one sure way to get some extra views is to just mention the baltics. we are so starved for some attention that we will pop up on any video mentioning us :)
People are interested in videos like this, because few people talk about the subjects and Baltic people really like it when foreigners acknowledge their history. Some extra details about the story: there is another Viking settlement on the Northern half of Poland, sometimes called Grobus, which was at first thought to be of Baltic origin. The oldest known large Baltic Settlement is Apuolė, located close to modern day Skuodas. It is said to have had over 10 thousand inhabitants as far back as in 1st century AD. The Curonians, who lived next to the Baltic Sea, would get raided by the vikings and then raid Vikings in retaliation. There are some old churches in Denmark that still say "Lord, protect us from Curonians". Not only did the Teutons found a lot of cities in Latvia, they also built many in current Kaliningrad(Konigsberg) and some parts of modern Lithuania, such as Klaipėda(Memel) and Jurbarkas. The western Lithuania does not have any well preserved ancient castles, except for the fancy manors with towers like Raudonė and Panemunė and better fortified Tauragė, but is rich in Hill Forts. I currently live in Samogitia and could name a dozen within my cycling distance.
Regarding the Grobina settlement in Western Latvia, that was initially a Couronian castle and both Scandinavians and Couronians (an ancient Baltic people) lived there. The Couronians also used to raid Denmark.
Thanks for the attention to the Baltic countries' history, it is always a pleasure to see when more and more English speakers look at it, and it is indeed deep and magnificent, full of drama and details, speaking either of the Vendel period or the 20th century. Of course, you gave a very very brief description, the real history is much more complicated, but I guess, I hope so, it will spark more interest in the details, because there are quite a few books written on the subject (there are real chronicles from the 13th century and the Northern Crusades, sagas from the "Viking" times etc), papers published by the universities etc, reports on the digs (starting from the 19th century, like Seeburg) etc. Thank you
@@ervinvonhimmel I see similar comments like this frequently, so forgive the but of a longer response. Of course, history is intricately more complicated, I make no secret of that. My videos are supposed to distill and simplify information for people to have a deeper look at in their own time! I would love to go into more detail, but in addition to those videos being much, much longer, I would only release one very rarely. And honestly, my videos that look at historical sites seem to get much, much fewer views than my discussions of archaeology, so I need to keep that in mind (look at my videos on Prague and Tunis vs. those of the Minoans and the Bronze Age Collapse as examples). I do "sneak in" a bit of pure historic sites, as you can see, but like many other creators, I too am a prisoner of the algorithm. But I also really do have a full-time offline job that pays my salary and demands more attention. So I cannot do the longer script and editing I know some would prefer. This is why usually I do just one site in greater detail. I tried something new with the Baltics, attempting a more regional style, and it worked pretty well! You're right as well on the region being a bit overlooked. Baltic History used to really suffer from a lack of English language sources. But this is changing, and I hope more comes out as the region gains interest!
"God, save us from the plague, the fire and the Kurshi (Curonians)" was found inscripted on a Danish church, dated to the 11th-12th centuries. Curonians lived on lithuania coast
While the Curonians were present along the Lithuanian coast, their core territory was primarily within Latvia, including the famous sites mentioned in the video. Even today, this area remains a culturally distinct region in modern-day Latvia.
Hello, do you have some source where exactly this was mentioned? I am searching for origins of this story for quite some time, but so far I am not able to find any exact source. Nether where this Church is/was located or in which historical sources it was first documented.
One thing you did not mention, that would significantly bolster the history of Finno-Estonian vikings is the fact that in 1187 there was a big raid on the Swedish capital of Sigtuna, by the Estonian viking warband. The result was that Sigtuna was destroyed and plundered, the new capital of the region was now elected down-river from Sigtuna, which today is known as Stockholm.
Not just Estonian vikings. The raid on Sigtuna you are referring to was conducted by a combined force of Oesellian and Curonian warbands who were also known to combine forces in raids on other occassions. Although the idea that Sigtuna was destroyed is questionable, as there seems to be no proof of any layer of burned down buildings or anything to suggest a total wipe of the settlement. But the fact that a raid happened is certain.
