Wends: The Slavic Pirates that the Vikings Feared
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The Vikings have long been recognized as the lords of the early medieval ocean. In their speedy longships they travelled from Britain to Persia, leaving behind burned monasteries and looted settlements. Men and women prayed for God to save them from the wrath of the Northmen, and children were told to behave - lest the Vikings come for them next.
But there was a people, that even the Vikings feared. They came from the southern baltic in similar ships as theirs, but faster, and far more numerous. These fleets were mobile cavalry units, carrying horses and riders, quickly able to make landfall and sweep the countryside. Their raids were swift, deadly, and profitable. The shores of Denmark, Sweden and Norway were littered with corpses, and smoking ruins. Nowhere was safe...from the Wends.
Sources:
Gud vill det- Dick Harrison
The Vikings and the Wends - Francis P. Merchant
Ship and Society - Gunilla Larsson
Heimskringla - Snorri Sturlasson
#history #vikings #pirates
Slavic history is sadly underestimated.
Most people think that Slavs used to hit two rocks against eachother before they were taught how to create civilizations by the all knowing, all good germanics. Western schools will rather teach people about irrevelant indigenous or african tribes that brought nothing to world history other then being annihilated by the white man but they barerly even mention Slavs as a whole. They barerly even mention pre-ww2 Russia.
So true! The dominant language and culture of Europe is Slavic reaching from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea and northward into Russia and Ukraine.
Can anybody list any significant Sorbian/Wendish historical people, or events. It seems like its just a settlement without unique value and I'd like to know more
Yes, mostly because of christian elite hating our no christian past, being simps to christian overlords or hate towards other Slavs because christian overlord said to do it. Franks used christian duke(knez) Borna against knez Ljudevit who defended Croats from Frankish influence. And you can see all the way towarda today german using one slavic group against another.
@@EricV-lq3jq Yes. There was a ruler named "Dervan/Drvan" (Dervanus according to latin sources) and he was the prince of the Sorbs/Serbs somewhere 610-630 AD. His state was part of the slavic realm of "Samo" (probably Samoslav). Dervan is believed to be the ancestor of those Serbs who migrated to the Balkans. The Serbs in the Balkans and the Sorbs in Germany are people of the same tribe. The relation in it´s names has been proven by historians.
The comments in a nutshell:
- Wends were actually German
- Wends were actually Serbs
- Wends were actually Scanian
- Wends were actually Balts
- Wends were actually Poles
- Wends were actually Albanians
- Wends were actually Russians
- Wends were Slavs and Slavs ruled the Baltic and Finland
- Wends were actually Korean(yes someone posted this)
If people don't trust politicized history, etymology of local names, maybe they can trust the science: genetics. The major haplogroup east of Elbe is R1a.
This does make sense considering my ancestry. I’m Swedish,Baltic,Russian German,Irish and “English” (the western Atlantic w*ore island) but studying the history of European migration it all makes sense.
Isn't Wednesday named after the Wends?
@@zipperpillow No it's named after Woden the Anglo-Saxon god the equivalent of Wotan.He had some of the attributes of the Roman god Mercury -hence Mercoledi and Mercredi -Italian and French words for "Wednesday".
@@zipperpillow no but the name Wendy came from it...
Videos like this make me realize just how watered down the educational system really is. We always talk about the Vikings that went West, but never about the ones that went East.
Rurikid dynasty and Varangians were all norse people that went East.
Vikings also went east and even into main land Europe via river systems
@@ivanmatusic5540 The swions mainly...
As a Westerner with obvious Slavic Heritage I sadly wasn't taught much about Eastern Europe. So thanks!
Yeah, Wends are much closer to you than Alexander.
There's only so much you can teach someone in school. It's great that we have such massive amounts of information at our fingertips these days.
Agreed :-)
No one called you watch
That might be because the events of this presentation were in Northern Europe.
I was disappointed to see how little information there is about Wendish history on freely available online sources after first having read about them in Morkinskinna, so it's great to finally see a well-produced summary on CZcams!
I do not rule out that this information is deliberately hidden and destroyed by the political circles of the world.
It was mostly due to lack of writing. More information about Wands, show up only from 10'th century, but under name of the dominat tribe of Polans.
Im pretty sure he is talking about the Jómsvíkinga or Jomsvikings.
@@bobbah676 Jomsvikings were Poles
@@TheRezro Not really, they were Danes. Jomsborg is either made by Harald Bluet thooth or Jarl Palnatoke. Maby ur right, but then the written History is wrong... So i might think ur wrong,
The Kings of Denmark claimed to be "King of the Danes, Goths, Cimbri, Vends" only in 1972 when her Majesty Margrethe II became Queen of Denmark, for some reason Vends were left out. Same happened in Sweden, where they left out the "King of the Vends" part.
Nowadays Wendisch are officially recognized only by Germany, so it makes sense
Capture the area and then change their language.
Germanic world tries to wipe out Slavs from history, it's a long story. There is a reason why Nazi German invasion of Russia was called "Barbarossa Operation", after king of Germany Barbarossa who led several crusades against Polabian Slavs, starting the german "Drang nach osten" policy
Margrethe 1 was more man than many of the kings before and after her, her namesake Margrethe 2 current queen of Denmark are pretty much a insult to the original.
Looser leaders, the bane of the Danes.
They also didn't claim to be 'King of the Vikings' either. So your logic is terminally flawed.
The Slavic heritage (including genetic) in what is now Germany and Austria is enormous and widely unrecognized at the same time. There are even Austrians who prefer to talk about their supposed Celtic roots while sweeping under the rug their obviously Slavic surnames.
That goes both ways tho lol
The whole eastern part of Austria is almost mainly slavic by their genes. Especially Carinthia. So many german words have a slavic root but they are trying to deny these facts. There is even a book called "Slawen Mythos" and the book is all about the alleged non-existent slavic people and how they are originally germanic. Sick.
@@JohnnyWalker1077 as if former Soviet Bloc countries haven't been spending the past 8 decades trying to erase their Germanic ancestors as well or try to deny why Poland's borders look the way they do today lol.
ain't nobody scared of wends foh, stop trying to make it more than it really was. look at all slav countries now aday, bunch of crooks and thieves and corruption
@@dtice69 Yeah, it's easy to be unhistoried when there's an opportunity to denigrate Germans and German history.
