Mstivoj was an Obodrite prince (princeps Winulorum) from 965 or 967 until his death. He inherited his position along with his brother Mstidrag from their father Nako in an unknown year.

Name

Mstiwoj is an old Slavic name

Slavic name

Given names originating from the Slavic languages are most popular in Slavic countries such as Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and others.-History of Slavic names:...

 popular among West Slavs

West Slavs

The West Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking West Slavic languages. They include Poles , Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatian Sorbs and the historical Polabians. The northern or Lechitic group includes, along with Polish, the extinct Polabian and Pomeranian languages...

 and East Slavs

East Slavs

The East Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.-Sources:...

, cognate with the Slavic word for vengeance (pol. mścić, cz.mstít or rus.mstit) and "woj" or "wój" means "warrior". Thus the name has meaning "Avenger of warriors" or "Avenger warrior". Another forms of the name are: Mistivir, Mistiuis, Mistui, Mistuwoi, Mistiwoi, Mystiwoi, Mistivoj, Mstivoj and Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 Mściwój

Msciwój

Mściwój or Mściwoj is a very old Polish given name of Slavic origin, consists of two elements: mści "vengeance" and woj, derived from: wojna , wojownik or wuj . A related name is: Mścisław...

. The christian name of Mstivoj was Billung - baptised after his probable godfather Hermann Billung.

Biography

In 983, the brothers were leaders of the great Slavic revolt, which German historiography labels the Slawenaufstand, which followed news of the Emperor Otto II's defeat at the Battle of Stilo

Battle of Stilo

The Battle of Stilo or Cape Colonna was fought on 13 or 14 July 982 near Crotone in Calabria between the forces of the Emperor Otto II and his Italo-Lombard allies and those of the Kalbid emir of Sicily, Abu al-Qasim...

. He raided far to the west and even destroyed the relatively new city of Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 that year. There are two accounts of his life and his reasons for abandoning Christianity.

According to Adam of Bremen

Adam of Bremen

Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...

:

A Slavic prince named Billung married the beautiful sister of Bishop Wago of Starigard and had with her a daughter Hodica and a son Mstislaw, whom he, taking advantage of his jealousy of the Saxons

Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...

, goaded into hatred of Christianity and his mother until, having so offended his wife, he began to connive against Christianity and the bishops.

According to Helmold

Helmold

Helmold of Bosau was a Saxon historian of the 12th century and a priest at Bosau near Plön. He was a friend of the two bishops of Oldenburg in Holstein, Vicelinus and Gerold , who did much to Christianize the Polabian Slavs.Helmold was born near Goslar...

:

Duke Herman Billung [actually Duke Bernard I

Bernard I, Duke of Saxony

Bernard I was the duke of Saxony , the second of the Billung dynasty, a son of Duke Herman and Oda. He extended his father's power considerably....

] promised a niece of his to Mstivoj [or Mstivoj requested] if he accompanied him on campaign to Italy. That Mstivoj did and upon returning reminded him of the promise. Then Dietrich of Haldensleben

Dietrich of Haldensleben

Dietrich of Haldensleben was the first margrave of the Northern March from 965 until his deposition in 983...

 proclaimed that "the high-born niece of a great prince may not be given to a dog," whereupon Mstivoj, recruiting the Liutizi to aid him, devastated Nordalbingia

Nordalbingia

Nordalbingia was one of the four administrative regions of the medieval Duchy of Saxony, the others being Angria, Eastphalia, and Westphalia....

 with fire and sword.

Helmold also justifies the Slavic rebellion repeatedly by citing the excessive greed of the Saxons.

Mstivoj's daughter of Tore (or Tofa), Tove of the Obotrites

Tove of the Obotrites

Princess Tove of the Obotrites, also called Tova, Tofa or Thora, was a Slavic princess and a Danish Viking Age queen consort, the spouse of King Harald I of Denmark....

, married Harald Bluetooth and raised the Sønder Vissing Runestone

Sønder Vissing Runestone

Sønder Vissing I or DR 55 is a runestone located in the church of Sønder Vissing in eastern Jutland, Denmark. Sønder Vissing is a small settlement located in Horsens municipality approximately 20 km south of Silkeborg, 20 km west of Skanderborg and 40 km northeast of the Viking monuments of...

 in memory of her mother. He also had two sons, Mstislaw and Udo, the former being confused often with his similarly named father and the latter succeeding his brother in a divided Wendish-Obodrite leadership.

Source

• Jacobsen, Lis. "Kong Haralds og Kong Gorms Jellingmonumenter." Scandia, IV. Lund, 1931. p. 264.