Old Prussians
"Prussians" redirects here. "Prussians" may also refer to citizens of the former German state of Prussia. |
Prussian tribes settlements |
The
Old Prussians or
Baltic Prussians ( or
Prußen;
Latin:
Pruteni; ; ) were an
ethnic group consisting of medieval
Baltic tribes inhabiting the lands of the southeastern
Baltic Sea, roughly around the
Vistula and
Curonian Lagoons. During the 13th century the Old Prussians were conquered by the
proselytizing crusaders of the
Teutonic Knights and gradually
Germanized and
Polonized over the following centuries. The former state of
Prussia took its name from the Baltic Prussians, although that state was led by
Germans, not by the extinct Old Prussians.
The land of the Old Prussians approximately consisted of the present-day
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in
Poland, the
Kaliningrad Oblast in
Russia, and the
Klaipėda Region in
Lithuania.
Most names of the Prussian tribes were formed on the common theme of landscape. Such names were based on water; an understandable convention in a land dotted with thousands of lakes, streams, and swamps (see
Masurian Lakeland). Indeed, that landscape caused the very partial isolation that preserved the
Baltic language group. To the south, the terrain runs into the
Pripet Marshes at the headwaters of the
Dnieper River. They have been an effective barrier over the millennia.
The original pre-Baltic settlers generally named their settlements after the streams, lakes, seas, or forests by which they settled. The clan or tribal polities into which they were organized took the name of the settlement. For example,
Barta, the home of the
Barti, is related to some other Baltic water names, such as the
Bartis River in Lithuania, and to such words as
Albanian berrak and
Bulgarian bara, "swamp". A
*bor- root can be reconstructed, meaning "swamp", which ought to come from the o-grade of
Indo-European *bher-; Indo-European has several
*bher- roots, however, so the exact meaning and line of descent is unclear.
This root is perhaps the one used in Prusas (Prussia), for which an earlier
Brus- is found in the map of the
Bavarian Geographer. The name of the Dnieper in
ancient Greek was the Borysthenes, which, though undoubtedly twisted, contains perhaps the *Bor-. In Tacitus'
Germania, the
Lugii Buri are mentioned living within the eastern range of the Germans. Lugi can descend from
Pokorny's *leug- (2), "black, swamp" (Page 686), while Buri is perhaps the "Prussian" root.
Pameddi (
Pomesania) is derived from the words for "by", "near", and "honey", and can be traced to the
Proto-Indo-European root
*medhu-.
Nadruvia has been variously hypothesised to come from the words
na ("by", "on") and
dravis ("wood"); and
na,
by, on and the root
*dhreu-, "flow", or "river". It is related to the Old Prussian
Nadyn,
forest;
Nede,
a pond; and the
Nydar, Lithuanian
Nedejan,
Russian Nadva (reconstructed Baltic
*Nadva), a tributary of the Dnieper.
The contexts for these elements remain unknown, or whether these Buri were the ancestors of our Prussians. The second-century AD geographer, Claudius
Ptolemy, lists some Borusci living in European Sarmatia (Eighth Map of Europe), which was separated from Germania by the Vistula Flumen. His map is very confused in that region, but these Borusci seem further east than our Prussians, which would have been under the Gythones (Goths) at the mouth of the Vistula. The Aesti (Easterners) as they were recorded by Tacitus were recorded later by
Jordanes as part of the Gothic empire.
 |
Medieval depiction of Prussians killing Saint Adalbert the missionary bishop, part of the Gniezno Doors c. 1175. |
At the beginning of
Baltic history, the Old Prussians were bordered by the
Vistula and the
Neman Rivers with a southern depth to about
Toruń, which was Prussian, and the line of the River
Narew. The
Kashubians were on the west, the
Poles on the south, the
Sudovians on the east, the
Curonians on the northeast, and the Lithuanians on the northwest. The Sudovians began at about
Suwałki.