Thank you for this video.
I am from Serbia..... love you all. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Spominju Knes,knez kao što mi Hrvati imamo,nigdje Knjaza nema...Spominju "Slavonic" Slavoniju,što Hrvatska ima a Srbija ne.Nadam se da ti ovaj video otvorio oči da vidiš po jeziku čiji je originalniji premda,svi smo slaveni.Ipak,Hrvati su daleko bili rašireniji po europi kao ratnici i plaćenici također.
@@nothingman5645 Wendi su direktno vezani za Srbe/Luzicki Srbi konkretno ako nisi znao ili neces to da prihvatis.
@@goranjovic3174 Nisu samo Srbi bili rašireni tim prostorima,šta ćemo sa gradišćanskim Hrvatima ili brodogradnjom,flotama,koje ste vi to flote u povijesti ikada imali osim čamaca na Dunavu?Aj ne bulazni brate,pogledaj istini u oči.
@@nothingman5645 ne bulaznim ja ništa nego ti pokušavaš nešto provokacijama. Hrvati su došlu iz Bele Hrvatske mi iz Bele Srbije i bili smo susedna bratska plemena i nismo se svadjali kao sada i to do pre 100 godina pa i manje!
@@goranjovic3174 I osim toga,ovo Slavensko pleme je opisivano kao visokog rasta,blondi i riđi ljudi pretežno crvene kose,a sad pogledaj genetiku Hrvata i Srba,90% populacije Hrvata blondi sa svjetlijim tenom,visoki,a Srbi tamnije puti,crne kose i očiju pretežno,sa gustim crnim obrvama,dlakavi...Nadalje,u to vrijeme Srbi nisu doprijeli do Srbije nego su živjeli na krajnjem jugu da bi se nastanili u Raškoj a Hrvati zauzimali područja od Morave do Murja na samom kontaktu sa Europom porazivši Avare i narode koji su tu živjeli.Oko flota i brodogradnje možemo pričati koliko hoćeš jer Hrvati imaju pomorsko i ratno iskustvo ogromno boreći se protiv mlečana ponajviše i ne gubivši bitke na moru.Izgradili prve brze pasare koje su velike mlečanske ratne brodove presretale i rasturale,u Talijanskoj povijesti ti brodovi su opisani kao tihe i brze ubojice protiv kojih se bilo nemoguće boriti.Vještinu gradnje brodova imamo i dandanas : "Viktor Lenac, 3.maj" ali i lopina koje su nam rasturile brodogradnju kao i vaši vaše rudnike,no tragovi povijesti nisu nestali,podmorje ne laže kao ni svi zapisi o bitkama.
This was Amazing! Sending love to all of our Slavic, Estonian and Scandinavian friends from California. My family is Lagegren of Sweden.
We always wondered what happened to all of the gold? My Grandfather would say it was hidden in the caves of the Bosphorus Straight, buried forever.
Thank you for this wonderful look into our past.
Many Blessings of love and friendship 🙏🏻💕
Slavs got destroyed and dominated by germanics and foreigners almost their entire history
Nobody knows for certain who these "Wends" were but the vast majority of the pirates and savages back then had a full germanic skull similar to that of the actor Dolph Lundgren
If the Wends really were Slavic then they weren't much of a threat. That race never have been a threat to the germanic
I have Wendish heritage through my paternal grandmother.. Thank you for this video and history. So little is known about them..
Theres a documented battle that took place in Glasgow, The wends famous female leader known as Big Wendy, a term still used in Glasgow to this day. clashed with a large tribe called the Young team. who where lead off by a great leader called Tanzer, After consuming several Horns of a sacred drink know as buckie they went right ahead. The wends retreated to their boats never to return again, to this day in Glasgow if you run away from a fight you get called a big wendy.
😆
I always wanted to know the origin of my surname Wendhausen. Each year more information is associated with my research. I knew that Wendhausen would be the name of a region in Germany, it would be something like wend's house. A property owned by wend . And now I found out that the Wends were a pirate tribe. It's really exciting to discover that my ancestors were so interesting. Thank you for the vídeo 😊❤
Brother so you came from Slavic tribes ,forget the Germans......
No reason to forget the Germans. Modern Germans are not the same as ancient Germanic people. Many modern Germans descend from the Wends making them German ancestors.
My surname “De Windt” also points to the Wend’s. Interesting.
Your ancestors were thieves, like the gypsies, not something to be proud of
VENDS JEST SRB SRBI.
Wends is German name for Serbs (Sörb) . There's Vendishe museum (Srbsky museum) in Leipzig.
Who wants to know more there is Limess Sörbicus on Charlemange maps from 9th century.
Interestingly, the names for Russia in Finnic languages (Venäjä in Finnish and Venemaa in Estonian) derive from the Wends. The term being a general name for all Slavs would make sense, as this borrowing of "Wend" into Finnic predates the eastern Slavic migrations north and it was borrowed from Germanic speakers centuries before Slavs migrated and established themselves as neighbours to Finnic speakers. Finnic speakers probably acquired the word when conducting trade with Germanic speakers in Scandinavia and northern Germany, where they then came into contact with Slavs or "Wends" and just took the word that the people they were already familiar with used for them. Venäjä is something along the lines of "Wendia" and Venemaa "Wendland".
Sounds about right.
What makes it even more ironic is that the danish word for friend is "ven"
@@bugzyhardrada3168 "Wenn" in German means "if. Blows my mind 🤯
Varnarian is what the Scandinavian raiders were called by some in Europe. Venaja can be mixed old finn/Norse word for people who went to raid into russian areas. Rurik is from this area and probably spoke this language. Check out his DNA on Google.
@@user-wm9mk9ll9v Finnic people never referred to the Norse who came from Sweden and went east as that. We know exactly what they were called because that name still lives on in the names for Sweden in Finnic languages, that being Ruotsi/Rootsi and variations of that. Venäjä/Venemaa probably predate these events by centuries. What Finnic people called the Norse likely had influence on or it was a direct borrowing that turned into "Rus" among the Slavs. I for one subscribe to this idea since Finnic people inhabited the coastal areas of the gulf of Finland directly between the Slavs further inland and the incoming Norse from Sweden. This would have meant that the coastal Finnic people were the ones introducing the Norse to the Slavs further inland, leading to the Slavs knowing the Norse by what Finnic people called them. Actually very similar to the word "Wend" being borrowed to Finnic to mean "Slav".