Actually first source which documented this event (Annals of Visby) mentioned only that this raid was launched by pagans from Eastern lands. It was only couple of hundred years later when various versions of exact identity of these pagan attackers started to appear. Yes, it it highly likely that these people were Oselians or Curonians or even both of them together. But there are also versions that these people could have been Karelians or even Novgorodians. Sadly no 100% proven answer exists.
I have to outright object to the pjedestal given to Novgorod/Muscovy at 11:24 and I think you succumbed to the same Swedish / Russian storyteller bias that you mentioned in 1st video. The arrival of Teutons was one of the bigger factors that encouraged the rapid centralization and growth of Lithuania in 13th and 14th centuries. The other major factor was the disintegration of Kievan Rus to Mongols - which left a power vacuum quickly taken up by Lithuania, Novgorod and Muscovy. Teutons to the west, Mongols to the southeast, and Muscovy to the northeast continued to be the main opponents of the Lithuanian state for centuries. In that context, since we're focusing on Baltic coast here and talking a lot about the Teutons - yes, they did have many clashes against Estonians where Novgorod interfered, but as far as I'm looking they were of minimal consequence and neither could push on the other; Teutons continued dominating Estonia. They could never push into Lithuania, though, with major defeats in 1226 (Battle of Saule), 1260 (Battle of Durbe), and then finally losing completely against the Commonwealth in 1410 (battle of Zalgiris/Grunwald). After that last battle Teutonic order was as good as gone and only existed as a pseudo-vassal state to the Commonwealth, with Livonia getting split between Commonwealth and Sweden. All I'm saying is: along with Teutons themselves, Lithuania (Commonwealth later) and Sweden were much more detrimental in shaping the area to what it is today. Apart from some attempts to influence northwestern Estonia, Novgorod and Muscovy were not major players at the discussed time period and mentioning them the way you did massively overvalues their actual importance to medieval Baltics.
@@gtheavyy8543 I understand the objection, especially given the current political climate, but that narrative was not meant to elevate Muscovy - it was a way to conclude the narrative. Remember, I visited and featured Teutonic sites, and Lithuanian ones, and merely mentioned Muscovy as what brought an end to that state. Likewise with Sweden, where I focussed on their impact on Tallinn (which is undeniable). I think I gave great care to their agency, without ignoring the external factors that helped shift the culture away from this prehistoric people into a modern one, where we don't see independent Baltic states again until 1918. Muscovy is mentioned in perhaps only two instances, once taking Cesis, and again as an external force vying for power in a weakened Teutonic state (perhaps a third time if you count the Vilnius bastion). Meanwhile, compare that to the several minutes I spent on Teutonic knights and the Lithuanian commonwealth. I can't simply ignore the presence of larger empires who did conquer the area As to Lithuania, this is still primarily a video on historical sites, not on the entire narrative. Yes, there are still cossak cultures in Lithuania from their days as a major empire, and much of the expansion was caused by the collapse of Mongols - but that is not the story to tell. That is not relevant to the videos topics, which was how the Baltics entered the historical records and why they may not be associated with the Vikings as strongly as Scandinavia, among other topics. As I've said before, I cannot cover everything, and it can be hard to decide what gets cut, and what doesn't.
Actually when you talk about Battle of Saule and other battles earlier or little bit after that point you are not talking about battling the Teutons, you should be talking about The Livonian brothers of the sword. At that point Teutons and Livonian Sword brothers were not united and for example the battle of saule was fought by lithuanians and semigallians against the Livonian brothers of the sword.
The first widespread russification in Estonia started only in the 1880s during the reign of Alexander III (and ended with WWI), until that it was negligible due to the autonomy of the Baltic German nobility that held the local effective power.
@@henrikmanitski1061 yes, but it was the 1880s that these national identities were being developed into independence movements. It's precisely for this reason that Russification policies were implemented, and relevant to the time period discussed on how our traditional narrative of viking history unfolded
Hi from Latvian town of Aluksne.. place of one of most eastern Teutonic outposts ,Marienburg castle. Also birthplace of russian empress Katrin 1 and place where Bible translated in Latvian
@@GediminasStrum I'm being careful with language, is the short answer! Couronians are "coastal Latvians", but some Couronians are also Vends. Prussia wasn't mentioned because I didn't go to any Prussian sites
A simple trick to get Estonian pronouncation somewhat correct, when you've never heard spoken estonian, is say it with the heavyest italian accent you can do. There's a certain similarity.
