Medieval Baltic Tribes

Author(s): W. K. Matthews
Source: The American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Apr., 1949), pp. 126-136
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 MEDIEVAL BALTIC TRIBES
W. K. MATTHEWS
THE NEURI (Neuroi) and Aesti of classical scholarshipare the
earliestnameswhichrecentresearchhas attempted to glossas Baltic
(K. B75ga's"Aestic"),1 but since nothingbeyondconjecture,un-
substantiated by linguisticevidence,can establishtheequation,2 it is
betterto beginmoresoberlywithnamesaboutwhichtherecan be
less doubt.The oldestknownauthority on theseis Ptolemy(c. ioo-
78), who says in his De geographiat:3 "Ypo men tous Ouenedas
[Tacitus's Veneti, Wends, Slavs] Palin Galindai [or Galindanoi,
Calindians] kai Loudinoi [or Loudcnoi,Sudinians,Sudavians]."
Aftera lapse of more thana millennium Peter von Dusburg (i.e.,
Duisburg)4numbersthese tribes among the Prussians,and two
centurieslater (X545), Meletius,arclipresbyter EcclesieLiccensisin
Prussia,offersmeagerand obviouslycorruptfragments of Sudavian
or Yatvingianspeech (e.g., moy'my,' cf. Pr. fem.sing.nwaia; ains
'one,' cf.Pr. ains;voc. sing.pannike'littlefire,'cf.Pr. panno;pirmas
'first'; begeyte'runs'; acc. sing. ucka-kuslaisil 'weakest,' cf. the
superlativeprefixin Prussian),'which,however,permitus to con-
clude thatthe languagewas of the Prussian (West Baltic) type.
Nevertheless,some cautionshouldbe exercised:Meletius'srecord
belongsto the sixteenthcentury,and even assuminga fundamental
accuracyof observation, whichat best seemsdoubtful, it is notun-
likelythatby thattimetheSudavianshadbeenlargelyPrussianized.6
G. Gerullis,7moreover,pointsout thatmostof theSudavian(Yat-
vingian)words whichhave been preservedare propernames,and
these,in his opinion,have a Prussiancast. As forthe Galindians,
Gerullisis inclinedto regardthemas havingmigratedintothePrus-
sian arc fromMasovia, out of whichtheyhad been dislodgedby
Slavic pressure,and their northwardmigrationwas apparently
facilitatedby thewithdrawalof theGothsfromtheVistulaestuary.
Galindianresistanceto theTeutonicOrderin thethirteenth century
was veryslight,and thismayhavebeendue to thedestructive effect
1 V.K. Matthews,"Baltic Origins,"RevuiedesE]tzdesSlaves,Vol. XXIV (Paris, 1948).
2 H. Lowmianski, The AncientPrzissians(Torun,,936), pp. 14-15.
3 Geographike yphegesis,III, 5 21.
4 CronicaTerrePrussie(I 326). See T. Hirsch, M. Tdppen, and E. Strehlke,Die ge-
schichtlichenQzuellen
derpreussischen Vorzeit(Leipzig, i86r), Vol. I.
5 Erlemtertes (K6nigsberg,
Preuissen 1724-42) V, 707.
6 In the Preface to the Prussian Catechism of 1545 we read: "Die Szidawenaber,
uie'uoljhre redeetwasnyderiger, wissensich dochjnn dieseprezussische sprachzviesie alhie
im Catechisinogedrzuckt
istauchwol zuschicken alle wort."See R. Trautmann,
znd vernemnen
Die altpreussischen
Sprachdenkdiler(G6ttingen,I 9 I o).
7 "Zur Sprache der Sudauer-Jatwinger," AdalbertBezzenberger
Festschrift (G6ttingen,
192 1), pp. 44-5 I.

