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Prologue
Arnold, least of the servants of God, offers due reverence in Christ to his lord and father Philip, Bishop of the church of Ratzeburg, and to all the brothers there.1 Since the priest Helmold of good memory died before he completed, as he intended, his histories of the subjection and conversion of the Slavs, and the deeds of the bishops through whose efforts the churches of these regions grew stronger, we have decided with the help of God to embark on this work or endeavour, so that those of us also helping in such a work of pious devotion and supported by your prayers may share in his blessed memory. Hence we ask your prudence that you do not pay attention to our lack of intellect or the rusticity of our words, but you direct your attention with pious consideration rather to the blessing of charity which ought not to be neglected. For indeed, he [Helmold] was a man of shrewd mind, wide vocabulary, more powerful in phrase making, eloquent and with a wealth of talent;2 and he made the series of events flow swiftly. We, however, distilling from the oil of Minerva,3 although of less ready tongue and with a slower pen, have begun this work, and we shall proceed humbly, as if by crawling, since we do not equal our master with either voice or our pen.4 Following therefore the true course of history, we shall entirely eliminate flattery, which is the companion of many writers, so that excluding fear and treacherous grace we shall proceed freely to expound those things which are known to us.
We shall in what follows explain how the position of the leaders and governors of these northern regions, whether lay or ecclesiastical, developed, as is [also] described in the aforesaid book of Helmold the priest. And since he delineated events up to the time of Duke Henry of Saxony and Bavaria, we shall place him at the beginning of our account; the man who tamed the obstinacy of the Slavs more than all those who had come before him, and not only forced them to pay tribute, but also forced them to abandon their superstitious idolatry and rendered them fully obedient, on bended knee, to the cult of the true God. He established a most firm peace in all the land of the Slavs. All the northern provinces of the Wagrians, Holsteiners, Polabi and Obrodites lay peacefully at rest; thefts and robberies were prohibited on both land and sea, and they were made fruitful by trade with each other and mercantile activity. ‘Every man dwelt safely under his vine and fig tree’,5 while the most reverend father Evermodus presided over the church of Ratzeburg, the illustrious man Conrad was bishop in Lübeck, and the man of religion Berno in Schwerin, who strove with the assistance of the Lord to plant doctrine and to water with their most industrious efforts these newly planted churches which the aforesaid Duke Henry had founded.6
Book I
1
About the pilgrimage of Duke Henry. After peace had been confirmed in the land of the Slavs, as has been described,7 the power of the duke over the land and all its inhabitants grew greater and greater, and the civil wars between him and the eastern princes were suppressed through the mediation of the imperial majesty. Pribislav, the brother of Wertizlav, from an enemy became a most dear friend to the duke, knowing that the plots which had been undertaken against him would be of no avail, and also considering the magnificence of the man.8 Having now obtained this great peace, and having reached a safe and comfortable haven after escaping great dangers and disturbances, the duke wished to atone for his sins by seeing the Holy Sepulchre, that he might worship the Lord in the place where his feet had trod. He therefore put his affairs in order, and began carefully to plan his journey to Jerusalem. Consigning his lands to the guardianship of Archbishop Wichmann of Magdeburg, he took as his companions for his journey the most noble men of the land, namely Bishop Conrad of Lübeck,9 Abbot Henry of Brunswick,10 Abbot Berthold of Lüneburg, the aforesaid Pribislav, the kinglet (regulus) of the Obrodites, Count Gunzelin of Schwerin,11 Count Siegfried of Blankenburg,12 and many others [too], both from among his free men and his ministeriales. None of his great men remained at home apart from Ekbert of Wolfenbüttel,13 whom the duke appointed to rule over his household – he was in particular charged with being of service (in ministerium) to Duchess Matilda, that most religious woman, whose memory is preserved with God and among men, the daughter of the king of England.14 She was derived from a most distinguished line, from a kin who had long been descended from royalty. She was [also] distinguished by works of piety, was busy with charitable gifts, and flourished in the grace of religion. For she was extremely pious, had a wonderful compassion for the afflicted, was generous in dispensing alms, and dedicated to prayers and masses, of which she had many chanted, for she was most devoted in religious services. Strictly guarding her sworn union with her husband, she preserved her marriage bed in purity. She remained in Brunswick all the time in which the duke was a pilgrim, since she was then pregnant, and she gave birth to a daughter who was called Richenza.15 After his return she bore him sons: Henry, Lothar, Otto and William, whom, as is read of the holy Tobias, she taught from infancy to fear God.16 Henry of Lüneburg and the aforesaid Ekbert served her, the latter being considered the most faithful and distinguished in all the duke’s household. But in his case matters turned out otherwise. For he stained his glorious reputation and incurred disgrace through his treachery, and as a result was gravely punished.17 But let us omit these matters, since we turn to other things.
