Andrey A. Leonov
The Baltic region is an ancient clone of the Black Sea region. Features of medieval geography
The works of medieval scribes and chroniclers are an important source of historical information. Often, based on this book information, as a starting point, historians recreate the appearance and events of a bygone epoch. For example, the history of the Goths is based on the work of Jordan "Getica", the story of the vocation of the Varangians in the "Tale of Bygone Years" is considered the starting point of the history of ancient Russia, the history of the Viking campaigns is largely linked to the Old Norse legends recorded much later by the Icelandic skald Snorri Sturluson, and so on. ...
However, in order to correctly understand the works of medieval writers, it is important to clearly understand the features of medieval geography, especially the geography of the North.
Here are some examples of geographic oddities in the writings of medieval authors:
The Ravenna Cosmography ("The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese"), written around 700 AD., notes:
"Emperor Trajan, when he marched across the entire coast of the North Ocean and defeated the king of the Dacians". [1]
That is, the author of this work located the Black Sea Dacia (the Circum-Pontic region) on the coast of the Northern Ocean (?).
And here is the message of the English priest Asser, biographer of King Alfred the Great, about one of the early attacks by some "pagans" on Britain:
“In the year of our Lord s incarnation 866... and the same year a large fleet of pagans came to Britain from the Danube (?), and wintered in the kingdom of the Eastern-Saxons, which is called in Saxon East-Anglia; and there they became principally an army of cavalry“. [2]
If in this text the “pagans” are the Scandinavian Vikings, then why does the author attribute them to the Black Sea region?
In the chronicle "Saxon Annalist" (Annalisto Saxo), it is similarly stated that the Normans, led by the legendary Roland, came from Lower Scythia from the Danube River:
“The Normans are called in the barbaric language “northern people” because they came at first from this part of the world. Almost 166 years [ago], led by a certain Duke Rollo, they set out from lower Scythia, which is located in Asia, from the Danube River to the north and sailing along the Ocean, they often, according to pirate habit, harassed the German and Gallic shores of this Ocean with raids, while finally came to the Gaul facing Britain“. [3]
In the Chronicle of the Achievements of the Normans (Chronicon de gestis Normannorum in Francia), the Black Sea peoples: the Goths, Huns and Dacians are referred by the author to the inhabitants of Scandinavia (?):
"Normans who came from the island of Scandia, which is called Norway, where the Goths, Huns and Dacians live" [4]
The most revealing oddities of the medieval geography of the North are the following geographical passages from the work of the 11th century North German scribe Adam of Bremen:
"The Eastern Sea, the Barbarian Sea, the Scythian or Baltic Sea is one and the same sea, which Marcian and other ancient Romans called the Scythian or Meotian swamps, the Getae deserts or the Scythian coast ..."
"The Romans called Danes, Sveons, Nordmanns and other peoples of Kythia [Scythia] Hyperboreans: Marcian exalts these peoples with numerous praises..."
"From the east, the Riphean mountains adjoin Sveonia with their desert areas and deep snows ..." [5]
As you can see, Adam, along with other medieval scribes, identifies the Baltic region with the Black Sea region. Thus, a feature of Medieval geography was the transfer by the scribes of the ethno-geographical realities of the Black Sea region, more or less known since antiquity, to the Baltic region, the geography of which was practically unknown for a long time. The scribes considered the Baltic to be the same region as the Black Sea region ("The same, only a view from the other side"), since they did not imagine the real scale of the North in general and the European North in particular.
The starting point of this identification was probably a trip to the Baltic by the famous Pytheas from Massalia (Marseille). Having reached the Baltic Sea, he reports on the "Scythian shores" and the Tanais River, and calls the sea Metuonis, which is similar to the name Meotida (the ancient name of the Sea of Azov).
("Cloning" of the geography of one region to another is not something unique. Even in the era of geographical discoveries, due to erroneous ideas about geographical realities, a twin of India appeared on another continent. The error cleared up, but the "cloned" name West Indies remained.)