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 MedievalBalticTribes 127
of theirearliercollisionswvith the Masovian Slays; forwe already
knowthattheirprehistoric strength and numberswere considerable
enoughto attractthe noticeof Ptolemy,and thereis even record,
on a coin,of theEmperorVolusianushavingadoptedthevictorious
agnomenGalindikos afterdefeatingthemin 253 A.D. The Galindian
name seems to containthe radical foundin the Lithuaniangalas
(Latv. gals), "end, march,"which would give the interpretation
"borderers,"in this case, the inhabitantsof the West Prussian
march.8The name "Sudavian,"whichBuiga9derivesfroma hypo-
theticalIndo-European (cf. Lith. savas;Latv. savs 'own'), is
*stidhos
frequently foundassociatedwith "Yatvingian"in the fifteenth cen-
tury.The EmperorSigismund, forinstance,in legaldocuments dated
1420-2 2,10 refersto theircountryas vocatarm Suderlantalias Jetuen
and terrain quodidemest;thatis, he identifies
SudoruinetJatuitorun,
the two as synonymous. The Sudaviansmay have been a western
branchof the Yatvingians.Their territoryhad the river Memel
(Lith. Nemunas;Pol. Niemen) to thenorthand east and Bialowiei
Forest,theBug, and the Masovian marchto the southand west."
Polishand Russianchroniclesreporta stateof constantbelligerency
betweenthemand the Masovian and Volynianprincipalities. They
disappearfromhistoryaboutI3oo, afterthecrusadesoftheTeutonic
Order,whose annalistscall themSudowe and Sudus. To the Poles
theywere knownas Jacwingowie,12whose Germanequivalentis
Jaczwingen;to theRussians,as Jatvjagi,earlierJatvjazi,withwhich
we maycompareGermanJatwagenandJatwesen;and to theWhite
Russians,as Jatvjaz'andJatvez'.The East Slavic formof thename
firstoccursin theOld Russian"HypatianChronicle."By 15i6 the
Polishgeographer MathiasMiechovita(Maciej z Miechowa)13 says
thattherewere few Jaczwingileft (pauci supersunt), because for-
merlyhiiin bellando nonreferebantpedemn quinvincerent autvinceretur,
and now livedsparsiminterLithuanos. . . propriamlingziamloquentes.
8 The Old Russian formGoljad', which figuresin the "Hypatian Chronicle" (Ipat'ev-
skaja letopis),under I057-58, is obviously a Russificationof Galindi, and since this
tribeis giventhereas settledon the Protva,it would seem to have been the easternmost
Baltic tribe, called, appropriatelyenough, by the same name as the westernmost.A.
Bruckner (Indogermanische Forschungen,Vol. XXXXI) is unwilling to concede the
separateidentityof the two tribesand prefersto considerthe Goljad' as West Galindian
war prisonersand theirdescendants.The separatenessof the Galindiansand the Goljad',
however, requires no emphasis: space divides them effectively,and their names are
obviouslygeographical,not national,in origin,so thattheirappearanceat opposite ends
of the territorypresentsno obstacle.
9 K. BiUga,Lietuviukalbos2odynas (Kaunas, 1924-25), Vols. I-II.
10Staatsarchiv Kbnigsberg,Orig. Urk. 65, 44.
11 A. J. Sj6gren, Die Wohnsitzeund Verhdltnisse derJatwdogen (St. Petersburg,i858).
12 JoannesDlugossius (Dlugosz), HistoriaePolonicaelibri XII (c. 1470), lib. IV, VII.
A variantformis Jadzwingowie.
13 Tractatus de duabusSarmatiis( I 5 I 8).

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12 8 Slavicand East EuropeanRevieiw
The American
He goes on to say: Quattuorergogentes-Pruteni, Jaczwingi,
Lithuani
cumnSamogitiset Lotihalihambent propia linguagia,valde in paucis
consonantia In a further
etconvenientia. passagehe elaboratesthis:Et
horumquanquameademsit lingua,unus tamennon plene alterum
nisi currens
intelligit et vagusestper illas terras.Anotherand rather
laterwriter,MartinusKromerus,14also says of theJaczwingi(he
hasJazuingi)thattowardtheendofthesixteenth ad extremum
century
deletisunt.Bliga15explainsthe root of Yatvingianas a rivername
(*Jatva; cf. Lith.Jotva),which he connectsetymologically with
wordsmeaningmotion(e.g., Skrt.yati'he goes'; Serb.jato 'herd').
The name "Prussian" (*pruisai, Lith.prusai;Latv. prisi) appears
fromtheninthcenturyonwardin learnedcorruptions, e.g., Pruzzi,
Prutheni, Borussi(cf. thetenthcenturyArabicBrus),"' as a substi-
tute,Biga thinks,forthe earlierAesti. But this is no more than
surmise.In the thirteenth century,i.e., at the timeof the Prusso-
Germanwars,theterritory occupiedbythePrussiantribescoincided
with East Prussia,betweenthe Memel and the Vistula, and was
flankedby Slavic tribeson the west and by the Sudavianson the
south.A thousandyearspreviouslytheEast GermanicGoths were
mentionedby Tacitus7 as settledon eitherbank of the lower
Vistula.This meansthatthe Prussianscould have takenpossession
of thesetractsand of the Baltic coast only afterthe exodusof the
Goths. In the ninthand tenthcenturies,beforethe adventof the
Germans,thePrussians,as a maritimepeople,had been exposedto
repeatedattacks by maraudersfromScandinaviaand Denmark.
They also foughtagainstthePoles to thesouthand west,and were
ultimatelyconqueredby the Teutonic Order at the end of the
thirteenth century.By 1700 theirlanguagehad died out,18and only
corruptand scantyspecimensof it survivein Protestantversionsof
religioustexts.These show Prussianto be fartherremovedfrom
the cognateLithuanianand Latvian thantheselanguagesare from
each other.'9