Excellent video! But there is more to Wendish history than archaeology. The Wends seem to be the writers of the codex Runicus, the only surviving book written in runes which has remained untranslated until recently. Its title page states that it was found in 1505 and is a copy of an original commissioned in 1190 CE by Danish king Valdemar 1 who fought against them during the last part of the Northern Crusades. It has 200 pages in 14 layers. Prior to its recent translation it was thought to be a runic version of Danish law like those found in other early Danish books. It seems to have been written by a Wendish Druid and is a Druid metaphysical treatise on how to avoid droughts. The deities it mentions are Druid and not those of the later Nordic tradition. Druid deities are found in all earlier runic texts associated with the Neolithic farmer culture.
@@daveo2797 Of course there is! But my analytics shows my discussions of history perform significantly worse than my tying it into archaeology and sites. I guess people want the archaeological background? Sadly, creators must appease the algorithm gods... Sigh...
The Couronians didn't just live on the Western coastline, but across the whole of the Western Latvia, well inland, and they had seven kingdoms or lands. The Danes and Swedes tried to take over the coastal areas, the Couronians used to plunder Swedish coasts. They spoke an ancient Baltic language that was very similar to Old Prussian (and most likely had many words that are identical with today's Latvian).
There were a people named Vends in central and Western Latvia as well, they believe those were Finnic people who may have lived side by side or have been assimilated with the Indo-European Baltic peoples. There are many place names in Latvia with Vend- (Venden (the old name for the town of Cesis), river Venta on West coast, the Couronian dialect is called Ventini, and many other such names. It's possible that this is where the name for the Wends also comes from.
Our latviešu language doesnt have the sound o, and thus we use the letter to mean the diphong ua, say o only if you recognise the word (cos we do use it in loan words) say ua if you do not recognise the word cos if its native thats how we say it.
Really good content. Really interestimg but is it just me or your vid has pretty low framerate when you show yourself. If that is true then I'm sure that better framerate would better your video stats for sure. Maybe its just lagging for me.
Calling the locals tribes is a bit misleading because nowadays tribes are often considered to be the small eldership based villages in rural communities. Archaeologically I understand it might be a very overarching term but to me it's almost like a trifecta "pagans" "tribes" and the "blank spaces" on maps. Each of these is correct but together they create a "stateless land" image. There are several reasons for questioning such an image: 1. The balts from central Latvia were also a part of the peoples who formed the Lithuanian kingdom, something that is recognized as a state. 2. In Eastern part of Latvia there was the Principality of Jersika which also was either a proto state or a part of Rurik's kingdom, and it might have been close to Cesu castle, perhaps even bordering it. 3. One of the regions conceded their lands in exchange for maintaining rights of the nobility. This group maintained their identity and locations for hundreds of years after the invasion. Also they had to serve as military units in battles. It shows that there was yet another entity that could be made trieties with. 4. Before the balts retreated south, they had a large scale organized battle, implying the ability to raise and coordinate an army, which is an element of statehood.
@@FenrirRobu Yes, this video is about the rise of Baltic states. As I stated in the first video, it is a mistake to consider this region populated by hill tribes, and this video is speaking historically, not about the modern area. Tribes is the correct term, and it's not uncommon. Scandinavia had pagan tribes that formed states as well prior to the unification of kingdoms, run by Norse warlords and chieftains. This is also the case with the early Slavic states. The Arab caliphates were composed of ruling clans and even today have many different tribes. Ancient Israel was a collection of twelve tribes, and the Germanic tribes could fight Rome to a standstill and even defeat it in later years. I do agree it projects a somewhat stateless image, however. But in this era there were very few fixed borders even in the most powerful states. And within cultural areas there was strife. Blank spaces comes up as a criticism of older histories, I don't say it to degrade the Baltics, but rather as a criticism of past narratives that have overlooked them. All that summed up is to say I don't think it projects backwardness to say tribes, but I'm also deeply immersed in a professional bubble. All I can do is say it's not meant as such archaeologically, but I'm sorry if it's misunderstood in a colloquial context
@@TravelswithanArchaeologist Thanks for bringing up the professional context of 'tribes'. I agree that the term is neutral professionally and that there are plenty of very prideworthy tribes. Also thank you for these series, it really builds up the societal knowledge. For example, I did not know about the ancient burial sites in Estonia! Same for the theory that the ancient Swedish trade routes might be conflicting with Balts because the artifacts overlap. The blank spaces are always a bit of a 'nitpicking issue' but it feels strange when watching a video, i.e., about old Hungarians and there's a map with nothing, no polities, no local domains, just blank, even though we have clues about whose 'polity' was there, even if small and many in number. (In comparison, maps wouldn't just paint Germany as empty before it was unified).