Rurik was probably descended from a southwestern Finnish noble, who for whatever reason settled in that area of Sweden. Rurik may have been a result of an old marriage alliance for political gains, who knows. The Roslagen and Mälaren valley of Central Sweden did have old and close ties to southwestern Finland and burials in Roslagen point to a southwestern Finnish population there.
There is also the matter of the Kylfings, who were separated as distinct from the Varangians in Byzantine and other sources. Some historians and researches have identified Kylfings with the Finnic Votians, although their identity overall is not confirmed and that is only one theory.
My first playthrough of crusader kings 2 was as the obotrites around 860, and what a first impression that was, fell in love with the game since and the wends still have a special place in my heart.
Obotrits are Bodrici as for real name👍
Interesting description of the Wends temple in Radogoszcz/Retra:
In the country of the Redars there is a triangular town with three gates leading to it, called Radogoszcz, which is surrounded on all sides by a great wilderness, untouched by the natives' hand and revered as sacred. Two gates of this stronghold are open to all entering, the third from the eastern side is the smallest and opens onto a path that leads to the nearby and terrible-looking lake. There is only one temple in the city, intricately built of wood and resting on a foundation of wild beast horns. Its outer walls are decorated with various images of gods and goddesses - as you can see if you look closely - in a strange carved way, while inside there are man-made gods in terrible helmets and armor, each with a name carved on the bottom. The first of them is called Swarożyc and is especially honored by all pagans. There are also banners (stanice), which they do not take anywhere, unless they are needed for a military expedition, and then they are carried by foot warriors.
To guard all this with due diligence the natives appointed separate priests. When they gather here to offer sacrifices to idols or to appease their wrath, priests alone are allowed to sit while others stand. Whispering mysterious words to each other, they tremble in digging the earth in order to examine the essence of doubtful matters by the lots they have cast. At the end of these divination, they cover the lots with green turf and, having driven two spearheads crosswise into the ground, they humbly lead a horse through them, which they regard as the greatest thing and they venerate as sacred. Then, casting lots, by which they had previously examined the matter, they resume the divination by this divine beast, as it were. If both of these omens show the same sign, then these tribes follow it in their operation; if not, they sadly abandon the enterprise altogether. From antiquity, which has been falsified by various erroneous tales, comes the testimony that whenever they are threatened by the grievous annoyances of a long civil war, a great boar emerges from the above-mentioned lake, foam glistening on its white tusks, and delights to roll in a puddle amid terrible tremors in the sight of all. .
As many districts in this country, there are as many temples, and as many images of idols are worshiped by the infidels, but among them, the aforementioned city has priority. When they go to war, they always salute him; when they return safely from it, they honor him with due gifts, and by lots and by horse, as has been said above, they diligently examine what a fitting sacrifice the priests should make to the gods. The silent wrath of the gods is appeased by the sacrifices of men and cattle.
- Thietmar of Merseburg.
Rodogoszczis in Polish is same as Radogost/Radagast.
So, even from this fragment you can see, that slavic peoples used to have alphabet and knew writing.
radgost(dearguest)
bosnian language
all slavs come from bosnia(today's serbia) former rashka
they messed up with that name giving it to the russians ,huge mess they created...
@@PlaviStrumfaj suti
@@goldenbard everyone is a serb(surrounding of being)whereve you live
but for one land to give up its glorious name of rasi to its northern offspring and just to keep the base name serb is an act of huge future confusion and division.
All because of linguistics
Great video, pre-Christian history simply does not get enough attention. Great channel you got going here man just found it!
thanks, hit me up if you want to do a collab
I think it is way more interesting. I love pre Christian history. Although, Serbian Orthodoxy is a bit different from others in a way of pre-Christian castoms still celebratad and incorporated into church. Our first Arch Bishop-Patrijarh Sava (prince Rastko Nemanjic, later canonised as Saint Sava) incorporated lots old Serbian faith and castoms into Christianity. I think othervise we would strongly oposed it.
We even celebrate god Vid (even the church celebrated it) in July and is still one of the biggest Serbian holidays.
Christmas castom celebration in Serbia is also very old pre Christian. We have combine it all into one faith.
Did you know that Berlin true name is Brljin. It means mud, for it is buld in old marsh mudy area. We still use that word for someone who gets mudy or dirty. We say why are so brljav, dirty (mud is dirty) Slav Language is facinating and it hides a lot of history. South Serbs have a dictinary of 11 million words. It very extensive.
The reason Slavs are not liked very much is because we keep strongly to our old ways. Our national costumes, dances, our colours of white, red and blue (but mostly red and white) dancing in circle-kolo is still honoring a son. Our white singing voices, our mitology. We are the bigest related white group of Europe (holding around 50% of Europian land mass) with extensive history that has been supressed by Germans and by Vatican. Our history has been falsified greatly around 16, 17 and 18 century.
@@gbp4998so not really Christian then.
I Love learning.... This info is all new to me. I thought there was none more feared than Vikings, but they were hardened by their neighbors
Foreigners called these people “Wends.” Today Germans call them “Sorbs” or “Lusetian Sorbs.” These people, however know their history and know who they are, they call themselves “Srbi” or “Serbs.” The Wends/Sorbs are Serbians and are the same as their brothers in Serbia.
My guy sorbs are West Slavic, Serbia is South Slavic
they have the same name which implies they were one tribe in the past
@@gamingchamp6728 in that time that diiference is not that radical yet also you should know about white Serbia
@@gamingchamp6728
Don't read polish cardinal Stanislaw Sestrenczevicz Bohuszevicz,
because there, you will find that he himself stated that the Serbs
built their third Kingdom which happens to be Poland proper.
Before being Called (and calling themselves) Slavs,
all of these Peoples/Tribes called themselves Serbs.
Adding or changing any voyel between the 's and the 'rb',
from the original 'SRB' radical,
doesn't change that.