The linguisticschismof West and East Baltic, explicitin the

foregoingstatement, by BUga to the
is tracedback hypothetically
14 De originiset rebusgestisPolonorurm(Basilea, 155s).
15 Bi-iga,op. cit.
16 W. Gaerte, Urgeschichte Ostpreussens(K6nigsberg, 1929), p. 357.
17 Germani.
18 Even at the beginningof the sixteenthcenturyMathias Miechovita (op. cit.) ob-
servesthatin Prussia iampauciproferunt Prutenicurn, but the credibilityof this statement
is minimizedby a subsequentobservation:in Lothuapauci villaniprofitentur hanclinguam,
quia subintravit Almanicuni.
19 See A. Salys's diagramin "Baltu kalbos," Lietuvi.~koji
Enciklopedia(Kaunas, I934),
II, 986.

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 MedievalBalticTribes I 29

fourthand thirdcenturiesB.C. Studyof West Russianplace names

and rivernames20convincedhim that the middleDnieper (Russ.
Dnepr) and its affuents, theBerezinaand theSoz, were once occu-
piedbyBaltictribes,which,inthatcase,musthavebeeninimmediate
contactwiththe westernoutpostsof the Mordvinians,perhapsthe
Muroma,as directBaltic loan words in Mordvinianalso seem to
attest.2' From thishabitatthe Baltic peoples were expelledby the
EasternSlavs in thesixthcentury. The Nemunaswithitsright-bank
tributaries,includingthe Neris (Pol. Wilja) the conjectured
regionalfocus of the Prussians-was occupied by the displaced
Lithuaniansafterthe thirteenth century.The defeatedand disinte-
gratingPrussiantribeswere subsequently absorbedin theperipheral
lands,and so the Lithuaniansgainedin the west at the expenseof
theirown kindredwhattheyhad lost to theSlavs (the laterWhite
Russians)in theeast.
Historyfindsthe Lithuaniansdividedinto two large groupsdis-
tinguished by dialect;theLow Lithuanians "lowlanders,"
(zemaic'iai,
fromzemas,"low") and the High Lithuanians(aukstaiciai, "high-
landers," fromaukstas, "high"). The formerheld the smaller,
northerly tractroundTelsiai and Raseiniai; the latter,the bulk of
the Lithuanianarea. The names,as Gerullisindicates,22 are today
geographicallyuntenable,because reversed,but if the Zemaiciai
(Samogitians)once held the Nev&zis (Pol. Niewiaza) and the
AukstaiciaithecountryaboveVilnius (Pol. Wilno), thenthemean-
ing of the contrastednamesbecomesplain. The commonnational
name "Lietuviai" (Lithuanians)is not clear etymologically, though
as "swamp" (cf. "Somian" from
its root (liet-)has been interpreted
Finn.suo). It goesback to thetwelfth- andthirteenth-century Polish.
German,and Russian chronicles,which show the Lithuaniansor-
ganizedat thattimein feudalcommunities subjectto princes(Lith.
kunigaiksciai).Out of these principalitiesthe later grand duchy
(magnusducatus)was evolvedby a processof absorptionfromthe
strongestnucleusunderMindaugas (Mindowe, I230-63) and sur-
vived as a detachedunit till it was joined to Poland by personal
alliancein 1386.
The name "Zemaiciai" came into currencyin the thirteenth
century.The Old Russian"VolynianChronicle"mentionsZenoft'-
skyiknjazjka ("the Saogitian princes") Er'divil and Vykyntunder
20 K. Buga, AisciiupraeitisvietuvardziS.iiesoje(Kaunas, I924); "Upi9u vardu studijosir
aisciu bei slavdnusenov6," Tautair2odis,Vol. I (Kaunas, 192 3); Kalba irsenovve (Kaunas,
1922), Vol. I.
21 W. K. Matthews, "The Language Pattern of the U.S.S.R.," Slavonic and East
European Review,XXV,No. 65 (April,1947), 435.
22 "Baltische V6lker," Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte(Berlin, 1924), Vol. I.