Accordingly, the names of the localities and peoples of the Black Sea region of the antique period were also transferred to the Baltic region (to which new realities were later added, for example, Russia)
Let's try, based on the geographical representations of the Middle Ages, to superimpose the map of the Black Sea region on the map of the Baltic region and look at the clones (duplicates) of geographical names (toponyms) and names of peoples (ethnonyms):
Dacia-Denmark
Dacia (today part of Romania) was located on the western side of the Pontus (Black Sea) in ancient times. Accordingly, Dacia (today Denmark) also appears on the western side of the Baltic Sea in the Middle Ages. Ancient writers do not mention the name Dania (the medieval Latin name for Denmark) or similar to this. Thus, the name of the Danes (Danish people), first mentioned by the medieval historian Jordan, is not their own authentic name. This is just a relic of the old ancient toponym Dacia, which, according to erroneous geographical concepts, was stretched to the North Sea. At the same time, the names Dania and Dacia are interchangeable for both Baltic Dania (Denmark) and Black Sea Dacia. For example, in the "Cosmography" of the rabbinical anonym, the Black Sea Dacia-Hepidia is called Denmark:
“Dania First and Second, it is also called Hypidia; Uny have been living there for quite some time now, they are Avars”. [6]
Getae-Geats
The neighbors of the ancient Dacians were the Getae people, related to them. Accordingly, this ethnonym also appears in the Baltic region as the Göt people (and the corresponding toponym Götland), adjacent to the Baltic Dacians (Danes / Danes). In full accordance with the medieval formula "Where is Dacia there and Gothia." The Baltic Geats were also called Goths, since all medieval writers identified the antique Getae and the Late Antique Goths.
Getae and Prussians
Another localization of the "clone" of the ancient Getae in the Baltic region is also known. For example, the Polish chronicler Vincent Kadlubek places ancient Getae on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, comparing them with the Prussians:
"Poleshans are a tribe of Getae or Prussians, the most cruel people ..." [7]
Nevry-Norwegians
In ancient times, the neighbors of the Black Sea Dacia (to the north of it) were norias /nevras (ancient Greek Νευροί, lat. Neuri). Scandinavian Norway got its name from their name (as follows, for example, from the work of Bartholomew of England).
The given Black Sea region - Baltic region correspondences are supported by the testimony of medieval authors that these names are precisely derived from the ancient ones (For example, encyclopedic articles by Bartholomew of England).
There are also more examples of Black Sea-Baltic coincidences, only they are not supported by information from medieval authors about their identity, as in the above correspondences:
Gotia-Gotland
The Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea for some time was called Gothia (Greek Γοτθία), as it is called, for example, by St. John Chrysostom in the IV century. The island of Gotland in the Baltic has the same name.
Several more names of the Thracian Black Sea peoples have similarities with the names of the peoples of the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea:
Thracians Thyni (Phini) and Baltic Finns
The name of the Baltic Finns is similar to the name of the ancient Thracian Thyni/Phini (Θυνοι), which are mentioned by many ancient authors, for example, Strabo:
"... as for the Phins, the fact that the coast near Apollonia and Salmedess is called Phiniada ..." [8]
Also:
Thracians Astae - Baltic Aesti
Thracians Korela (Coreli) - Baltic Karelians
Thracians Caeni - Baltic Kvens
Curiously, the listed ancient Thracians (Astia, Caena and Korela) even acted together in the ancient era:
"When the army marched in this order through the forest, the Thracians from four tribes - Astia, Caen, Maduathen and Korela - no more than ten thousand, settled on both sides of the road in its narrowest place." [9]
Black Sea Russia - Baltic Russia
When the people of Rus appeared on the historical arena in the Black Sea region next to historical Dacia, аccordingly, the "clone"- toponym Rus appeared on the maps and in the Baltic region in the vicinity of the Baltic Dacia (Denmark). Name Rus replaced the ancient Getae in the formula “Where is Dacia there and Gothia”. There was a new formula "Dacia, here is Russia". [10]
Thus, initially “virtual” Baltic Russia was associated with Denmark according to the formula “Dacia, here is Russia”. Perhaps therefore, the founder of Russia under the name of Rurik was chosen by Rorik of Jutland as the most famous character of Danish origin in the Frankish chronicles. At the same time, among some late medieval scribes, “virtual” Baltic Russia was already located in Sveonia (Sweden). So, for example, the encyclopedist Bartholomew English in one of the articles compares Sweden with Russia, calling it Galicia:
"About Norway: [...] From the east of it-Galatie, from the north-Iceland, where the sea is constantly covered with ice, from the west - the Hibernian Ocean, or British, from the south it borders with Datia and Gothia" [11]
As you can see, when describing Scandinavia, Bartholomew places the territory of ancient Russia Galatie-Galicia in the place of Sweden.