Thank you. My family comes from that Wendish area and it has been the best info I have found. Many thanks.
Good to know some history about the Viking & Slavic people! ❤
Viking is just a job title, it is about Germans.
@@RackerPaS What is about Germans?
@@Rauser142 There is no such thing as a Viking nation, nor is there a nation of bricklayers or carpenters. Scandinavians were Germans in the south. Germanic tribes.
@@RackerPaS Ah you're mentally ill, I see.
@@RackerPaScome on man you know exactly what he meant. By this point people need to shut up about the word Viking in a technical term. Everyone knows when someone says viking it refers to Scandinavian raiders and their culture.
What a hidden gem this channel. Subscribed immediately.
I love the use of Elder Scrolls music in the background! Thanks for highlighting some Slavic history, as it is so rarely covered.
Kommt ins nordöstliche Niedersachsen und ihr seid im Wendland, hier wurde bis ins 16. /17. Jahrhundert Slavisch gesprochen. Der Däne König Waldemar ll und sein Sohn waren bei uns 1223/24 in Dannenberg eingesperrt. Seitdem heißt der Turm Waldemarturm. Mfg aus dem Wendland
Other tribes along the Baltic coast became merchants rather than pirates. Just east of the Wends was Wolin (Volinn), one of the greatest trade centres in Europe in the tenth century. It boasted a large Greek population who came to trade Byzantine goods for furs and amber. Even many Vikings came in their longboats to shop there when they got tired of raiding.
They also came to Wolin for blonde slave women, which were the most expensive things for sale at Wolin, brought there by the newly established Polish Dynasty who traded slaves for arabic silver coins, which they used to hire mercenaries to capture more slaves.
@@zipperpillow Oh yes, all the 10th century slave trade. I guess it only happened at Wolin. Cursed place no doubt.
@@zipperpillow Wolin is also one of the possible locations of the semi-legendary Jomsborg, where Jomsvikings supposedly resided. The fortress was supposedly populated only by warriors and their slaves, the warriors being from all-over around Baltic and North Sea. The coastal Slavic people were in IX to XII century only loosely on and off controlled by German or Polish kings, dukes or margraves, usually as fiefs. The Pomerania was only conquered by Boleslaw Wrymouth in XII century, it was not only pagan then but quite warrior-like and constantly raiding Polish interior thru the rivers using boats.
@@bogdanbaudis4099 You are correct.
@@zipperpillow unfortunatelly for your poor knoelege in Wolin were seling mostly "brave" vikings from raids of slavics pirates on norse terains. Other servants were selling in Cracov and Praga.
Hey man another fantastic and well made video. I’ve been following your videos for a while and just want to say great work. I appreciate the content or more obscure peoples, places, or topics the most. I will share your channel with friends. I have no doubt you’ll have 5 then 10k subscribers very soon. Keep up the great work!
Riga was holly isle, what was major center of Slav paganism. Jomesborg was actually located in neighbor isle Wolin. It is why it was not subjugated, serving as operation base of Jomsviking.
It is a pleasant surprise to see the history of the lands where I live discussed by foreign historians. Western Pomerania / Vorpommern is an extremely interesting region rich in history.
They also called the Sorbs
German proples called serbian peoples - Vends!!
New subscriber, here - very glad to find you & to see that the algorithm has chosen your channel!
Keep up the great work and thank you for preserving history. 👍
As a Serb I can tell the same for Balkan peninsula. Serbs always had Knez (or Knyaz) and Župan as a leader title. Major gods Perun, Triglav, Veles are here present even today in toponyms. Ratibor as a name is used widely. Love for all Slavic brothers and let no German or Latin nation to divide us anymore. They always try to make us fighting each other.
Divide and conquer. Balkan's fate in last 500 years. Especially last 100.
I don't think you guys need any help fighting amongst yourselves 😂
You don't need anyone to divide you in the balkans!!! You guys have caused millions of deaths with you internal affairs and skirmishes..just think of all the people dragged into your shit over the last 2000 years and probably well before that with your great Alexander going round killing everyone in site.... your always going to fight or want to fight even if your not very good at it!! Your like the little drunk guy in the bar that wants to fight everyone even though he can't stand up properly
Looks like you forgot the Ottoman overlords in that list of villains to blame for Balkanization.
best regards from Polish side - hope you are doing well, in our tradition for a while when has Croatians and Serbs on the southern part of modern Poland - but it is very interesting to dig deeper..
This is awesome, I want to learn more. Keep up the great work.
Excellent narration on a little know subject, thanks!
The similarity that the Wends had with their Germanic and Baltic neighbors reminds me of how the Mongols competed against Turkic and Tungusic peoples who also had a similar nomadic cavalry culture.
Similar yes, but the Tungustic people had more of a dragoon-like cavalry(similar to how the Anglo-Saxons or the Norse would ride to the battlefield, dismount, and fight on foot) which is different from the typical horse archer style.
@@Alex.af.Nordheim You're right. It seems like Jurchens fought closer to Normans than to Mongols, even though they were pretty good horsemen.
Based Turkics
@@Alex.af.Nordheim what are you talking about? Literally ALL sources say the Jurchens fought ON horseback as horse archers and heavy lancers.
So cool. Im not Slavic, but my youngest daughter about a quarter slav. I have always found their history fascinating.
“Quarter Slav” lmfao
all slavs come from Serbs
meaning the area where ex yu was, particularly Bosnia and Serbia.The word slav did not exist prior to the 9th century.Ask yourself where that word could come out of
@@PlaviStrumf Only South ones. Word "Slavs" come from Sclaveni (Serbs) who come in contact with Byzantium in the 6'th century. But Sclaveni were only bench of Veneti (Wands) from north, separated by Huns (Hungarians).
@@TheRezro do you know when we as kids in sarajevo would want to go outside
we would say ajde vanka
or vani (which is another term for outside)
so vandi loll.... think of parents that no one wants cuz they are old and out dated,so they try to shun them in to anywhere but here lol
@@PlaviStrumfaren't you guys getting tired of this Serbo-Schizo-Propaganda? Like yeah, Elon Musk is sure from Serbia.
Knew the name but knew little about the Wends, now I know more. Good vlog.