Weren't the Baltic vikings in grobina Curonian (west baltic group similar to prussians) though? From this video I got the impression they were primarily finno-estonian. Maybe I got something wrong though 😅
@@vb3623-y8t Probably. If you buy into Magi's narrative, there's no reason Couronians could have been vikings. If you don't, Couronians were as much victims as Estonians. Because my main source for that was Magi I may have slipped into a bit of incorrect language. Sorry!
@@Diversus100 They were Vends, who are a Finno-Baltic people, sometimes also referred to as Vendel. The word is related to Wends, likely because (if I were to hazard an educated guess) both names were given to the group by the same outsiders
Wends by no means were Slavs, they were indeed Finno-Baltic people. Wends lived around nowadays Ventspils, then they were pushed out of these territories further east by Curonians. Some Wends settled around Riga but another group traveled to Cēsis. Cēsis city is also known as Wenden which is it's older name.
@@allenigmija Wends is the Germanic name of the Slavs (Slavs- Romanesque name). Originally, name Wends to the direct neighbors Germanic tribes i.e. slavic Lechites (Polabian Slavs), Sorbs (Lusatian Serbs). Then through Danes was adapted to Finish languages (Vene) to describe Estern Slavs (Rusians). As early as in nineteenth centaury, term Wende was used (in Prussian Kingdom) as a colloquial term for a Slavic citizens of Prusian State, and the names of Wende, Wenta, Wendzikowski, Wendzinski wears many Poles.
@@JanBaron-t5h These are different Vends, from Western and central Latvia, originally Finnic (possibly remnants of Baltic coastal Finns similar to Livs). There are many place names in Latvia related to Vent-. It's possible that a large multi ethnic group were called Wends by the Germans. But these are specific Latvian Vends, not the ones in Poland. But it's an interesting overlap.
Problem is that people try to look at the past trough modern day ethnic perspective while more than 1000 years ago ethnic nations were non existant -seems that during that period there was nobility intermarriage in between people from Gothland Oselians and Curonians and they acted as separate force and allies -at least here -in Baltic region -i don't see a reason why exactly there is such obsession with a word "vikings" -personally i am perfectly fine just by knowing that my ancestors were playing significant role in ancient history of this part of the world -without any labels -though majority always seems to be looking for simple answers to simple questions
![ПЕСКОВ объяснил почему ЗЕЛЕНСКИЙ назвал путина "Дол***бом" 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2Z2cfT1CH_s/mqdefault.jpg)
![ПЕСКОВ объяснил почему ЗЕЛЕНСКИЙ назвал путина "Дол***бом" 😁 [Пародия]](/img/tr.png)
one sure way to get some extra views is to just mention the baltics. we are so starved for some attention that we will pop up on any video mentioning us :)
Baltics mentioned 🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹!!!!!!
true ngl
and this is a very carefully considered video, big props to the creator
People are interested in videos like this, because few people talk about the subjects and Baltic people really like it when foreigners acknowledge their history.
Some extra details about the story: there is another Viking settlement on the Northern half of Poland, sometimes called Grobus, which was at first thought to be of Baltic origin.
The oldest known large Baltic Settlement is Apuolė, located close to modern day Skuodas. It is said to have had over 10 thousand inhabitants as far back as in 1st century AD.
The Curonians, who lived next to the Baltic Sea, would get raided by the vikings and then raid Vikings in retaliation. There are some old churches in Denmark that still say "Lord, protect us from Curonians".