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1 30 The American
Slavicand East EuropeanReview
theyear I 2 I5 (or I 2 i9) and distinguishes
SamogitiafromLithuania
(e.g., vo vsej zenmleLitovskoji Zemnojti"in the entireLithuanian
and Samogitianland"). The "Hypatian Chronicle" says: khodisa
Litva vsja i Zeinojt'[laterZmud']na Nemcte k Rizi 1286 g. ("all the
Lithuaniansand Samogitiansmade an expeditionagainstthe Ger-
mansinRigain1286"). D. vonAlnpeke's Reinichronik(c. I 290) has:
Die Lettowen al zu hant
Die Samneiten
sindgenant
QuanienvorDobenenstoltz. . . (Verses 5445-47)
and
Sanieiten
undeKiren
Wdrenbgsendkeburen
BieGoldingen
undzur Mimele.(Verses6787-89)
PetervonDusburg-23 speaksofSamethiandSamethiainthefourteenth
century,and otherchroniclers of the time,e.g., N. von Jeroschin
and Hermannvon Wartberge,ring the orthographic changeson
Sameiten(Samaiten)in a multiplicity of variants.
In his letterto KingSigismund(Pol. Zygmunt)of Poland,written
fromBrzes'c Litewsk on March 4, 1420, the Lithuanianprince
Vytautas(Pol. Witold) expressedhimselfas follows:
terraSainaytarun.. . . ecianmestetsemperfuitununm et ideincuinterraLyth-
wanie,namn unumydeomna etuni homines.Sed quodterraSainaytarum estterra
inferiorad terranm
Lythwanie, ideoSzonzoyth
vocatur,quodin lythwanico terra
inferiorinterpretatur.Samnoyte vero LythwaniamappelantAuxstote[Sam.
aukstate,aukstaitei], quod est terrasuperiorrespectuterreSainaytarum.
Samagitte quoquehoinines se Lythwanosab antiquistemporibus et nunquam
Samaytasappelant, etpropter taleniydemptitatemin titulonostronosde Samo-
gicianonscribimnus,quia totuniunumest,terraunaethomines uni.24

By the early fifteenth

century,then,the ethnicidentityof Samo-
gitiansand Lithuaniansappearsto have been commonlyrecognized,
and we are led to inferthat"Smogitian,"even in its earliestuse.
was no morethana territorial designation.
Buiga25
permitshimselfto say that,historically
speaking,Latvian
(Lettish)is no moredifferentfromLithuanianthanLow Lithuanian
is fromHigh Lithuanian.Though thismay be contested,it never-
thelessservesto indicatean affinity
whichmakes the transition to
the remainingtypes of Baltic easy. The present-daydesignation
"Latvian" is comparativelyrecent.History fromthe thirteenth
centuryonward knows only of Curonians,Zemgalians (Semi-
23 Op. cit.
24 A. Prochaska, CodexEpistolarisVitoldi(Cracow, I882), No. 86i, pp. 466-69.
2.5
Bi~ga,op. cit.

