Feudal Background to the Baltic's Change of Culture

(April 22, 2025)

The feudal system in the lands which would become the Grand Duchy of Lithuania seems to have started developing by 1000 CE. During this time, most people were free farmers who worked for so-called “good people” who would eventually become nobles. Castles, manors and systems of defense were established during this time. Little documentation actually exists from this period.

The first official king was Mindaugas who was crowned on July 6, 1253. Seeking to enhance his power further relative to the nobles he claimed to convert to Catholic Christianity. This only resulted in internal conflict and increasing brutality. Ultimately, a conspiracy was formed against him and he was assassinated in 1263 along with his two sons. Still after this time state institutions were formed, the Teutonic Order was resisted on the north, and territory expanded into the lands of Rus on the south.  Stability returned with the rule of Grand Duke Gediminas (1275-1341) who established a long line of kings.

Wanting to keep his Greek Orthodox territories (Ruthenia) against the growing power of the Rus he allied himself with Catholic Poland. He invited members of religious orders to come to the Grand Duchy and announced his loyalty to the Pope. Gediminas’ political skills in diverting aggression are revealed in a series of letters written to Rome. In 1322 letter to Pope John XXII, he claimed that his predecessors, including Mindaugas, had been open to Christianity, but had been betrayed by the Teutonic Knights.  

“Holy and honorable Father!,” he wrote, “We are fighting with the Christians not so that we could destroy the Catholic faith, but in order to resist the harm done to us…”

His grandson, Jogaila, became king in 1377 but due to his youth he initially had a joint rule with his uncle Kestutis. Under pressure from the Teutonic Knights Jogaila chose union with the Poles, solidified in the 1385 Act of Kreva in which Jogaila promised "to merge his lands of Lithuania and the Rus (Ruthenia) to the crown of Poland forever" in return for becoming king of Poland. This also required him to become Roman Catholic and marry Polish princess, Jadwiga (or Hedwig, born in 1373 or 1374). Consequently, he was elected king of Poland on Feb. 2, 1386, was baptized as a Roman Catholic on February 15 taking the name Władysław II, married Jadwiga on February 18, and was crowned king on March 4 in Cracow.

This merger provided immediate benefits to Poland's and Lithuania's fight with the Teutonic order. July of 1410 a combined Lithuanian-Polish army invaded the territory of the Order in and fought what would be called the Battle of Žalgiris (Grunwald).  Their combined forces of 39,000 swiftly defeated the Order, killing almost half of its men, including the Grand Master, and taking 14,000 prisoners for ransom. The victory was decisive, and the military power of the Order was effectively destroyed.  

Yet by preserving his territory Jogaila gave up his ancestral culture which was the goal of the Teutonic order anyway. He began at once to convert Lithuania to Roman Catholicism. He was the king who allowed Christian professor and free-thinker Jan Huss (1369–1415) to be burned at the stake at the urging of the Catholic church.

References

(April 24, 2025) Unlike the Norse, Irish, and Welsh, the Balkans did not have a critical mass of competing nobles to support a bardic culture. But due to the lateness of its Christianization we do have a significant number of Christian texts describing the emergence of the native Pagan culture out of Druidry.

In 1199 Pope Innocent III sent bishop Meinhard of Livonia to the to the Baltic region's tribes whom he called a: 

• "barbarous people, who pay the honour due to God to brute animals, leafy trees, clear waters, flourishing herbs, and unclean spirits." (BRMS 1:201)

Christian observers in the Baltic lands interpreted Pagan practices through their own paradigm meaning they got it all wrong. According to the Christian view deities were always personified thus interacting with them required they be worshiped, that is, bribed with sacrifices, flattered, praised, and in general manipulated like any vain human in order to gain the god's favor.

The earliest refences made by medieval era Christian authors are just deity names. The most complete list is found in a 1253 complaint by Rus chroniclers writing in the Galacian-Voihynian about the Lithuanian Grand Duke Mindaugus who claimed to have converted to Christianity. They complained he did not really convert:

• His baptism was a mere artifice and he continued to offer sacrifices to his gods in secret: to Nonadej, Teljavel, Diverkis, to the hare god Mejdejn. Whenever he rode into a field and saw a hare running into it, he felt he was not allowed to step into a forest, let alone break a branch there. He sacrificed to his gods, cremated his dead, and openly practiced paganism (BRMS, 1:259-60).