Incredible video. Thanks for the info!
We have few Stargard in Poland one is not far from Szczecin. It is call Stargard Szczecinski. Greetings from Poland.
Stargard is germanized Starogród - old town
@@pz9mo1221 star/ståre or more modern stor/store means "great" in norse and gard in the broader sense a "enclosed occupied area" which could be a city like Miklagard ("Big Place"aka Constantinople) a mythical location like Asgard ("Asir Place") or even your own garden (kinda "Leisure Place" hopefully) in some way.....
That's German land.
@@Occident. Nope- polish, western slavic and polish will remain.
@@Occident. nope, even Berlin was a Slavic settlement, up until the XIV century the Pomeranian rulers had Slavic names. The Slavic culture still survived up to the XVIII century in Pomerania deep in the rural parts. A lot of Slavic history has been changed/re-made in the XIX century while most of Slavic countries were under German rule. This is why most of the modern historiography is still quiet about this stuff.
I like studying history as a hobby, and this is awesome! Keep it up! New subscriber here! 😊❤
H G Wells..1920..Outline of History..
After the Great War..I image Wells looking at the Sky ..
Wondering the Times of Historical Chronicles..
Thankyou for this piece of forgotten wonderful piece of history
Filmen var jättebra. Må Gud vara med dig
Great job on the research - we need to hear more of those Slavic stories because those stories are ours - Slavic folks.. It would be fantastic to have a movies series about exploits of those western Slavs - the Vends.
Even in native Slavic countries people here, thanks to the Anglo centric Big Media™, know more about the chamber buissneses of invidual english royals, while being oblivious to their own history. I don't think anybody I know deeply has even heard about the wendish pirates.
@@vitraxgdanski1305 To be honest it is because lot of discoveries were mad only recently. There is not that many sources prior to 10'th century. Vikings at least have runes.
Very interesting! "Forgotten" peoples like this are always interesting. Same with Baltic history in general. Cheers!
They not forgoten, Germans call all Serbs, Sorbs Wends. Have nothing to do Germans. You have Luzian Serbs/Sorbs (East Germany) and South Serbs (Helm peninsula or what they call Balkan region)
They don't call all Slavic people Wends, they only call Serbs Wends.
@@gbp4998 Sorbs not Serbs. Anyway Wends were conquered and assimilated by Germans. Most notably Saxons, but also powerful tribal union of Polans, who actually may be those Wends mentioned in sources. Though after Christiansation, there was major cultural shift in the region. Sorbs are one of few things what left. Pomeranians actually were on right from what map in the video say. You know, in Pomerania.
@@TheRezro polish are not the Wends
Brilliant video sir. I would love a dedicated video on the Teutonic order with their activities in the Holy land as well as a Video on the Northern Crusades and the Livonian Order, Livonian Brothers of the Sword. Thank you.
god triglav was also in slovenia we named a mountain after him
respect to the Slavs and Danish people from Morocco 🇲🇦🇩🇰🇨🇿🇧🇬🇭🇷🇭🇺🇲🇪🇸🇮🇸🇰🇷🇺🇷🇸🇵🇱
Albanians are not slavs
@@srupidcat4525 they are not, they are short swarthy ppl
Albania? 😂
where is D. Sebastião
@@srupidcat4525that's a montenegrin flag bruh 😭
The movie "The Thirteenth Warrior" combines the Wends with the Beowulf story... the result is bizarre and non-historical, but entertaining.
The film "The Thirteenth Warrior" has nothing to do with Wends.
@@RackerPaS More than the authors of the film and literary works suspect. No Swedes have ever forded the Volga. Today, even according to genetic tracing, we know that the so-called Vikings never expanded to the east, but on the contrary to the west. The myth of the founding of Russia was invented by German historians during the reign of the German Romanovs in the 18th century. Likewise, archaeological finds of historic ships have been uncovered, none of the Scandinavian type. So who did ibn Fadlan see in Bulgaria? Varangians, whose name comes from the Slavic tribe of Vagres.
@@annagaldova2777 No sorry. That is not right.
Great content and presentation. 😊
Great video. It’s such an overlooked topic:)
The finnish and estonian vikings mentioned in end are Oesilians (modern day estonian island of Saaremaa) and Curonians (modern day coastal latvia), Curonians were baltic peoples that spoke non latvian or lithuanian related language while Oesilians were islander estonians. In 2012 the biggest viking ship burial was discovered in Salme( location in Saaremaa) which predated sack of Lindisfarne
You seem to imply that the buried ship belonged to Finnish and/or Estonian Vikings (though I might be wrong about what you imply). But those ships and the dead buried amongst them were Vikings from central Sweden (Mälardalen), suggested by the examination of DNA and teeth.
@@simonfarre4907 yes, the men buried were from central sweden but i indicate that viking age began earlier than sack of lindisfarne and scandinavians interacted with local balts and finns since very long time ago
@@karl5175 The timeline from Lindisfarne to Hastings given for the "Viking Age" in Western Europe, especially when it comes to the British Isles, cannot be applied at all really to the Baltic in general. That time during the 8th century all the way to the 11th and even further with Baltic and Finnic groups partaking in piracy against the Christianized Scandinavians wasn't much different to what had been going on in the Baltic for centuries with raiding and trading both on land and from the sea.
Curlanders language is of Baltic origin. Latvian and Lithuanian are descendants of Baltic tribal languages.
You got some things wrong here bud
Please make more videos about the Wends!
History, gotta luv it. Another great story to pass around the campfire. 👍✌️
Its funny as an Serbian i understand meaning of 3 cities he mentions as Wedish. Stargard - Starigrad = old city ; Liubice (similar to Slovenian Ljubljana) = mistresses, Vologost = the big bull ; Sczecin = dont know the meaning, but we have many smal places that you prounounce them the same as that Sczecin we just write it diferently = Čečin.