Not only did the Teutons found a lot of cities in Latvia, they also built many in current Kaliningrad(Konigsberg) and some parts of modern Lithuania, such as Klaipėda(Memel) and Jurbarkas.
The western Lithuania does not have any well preserved ancient castles, except for the fancy manors with towers like Raudonė and Panemunė and better fortified Tauragė, but is rich in Hill Forts. I currently live in Samogitia and could name a dozen within my cycling distance.
Hello from Saaremaa! Not to doxs myself but I live like 30 km from Salme
I visited Sāremā last year, my favorite part was Kuresāres castle but the farry to from Virtsu to Kuivastu was also very cool.
Regarding the Grobina settlement in Western Latvia, that was initially a Couronian castle and both Scandinavians and Couronians (an ancient Baltic people) lived there. The Couronians also used to raid Denmark.
Awesome man! Your videos are extremely valuable and underappreciated! Keep going! Deep respect from a fellow Curonian-Lithuanian "viking" ;)
Love your videos, keep up amazing work. As for me, I love that you show evidence for conclusions instead of just reading blind facts.
Thanks for the attention to the Baltic countries' history, it is always a pleasure to see when more and more English speakers look at it, and it is indeed deep and magnificent, full of drama and details, speaking either of the Vendel period or the 20th century.
Of course, you gave a very very brief description, the real history is much more complicated, but I guess, I hope so, it will spark more interest in the details, because there are quite a few books written on the subject (there are real chronicles from the 13th century and the Northern Crusades, sagas from the "Viking" times etc), papers published by the universities etc, reports on the digs (starting from the 19th century, like Seeburg) etc. Thank you
@@ervinvonhimmel I see similar comments like this frequently, so forgive the but of a longer response. Of course, history is intricately more complicated, I make no secret of that. My videos are supposed to distill and simplify information for people to have a deeper look at in their own time! I would love to go into more detail, but in addition to those videos being much, much longer, I would only release one very rarely. And honestly, my videos that look at historical sites seem to get much, much fewer views than my discussions of archaeology, so I need to keep that in mind (look at my videos on Prague and Tunis vs. those of the Minoans and the Bronze Age Collapse as examples). I do "sneak in" a bit of pure historic sites, as you can see, but like many other creators, I too am a prisoner of the algorithm.
But I also really do have a full-time offline job that pays my salary and demands more attention. So I cannot do the longer script and editing I know some would prefer. This is why usually I do just one site in greater detail. I tried something new with the Baltics, attempting a more regional style, and it worked pretty well!
You're right as well on the region being a bit overlooked. Baltic History used to really suffer from a lack of English language sources. But this is changing, and I hope more comes out as the region gains interest!
"God, save us from the plague, the fire and the Kurshi (Curonians)" was found inscripted on a Danish church, dated to the 11th-12th centuries. Curonians lived on lithuania coast
While the Curonians were present along the Lithuanian coast, their core territory was primarily within Latvia, including the famous sites mentioned in the video. Even today, this area remains a culturally distinct region in modern-day Latvia.
Hello, do you have some source where exactly this was mentioned? I am searching for origins of this story for quite some time, but so far I am not able to find any exact source. Nether where this Church is/was located or in which historical sources it was first documented.
Thanks for the video. Hope you do more on the baltics.
Thank you. As a Latvian, I greatly enjoyed your work and learned something new.
thank you for your time and research. Much appreciated for history
I live in western Lithuania and enjoy learning about the history of the place where I live, thank you for the interesting information 🇱🇹🙏
One thing you did not mention, that would significantly bolster the history of Finno-Estonian vikings is the fact that in 1187 there was a big raid on the Swedish capital of Sigtuna, by the Estonian viking warband. The result was that Sigtuna was destroyed and plundered, the new capital of the region was now elected down-river from Sigtuna, which today is known as Stockholm.
Not just Estonian vikings. The raid on Sigtuna you are referring to was conducted by a combined force of Oesellian and Curonian warbands who were also known to combine forces in raids on other occassions. Although the idea that Sigtuna was destroyed is questionable, as there seems to be no proof of any layer of burned down buildings or anything to suggest a total wipe of the settlement. But the fact that a raid happened is certain.
Actually first source which documented this event (Annals of Visby) mentioned only that this raid was launched by pagans from Eastern lands. It was only couple of hundred years later when various versions of exact identity of these pagan attackers started to appear.