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 MedievalBalticTribes 131
gallians),Selonians(Selians), and Letgalians.These, indeed,along
withthenow mostlydenationalized Livonians(originallya Somian
people)26are theethnicingredients of themodernLatvians.
"Curonian"indicatesa countryin theNordicsagas27and a people
in the ScandinavianRimbert'sVitaAnskarii(854-55),28 wherethe
nameassumesthenon-BalticformCori.29Pseudo-Nestor'seleventh-
centurychroniclePovest'vremnennykh let("The Narrativeof Bygone
Times")30mentionsthe name in a Baltic form,namely,Kuirs'(cf.
Latv. kursi), and says thatthis tribeand thirteenotherssut' svoj
jazyk inusvceot kolenaAfetova("have languagesderivedfromthe
generation ofJaphet").Incidentally, thechronicler distinguishesthe
Ku'rs'(or Kors') fromtheLituiva,Zimigola,andLet'gola (Neroma),
andwhilehe enumerates theLjakhove,Prus',and Cud' as established
on thecoastsof theVarangian(Baltic) Sea, he omitsmentionof the
Kurs' as maritime.In the annals which he completedin 1227,31
HeinricusLettus adds to our information about the Curoniansthe
statement thattarnEstonesquam Curones paganiwere accustomedto
makepiraticalraidsin regnoDacile (forDaniae) etSueciae(VII, i)
and pointsout thatsome sortof close understanding-perhaps on a
geographicalbasis-existed between the Curonians and their
Somian (Finnic) neighbors,the Estoniansand the Livonians,as
againsttherest,including theirown Baltic-speaking kin (cf.miserunt
in invicern
nuncios,Lyvonesprimso ad Curones,Curones ad Estones,nec
non ad Lettones, Semigalloset Ruthenos, XIV, 5). The Livldvndische
Reimchronik,32 writtenaboutI 290, makestheinhabitants ofSaaremaa
(Osel) and the Curoniansneighbors(see verses 357-58), and over
a hundredyears later (1413) Ghillebertde Lannoy33describeda
journeythroughthe East Baltic countriesand avers interalia that
on his way to Righeen Liuflanthe passed through plusieursvillaiges
desZarmegaelz,desCorresetdesLives,lesquelzontchascun unglangaige
a par eulz.With thiswe maycompareanotherpassage,in whichhe
says thatin the area betweenRighe (Riga) and Narowe (Narva)
26 Livonian is still spoken in small fishingcommunitieson the northwestcoast of
Curonia (Latv. Kurzeme), but died out in southernLivonia (Latv. Vidzeme) in the
nineteenthcentury.
27 The Hervararsagamentionsthe Swedish king Ivar Vidfamneas havinghad control
of "Kurland" as well as of Estonia c. 675.
28 C. Waitz, Vita AnskariiauctoreRimberto.Acceditvita Rimberti(Hannover, 1884),
XXX, 6o.
29 This may reflectLivonian kura<*kurha <*kursas (Kur.as) .
30 Ed. A. A. Sakhmatov(Petrograd, i9i6). There is an Englishversion (The Russian
PrimaryChronicle)by S. H. Cross (Cambridge,Mass., 1930).
31 Pertz, HeinriciChroniconLyvoniae (Hannover, i874).
32 Ed. L. Meyer (Paderborn,I876).
33 Voyageset ambassades(Mons, I890); C. Potvin, Oeuvresde Ghillebertde Lannoy
rerumprussicarum,
(Louvain, 1878) ; Scriptores TIII,446, 36, 38.

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 1 32 Slavicand East EuropeanRevierw
The American
sy treuveon . . . lesgensdesquatrenianieres de langaiges,c'esta scavoir
les Lives, Tzamegaelz, les Lotheset les Eestes.The linguisticvalue of
thisevidenceis verysmall,becausetheauthor,notbeingacquainted
withhis subjectat firsthand,used langaigein a rathervague sense,
and no doubtderivedhis information fromthe randomremarksof
personswho had no special knowledge.Similartestimonyto dif-
ferences between Estonians, Livonians, Curonians (Curones,
Cureti), and Latvians (Letti), with occasional confusionof name
and linguisticterrain,34 may be foundin numerousworks, some
Latin, some German,fromthe beginningof the eleventhcentury.
One of these-Liefflendische Geschichte (i 6oo), by MauritiusBrandis
-is valuableforits intelligent understanding of the contemporary
languagepicture.Brandispointsoutthesimilarities betweenEstonian
andLivonian,and betweenCuronianand Latvian,buttakescarenot
to identify thesepairs.Studyof propernamesand of the exiguous
fragments of "Curonian"texts(e.g., thePaternoster of i690) '5 as
well as theexistenceof Latvianspeechon theKurischeNehrungin
East Prussiato thisday have convincedthemostrecentinvestigator
of the "Curonianproblem,"V. Kiparsky,36thatCuronianwas a
Latviandialect.This conclusionhad beenpreviouslyreachedby G.
GerullisandJ.Pl1kis.Many East Balticscholars,especiallythoseof
Lithuanianand Latvianorigin(e.g., K. BUga,J. Endzelins,P. Smits,
E. Blese, and A. Salys) preferto regardtheCuroniansas a distinct
Baltic tribe; on the contrary,others,especiallythose of an older
generation and notof Balticorigin(e.g., V. Thomsen,Y. Koskinen,
F. J. Wiedemann,A. Bielenstein,St. Zajqczkowski,and H. Low-
mianski),regardthe Curoniansas Somians.Whatevertheirtribal
affiliation,the Curoniansbegan to be absorbedby Latvians and
Lithuaniansalike afterthearrivalof theGermansin theEast Baltic
area in the thirteenth century,and by about 1700 the absorption
seemsto have been complete.

centuryLatvia was ethnically

In thethirteenth dividedamongthe
Curonians,Livonians,Zemgalians,Selonians,and Letgalians.The
firstappearto have occupiedCuroniasouthof the Livonianglacis
and a part of Samogitia (Lith. Zemaitija). East of a line from
Liepaja (Libau) to Saldus lived the Zemgalians,whose area of
was the basin of the Lielupe (CuronianAa). The
characterization
34 E.g., the annalist Casper Peucer ( 562) confuses Livonian with Curonian and
makes the citizensof Reualia (Tallinn) speak Latvian.
35 M. Pritorius, Deliciae Prussicae,ed. W. Pierson (Berlin, i87 1); L. Arbuzovs
(Arbusow) in IzglitibasMinistrijasMinesraksts(Riga, 1920), Vol. II.
36 V. Kiparsky, Die Kurenfrage(Helsinki, I939). Kiparsky was an enthusiastic
studentof Latvian in Riga in the late nineteen-thirties and, while there, adopted the
standpointof Latvian scholarshiptoward thisproblem.