Berlin, je bio Brljin, zbog mocvarnog i blatnjavog zemljišta. Mi i danas kažemo, brljav (blato je brljavo zar ne). Pogotovo deca koja se iz-brljaju po licu kada je igraju napolju, ili prljav novija verzija. P zamenjeno za B. Nas jezik otkriva velike tajne i istoriju.
slažem se, ima puno stvari u koje i ja nisam mogao da verujem kad sam krenuo da istrazujem, i slusam tako imenovane teorije, medjutim kad se pojavi puno dokaza koji odpacuju staru teoriju kao masovno preseljavanje slovena u 7 veku onda kreneš opet da razmišljas o tim alternativama koje odjednom postanu zanimljivije
@@salonez91 istina je da su se selili i mesali međusobno. Nije sporno da se jedan deo stanivnistva preselio na Balkan i obrnuto. Istina je da je Slovevski narod uvek imao dodira međusobno. Ne bi nam se tradicije, kultura, folklor jezik, mitologija zadržao do dan danas. A to da su slovenski narodi dosli tamo negde iza Karpata gde su većinom tatari i turski narodi je najobicnija nebuloza. Mi smo većinsko belo stanivnistvo u Evropi, u posedu sa najobimnijom zemljanom površinom Evrope. Latini su svi mešani sa severno afričkim narodima. A i Grci do neke mere.
@@salonez91 evo recimo ja po očevo liniji imam dodira sa Baltikom. Kada sam uradila DNK analizu 95% sam Srpkinja i 5%Baltik. Promena je desila na 11 hromozomu sa oceve strane. Negde je došlo do mešanja sa severnkm Slovenima. Neko je od njih došao na Balkan. Ja verujem da su se Slovenski narodi pomagali u ratovanju protiv Germana i ostalih napadača na Slovenske teritorije.
@@gbp4998 tačno to i ja smatram, kao i mnogi vrlo poznati teoretičari. Slovanski jezik je šta više kao lingua franca za ceo slovanski prostor čak i tih naroda kiji na tom prostoru nisu bili slovani. Dok nije postojala centralna vlast ta plemena su se mešala i ratovala medjusobno a i protiv drugih. Iliri recimo nikako nisu bili homogen narod, već po mom mišljenju različiti narodi uključujući prednike Albanaca, Kelta, Germana i Slovana. Meni je šokantno kako malo pažnje se daje Etruščanima koji su bili prvi veći Rimski protivnik i njihovom sličnošću u narodnoj nošnji i pisanom jezuku koj sumljivo podseća na ćirilicu. Teško je verovati isto da Iliri koji su nosili opanke neverovatno slične našim slovanima, zvali svoje vodje Teta i Bata nemaju absolutno ništa sa slovanima koji "slučajno zive" na tačno istom područkju...itd itd.
Bravo! Wow! Absolutely riveting new information for me. Thank you for the many hours of research, illustration collection and a great delivery! Most Respectfully, Michael Weeks, San Antonio Texas.
Thank you Michael
@@balticempire7244is there any connection between the Wends and the Wendols?🤔
@@balticempire7244Except you put Pomeranians in wrong place. But borders at the time were quite fluid.
Are you a Texas Wend by any chance?
@@sorblife2308 I am, sir.
Great content! 👍
Thank you for this video man! I did not know anything about the Wends lol
Interesting video. Only through genealogy research of my Danish branch (Bornholm) did I encounter the Wends. They were on the fringe of my searching so I haven't looked into their background. Bornholm and the Hammershus fortress were in center of everything going into or leaving the Baltic Sea. Plus being so close to the northern coast of modern day Germany and Poland + Sweden, there was constant contact with land activity.
The Danes/Bornholmers seemed to be fighting with someone, seemed like nonstop from Viking era to 1800s. I know they went east a lot, often in company with forces from Lubeck,Germany. The video has shed some light on why the eastern campaigns were happening. Later Bornholm was incorporated into the Hanseatic League so it was natural to team up with the northern Germans on expeditions.
And if things got boring or too quiet they'd start another fight/war with the Swedes. The Swedes got tired of Bornholm and the Hammershus fortress invading them. So the last time the Swedes got onto Bornholm they wrecked the beautiful fortress, as you see it today. Yes, its quite a wild history and I've only skimmed the surface.
You’re not entirely correct. The fortress, as we see it today, wasn’t made so by Sweden. Not entirely, anyway. Instead it was deconstructed by the Danes themselves, and used to construct many of the buildings on Christiansø.
@@Ludovicus1769 Thanks for the new information. The only story I ever found was the Swedes tore it down the last time they invaded. Guess it had something to do with Swedes getting very tired of raids or invasions coming from Hammershus. I knew my relatives were a bit rowdy and rough.
What you say makes sense, like if the Swedes knocked down so much stone then left, I can see the locals scavenging for building projects.
@@daneaxe6465 Indeed. However the Swedes didn’t actually do a lot of damage, most of the damage was caused by the Danish military by deconstructing it.
Awesome video! Tack så mycket! I am especially interested in listening more about societies in northern europe during the first millenium AD as well as the complex geopolitics betwen them. Please keep doing the fantastic work you are doing!
Thanks for this video. After being force fed Greek, Roman, and some Egyptian mythology and history all through school, it's good to hear there were actually other civilizations with their own religions, mythology, and lore.
Greek, Roman and Nordic mythology is Slavic mythology, they stole it from us because Slavic is originally and the oldest one. Zeus and Thor is Slavic Perun. They only changed the names of gods and places of events. All white European are Slavic origin.
Geez. Go too the library & get a college book loan, its free.
@@redriddler1231 ... Thanks, just wasn't much of an option 50+ years ago in the rural Deep South. 😁
Really hope you do more of the pre and early medieval history
I’m glad you included sources, thanks!
Sounds similar to my ancestors, the Curonians. I hope to see a future video about them from you!
It's good to learn more about the Wends. A few years ago my wife and I visited some of the Wendish church sites and museum in Texas, USA, but I didn't learn this part of their history there. I've ever since been curious to learn more.
I too have heard of Wends, being from Texas. Just never learnt of their origins, going to watch this video and hopefully get some useful knowledge.
I am Texas Wendish on my mother's side. The Texas Wends were probably not related to these seafarers as they came from further inland, along what is today the Czech-German border. 'Wend' was originally a kind of catch-all term for any Slavic speaker living among Germans.
That said, my uncle's recent DNA test showed about 10-12% Scandinavian admixture. (although the 30 Years War is most likely when that came in.)