Yes, it it highly likely that these people were Oselians or Curonians or even both of them together. But there are also versions that these people could have been Karelians or even Novgorodians. Sadly no 100% proven answer exists.
Love the video, learning more about Baltics is always fun
I have to outright object to the pjedestal given to Novgorod/Muscovy at 11:24 and I think you succumbed to the same Swedish / Russian storyteller bias that you mentioned in 1st video.
The arrival of Teutons was one of the bigger factors that encouraged the rapid centralization and growth of Lithuania in 13th and 14th centuries. The other major factor was the disintegration of Kievan Rus to Mongols - which left a power vacuum quickly taken up by Lithuania, Novgorod and Muscovy. Teutons to the west, Mongols to the southeast, and Muscovy to the northeast continued to be the main opponents of the Lithuanian state for centuries.
In that context, since we're focusing on Baltic coast here and talking a lot about the Teutons - yes, they did have many clashes against Estonians where Novgorod interfered, but as far as I'm looking they were of minimal consequence and neither could push on the other; Teutons continued dominating Estonia. They could never push into Lithuania, though, with major defeats in 1226 (Battle of Saule), 1260 (Battle of Durbe), and then finally losing completely against the Commonwealth in 1410 (battle of Zalgiris/Grunwald). After that last battle Teutonic order was as good as gone and only existed as a pseudo-vassal state to the Commonwealth, with Livonia getting split between Commonwealth and Sweden.
All I'm saying is: along with Teutons themselves, Lithuania (Commonwealth later) and Sweden were much more detrimental in shaping the area to what it is today. Apart from some attempts to influence northwestern Estonia, Novgorod and Muscovy were not major players at the discussed time period and mentioning them the way you did massively overvalues their actual importance to medieval Baltics.
@@gtheavyy8543 I understand the objection, especially given the current political climate, but that narrative was not meant to elevate Muscovy - it was a way to conclude the narrative. Remember, I visited and featured Teutonic sites, and Lithuanian ones, and merely mentioned Muscovy as what brought an end to that state. Likewise with Sweden, where I focussed on their impact on Tallinn (which is undeniable). I think I gave great care to their agency, without ignoring the external factors that helped shift the culture away from this prehistoric people into a modern one, where we don't see independent Baltic states again until 1918. Muscovy is mentioned in perhaps only two instances, once taking Cesis, and again as an external force vying for power in a weakened Teutonic state (perhaps a third time if you count the Vilnius bastion). Meanwhile, compare that to the several minutes I spent on Teutonic knights and the Lithuanian commonwealth. I can't simply ignore the presence of larger empires who did conquer the area
As to Lithuania, this is still primarily a video on historical sites, not on the entire narrative. Yes, there are still cossak cultures in Lithuania from their days as a major empire, and much of the expansion was caused by the collapse of Mongols - but that is not the story to tell. That is not relevant to the videos topics, which was how the Baltics entered the historical records and why they may not be associated with the Vikings as strongly as Scandinavia, among other topics. As I've said before, I cannot cover everything, and it can be hard to decide what gets cut, and what doesn't.
Actually when you talk about Battle of Saule and other battles earlier or little bit after that point you are not talking about battling the Teutons, you should be talking about The Livonian brothers of the sword. At that point Teutons and Livonian Sword brothers were not united and for example the battle of saule was fought by lithuanians and semigallians against the Livonian brothers of the sword.
Great video! Thanks!!
comment for the algorithm!!
Thank you!
Nice video, learned something new too
Aciu labai!!! thank you so much, I really hope for part 3 :)
Great video, well done
The first widespread russification in Estonia started only in the 1880s during the reign of Alexander III (and ended with WWI), until that it was negligible due to the autonomy of the Baltic German nobility that held the local effective power.
@@henrikmanitski1061 yes, but it was the 1880s that these national identities were being developed into independence movements. It's precisely for this reason that Russification policies were implemented, and relevant to the time period discussed on how our traditional narrative of viking history unfolded
Hi from Latvian town of Aluksne.. place of one of most eastern Teutonic outposts ,Marienburg castle.