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 MedievalBalticTribes I 33
nameof thistribepresupposes,accordingto Buga, a root identical
withthatofLatv. ziemeli(north),Lith.zemys(northern), ratherthan
with Latv. zeme ('earth, land'), Lith. zesni (id.), or with Latv.
zems ('low'), Lith. zemas (id.), thoughthe last is geographically
appropriate;and as -galeis fromLatv. gals (cf. Lith. galas 'end'),
Zemgale (Semnigallia)seemsto mean"northern march."Moreover,
the Old RussianchroniclerPseudo-Nestorhas Zimigola(or Zime-
gola), which strengthens the above derivation."Semigallia" first
occursin a ninth-centuryScandinaviansource,37 and an Old Swedish
formis foundon an eleventh-century rune-stoneat Mervalla in
S6dermanland:
Siridlitrwisa
stwn
thenna
at
SvoeinsinbHnda.
Hanoftsight
tilScimgala
dfrum knarri
umDdmisncs.38
The first, of course,is merelya Latindistortion basedon classical
associations.In the thirteenth centuryHeinricusLettusrepeatsthe
name,and it was currentin historiography to the beginning of the
modernperiod.As regardslanguage,theZemgalianswould seemto
have used a Latvian dialectfromthe outset,and thiswas laterto
becomethebasis of literaryLatvian.
The Selonians(Latv. sEli; Lith. seliai) were a Latviantribe,like
theZemgalians,and are knownto have occupiedtheDaugava (Liv.
Vaina; Lith. Dauguva; Germ. Diina; Russ. West Dvina) bend at
Selpils(Selburg),oppositetheconfluence of theAiviekste(Ewst),as
wellas theentiresouthern bankoftheriver,so as to includeDaugav-
pils (Diinaburg,Dvinsk). Pseudo-Nestordoes notmentionthemin
his triballists of the late eleventhcentury,and theirname is first
foundin the Chronicon Lyvoniae(I208-25), wheretheyare called
Selones.Alnpeke'sSelen in theReimchronik are describedas neigh-
bors of the Livonians,Zemgalians,and Latvians.They appear to
have suffered the same fateas the Zemgaliansin havingbeen de-
nationalized by theLatviansandtheLithuanians. lookingfor
Buiga,39
Seloniancharacteristics in Latvianand Lithuanian,especiallyin his-
toricallyrecordedplace names,finds,as in Curonian,preconsonantal
-n and c, dz forthepalatalizedvelarplosives(k', g').
37 Annales Ryenses (c. 870), where the name appears alongside Prucia. See J. C.
Zeuss, Die Deutschenend die Nachbarstdmirne (Munich, I837).
38 I.e., "Sigrid had this stone erected to her husbandSvein. He oftensailed to Zem-
galia in his fineshiproundDomesnds (Cape Kolka). See R. Steffen,Iskindskochfornsvensk
litteratur (2d ed.), p. i 66.
39 Bfiga,op. cit.

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 I34 The American
Slavicand East EuropeanReview
The Latvians proper,knownin the thirteenth centuryas Let-
galians,are the heirsof the medievalZemgalian-Selonian-Letgalian
trinity.They were thenconfinedto the easternor inlandpartsof
present-day Latvia northof the Daugava and immediatelybehind
theLivonianmaritimerampart,whichsome Latvianarchaeologists
(e.g., F. Balodis)40are inclinedto regardas a beltof alienencroach-
mentfroma NorthCuronianbase pivotingon Cape Kolka (Domes-
nas). "Letgalli" is the nameused by HeinricusLettus,41who also
writes the variant "Letthi." Pseudo-Nestor'sLet'gola, like the
modernGermanLetten,also has the narrowersound,which has
been widenedto a in the Latvian designationforthe east-country
folk (latgaliesi) and in the nationalname (Latv. latviesi,latvji;
Lith. latviai).
The Letgalians,were in contactand sometimesin armedconflict
with theirSomian,Lithuanian,and Slavic neighborsto the north,
south,and east respectively beforetheGermanscame,and theSlavs
had succeededin converting someof themto ByzantineChristianity,
as theLatvianecclesiasticalterminology seemsto suggest.42