@@sammygoodnight they are related tho those wends of old just spanned larger territory back then than the todays sorbs do
@@poki580 yeah, that's possible
Wow...my DNA is about 70% nordic and wendish slavic, and ironically my family lives in Texas too. Looked up where these wendish churches are and my family has large plots of land less than 20 miles from some of these wendish churches. I didnt even know this area had wendish settlements at all since the area is so Germanic. Appreciate the knowledge brother
There is a Windisch settlement in East Central Texas.
And their first settlement was called Serbin,
which gives away their ethnonym,
a thing the author of the video keeps omitting.
very interesting stuff not talked about much ! liked subbed
Good morning from western Canada. A buddy sent me a link to your channel yesterday. It hadn't even occured to me how massive my knowledge gap is about northern European history. I'm having a great time learning new things. Thanks much 👍
I live in Italy, NE region called "Veneto". In a book I read many years ago about a little town called "Cologna Veneta" it was written that "Veneti" were a slavic tribe
Wends or Veneti same thing , the Sorbs or Serbs used to be called
Vendi/Srbi founder of city Venedik👍
Veneti where here looong before slavs, and where celto iliric origin as proven by hapogroups but sure, sparta was serbia too
@@lavordavor7738 Thracians, Dardanians, Illyrians, Dacians, Tribals… all name for Serbs/different tribes… The I2a and R1a says it all. Present since Lepenski Vir and Vinča
@@user-sk4bn8ge3u loooooool... so serbs where in balkans 5000 to 7000 years ago??? Loool first europeans wjere serbs, this anonimus just proven it, quickly recite history books, sparta was serbian and 12 apostoles spoke serbian
Superb documentary! Well done my good man!!! 👍👍👍👍
Thank you. I had some idea of the northern crusade but I never knew what preceded it.
Thank you for the very interesting video.
Having recently learned that my family is old Pomeranian, your information was very informative.
In view of the cruel attempts by the Church to convert our ancestors to Christianity, one can see the accuracy of the Apostle Paul's prediction of the corruption that would take place, when he told the elders from Ephesus, "I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves." Acts 20:29,30, Matthew 7:15
My Mom is German but my Dad was windish and i never knew anything about them because he didnt know much himself beeing born before ww2 everyone beeing dead when he was a kid. very intresting thank you
Germans (as a system) have always oppressed the Serbs/Wends,
corrupting their ethnonym into 'SOrben', forbidding their Language and so forth.
Great video filled in a gap in my knowledge about the Wends
I am interested history , from ancient to modern, thank you for this information!
This is so interesting and well done.I think Slavic tribes are so interesting.The Slavs certainly reshaped the maps of the world.On a personal note.I have mostly Western European ethnic dna.I had some Slavic dna too surprisingly.I just don’t understand we Europeans think we are so different when we aren’t.History and even dna says otherwise.
How did the Slavs "reshape" the maps? The maps must have been wrong to begin with. Do you even know how maps work?
@@zipperpillow
Stop being so edgy. You know what he meant.
For one, just look at Russia and how it transformed Central and North Eastern Asia.
Check the maps of old and compare them century by century.
Hold on...Do you even know how maps work?
@@norten76 Cute. Don't tell me how to be. Freedom of speech is a real thing. People draw maps, not cultures. Words matter.
@@011dux Duki. Ha. Real intellectual.
@@zipperpillow Cultures transform those maps, not "people". People simply record what changed.
Words do indeed matter, so get used to precise wording yourself.
I tell you whatever I want. Freedom of speech is indeed a real thing.
One thing you need to credit the Vieleti with was their great pagan rebellion of 983 AD when they sent all the dukes, margraves, priests and bishops running from their lands while taking almost no casualties themselves.
Really interesting and overlooked topic.
Pomerania was on the Polish land, Szczecin, Gdańsk. Wends was a Polish Slavic tribe. The Vikings also lived on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea on the Polish side. The daughter of Mieszko I Świętosław (Sygryda Storrada, born in 968) was the wife of the Viking king, Eric the Victorious (1 son), and her second husband was Sweyn Forkbeard. By him she had 2 sons, Harald (King of Denmark) and Cnut the Great, one invaded England and the other remained on the throne after his father. The language and runic writing of the Vikings/Etruscans is the Slavic language, the so-called runes Polish researcher, archaeologist Tadeusz Wolański 1785-1865 read inscriptions on Etruscan monuments. After writing the book, he received the protection of the tsar - a battalion of the Russian army (Poland was under partition), who did not leave him any step so that he would not die for reading and translating Etruscan inscriptions.
Don’ t forget that the Danes at times also allied up with the Baltic Slavs against for instance the Non Scandinavian rulers of the British Isles.
In the last known Scandinavian attempt to regain control over the English throne in (I think) 1072, after the battle of Hastings and the Norman victory in 1066, there were many Slavic ships with Slavic crews rallied by the Danes that participated in the invasion attempt.
Total bullshit. Sven Estridsson - son of the Danish Jarl Ulf Thorgilsson of Skåne and Estrid Svendsdatter, daughter of Sven Gabelbart - grew up with King Anund Jakob of Sweden. Sven was in the service of King Hardeknut in England and was appointed Jarl over Denmark by King Magnus the Good and followed him in the war against the Wends, where he destroyed the Jomsburg, killing the Obodrite king Ratibor, a Nakonid.
We had an Expression in our Family 👪 👩👧👧 👨👩👧👧 : "Don't be Wendish." Until now, I didn't know what that Meant !
To this day, the Germans call the Lusatian Serbs as Wends
Wends also survived in what today is north eastern Lower Saxony until the 18th century. The area is still called Wendland.
😅čim je na S odma su svi Srbi😂,,nema ti to veze sa srbima.bez ljutnje,ali tako je.okanite se dobrice ćosića.btw ćoso je turskog porijekla😂
Sounds like Lusitania 🇵🇹
@@jorgeeusebio8738 Not this is located on the border of Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, but it is still in Germany, it is a Slavic nation that suffered a lot in history, but managed to preserve its identity, The Germans call them Wendi, while some nations call them Lusatian Serbs after the place of Luzica where they live, and they are also called Sorbi.