2
About the same. The duke set off in great state from Brunswick after the Octave of the Epiphany and came with all his following to Regensburg where he solemnly celebrated the day of the Purification with the great nobles (optimates) of the region. Some of these nobles joined him in his pilgrimage, namely Margrave Frederick of Sulzbach and the Margrave of Styria.18 And so he travelled into Austria to his stepfather, the noble Duke Henry, who met him as soon as he could and amid great rejoicing from clergy and people at the castle of Neuburg, where his mother the lady Gertrude had chosen to be buried.19 The duke then brought him with honour to the metropolitan city of Vienna, where ships had been purchased, plentifully laden with wheat, wine and other foodstuffs. The duke and his men embarked by ship upstream on the River Danube. However, the servants travelled on land with the horses, always arriving each evening at a predetermined place where they met the ships. Nor should it be omitted that the lord Bishop of Worms joined them on this journey, not for the sake of pilgrimage but having been entrusted by the emperor with an embassy to Manuel, the King of the Greeks, to secure a marriage between the latter’s daughter and the emperor’s son.20 The duke of Austria also prepared ships and followed the duke of Saxony, furnishing the resources of his duchy to him, and hospitably providing in great abundance the supplies he needed. They thus arrived well-supplied at a city which is called Wieselburg, sited on the Hungarian frontier, where an envoy from the king of Hungary, called Florenz, was present, ready to receive the dukes of Saxony and Austria, to whose sister the king was married.21 Then, travelling peacefully onwards without hindrance, they arrived at a certain fortress with a naturally defensible position, for on one side it was flanked by the Danube, and on the other by a very deep valley which is called Gran, from which both the fortress and the town which is sited on the other bank take their name.22 There the dukes suffered a grievous shock, for that very night the king died by drinking poison, administered so it was said by [agents of] his brother whom he had exiled from that land.23 They were greatly upset by this, to such an extent that they did not know what they were doing. The duke of Saxony and his men were extremely worried that they might not be able to continue further on the pilgrimage which had been undertaken; for the duke feared that the king’s death would appear to stifle the chance of securing a guide to show them the way. The other duke was equally upset by the king’s sudden death, because he had died intestate, and his sister, who was pregnant, was left widowed, and seemingly deprived of her portion, since the kingdom lacked an heir. However, after discussing the situation, they sent an embassy to the archbishop, who was at that time in the city and was busy with the king’s funeral, composed of Bishop Conrad and Abbots Henry and Berthold, asking that he might arrange for the duke of Saxony to be provided with a guide for the journey. The archbishop showed himself amenable in this matter, for he summoned his leading men and then instructed that the aforementioned Florenz should accompany the duke on the journey which he had commenced.
3
The same. The duke and his men thus departed, and sailed on safely for some days, until they arrived at a dangerous place which is called in the vernacular Skere. Here vast cliffs towered up like mountains, on one of which a castle was placed, and sticking out into the river and interrupting its flow, they made the passage for boats here extremely difficult. Passing through a narrow channel, the water was extremely fast, surging up and then falling headlong with a great crash.24 However, with the help of God all the ships passed through the defile in safety, apart from that of the duke, which was wrecked there. Seeing this, the people who were in the castle took to their boats and brought him to shore. Gunzelin and Jordan the steward, along with various others, saved themselves by swimming.25 The ship was, though, repaired, and they then went to Branischevo, a town of the king of the Greeks, where with the water being shallow, they disembarked from the ships onto dry land.26 For here the Danube is diverted into an underground channel, and what remains is a very small river; it is only after a considerable distance has elapsed that it bubbles up once again with a strong flow, and merges with the Sava (Sowa).27 Thus abandoning their ships, they set off on the land route and entered a vast and most threatening forest, which is called the Bulgarwald, where both they and their horses struggled in the deep swamps. Many horses perished, especially those pulling the wagons and carts carrying their supplies. The wagons were all too frequently damaged, everyone was exhausted with the work repairing them and righting the overturned carts, and they were making no progress; for, so it was said, when one of the carts was wrecked, everyone remained there until the contents had been eaten, and they all started off again. The duke realised that their journey was being greatly delayed by the time this work was taking, and so he ordered that the wagons be abandoned, and the supplies carried on pack horses, and so they set off once more. You might have seen, therefore, great heaps of the finest flour thrown away, and many wine vessels, full to the brim with wine, left behind, a huge amount of meat and fish abandoned, along with all sorts of carefully prepared delicacies flavoured with various spices.
Marching on therefore, they approached the town of Rabnell,28 which is sited in the midst of the forest, the inhabitants of which are called Serbs. The...