Also birthplace of russian empress Katrin 1 and place where Bible translated in Latvian
Speaking about vikings. What about Curonians? Or prussian vitings?
@@GediminasStrum I'm being careful with language, is the short answer! Couronians are "coastal Latvians", but some Couronians are also Vends. Prussia wasn't mentioned because I didn't go to any Prussian sites
@TravelswithanArchaeologist Some Curonians became part of Lithuania ( Palanga, Apuolė and etc ) many thanks for your videos!
A simple trick to get Estonian pronouncation somewhat correct, when you've never heard spoken estonian, is say it with the heavyest italian accent you can do. There's a certain similarity.
Mägi is pronounced exactly like "Maggie", not "Madgee". And stress on the FIRST syllable is a rather safe bet for all Estonian names and placenames.
Nothing really to add, comment for the algorithm:)
Excellent video! But there is more to Wendish history than archaeology.
The Wends seem to be the writers of the codex Runicus, the only surviving book written in runes which has remained untranslated until recently. Its title page states that it was found in 1505 and is a copy of an original commissioned in 1190 CE by Danish king Valdemar 1 who fought against them during the last part of the Northern Crusades. It has 200 pages in 14 layers. Prior to its recent translation it was thought to be a runic version of Danish law like those found in other early Danish books. It seems to have been written by a Wendish Druid and is a Druid metaphysical treatise on how to avoid droughts. The deities it mentions are Druid and not those of the later Nordic tradition. Druid deities are found in all earlier runic texts associated with the Neolithic farmer culture.
@@daveo2797 Of course there is! But my analytics shows my discussions of history perform significantly worse than my tying it into archaeology and sites. I guess people want the archaeological background? Sadly, creators must appease the algorithm gods... Sigh...
The Couronians didn't just live on the Western coastline, but across the whole of the Western Latvia, well inland, and they had seven kingdoms or lands. The Danes and Swedes tried to take over the coastal areas, the Couronians used to plunder Swedish coasts. They spoke an ancient Baltic language that was very similar to Old Prussian (and most likely had many words that are identical with today's Latvian).
You mention the Wends a few times - but they were located much further West - not in the Baltics ... but very enjoyable :)
There were a people named Vends in central and Western Latvia as well, they believe those were Finnic people who may have lived side by side or have been assimilated with the Indo-European Baltic peoples. There are many place names in Latvia with Vend- (Venden (the old name for the town of Cesis), river Venta on West coast, the Couronian dialect is called Ventini, and many other such names. It's possible that this is where the name for the Wends also comes from.
@@sannip7404 i was thinking of the Wends from North Eastern Germany // who were apparently Slavic .. didn't know about Vends in Latvia :)
why you call cesis chesus
Our latviešu language doesnt have the sound o, and thus we use the letter to mean the diphong ua, say o only if you recognise the word (cos we do use it in loan words) say ua if you do not recognise the word cos if its native thats how we say it.
Really good content. Really interestimg but is it just me or your vid has pretty low framerate when you show yourself. If that is true then I'm sure that better framerate would better your video stats for sure. Maybe its just lagging for me.
can I do a call with you since am from Latvia?
Calling the locals tribes is a bit misleading because nowadays tribes are often considered to be the small eldership based villages in rural communities. Archaeologically I understand it might be a very overarching term but to me it's almost like a trifecta "pagans" "tribes" and the "blank spaces" on maps. Each of these is correct but together they create a "stateless land" image.
There are several reasons for questioning such an image: 1. The balts from central Latvia were also a part of the peoples who formed the Lithuanian kingdom, something that is recognized as a state. 2. In Eastern part of Latvia there was the Principality of Jersika which also was either a proto state or a part of Rurik's kingdom, and it might have been close to Cesu castle, perhaps even bordering it. 3. One of the regions conceded their lands in exchange for maintaining rights of the nobility. This group maintained their identity and locations for hundreds of years after the invasion. Also they had to serve as military units in battles. It shows that there was yet another entity that could be made trieties with. 4. Before the balts retreated south, they had a large scale organized battle, implying the ability to raise and coordinate an army, which is an element of statehood.
@@FenrirRobu Yes, this video is about the rise of Baltic states. As I stated in the first video, it is a mistake to consider this region populated by hill tribes, and this video is speaking historically, not about the modern area.
