Gau Jom

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Gau Jom (also Jomsgau ) is a term that occurs in several Old Norse sagas and in stanzas of skalds , especially of Icelandic origin, and as a geographical name refers to a medieval territory on the Baltic coast of Pomerania. The Gau Jom can be seen in close connection with the Jomswikinger and their Jomsburg, also handed down in the sagas and skaldic verses of that time .

Origin and Interpretation

The names “Jomswikinger”, “Jomsburg” and “Gau Jom” appear, for example, in the anonymous Icelandic “ Jómsvíkinga saga ” from around 1240, which is translated as “The story of the sea warriors on Jomsburg”, Jena 1924, entry into the German-speaking area found. We also learn about it in the " Knýtlinga saga " from around 1260, the "Story of the Danish Kings", which also appeared in Jena in 1924, or the Norwegian " Fagrskinna " from around 1220, whose corresponding statements in Latin are fragmentary in the Find “ Monumenta Germaniae Historica ” (MGH). The Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus (around 1140 – around 1220), the secret scribe of the Danish bishop Absalon von Roskilde , later Archbishop of Lund , reports in his “ Gesta Danorum ” (The Deeds of the Danes) , written in Latin before 1200, of a “Jomensis provencia ”, the Gau Jom.

Historical background

The Nordic sagas, which primarily contain narrative but also historical events and people from the Viking Age , can be seen that it was in the course of the second half of the 10th century between Duke Mieszko I of Poland (around 950-992) and the Danish King Harald I (Blue Tooth) (around 940–985 / 86) must have concluded a contract. Both rulers pursued expansionist goals in their time. Poland , then known as the "Mieskos Empire", made its way along the lower reaches of the Oder towards the Baltic coast in fierce battles with its northern Slavic neighbors, the Pomorans , or Pomerania for short . Duke Mieszkos I warriors finally captured the mouth of the Oder with the islands of Usedom and Wollin around 967 , as well as the most important Slavic sea trading center of that time on the Baltic Sea, called by the medieval German chronicler Adam von Bremen (1074), "Jumne", later to Vineta the legend was.

At about the same time as the Polish advance to the Oder estuary, Danish Viking ships under the leadership of the legendary Palna-Toki crossed the Baltic Sea in the Pomeranian Bay to demonstrate military strength against the Polish Duchy on behalf of their King Harald I. Blue Tooth. Ultimately, the Danes wanted to bring Jumnes' flourishing trade under their control. Although the spheres of interest of the two empires clashed, there was no armed conflict between them.

The result of the probable conclusion of the contract was that the Polish ruler Mieszko I, the "Burislav" or "Dago" of the Vikings , transferred an area on the coast of Pomerania called "Gau Jom" to the Danish fleet leader Palna-Toki for settlement. At the same time, however, Mieszko I. obliged the Danish naval warriors, who later called themselves Jomswikinger , to guarantee the protection of his rule and his empire at the sea border. The West Slav duchy had no corresponding ships at that time. The Yomswikings, who settled in Pomerania , remained subjects of the Danish crown, but as well-fortified settlers they were at the same time followers of the Polish ruling house and were granted extensive autonomy in their new possessions . The aforementioned Knytlinga saga even referred to the Gau Jom as "a large Jarlsreich in the Wendenlande (Pomerania)".

The Jomsburg Sea Festival

In the coastal district of Jom, the Jomswikings, as the elite warrior community now called themselves, set up a sea festival, the so-called Jomsburg, with a port that could offer berths for up to three hundred Viking ships. With the Gau Jom, briefly referred to in other sources as "Jom" or "Jomi", a Danish exclave was created in the Pomeranian tribal area conquered by the Poles. In the Jomsburg, the political, military and cult center of the Jom district, the Jomswikings' Jarle resided, so to speak, as rulers over the extraterritorial area. They were obliged to both the Danish kings of the time and the Polish potentates. As Jarle or ruler of the Jomswikings are handed down: Palna-Toki of Fyn (around 940 - around 986), Sigvaldi von Schonen (around 986 - 1002?), Thorkel the High (around 1002-1024) and Prince Sven Alfivason or Knudsson (1024-1030).