Similarly, Benjamin Tudelsky, when listing the northern European countries, after Saxony and Denmark, calls the country Gelats (which the Russian translator logically compares with Sweden):
«... Alemannia (Germany), Saxony, Denmark, Gelatsa (Sweden) ...» [12]
Black Sea Normans and Scandinavian Normans
It is believed that the term "Normans" originated in relation to the Scandinavian peoples. Indeed, medieval authors considered people from the North to be Normans:
"The Normans are called in the barbaric language" people of the north "because at first they came from this part of the world." ( Saxon Annalist) [3]
Also:
«Many peoples live around it (the Baltic Gulf): the Danes, as well as the Sveons, whom we call Normans, own the northern coast and all its islands». (Einhard) [13]
At the same time, above in the text, we found out that this "North" for medieval authors was Lower Scythia on the Danube, from where they brought both the Vikings (Asser) and the French Normans (Saxon Annalist). The point here is that the medieval scribes, focusing on the ancient tradition, called the inhabitants of the territories north of the Danube, in particular Dacia, "northerners", as, for example, in the Panegyric to the sixth consulate of Honorius Augustus:
"... when Ulpius, mighty in the war, broke the Dacian weapons and brought the indignant north under the law ..." [9]
The Munich manuscript of the early 12th century (as a gloss to Horace) explicitly states that the Normans are synonymous with the word Dacian:
"Für die frühe Verwendung des Wortes nordmannus synonym zu dacus verweist er auf eine Glosse zu Horaz nach einer Münchner Pergamenthandschrift aus dem Beginn des 12. Jahrhunderts, mitgeteilt von A. Holder in Bartsch Germania XVIII, 75." [14]
So, the term "Normans" in antiquity was used in relation to the antique Dacians. This term was applied to the Danes due to the transfer of the name of Dacia to Denmark. Accordingly, the ancient understanding of "northerners" was transferred to the Danes, and then to other Scandinavians.
Thus, we see that in the views of medieval scribes there were twin regions - the Black Sea region (with its surroundings) and its Baltic "clone". And it is important to take this into account when studying ancient writings that the historical realities of one region can be fancifully transferred to a twin region. And in both directions.
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Literature:
1. Podosinov A.V. Eastern Europe in the Roman cartographic tradition. Texts, translation, commentary. M., 2002. S. 175–204.
2. Old English chronicles : including Ethelwerd's chronicle, Asser's Life of Alfred, Geoffrey of Monmouth's British history, Gildas, Nennius, together with the spurious Chronicle of Richard of Cirencester. Available at: https://archive.org (accessed 13.03.2021)
3. Saxon Annalist. Chronicle / Translation from lat. and comm. I. V. Dyakonov; foreword I. A. Nastenko. - M.: "SPSL" - "Russian panorama", 2012. - 712 p.
4. Kozlov A. C. "Chronicon De Gestis normannorum in Francia" as a source // Antiquity and the Middle Ages. - Yekaterinburg: Ural Publishing House. University, 2009. - Issue. 39 .-- S. 108-122.
5. Adam of Bremen History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen/ Translation from lat. and comm. I.V.Dyakonova // Adam of Bremen, Helmold from Bosau, Arnold Lubeck. Slavic Chronicles. - M .: SPSL; Russian panorama, 2011. - (MEDIÆVALIA: medieval literary monuments and sources).
6. Ancient Russia in the light of foreign sources: Reader / Ed. T.N. Jackson, I.G. Konovalova, A.V. Podosinova Vol. III: Oriental sources. Compiled by Part I - T. M. Kalinin, I. G. Konovalova; Part II - V.Ya. Petrukhin. - M .: Russian Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Science, 2009. - 264 p.
7. Shchaveleva N.I. Polish Latin-speaking medieval sources: Texts, trans., Commentary. / Resp. ed. V.L. Yanin; [Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Institute of History of the USSR]. - M .: Nauka, 1990. - 208, [2] p. ill .; 22. - (The most ancient sources on the history of the peoples of the USSR). Bibliography: p. 171-177. - Bibliography. in the text. - Decree. names and geogr. title: p. 198-209.
8. Strabo. Geography / Per., Art. and comm. G. A. Stratanovsky; Under total. ed. S. L. Utchenko. - M .: Nauka, 1964 .-- 944 p.
9. Titus Livy. The history of Rome from the founding of the city. Volume III. M., publishing house "Ladomir", 2002.
10. Chekin L.S. The image of the North in the cartography of the European Middle Ages: On the beginning of geographical research and mapping of European Russia, Scandinavia and the Arctic: dissertation (abstract) of Doctor of Geographical Sciences in the form of scientific. report : 07.00.10.- Moscow, 2002.- 52 p .: ill. RSL OD, 71 02-11/31-9
11. Bartholomew English. On the properties of things / Translation from lat. and comm. Matuzova V.I. // English medieval sources. - M .: Nauka, 1979, p. 80-87.
12. The book of Rabbi Benjamin's wanderings / Translation from lat. and comm.. P.V. Margolina // Three Jewish travelers. - M.-Jerusalem: Bridges of culture; Gesharim, 2004 .-- S. 57-256.
13. Einhard, Life of Charlemagne (translated from lat. MS Petrova) Op. in the book: Historians of the Carolingian era, M.ROSSPEN, 1999
14. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normannen(accessed}