The above deity names are actually Druid Akkadian phrases describing various magical rituals. Hence, these are important in their own right. Their meanings are:

1. Nonadej is the Druid Akkadian phrase N'.N.AD.EG meaning "The emotional-effects for revealing the Instigator's (Su) neglect."
2. Teljavel is the Druid Akkadian phrase T.EL.G.AW.EL meaning "Astrology-magic for the high-life-powers energized by the emotion-powers (Awen) for the high-life-powers."
3. Diverkis is the Druid Akkadian phrase D.IW.ER.K.IS meaning "The life-manifestations redirected by the harbor's involvement with the Woman" where the "woman" is for either the celestial light motion source goddess Selu/Selene or the crescent moon life network editing goddess Ayu.
4. Mejdejn is the Druid Akkadian phrase M.EG.D.E.G.N meaning "The fertility-fluids neglecting life-manifestations by being made ineffective by energy from fate-revelations." Rabbits and hares represented raw chaotic energy corresponding to their running style. So in this culture (and in Germany) an energized rabbit was a harbinger of fate involving life. This would seem to be the source for the Easter bunny as a harbinger of new life.

References

(August 1, 2023, Updated September 22, 2024) 

The codex Runicus is the only surviving book written in runes and it has remained untranslated until now. Its title page states that it was found in 1505 and is a copy of an original commissioned in 1190 CE by Danish king Valdemar 1. It has 200 pages in 14 layers. Prior to this first translation it was thought to be a runic version of Danish law like those found in other early Danish books. It seems to have been written by a Wendish/Vendish Druid and is a Druid metaphysical treatise on how to avoid droughts.

The deities it mentions are Druid and not those of the later Nordic tradition. Druid deities are found in all earlier runic texts associated with the Neolithic farmer culture (the first such texts were Minoan from about 1900 BCE). That some specialized priestly class must have existed throughout Europe is shown by the fact that these Akkadian runic texts exist despite all the local spoken languages around them being some mix of Indo-European and Akkadian. Some group was preserving this language and this writing style.

The book claims drought is to be avoided by magically diverting and adjusting the natural divine powers in a way which integrates the two spiritual power classes representing changes in life and motion. Magic should not be used in an attempt to override those powers but only to modify them. Based on tree ring and other physical data, northern European droughts occurred in the years 1080, 1120, and 1180 CE (Ionita, and all 2021).

This text was commissioned by Danish King Valdemar near the end of his life as indicated by the introductory paragraph on page 1. King Valdemar 1 was born January 14, 1131 and died May 12, 1182). He ended the eastern Baltic Wend threat to Danish shipping, won independence from the Holy Roman emperor, and gained church approval for the hereditary rule by his dynasty, the Valdemars. 

He was the son of Knud Lavard, duke of South Jutland, and a great-grandson of the Danish king Sweyn II. Valdemar won a 25 year civil war waged by competing contenders for the throne. 

Initially during this struggle, Valdemar acknowledged the overlordship of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and accepted his antipope Victor IV (or V). This caused Denmark’s chief prelate Eskil, archbishop of Lund, to choose exile rather than oppose Pope Alexander III. After Valdemar and Bishop Absalon changed their mind and  acknowledged Pope Alexander in 1165, Eskil returned to Denmark. There he confirmed the canonization of the king’s father and anointed his son Canute VI as joint king (1170) inaugurating the hereditary rule of the Valdemars.

Apparently, as a part of this deal Valdemar agreed to take part in the Northern crusades aimed at suppressing Paganism in the Baltic lands. These only ended in 1185 shortly after his death. Valdemar began a series of expeditions against the Wends aided by his foster brother Absalon whom he made bishop of Roskilde. The Wends were attacked and by 1169 his forces had captured the Wendish stronghold of Rügen (now in Germany), which was then incorporated into the diocese of Roskilde. He also destroyed the Wendish sanctuary at Arcona. A year later he was forced to divide his gains with his ally Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony.

Shortly before his death in 1182 yet after the start of the drought around 1180, Valdemar commissioned the Codex Runicus which was likely written by a surviving Wendish Druid and finished in 1190.

Other surviving books from this time are Danish law books written in the old Norse/Germanic language. These were compiled during the 1200s and represent the bulk of Nordic literature from the period between 1200-1400. The Danish provincial laws consist of the Scanian Law (written between 1202 and 1216), the Jutlandic Law (issued in 1241) along with King Valdemar's Zealandic Law and King Eric's Zealandic Law. 

References

Arild Hauge's scan: https://www.arild-hauge.com/am_28_8vo_codex_runicus.htm

Freeman, Kirk (2007) Baptism or Death: The Wendish Crusade, 1147-1185. Online at:  https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/baptism-or-death-the-wendish-crusade-1147-1185/

Ionita, M., Dima, M., Nagavciuc, V. et al. Past megadroughts in central Europe were longer, more severe and less warm than modern droughts. Commun Earth Environ 2, 61 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00130-w

University of Copenhagen's Interactive Online Scan with Zoom: https://www.e-pages.dk/ku/579/

Wendish Crusade here at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendish_Crusade