Localization attempt of the Gaues Jom and the Jomsburg

The descriptions of the sagas allow the conclusion that the Gau Jom of Danish origin, geographically speaking, most likely coincides with the terrain of the Oder islands of Usedom and Wollin in Pomerania. The name "Jom" can be found in the Baltic language area. It was borrowed from the Northern Europeans and means something like "sandbank" or "island". The Gau Jom was obviously the "Inselgau", which included the Oder estuary islands, and the resident Jomswikinger were thus the "Inselwikinger". The western Gau border was formed by the Peene River , the southern by the Stettiner Haff and the eastern by the Dievenow ( Polish: Dziwna ). In the Middle Ages, the Peenestrom was the main shipping route from the Baltic Sea to the Oder in the Pomeranian-Polish hinterland. The Jomsburg, attested several times and sung about by skalds , has not yet been confirmed by archeology. According to the latest research, the northern coastal and protective castle on the Spandowerhagener Wiek in Western Pomerania , the western bulge of the Peene River at its confluence with the Greifswalder Bodden , could have been built. In the semicircular Wiek, 300 Viking ships would still find berths today. From the assumed location was the control of the ship and goods traffic in and from the hinterland and its settlements, so Wolgast , the "Valagust" of the northerners, Wollin, Menzlin on the lower reaches of the Peene and "Usna", today's small town Usedom, as well later Szczecin , the “Burstaborg” of the northerners, given the cheapest option at the time.

final

The Jomswikings, who acted as a “protective power” on the West Pomeranian coast until after the turn of the millennium and took part in several battles, then withdrew from the power of both the rulers of Denmark and Poland. In the Gau Jom they developed into a crowd of privateers who, together with local Slavs, plagued the Baltic Sea and its neighbors, including Denmark. This resulted in Danish expeditions at sea as a retaliation against the Jomsburg and Gau Yom in Pomerania in the years 1019, 1030, 1043, 1090 and finally 1098. In that year the Jomsvikings Danish King were finally by the force Erik I. Ejegod destroyed who have captured and destroyed Jomsburg. "This put an end to the Viking colony on Pomeranian soil [...] Therefore, the actual inhabitants of the country, the Wends, will have seized the abandoned Viking settlement and its port". The problem area Jomswikinger - Jomsburg - Gau Jom in Pomerania has not yet been completed by research.

