The Prussians kill Adalbert

The Prussian people, or (old) Prussians, inhabited the area around the Curonian and Vistula Lagoons, (in what is now northern Poland), in the region roughly occupied by the Mazurian Lakes. Image File history File links Adalb. ... The Curonian Lagoon (or Bay, Gulf) is sundered from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit and belongs to Lithuania and Russia. ... Landsat photo Vistula Lagoon Vistula Lagoon (or Bay, Gulf) is the sweet water lagoon on the Baltic Sea that is cut off from Gdansk Bay by the Vistula Spit. ... Masurian Lakeland (Polish Pojezierze Mazurskie) - Lake district, northeastern Poland, containing more than 2,000 lakes. ...

Early Baltic history

At the beginning of Baltic history, the Prussians were bordered by the Vistula and the Neman with a southern depth to about Torun, which was Prussian, and the line of the River Narew. The Germans were on the west, the Poles on the south, the Sudovians on the east, the Curonians on the northeast and the Lithuanians on the northwest. The Sudovians began at about Suwałki. The Baltic Sea The Baltic region (sometimes briefly The Baltics) is an ambiguous term used to denominate an arbitrary region connected to the Baltic Sea (also called The Baltics). ... The Vistula (Polish: WisÅ‚a) is the longest river in Poland. ... The Neman (Belarusian: ; Lithuanian: ; Russian: ; Polish: ; German: ) is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Baltic Sea near KlaipÄ—da. ... Toruń (pronounce: [:tɔruɲ], Kashubian: Torń, German Thorn, see also other names) is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula river. ... Narew (Belarusian: На́раў) is a river in western Belarus and north-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula river. ... Sudovian kurhan Sudovians are a subgroup of Baltic people, living at the left coast of river Nemunas, in the region known as Sudovia. ... The Curonians (also called Kursi, Latvian KurÅ¡i) are one of the extinct Baltic tribes that later formed the Latvian nation. ... Motto: none Voivodship Podlaskie Municipal government Rada miejska w SuwaÅ‚kach Mayor Józef Gajewski Area 65. ...

The Prussians, like the other Balts of the times, were organized into a tribal structure. This structure is most fully attested in the Chronicon terrae Prussiae of Peter of Dusburg, a priest of the Teutonic Order. The work is dated to 1326. He lists 10 tribes, which were named on a geographical basis. The names of the regions in modern Lithuanian are Pamede, Pagude, Varme, Notanga, Semba, Nadruva, Barta, Skalva, Suduva and Galinda. These are not, perhaps, exhaustive. Many of the names appear in ancient and mediaeval sources, but the spelling and to some degree the morphology vary. Dusburg proferred Latin names, such as the Pomesani, Pogesani, Varmienses, etc. The Baltic Sea The Balts or Baltic peoples (Latvian: balti, Lithuanian: baltai), defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between lower Vistula and upper Dvina and Dneper. ... Chronicon terrae Prussiae (The Chronicle of the Prussian Land) is a chronicle of the Teutonic Order by Peter of Dusburg dated to 1326. ... Chronicon terrae Prussiae (The Chronicle of the Prussian Land) is a chronicle of the Teutonic Order by Peter of Dusburg dated to 1326. ... Teutonic Knights, charging into battle. ... Pomesania is the former name of an area now in northern Poland, in the vicinity of the cities of Elblag (Elbing) and Malbork (Marienburg), to the east of the lower Vistula river. ... Warmia in 1547 Warmia (Polish: , German: , Latin: Varmia, also historically known as Ermeland) is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland. ... Samland or Sambia (Russian: semlyandskiy poluostrov, Polish: Sambia) is the name of a peninsula on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. ... Nadruvia or Nadruva was the homeland of a pagan Prussian tribe in the first few centuries of the 2nd millenium AD. It was the location of the sacred center of Baltic pagan religion, Romuva, according to Peter of Dusburg, writing in 1326. ... Sudovia (Lithuanian: SÅ«duva / Suvalkija, Polish: Suwalszczyzna), or Suvalkija (pronouncing soo-vul-kee-uh), is the name of one of ethnographic regions of Lithuania. ... Galindae, Galindai, or Galindians is an extinct Western Baltic tribe which formerly lived in Galindia (today Masuria, Poland (so-called Western Galindae) and in the basin of the Protva River, near the modern Russian towns of Mozhaysk, Vereya, and Borovsk (so-called Eastern Galindae). ...