The Prussians, like the other Balts of the times, were organized into a tribal structure. This structure is most fully attested in the
Chronicon terrae Prussiae of
Peter of Dusburg, a priest of the
Teutonic Order. The work is dated to 1326. He lists eleven lands and ten tribes, which were named on a geographical basis. These were :
#
Pomesania (German
Pomesanien, modern Lithuanian
Pamede, with the reconstructed Prussian name
Pameddi)#
Varmia (German
Ermland or
Warmien, modern Lithuanian
Varme, with the reconstructed Prussian name
Wārmi)#
Pogesania (German
Pogesanien, modern Lithuanian
Pagude, with the reconstructed Prussian name
Paguddi)#
Natangia (German
Natangen, modern Lithuanian
Notanga, see
Notangians)#
Sambia (German
Samland, modern Lithuanian
Semba, see
Sambians)#
Nadruvia (German
Nadrauen, modern Lithuanian
Nadruva, see
Nadruvians)#
Bartia (German
Barten, modern Lithuanian
Barta, with the reconstructed Prussian name
Barta, see
Bartians)#
Skalovia (German
Schalauen, modern Lithuanian
Skalva, see
Skalvians)#
Sudovia (German
Sudauen, modern Lithuanian
Suduva, with the reconstructed Prussian name
Sūdawa, see
Sudovians)#
Galindia (German
Galindien, modern Lithuanian
Galinda, with the reconstructed Prussian name
Galinda, see
Galindae)
Peter noted that the eleventh land,
Kulm, to the southwest of
Pomesania, was nearly uninhabited. After the German conquest of Prussia, the country was divided along almost these exact lines, although the Germans added a twelfth land which they called
Sassen, centred at
Tannenberg. Those names are not, perhaps, exhaustive. Many of the names appear in ancient and medieval sources, but the spelling and to some degree the morphology vary. Peter of Dusburg preferred
Latin names, such as the Pomesani, Pogesani, Varmienses, etc.
The first definite mention of the Old Prussians in historical sources is in connection with
Adalbert of Prague, who was slain in 997 during a missionary effort to
Christianise the Prussians. Because the
pagan Old Prussians came into conflict with
Roman Catholic Poland, Duke
Konrad I of
Masovia sought external help in the 1220s. Although the Old Prussians repelled the
Order of Dobrzyń, they succumbed to the
Teutonic Knights after a bloody conquest spanning several decades in the 13th century during the
Northern Crusades. Many of the native Prussians who survived were resettled in
Sambia. Frequent revolts, including a major rebellion in 1286, were defeated by the crusaders.
Baptised Prussians were educated at the
Archbishopric of Magdeburg, while
Germans and
Dutch settlers colonized the lands of the aboriginal Old Prussians;
Poles and
Lithuanians also settled in southern and eastern Prussia, respectively. Significant pockets of Old Prussians were left in a matrix of Germans in what is now the
Kaliningrad Oblast, and remained part of the
monastic state of the Teutonic Knights until 1525. They were gradually
Germanized or
Polonized, depending on which part of Prussia they lived in, especially beginning in the 15th century.
The monks and scholars of the Teutonic Order took a great interest in the language spoken by the Prussians, and tried to record it. In addition, the missionaries needed to communicate with the Prussians in order to convert them. Consequently, there are some records of the
Old Prussian language; along with the slightly known
Galindian and the better-known
Sudovian, these records are all that remain of the West Baltic language group. As might be expected, it is a very archaic Baltic, showing affinities with
Proto-Germanic. The Old Prussian language seems to support the theory that a common Germanic/Balto/Slavic language once existed.
The Teutonic Order was gradually defeated by the
Polish-Lithuanian Union during the 15th century. In 1525 Grand Master
Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach secularized the Order's Prussian territories into the Protestant
Duchy of Prussia, a vassal of Poland. The Old Prussians rose again in rebellion, but were defeated by the German authorities. During the
Protestant Reformation,
Lutheranism spread throughout the territories, officially in Ducal Prussia and unofficially in the Polish province of
Royal Prussia, while Catholicism survived in
Warmia. With
Protestantism came the use of the
vernacular in church services instead of
Latin; Albert had the
Catechisms translated into the Old Prussian language.
Because of the assimilation of the Old Prussians by Germans, Poles, and Lithuanians, the
Old Prussian language became extinct before the end of the 17th century, but
Bibles and poetry were written in the language beforehand.
*
Origins of Prussia*
Kashubian language*
Slovincian language*
Prussia*
Galindae*
Sudovians*
Yatvingians*
1584 Map showing Altes Preussenland Old Prussia*
Northeast Prussia*
Milestones of Baltic Prussian History*
Map of Prussia before Teutonic Order invasion
