F O R E W O R D T O TH E PAST A Cultural History of the Baltic People ENDRE BOJTAR * » » ► C E U P R E S S * 4 > Central European University Press First published in Hungarian as Bevezetes a baltisztikaba by Osiris, Budapest, 1997 English edition published in 1999 by Central European University Press Oktober 6. utca 12 H-1051 Budapest Hungary 400 West 59th Street New York, NY 10019 USA Translated by Szilvia Redey and Michael Webb © 1997 by Endre Bojtar English translation © 1999 by Szilvia Redey and Michael Webb Distributed in the United Kingdom and Western Europe by Plymbridge Distributors Ltd., Estover Road, Plymouth, PL6 7PZ, United Kingdom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the permission of the Publisher. ISBN 963-9116-42-4 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book is available upon request Printed in Hungary by Akademiai Nyomda Kft. CONTENTS FOREWORD TO THE ENGLISH EDITION ABBREVIATIONS............................................ LIST OF MAPS AND FIGURES.................... PART ONE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 THE CONCEPT OF BALTIC STUDIES................................... CHAPTER 2 THE ORIGINS AND MEANING OF THE TERM ‘BALTIC’ CHAPTER 3 ENVIRONMENT........................................................................... CHAPTER 4 AMBER AND THE AMBER ROUTE....................................... PART TWO THE BALTIC TRIBES AND PEOPLES 37 CHAPTER 1 THE INDO-EUROPEAN URHEIMAT AND PROTO-LANGUAGE 39 39 1.1. Difficulties in writing about prehistory..................................... 41 1.1.1. Archaeology................................................................................... 43 1.1.2. Physical anthropology.................................................................. 47 1.1.3. Language history.......................................................................... 57 1.2. The Kurgan theory (M. Gimbutas).............................................. 63 1.3. The Asiatic Urheimat hypotheses.............................................. 66 1.4. Language tree and diffusionism.................................................. CHAPTER 2 70 THE BALTIC URHEIMAT AND PROTO-LANGUAGE................. 70 2.1. The question of Balto-Slavic unity............................................ 74 2.2. The Baltic proto-language........................................................... 77 2.3. The archaic nature of the Baltic languages............................... 80 2.4. The Baltic Urheimat...................................................................... VI CONTENTS CHAPTER 3 THE VENET(D) QUESTION..................................................................................................... 85 CHAPTER 4 THE FIRST REFERENCES TO THE BALTS......................................................................... 98 4.1. The Budini......................................................................................................................... 101 4.2. TheNeuri........................................................................................................................... 102 4.3. The Aestii or Aisti............................................................................................................ 104 4.4. The Veits............................................................................................................................. 107 4.5. The Stavanoi....................................................................................................................... 107 4.6. The Sudini......................................................................................................................... 108 4.7. The Galindians and the Golyad’s..................................................................................... 108 4.8. The Boruski or Borusi...................................................................................................... Ill CHAPTER 5 THE BALTIC TRIBES................................................................................................................ 113 5.1. Power relations in the Baltic region: The Viking period............................................ 113 5.2. The Couronians................................................................................................................ 116 5.3. Power relations in the Baltic region: the Slavic, Lithuanian, and German periods......................................................................................................... 118 5.4. The conquest of Livonia................................................................................................... 122 5.5. Drang nach Os ten............................................................................................................ 126 5.6. The East Balts.................................................................................................................... 128 5.6.1. The Latvians....................................................................................................................... 128 5.6.2. The Leitis........................................................................................................................... 132 5.6.3. The Lithuanians (2emaitians and AukStaitians)......................................................... 138 5.6.4. The Zemgalians................................................................................................................ 142 5.6.5. The Selonians.................................................................................................................... 145 5.7. The West Balts.................................................................................................................. 147 5.7.1. The Prussians.................................................................................................................... 147 5.7.2. The Jatvingians.................................................................................................................. 158 CHAPTER 6 THE BALTIC PEOPLES.............................................................................................................. 164 6.1. The Prussians..................................................................................................................... 164 6.2. The Latvians....................................................................................................................... 167 6.2.1. Kurzeme............................................................................................................................. 170 6.2.2. The Duchy beyond the Daugava................................................................................... 170 6.2.3. Latgale................................................................................................................................ 172 6.3. The Lithuanians................................................................................................................ 176 6.3.1. Lithuania Minor............................................................................................................... 