Toponymicresearch,initiatedin theWest Russianmarginalzone

by A. I. Sobolevskij,has beenprosecutedwithsuchdetermined en-
thusiasmby the LithuaniansBuga, Gerullis,and Salys, and by the
GermanVasmer,thatwe now have a moreor less coherent, though
admittedly pictureof the medievalBaltic tribalscheme
imaginary,
in geographicalterms.This is illustrated by BUga's maps to "Die
Vorgeschichteder aistischen(baltischen)Stimme im Lichte der
Ortsnamenforschung,"43 For 500 A.D. theconjectural
map showsthe
Lithuanianssettledon the middle Dnieper and its tributary, the
Berezina.At thesametime,ZemgaliansandLetgaliansare seatedon
the upper Nemunas (Niemen) and the Neris (Wilja) fromthe
Daugava (West Dvina) to thePripet,and thereare Somians(Lith.
somai;Latv. sini) in the entireEast Baltic regiondown to the
estuaryof theNemunas(Memel). Southof thatriverand between
Vilnius(Wilno) andtheVistulain a narrowbandare thePrussians,
and southof theseagain the Slavs. East of the Baltic lands,so de-
limited,lay Mordvinia,with its westernapproachMuroma, and
beyondthattheTransdanaprian Scythiansteppe.Eighthundred years
later (I 201), the map,now plottinghistoricaldata and not merely
40 "Latvies'u aizvEsture,"Latviesi(Riga, 1930), also Latvieu senvesture
(Riga, 1938),
of which a revisedand enlargedSwedish version (Det dIdstaLettland)appearedin Stock-
holm duringthe author'sexile.
41 Op. cit.
42 E.g., Latv. baznlca 'church' (0. R. boz'nica); gavet 'to fast' (0. R. govtei);
griamata'book' (0. R. gramota); are-ks'sin' (O. R. grec); pekle 'hell' (0. R. peklo);
sods 'judgment'(0. R. sud); svets'holy' (0. R. svjat); zvans 'bell' (0. R. zvon).
43 Streitberg-Festgabe
(Leipzig, 1924), pp. 2 2-25.

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 AMedieval
BalticTribes 135
lines of conjecture,exhibitsconsiderablechanges:the High Lithu-
anians (aukstaiciai)are lodged betweenthe Daugava and the Ne-
munas; the Prussianeasternborderfollowsthe middleNemunas;
the Curoniansare on the Baltic littoralbetweenthe Nemunasand
theLivonianglacis,in NorthwestCuronia; theotherLatviantribes
-Zemgalians, Selonians,Letgalians-occupy their presentsites,
exceptthe coastal marginof Vidzeme (SouthernLivonia), which
speaksLivonianand is to lose its vernacularonlyin the laternine-
teenthcentury;44 the Low Lithuaniansor Samogitians(zenaiziali)
hold a triangulararea, wider northward betweenthepolar foci of
Kaunas and ;iauliai; and east, south,and west of the shrunken
frontiers enclosingBalticspeechare theSlavs,whoseexpansiveforce
has in the interimsucceededin effectively separatingthe Baltic
peoplesfromtheirSomianneighborsto theeast (Mordvinians)and
thenortheast(Vodians).4

