Ranen

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Excavation work in the temple castle at Cape Arkona

The Ranen (also Rujanen , Ruani , Rugini ) were a West Slavic people on the island of Rügen and the surrounding mainland.

Surname

According to Jürgen Udolph , it is a typographical error by the medieval copyist A1, in which the mention in the only original source Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum by Adam of Bremen , which is only preserved in copies, by Runi, which is from “Rugani”, “Rujani “Was shortened, has been falsified in Rani.

Culture and religion

Christianization of the Ranen

The Prince of Ranen ruled from the hill forts Charenza , mostly with the castle wall in Garz , according to a recent theory with a castle wall at Venz is identified, and the Rugard in today's mountains from. In addition, there was a powerful caste of priests with large estates and supraregional influence.

The polytheistic religion of the Ranen knew a number of multi-headed gods who were worshiped as larger-than-life wooden statues in various temples . The temple complex at Cape Arkona , now called Jaromarsburg , formed the religious center , in which the four-headed main god Svantevit was worshiped.

After Rethra's destruction in 1068/69, Arkona took over its importance as the religious center of the pagan Baltic Slavs. The name Wittow could also go back to Svantevit , since the entire peninsula belonged to the temple.

Other important gods were their patron saint rugiewit and porenut and Porevit whose temples were in Charenza and Tjarnaglofi which in today Hertha castle called temple on Jasmund was worshiped.

economy

The economic basis of the Ranen was cattle breeding , agriculture and fishing. In the 12th century, the Ranen were feared pirates operating in the Viking style. Their most important maritime trading center was Ralswiek at the southernmost point of the Great Jasmunder Bodden . They maintained extensive trade relations with Scandinavia and the Baltic States .

language

The Ranen language was a Polabian dialect in the Lechian branch of West Slavonic . In the course of the country's expansion and the associated (Low) German settlement, East Low German became the official language in the 13th century and soon also became the language of everyday life among the Rans. The last ranic-speaking woman is said to have died on Jasmund in 1404.

history

The development of the Ranen tribe took place after some of the Slavs who immigrated to the former East Germanic areas in the 7th century in the course of the migration of peoples, opened up settlement chambers on and around Rügen, which were inhabited by the Rugians before the migration . Parts of the island and the surrounding mainland were, however, continuously populated, so that the remaining rugian population was probably assimilated and their name passed to the R (uj) anen in the Slavic form.

According to a more recent opinion, the Ranen are first mentioned by Widukind von Corvey , when they took part in the Battle of the Raxa in 955 as followers of the Saxon margrave Gero . At the beginning of the 12th century the Danes tried several times to break their dominance in the southern Baltic Sea.

The Ranen lost their independence when the Christian Danes under King Waldemar I and the Roskild Bishop Absalon conquered the temple castle on Cape Arkona on June 15 and 16, 1168 . After the Danish conquest of this main shrine, the Ranen capitulated and surrendered Charenza without a fight. Thereupon the Rügen princes turned to Christianity and thus secured their supremacy into the new era. Prince Jaromar I became a feudal lord of the Danish king and the island became part of the Danish diocese of Roskilde , while the mainland was subordinated to the diocese of Schwerin . The Ranen now fought on the side of the Danes against the Pomorans , until 1186 all of Pomerania had become Danish.

The Hilda , Bergen and Neuenkamp monasteries were built to consolidate Christianity .

During this time of medieval German colonization in the east , the Ranen were Christianized and Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Holstein, Frisians, Dutch and Flemings migrated from the western Elbe regions.

As a result, the Polabian language of the Ranen, also known as the Rügen Slavs, finally died out at the beginning of the 15th century. Most of today's place names on Rügen are - like many family names - of Slavic origin.

With Wizlaw III. The last Slavic prince of Rügen died of Rügen in 1325.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rügen. Nomenclature. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, Vol. 25, Berlin - New York 2003, pp. 417–421.
  2. ↑ Jerzy Nalepa, Arkona and Rügen. A Linguistic contribution to our knowledge of Nordic and West Slav Contacts in the early Middle Ages, in: Mediaeval Scandinavia 10,1977,96-121
  3. ^ Kratzke, Reimann, Ruchhöft: Garz and Rugendahl on Rügen in the Middle Ages. In: Baltic Studies . New series, Vol. 90, Verlag Ludwig, Kiel 2005, ISBN 3-937719-02-4 , pp. 25–52