Tribes is the correct term, and it's not uncommon. Scandinavia had pagan tribes that formed states as well prior to the unification of kingdoms, run by Norse warlords and chieftains. This is also the case with the early Slavic states. The Arab caliphates were composed of ruling clans and even today have many different tribes. Ancient Israel was a collection of twelve tribes, and the Germanic tribes could fight Rome to a standstill and even defeat it in later years.
I do agree it projects a somewhat stateless image, however. But in this era there were very few fixed borders even in the most powerful states. And within cultural areas there was strife. Blank spaces comes up as a criticism of older histories, I don't say it to degrade the Baltics, but rather as a criticism of past narratives that have overlooked them.
All that summed up is to say I don't think it projects backwardness to say tribes, but I'm also deeply immersed in a professional bubble. All I can do is say it's not meant as such archaeologically, but I'm sorry if it's misunderstood in a colloquial context
@@TravelswithanArchaeologist Thanks for bringing up the professional context of 'tribes'. I agree that the term is neutral professionally and that there are plenty of very prideworthy tribes.
Also thank you for these series, it really builds up the societal knowledge. For example, I did not know about the ancient burial sites in Estonia! Same for the theory that the ancient Swedish trade routes might be conflicting with Balts because the artifacts overlap.
The blank spaces are always a bit of a 'nitpicking issue' but it feels strange when watching a video, i.e., about old Hungarians and there's a map with nothing, no polities, no local domains, just blank, even though we have clues about whose 'polity' was there, even if small and many in number. (In comparison, maps wouldn't just paint Germany as empty before it was unified).
Weren't the Baltic vikings in grobina Curonian (west baltic group similar to prussians) though? From this video I got the impression they were primarily finno-estonian. Maybe I got something wrong though 😅
@@vb3623-y8t Probably. If you buy into Magi's narrative, there's no reason Couronians could have been vikings. If you don't, Couronians were as much victims as Estonians.
Because my main source for that was Magi I may have slipped into a bit of incorrect language. Sorry!
when it comes to thumbnails, i feel completely neutral to a subpar one, but would often avoid videos if AI art is used
Who are these so called Wends? I thought they are Slavs from Pomerania region and that is far from Lithuania and Latvia.
@@Diversus100 They were Vends, who are a Finno-Baltic people, sometimes also referred to as Vendel. The word is related to Wends, likely because (if I were to hazard an educated guess) both names were given to the group by the same outsiders
Back in the days Pomerania was West Prussia (Baltic)
Wends by no means were Slavs, they were indeed Finno-Baltic people. Wends lived around nowadays Ventspils, then they were pushed out of these territories further east by Curonians. Some Wends settled around Riga but another group traveled to Cēsis. Cēsis city is also known as Wenden which is it's older name.
@@allenigmija Wends is the Germanic name of the Slavs (Slavs- Romanesque name). Originally, name Wends to the direct neighbors Germanic tribes i.e. slavic Lechites (Polabian Slavs), Sorbs (Lusatian Serbs). Then through Danes was adapted to Finish languages (Vene) to describe Estern Slavs (Rusians). As early as in nineteenth centaury, term Wende was used (in Prussian Kingdom) as a colloquial term for a Slavic citizens of Prusian State, and the names of Wende, Wenta, Wendzikowski, Wendzinski wears many Poles.
@@JanBaron-t5h These are different Vends, from Western and central Latvia, originally Finnic (possibly remnants of Baltic coastal Finns similar to Livs). There are many place names in Latvia related to Vent-. It's possible that a large multi ethnic group were called Wends by the Germans. But these are specific Latvian Vends, not the ones in Poland. But it's an interesting overlap.
"Eastern europe" ou how i dislike that
Problem is that people try to look at the past trough modern day ethnic perspective while more than 1000 years ago ethnic nations were non existant
-seems that during that period there was nobility intermarriage in between people from Gothland Oselians and Curonians and they acted as separate force and allies -at least here -in Baltic region
-i don't see a reason why exactly there is such obsession with a word "vikings" -personally i am perfectly fine just by knowing that my ancestors were playing significant role in ancient history of this part of the world -without any labels
-though majority always seems to be looking for simple answers to simple questions