Origin of the name

Etymologically, the names of the Prussian tribes were all formed on a common theme: water. A number of Indo-European roots are used, but they all mean about the same thing: water, stream, lake, flow, wetland, swamp, etc. This convention is understandable, as the terrain of the Baltic countries includes thousands of lakes, streams and swamps, so much so that this circumstance itself caused the very partial isolation that preserved the Baltic language group. Nor is the terrain much better to the south, as it runs into the Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the Dnepr. They have been an effective barrier over the millennia. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ... The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. ... Pinsk Marshes (Пинские болота) or Pripyat Marshes (Pripet Marshes, Припятские болота) is a vast territory of wetlands along the Pripyat River and its tributaries from Brest, Belarus (West) to Mahileu (Northeast) and Kiev (Southeast). ... The Dnieper River (Belarusian: Дняпро/Dnyapro; Russian: Днепр/Dnepr; Ukrainian: Днiпро/Dnipro; Polish: Dniepr; Latin: Borysthenes, Danaper) is a river (2290 km length) which flows from Russia through Belarus and then Ukraine. ...

The original pre-Baltic settlers clearly named their settlements after the streams, lakes or seas on which they settled. The clan or tribal polities into which they were organized took the name of the settlement. For example, Barta, the home of the Barti, is related to some other Baltic water names, such as the Bartis River in Lithuania, and to such words as Albanian berrak, Bulgarian bera, "swamp." A *bor- root can be reconstructed, "swamp", which ought to come from the o-grade of Indo-European *bher-. Indo-European has several *bher- roots, however, so the exact meaning and line of descent is unclear.

This very root is perhaps the one used in Prusas (Prussia), for which an earlier Brus- can be postulated. The name of the Dnepr in ancient Greek was the Borysthenes, which, though undoubtedly twisted, contains perhaps the *Bor-. In Tacitus' Germania we find the Lugii Buri living in the east range of the Germans. Lugi can descend from Pokorny's *leug- (2), "black, swamp" (Page 686), while Buri is perhaps the "Prussian" root. The Germania (Latin title: De Origine et situ Germanorum), written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus around 98, is an ethnographic work on the diverse set of Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. ... The green area is the Przeworsk culture identified with the Lugians. ... Julius Pokorny (1887–1970) was born in Prague and studied at Vienna university. ...

The contexts for these elements remain unknown, or whether these Buri were the ancestors of our Prussians. The 2nd-century AD geographer, Claudius Ptolemy, lists some Borusci living in European Sarmatia (Eighth Map of Europe), which was separated from Germania by the Vistula Flumen. His map is very confused in that region, but these Borusci seem further east than our Prussians, which would have been under the Gythones (Goths) at the mouth of the Vistula. The Aesti (Easterners) as they were recorded by Tacitus were recorded later by Jordanes as part of the Gothic empire. Claudius Ptolemaeus, given contemporary German styling, in a 16th century engraved book frontispiece. ...

Medieval history

Though a peaceful farming people, the Old Prussians were pagans. In 13th century Prussia was slowly and painfully overrun and subdued by crusades established by the popes. Baptised Prussians were educated at the diocese in Magdeburg and many western Germans including Dutch moved to Prussian lands. Meanwhile, the Lithuanians utilized the time bought by the blood of the Prussians (allied with the Sudovians) to form the grand duchy of Lithuania, the first Baltic state as such. Lithuania had been divided into duchies or "dukedoms", where the "duke" meant was a tribal chieftain.

The grand duchy of Lithuania united all the duchies and made one duke the grand duke. This polity grew in power and influence over a few hundred years under several grand dukes, allying with Poland and carving out an empire in Russia. Under Vytautas the Great, it turned suddenly on its original enemies, the Teutonic Order, and defeated the order's army at the Battle of Grunwald, 1410. Vytautas the Great - engraving of XVI ct. ... Combatants Kingdom of Poland Grand Duchy of Lithuania Teutonic Order Commanders Władysław Jagiełło, Vytautas the Great Ulrich von Jungingen Strength 39,000 27,000 Casualties Unknown 8,000 dead 2,000 captured The Battle of Grunwald or Battle of Tannenberg took place on July 15, 1410 between...