They call them Sorbs, it's close to Serbs but i don't think Balkan Serbs ever went that far north-west.
Your videos are always of the highest quality
Thank you for that history (I learned quite a bit).
Fascinating information. Thank you very much for this video! I had never heard of the Wends before.
The Wends did a great job of forcing thier enemys from raiding them, by throwing smart strong adventures to attack. They were more viking then the danes perhaps.
good video, in fact this baltic powers were strong. In the vikings tv serie, the first episode begins with a battle with eastern populations.
Somuch to learn! Thank you.
Take a look in google translator and see how it says “Russia” in Finnish (Venäjä) and Estonian (Venemaa/ Vene) languages. Does anyone still have doubts about who the Wends are? 😂
"Vene-" in "venemaa" and "venelane" are though to be adopted via Germanic (firstly meaning Wends neighboring the Germanic tribes, then Slavs more generally, then Rus', and finally the Russians). Evidences suggest that at least something Germanic (Scandinavian) must have been known by Estonians, inhabiting insular and coastal areas (with at least pockets here and there of actual native Scandinavians: linguistically and culturally).
Bizarrely enough, in Estonian there are words "veli", "vennas", and "vend" - all of which mean "brother".
First of the three is certainly of Uralic origin.
The other two are mixture of "veli" and Germanic "wend"«friend».
"Vennas” mostly means a chap; fellow; dude; ...
Estonian "vend" means brother first, but also widely used in the meaning of the "friend" (there are cognates in Scandinavian languages, but mostly seem to be revolving around the meaning of friend).
There's also medieval usages, like "mõõgavend"«brother of the sword» and "usuvend" (literally: «brother of the belief» - eg: a monk; «fellow believer»), and more modern, like "koolivend"«schoolmate» - so meaning in conclusion more like:
* a member of the faction, guild, order, or etc group from external perspective;
* among the members: comrade; companion; mate; ...
It would be good to see serie about Curonians.
Curonians was like vikings, but raided only Baltic sea.
Gotland feared Curonians, also Curonians raided in Denmark and other places around Baltic sea.
And burnt down the Swedish capital, and were present as mercenaries in almost all of the major Scandinavian battles. Strange how a channel called "the Baltic empire" hasn't done a single video on the actual Balts.
@@kraanz Actual Balts? What is that suppose to mean? The only Baltic people with a proper Baltic empire is Sweden.
@@Bubajumba Swedes are Scandinavian, not Baltic, moron.
Curonians were relatives to Croats
curonian language is same as finnish, the oldest recordings and written language can be understood 100% it is the same. Quite sad these things are not speaken openly.
great video, thanks
GREAT & INTERESTING VIDEO, THANK YOU! AM INTERESTED IN HISTORY, & AM A SERB ON MY MATERNAL SIDE WITH AUSTRIAN RUSSIAN MIXED IN AS WELL. LOVED HEARING MY ANCESTORS HISTORY, A STRONG PROUD PEOPLE!
Venetia still have Schiavone street (Slavic), king of Vandals have slavic name Gelimir.
Gelimir is Not a slavic name. „Gelimer was the sixth and last king of the Vandal regnum of North Africa from 530 to 534. He was the son of Geilarith, grandson of Gento and great-grandson of King Genseric.“
@@RackerPaS wtf?! mir not mer is a slavic prefix, back to school. we have coins with mir not mer...
@@virtualnimuzejsrbije In fact, you really need to go to school again. Hahaha, every idiot knows that there must have been an Indo-European proto-language. E.g. Waldemar/ Wladimir even means the same thing.
the fact is that vandals are Germans and you can tell by the names of the kings. Only Poles lie there and all other Europeans know it.
@@virtualnimuzejsrbijeVandals is a germanic tribe and his Name is Gelimer. There is no Gelimir. Go to school and learn something too.
@@RackerPaS i'm archaeologist, PhD, did u know origin of Vandals? How Germans called Slavs?
We are Slavs, we are The Glorious ones!
Anglo-Saxon instead, had the largest empire that ever existed.
Not sure if they were related to Wends, but my one paternal great great grandpa was from the Soca/Bovec area of Slovenia. He came to the US at 19. His last name was Komatz ( Komac)
Stellar presentation
I know I'm two weeks late in requesting this, but I cast my vote for an episode regarding the Teutonic Knights. My Mom's family is Transylvanian Saxon, and the books I read say there is a connection between the two groups.
Nachzehrer would have been routinely hunted by the Teutonic Knights, yes. Glad your mom managed to escape though.
Yes. Portion of Tautones wander there there. But majority come from Prussia, what basically was founded by them.
Interesting. Before this all i knew about the Wends were a passing reference in Beowulf, and the fact that the Wends, aka Sorbs, were an officially recognized minority in the Communist German Democratic Republic (1949-1989).
Congrats very good video
The Wends.... sounds very much like the Jomsvikings or Jómsvíkinga , an elite fighting force for hire ?
The king of Sweden's official titles used to be: King of the realms of Svea (roughly the old kingdom that was part of Sweden north our great lakes up to Dalarna), Göta (the part of Sweden south of the lakes down to Skåne/Scania) and Vendes (that was Pomerania and Slesvig-Holstein-Gottorp, the parts east and west of Denmark that used to be part of Sweden at the height of the Swedish dominance), but the present king doesn't use them anymore like his grandfather before him, probably not to offend. You probably see the connection here between Wends and Vendes.
Why not his father you ask; well the parents of the present king of Sweden perished in an aircraft accident before his father could ascend to the throne when the present king was just a child, so the throne passed directly from his grandfather to Carl XVI Gustav.
Great video. Thank you!!
Please make more videos on the Wends.
Did their descendants become the Poles?
No, Poles and Wends (or Polabian/Elbian Slavs, as we call them) are different types of western slavs. Wends were mostly germanised by force, and whatever was left got exterminated by the nazis. There is a handful of Sorbs who survived in Germany (total of 50k or something) to this day. And that's it.
How Sorbs call themselves?Serby,Serbja - Serbs.Half of Serb people moved to Balkans,half stayed.
I never knew the Wends were into piracy. I remember a long time ago I read somewhere that in medieval Germany a guild had rejected a man from joining, because his mother was a Wend.
excellent video