur incolitur…”

English:

“… Then he subordinated and made tributary all the rough and uncivilized peoples inhabiting Germany between the Rhine and Vistula rivers, the ocean and the Danube.  They almost all speak a similar language, but are very different from each other in customs and appearance.  Among these peoples the Welatabi, Sorbs, Obotrites and Bohemians are of special importance, and he came into armed conflict with all of them.  Other peoples [living there], who far outnumbered them, simply surrendered.”

Latin:

“…deinde omnes barbaras ac feras nationes, quae inter Rhenum ac Visulam fluvios oceanumque ac Danubium positae, lingua quidem poene similes, moribus vero atque habitu valde dissimiles, Germaniam incolunt, ita perdomuit, ut eas tributarias efficeret; inter quas fere praecipuae sunt Welatabi, Sorabi, Abodriti, Boemani – cum his namque bello conflixit -; ceteras, quarum multo maior est numerus, in deditionem suscepit.”

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