By way of settlement (The Treaty of Lake Melno, 1422), the border was established between Prussia and Lithuania and remained so until the 20th century. People from Poland moved to western Prussia with the Reformation and Counter Reformation. Significant pockets of Old Prussians were left in a matrix of Germans in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad), and remained under Teutonic Order government until 1525, when it became a Duchy. The historical states of Prussia now came into floruit, and the Prussians made significant contributions. The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ...

18th and 19th centuries

The Prussians might have been more numerous and not scattered all over the world today, but an act of nature struck many down. In 1711 a plague in Samland (Sembia) removed over half the Prussian speakers and the rest assimilated to German language.

Language

The monks of the Teutonic Order, being of a scholarly bent, took an interest in the language spoken by the Prussians and tried to record it. They needed to communicate with the Prussians in order to convert them. Consequently we have some record of the Old Prussian language. With the slightly known Galindian, and the better known Sudovian, it is all we have of West Baltic. As might be expected, it is a very archaic Baltic, showing affinities with Germanic. Old Prussian seems to support the theory that once a common Germanic/Balto/Slavic existed. Old Prussian is an extinct Baltic language spoken by the inhabitants of the area that later became East Prussia (now in north-eastern Poland, Lithuania and the Kaliningrad oblast of Russia) prior to Polish and German colonization of the area beginning in the 13th century. ...

Currently, an interesting experiment in cultural and linguistic revival is underway in Lithuania, exploring modern Lithuanian connections with the old ethnic Prussians from the same Baltic family.

Religion and culture

Main article: Origins of Prussia. Prussias Historic Roots The land extending from the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea to the Masurian Lakes district was called Prussia by its Polish neighbours in the 10th century AD. People inhabiting those lands from at least the 5th century BC spoke a variety of languages belonging...

The first certain mention of the Old Prussians in historical sources is in connection with Adalbert of Prague who was slain in 997 during a crusade to Christianise the Prussians. By the late 13th century, the German knights, especially the Teutonic Knights had converted them under arms to Christianity, after two centuries of conquest attempts by Poland had failed. Many of the native Prussians remaining after the bloody conquest were settled in Sambia. The Prussians organized frequent uprisings, the most famous in 1286 and the last in 1525. Before the end of 17th century, the Prussian language had become extinct. The culture of the Old Prussians was Germanicised, or Polonised, depending on the part of Prussia in which they lived. They converted either to Protestantism or to Catholicism (in Warmia). Adalbert (Czech:   VojtÄ›ch?, Polish: Wojciech, Germanic equivalent Adalbert - the joy of warrior) (c. ... Events City of Gdansk is founded Saint Adalbert of Prague is sent to Prussia by Boleslaus I of Poland Samuil of Bulgaria crowned Tsar by Pope Gregory V The town of Trondheim is founded. ... This article is about the medieval crusades. ... As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... Teutonic Knights, charging into battle. ... As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ... Sambia or the Sambian Peninsula (Russian: semlyandskiy poluostrov, German: Samland) is the name of a peninsula in the Baltic Sea. ... Events Margaret I of Scotland became queen of Scotland, end of Canmore dynasty. ... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Warmia in 1547 Warmia (Polish: , German: , Latin: Varmia, also historically known as Ermeland) is a region between Pomerania and Masuria in northeastern Poland. ...

See also

• Kashubian language
• Slovincian language
• Prussia
• Galindae
• Sudovians
• Yatvingians

Kashubian or Cassubian (Kashubian: kaszëbsczi jãzëk, pòmòrsczi jãzëk, kaszëbskò-słowińskô mòwa) is one of the Lechitic languages, which are a group of Slavic languages. ... Slovincian is an extinct dialect of the Pomeranian language, spoken between the lakes Gardno and Lebsko in Pomerania. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... Galindae, Galindai, or Galindians is an extinct Western Baltic tribe which formerly lived in Galindia (today Masuria, Poland (so-called Western Galindae) and in the basin of the Protva River, near the modern Russian towns of Mozhaysk, Vereya, and Borovsk (so-called Eastern Galindae). ... Sudovian kurhan Sudovians are a subgroup of Baltic people, living at the left coast of river Nemunas, in the region known as Sudovia. ... Categories: Baltic peoples | Stub ...

External links

• Northeast Prussia
• Milestones of Baltic Prussian History
• Map of Prussia before teutonic invasion