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Finno-Ugric peoples and their neighbors in the early Middle Ages

The term Tschuden (Old Russian чудь , Estonian tšuudid , Finnish tšuudit , čuđit ) has several meanings. It is a historical ethnonym (people's name) from East Slavic or Russian-language written sources of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, which is used for several Finno-Ugric peoples or population groups.

The traditional oral traditions of the northern Karelians , the Komi , the northern Russians and the Sami , recorded in the 19th and early 20th centuries, know the Tschuden as a mythical old people or as members of foreign, often hostile, foreign-language groups. The etymology of the term, which occurs in various unrelated languages, is controversial. A discussed variant is the derivation from the Gothic word þiudа - people.

Historical ethnic groups

The Tschuden of the early Eastern European chronicles and documents

The Tschuden of the Nestor Chronicle and other medieval historical works and documents settled in the area of ​​today's northwestern Russia and Estonia . The term describes partly ancestors of the Estonians and the Setu and in some cases explicitly the Woten , which were also called Narova-Tschuden after the Narva River . The Nestor Chronicle describes in a mythologizing way the vocation of the Varangians for the year 862 , which was the prerequisite for the emergence of the line of rule of the Rurikids in the Kievan Rus . She names a number of "founding tribes", namely the Slavic-speaking Slovenes and Kriwitschen as well as the Tschuden and, as an independent group, the also Finno-Ugric-speaking Wes - the ancestors of the Wepsen . The establishment of Jurjew Castle (Estonian Tartu ) by the Kiev Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise in the area of ​​the "Estonian" Chuden is documented for 1030 . The same chronicle mentions the Pskovsk Chuds, the ancestors of the Setu . In the 10th century on Tschudische (Tschudnizewa) Street in Novgorod there were apparently Chudian members of the upper class of the Novgorod Republic and in the Tschudehof (Tschudin Dvor) in Kiev there were Czech followers of the Grand Dukes. Since the 13th century, various Finno-Ugric-speaking groups, including Woten, Ischors and Karelians, have been referred to as Tschuden in Novgorod and Moscow administrative texts .

The Zavolochye Chuden

The Finno-Ugric-speaking population of today 's Arkhangelsk Oblast east of the Karelians and west of the Komi, which is spatially separated from the Baltic Sea-Finnish Tschuden , was first mentioned in 1136 and called Savolotschje-Tschuden. The emergence of a mixed Slavic-Finnish population in this region is documented for the 13th to 15th centuries. These groups were named after the names of the rivers on which they settled: Dwinjanen , Pineganen , Wytschegschanen and others. The last mention of this group relates to the early 17th century. Some groups of long-established Russian-speaking residents of Arkhangelsk Oblast call themselves Tschuden again today.

The Tschuden of legends and folklore stories

The Bad Tschuden (Sami, Northern Karelians)

The oral tradition of the Sami and northern Karelians is rich in stories about robbers and enemies known as Tschuden who plunder residential areas of the nomads and are cleverly outwitted and repulsed. Oral narratives in this category are also documented in large numbers for the Sami of Northern Norway and the Kola Peninsula . The film Pathfinder describes events in connection with a Tschuden attack on the Sami. The Sami expression Tschudek - which today means "enemy" in the Lule Sami language - does not mean the historical Tschuds described above. In the course of history, predatory intruders in Sápmi - whether of Karelian, Finnish, Russian, Swedish or Norwegian origin - have been called this by the Sami. In this respect, the traditional translation of the corresponding term from the Sami languages ​​into other European languages ​​(Norwegian, Russian, English, German), which has been practiced for a long time, causes confusion. Linguistic-etymological as well as mythological-folkloristic references between the various traditions (see also the following section) and also the historical names of peoples cannot be excluded.

The mysterious people (Komi, Northern Russians)

The northern Russian and Komi tradition knows the Tschuden, a mythical, partly treasure-guarding old people who went "into the earth" and broke off almost all contact with people. The Komi tradition sees the Tschuden in part as their own pagan ancestors.

Further use of the terms Tschuden / Tschudisch

The name Tschuden was used for the Wepsen until 1917. In the Udmurt , there is still the clan name Tschudja / Schudja. The Peipussee on the border between Estonia and Russia contributes in Russian today the name Tschudskoje Ozero - Tschudischer lake. The Tschuden are also eponymous for the city of Tschudowo and numerous smaller bodies of water and places in northern Eastern Europe.

literature

  • Ryabinin, EA, The Chud of the Vodskaya Pyatina in the light of new discoveries , in: Fennoscandia Archeologica, 1987, pp.87-104 [1]
  • The politico-religious landscape of medieval Karelia , in: Fennia, Helsinki, 2004, Vol. 182,1, pp. 3–11 [2]
  • Drannikova, NB / Larsen, R .: Traditions about the Chuden in Norwegian and Russian folklore (Дранникова Н. В., Ларсен Р. Предания о чуди в норвежском и луреском и русен Р. Proceedings (Межкультурные взаимодействия в полиэтничном пространстве пограничного региона: Сборник материалов международной научной конференции). Petrozovodsk / Петрозаводск, 2005.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "gárjjelij tjude" = the Russian enemies , in H. Grundström: Lulelappisches Dictionary.
  2. ↑ JC Poestion: (Ed.): Lapland fairy tales, folk tales, riddles and proverbs. Publishing house by Carl Gerolds Sohn, Vienna 1886, Permalink . Pp. 178-184.