Biga's geographical pictureof thefifth-centuryBaltichabitathas

not been modifieda greatdeal by later research:his map is too
generalizedand comprehensive to lend itselfto radical alteration.
Max Vasmer,46 however,has pursuedBaltic place-namestudybe-
yond the Smolenskarea into the Kalinin (Tver'), Moscow, and
Kaluga provinces,thuspushingtheBalticeasternfrontier stillfurther
east. Attemptshave also beenmade to interpret thedata of archae-
ological researchin ethnicterms.This tempting,but dangerous,
procedurerestson equationswhichit is impossibleto prove,how-
ever "plausible"theymayappear.The equationshave led to a con-
siderablerevisionof BUiga'schronology, but sincebothhis and that
of laterinvestigatorsrest on conjectureand not on historicalfact,
theyneed not concernus here. In any case, all thiswould take us
beyondthelimitsof theMiddle Ages and our presentscope.
The researchesof Zajqczkowski,Gaerte,Salys, Vasmer,Engel,
La Baume,Lowmian'ski,Mortensen,47 and otherscholarswho have
44 J. A. Sjogren, LivischeGrammnatik,nebstSprachproben (St. Petersburg,I86i).
45 The aboriginalinhabitantsof Ingria and of the now Russianized territoryto the
south.They were one of the nations (O. R. Vod'), which helpedto build the Varangian
state of Novgorod. Only about fivehundredVodian-speakerssurvivetoday in villages
on the Luga (Est. Luuga) River in Northwest Ingria. They call their language vadja
(cf. Est. vadja; Finn. vatja; Germ. Wotisch;Russ. vodskj or votskij).
46 Beitragezur historischen VolkerkundeEuropas I. Die Ostgrenzederbaltischen Stadine
(Berlin, 19 32) .
47 St. Zajtczkowski, Studya nad dziejamni 2vnudzi 'wiekitXIII (Cracow, 1925); W.
Gaerte, op. cit.; A. Salys, "Die zemaitischenMundartenI. Geschichtedes zemaitischen
Sprachgebiets,"Tauta ir Zodis, (Kaunas, 1930), Vol. VI; C. Engel, Die Bevblkerung
Ostpreussensin vorgeschichtlicher Zeit (KIonigsberg, 1932) and Vorgeschichte der alt-
preussischen Stdinne (Konigsberg, i93 1); H. Mortensen,"Neues zur Frage der mittel-
alterlichenNordgrenzeder Litauer," Zeitschrift fur slavischePhilologie(Leipzig, 1933),
pp. 273-305. For the relief and landscape of Lithuania see H. Mortensen, Litauen
(Hamburg,1926).

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1 36 Slavicand East EuropeanReview
The American
writtensinceBUgamay be used to supplement thedetailsthathave
emergedfroma comparisonof Bilga's maps. Salys's article"Die
zemaitischen Mundarten"is furnished witha large-scalemap of the
Samogitianand adjoiningareas, and his article "Baltu tautos"
(LithuanianEncy-
Enciklopedija
(Baltic Peoples) in the Lietuvigkoji
clopedia) containsa verbal account of the distribution of Baltic
tribes.Conflationof thesematerialswith the maps of thirteenth-
centuryPrussiaby 0. Wiese48and H. Lowmian'ski49 confirms that
the Prussianterritoryin the thirteenth centurylay west of the
Nemunasand extendedto the Vistula, with the riverOsa as the
dividingline betweenPrussianand Pole. The Galindianand Su-
davianelements,apparently Prussianizedby thattime,occupiedthe
southeastand abuttedon theNariew (Russ. Narev), beyondwhich
thePolish (Mazurian) and Russianlandsbegan,East of thePrussian
quadrilaterallay the territoryof the Lithuanians,whose north-
westernsector(Samogitia)is represented by Salys and Lowmian'ski
as excludingthe CuronianCeklis (Ceclis), thatis, as comprising
approximately thebasinsof the Minija (Pol. Minja) and theupper
Venta(Russ. Vindava). The northern frontier
of Lithuaniafollowed
an irregularconvex line fromsouthof Klaipeda (Memel) to the
Daugava at about Daugavpils (Russ. Dvinsk). The southernand
easternfrontiers cannotbe drawnwith any accuracy,for lack of
historicaldata; but linguisticand toponymicevidencesuggeststhat
theylay east of thepresentpoliticalfrontiers and were imperfectly
outlinedby a stringof twelfth- Russianfort-
and thirteenth-century
ressesfromGrodnoto Lohojsk (e.g., Grodno,Volkovysk,Slonim,
NovogrodekMinsk, Zaslav, Lohojsk). North of the Lithuanian
ethnicarea the territories of theNorthBaltic tribesextendedwell
into the Livonian peninsula,but withoutanywherereachingthe
coast of the Gulf of Riga. The northern limitsof theseterritories
are describedby a hollow, semicircularcurve fromsouthof the
lowerVentain thewestto Lake Burtnieks(Liv. Asti) and theriver
Salace (Germ. Salis) in thenortheast.This leftmostof the Venta
basin to the Curonians,the Lielupe to the Zemgalians,the zone
along the southbankof the Daugava to theSelonians,and theEast
Latvian quadrilateral, northof thatriverfromSelonia to Ugandi
(Southeastern Estonia),to theLetgalians-5O
48 C. Engel and W. La Baume, KulturenurndV5Iker der Frihzeit im Preussenlande
(K6nigsberg, I937), P. 197.
49 Studja nad poczqtrkain i pan'stwalitewskiego(Wilno, 1932), Vol. II.
spolecze'strwa
50 See the relevantmap in H. Kruus's article "Eesti ajalugu," in Eesti Entsiklopeedia
(Tartu, 1933), II, 635-36.

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