192 CONTENTS VII PART THREE BALTIC LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS 205 CHAPTER 1 207 COMMON BALTIC........................ CHAPTER 2 WEST BALTIC LANGUAGES ... 209 209 2.1. The Prussian language......... 216 2.2. The Jatvingian language... CHAPTER 3 217 THE COURONIAN LANGUAGE CHAPTER 4 219 EAST BALTIC LANGUAGES... 219 4.1. The Latvian language......... 224 4.2. The Latgalian language ... 225 4.3. The Lithuanian language .. PART FOUR BALTIC MYTHOLOGY 231 CHAPTER 1 233 PREHISTORY, FOLKLORE, MYTHOLOGY........................ CHAPTER 2 HOW FAR BACK DOES BALTIC ANTIQUITY REACH?. . 253 CHAPTER 3 267 MYTHS AND SYSTEMS OF MYTHS..................................... CHAPTER 4 271 THE THEORY OF SOCIAL FORMATION............................ CHAPTER 5 POLYDOXY, PROTOTHEISM, POLYTHEISM.................... 275 CHAPTER 6 276 SHAMANISM............................................................................... CHAPTER 7 278 BALTIC MYTHOLOGICAL SYSTEMS................................. 278 7.1. Baltic prototheism........................................................... 279 7.1.1. *Deivas............................................................................... 282 7.1.2. Perkunas (Perkons)........................................................... 289 7.2. Baltic polydoxy................................................................ 7.2.1. Interpretatio Christiana................................................ 296 304 7.2.2. Interpretatio classica (Romana, Graeca)...................... 307 7.3. Baltic‘polytheism’............................................................ 308 7.3.1. The Prussian ‘gods’ of reliable sources........................ 309 7.3.2. The Lithuanian ‘gods’ of reliable sources.................... 312 7.3.3. The Prussian ‘Pantheon’.................................................. 316 7.3.4. The Lithuanian‘pantheon’.............................................. CONTENTS Baltic cults......................................................................................... 318 5 ; I-Ns................................................................................................................................... 318 5 2 Sar.ctuaries............................................. 319 s I Rornova............................................................................................................................ 320 $■2.2 The sanctuary of Vilnius (The legends of Sventaragis and Gediminas).................. 321 S 3 Priests................................................................................................................................ 326 5 3 I Sicco.................................................................................................................................. 326 5 3 2. The tuliss and thel igash................................................................................................... 327 5 3 3 The sovij (an addition to the Malalas Chronicle) ...................................................... 330 5 3 4 Krive.................................................................................................................................. 337 5 3 5 Kunigas.............................................................................................................................. 339 5 3 6 Zynys. waidelott, Wisten, macTtajs............................................................................... 340 PART FIVE CONCLUSION OWN AND ALIEN IN HISTORY 343 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................................... 357 INDEX...................................................................................................................................... 405 FOREWORD TO THE ENGLISH EDITION This book is, for the most part, an unchanged version of my book Bevezetes a baltisztikaba: A balti kultura a regisegben [Introduction to Baltic Studies: Baltic culture in Antiquity] which appeared in Hungary in 1997. In places I felt marginal modifications and extensions were necessary—only, however, to the extent of a few sentences, or at most, some paragraphs. I omitted references of purely Hungarian concern, but I added a number of works that I came across after the Hungarian edition was published. These include Arnold 1967, Boockmann 1992, Dubonis 1997, Gudavicius 1998, Kahle 1986, Nowak 1983, Pistohlkors 1994, Schaudinn 1937, and Schlesinger 1975. There were two issues I felt I needed to amend to more forcibly represent my standpoint. One is the question of ethnogenetics. I sought to counterbalance my lack of expertise by referring to a number of studies which might help the orientation of the reader. These include Cavalli-Sforza-Cavalli-Sforza 1995, Haeseler - Sajantila - Paabo 1996, Hausler 1997, Julku 1997, Niskanen 1997, Paabo 1995, Sajantila et al. 1996, Sajantila-Paabo 1995, and Villems et al. 1997. The other question—more important with regard to the book’s topic—concerns the emergence of the state structure of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Middle Ages, and the related problem of the Leitis people. The highly significant studies published by J. Kazlauskas 1995 and A. Dubonis 1998 on these issues have opened new perspectives in the research of Baltic ethnonyms. Endre Bojtar Budapest, June 1999 ABBREVIATIONS acc. accusative instr. instrumental adj. adjective Latv. Latvian adv. adverb Lith. Lithuanian CHS. Church Slavonic nom. nominative Cz. Czech OEng. Old English Dan. Danish OGer. Old German dat. dative OHG Old High German Engl. English OLat. Old Latin ESlav. East Slavic OPol. Old Polish Finn. Finnish OSlav. Old Slavic FP Finno-Permic PFU proto-Finno-Ugric Fr. French PIE proto-Indo-European FU Finno-Ugric pi. plural gen. genitive Polab. Polabian Ger. German Pruss. Prussian Gk. Greek Russ. Russian Gmn. Germanic Sem. Semitic Goth. Gothic sing. singular Hitt. Hittite Toch. Tocharian IE. Indo-European Umbr. Umbrian Ill Illyrian Ved. Vedic imp. imperative Ven. Venetic inf. infinitive voc. vocative LIST OF MAPS AND FIGURES Front endpaper The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th century Rear endpaper The Latvian Republic The Lithuanian Republic Map 1. Baltic tribes in the thirteenth century - 13 Map 2. Baltic place names - 54 Map 3. The migrations of the Venets and the Veneds - 86 Map 4. The migrations of the Galindians and Golyad’s - 110 Map 5. The migrations of the East Baltic tribes - 146 Map 6. Prussian lands in the thirteenth century - 159 Map 7. The partition of the Baltic in the fifteenth-eighteenth centuries - 177 Figure 1. The Balto-Slavic unity (Karaliunas, 1968, 5) - 72 Figure 2. The Indo-European linguistic family - 73 Figure 3. The evolution of the Baltic linguistic family - 76 Figure 4. The splintering of the Indo-European linguistic family — 81 “Nur einige Sagen, wie fremde Boten aus einer andern Welt, kommen aus dem Dunkel dieser altesten Zeiten zu uns heruber.” (Johannes Voigt, Geschichte Preussens) “Like alien delegates from another world, out of the darkness of those ancient times, only a few legends reach us.”