See also

Literature and Sources

  • The story of the Danish kings (Knytlinga saga). In: The stories of the orcades, Denmark and the Jomsburg. Edited by Felix Niedner , transferred by Walter Baetke , THULE, Vol. XIX, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Jena 1924, pp. 223–392. (The translation of the Knytlinga saga for the German “Thule Collection” was completely based on the Fornmanna-Sögur, Volume 11, Copenhagen 1828.)
  • The story of the sea warriors on Jomsburg (Jomsvikinga saga). In: The stories of the orcades, Denmark and the Jomsburg. Edited by Felix Niedner, transferred by Walter Baetke, THULE, Vol. XIX, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Jena 1924, pp. 395-436. (The translation of the Jomsvikinga saga for the German “Thule Collection” was shortened by the first thirteen (secondary) chapters after the edition in the Stockholm Codex 7 / 4-10 by Gustav Cederschiöld in Lunds Universitets Ars-Skrift, Volume XI, 1874 .)
  • Georg Domizlaff : The Jomsburg. Investigations into the Jomswikinger Seeburg. JJ Weber, Leipzig 1929.
  • Władysław Filipowiak , Heinz Gundlach: Wolin - Vineta. The real legend of the city's fall and rise. Hinstorff, Rostock 1992.
  • Ólafur Halldórsson: About the Joms Vikings. Translation from Icelandic by Hartmut Mittelstädt. In: Iceland -berichte, vol. 32, issue 4, Hamburg / Reykjavík 1991, pp. 237–243.
  • Richard Hennig : From enigmatic countries. From the sunken places of history. Delphin-Verlag, Munich 1925.
  • Richard Hennig: Where was Vineta? Attempt to clarify the Vineta issue through geographical-historical, traffic-scientific and text-critical investigations. Mannus library, vol. 53, Curt Kabitzsch, Leipzig 1935.
  • Jonas Kristjansson : Eddas and Sagas. Medieval literature of Iceland. Transferred by Magnus Petursson and Astrid van Nahl . Helmut Buske, Hamburg 1994.
  • Lutz Mohr: An Icelandic Yom Viking in Pomerania, Sweden and the New World (Björn Asbrandsson). In: Author collective, Maritimes von der Waterkant. Peenemünde: Axel Diedrich Verlag 1994, pp. 5–12, ISBN 3-930066-21-1 .
  • Lutz Mohr and Harald Krause: The Jomsburg in Pomerania. History and technology of a lost Viking sea festival. 2nd ext. Wessels Puppet Media, Essen 2002.
  • Lutz Mohr: The Jomswikinger - a Nordic warrior community 1000 years ago in Pomerania. In: Bull and Griffin. Sheets on the cultural and regional history in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Vol. 16, Schwerin 2003, pp. 19-37.
  • Lutz Mohr (ed.): The saga of the Jomswikinger. Edition Pommern, Elmenhorst 2006. ISBN 978-3-939680-00-0 .
  • Lutz Mohr (Ed.): The myth of the Jomswikinger. Edition Pommern, Elmenhorst 2009. ISBN 978-3-939680-03-1 .
  • Lutz Mohr: The Jomswikinger, their Jomsburg and the Gau Jom in Pomerania . 2nd ext. Edition Doberlug-Kirchhain: G. Krieg 2009.
  • Lutz Mohr : The Jomswikinger and their Jomsburg in Gau Jom. The military and maritime pillars of power in Denmark and centers of aggression in early medieval Pomerania . In: Yearbook 2012 of the German Society for Shipping and Marine History e. V. Ed. By Kathrin Orth and Eberhard Kliem. Schleswig: Isensee-Verlag Oldenburg 2012, pp. 73-89.
  • Lutz Mohr: Dragon ships in the Pomeranian Bay. The Jomswikinger, their Jomsburg and the Gau Jom. Series: edition rostock maritim. Edited by Robert Rosentreter . Rostock: Ingo Koch Verlag 2013. ISBN 978-3-86436-069-5 .
  • Snorri's Book of Kings ( Heimskringla ). Third volume. Edited and translated by Felix Niedner. Thule, Vol. XVI, Eugen Diederichs, Jena 1923.
  • Snorri Sturluson : "Heimskringla". Sagas of the Norse Kings. Ed., Trans. and commented by Hans-Jürgen Hube. Marix, Wiesbaden 2006.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jomsvikinga saga = The story of the sea warriors on Jomsburg. In: The stories of the orcades, Denmark and the Jomsburg. Jena 1924, p. 404 ff.
  2. ↑ Knytlinga saga = The story of the Danish kings. In: The stories of the orcades, Denmark and the Jomsburg. Jena 1924, p. 223ff
  3. ^ Ex Historia Regum Norwegiensium Dicta Fagrskinna. In: Georg Waitz (Ed.): Scriptores (in Folio) 29: Ex rerum Danicarum scriptoribus saec. XII. et XIII. Hanover 1892, pp. 359-363 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version ) Chap. 50 and 142.
  4. ^ R. Hennig, 1935: Henning relied on Alfred Holder's (1840–1906) Saxo edition, Saxonis Grammatici Gesta Danorum, Strasbourg 1886.
  5. ↑ Jomsvikinga saga. In: The stories of the orcades, Denmark and the Jomsburg. Jena 1924, p. 405.
  6. ↑ Knytlinga saga. In: The stories of the orcades, Denmark and the Jomsburg. Jena 1924, p. 223.
  7. ^ W. Filipowiak, H. Gundlach: Wolin - Vineta. P. 126.
  8. ^ L. Mohr, H. Krause: The Jomsburg in Pomerania. P. 21 ff.
  9. ↑ R. Hennig, 1925, p. 269