Rani (Slavic tribe)
Encyclopedia
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...
tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
based on the island of Rugia (Rügen) and the southwestern mainland across the Strelasund
Strelasund
The Strelasund is a sound of the Baltic Sea which separates Rügen from the German mainland. It is crossed by a road and rail bridge called the Rügendamm in Stralsund. It runs in a roughly northwest-to-southeast direction from a small shallow bay just north of Stralsund called the Kubitzer Bodden...
in what is today northeastern Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
The Rani tribe emerged after the Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
settlement of the region in the 9th century
Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages
The southward movement of Germanic tribes during the migration period had left Pomerania largely depopulated by the 7th century. Between 650 and 850 AD, West Slavic tribes settled in Pomerania. The tribes between the Oder and the Vistula were collectively known as Pomeranians, and those west of the...
, ranging among the most powerful of several small Slav tribes dwelling between the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
and lower Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
rivers before the 13th century. They were one of the last to cling to their Slavic paganism, with the influence of their religious center at Arkona
Cape Arkona
Cape Arkona is a cape on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Cape Arkona is the tip of the Wittow peninsula, just a few kilometres north of the Jasmund National Park....
reaching far beyond the tribal borders.
In 1168, the Rani were defeated by the Danish Empire
Canute the Great
Cnut the Great , also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F...
, resulting in the conversion of the region
Conversion of Pomerania
Medieval Pomerania was converted from Slavic paganism to Christianity by Otto von Bamberg in 1124 and 1128 , and in 1168 by Absalon .Earlier attempts, undertaken since the 10th century, failed or were short-lived...
to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. In the course of the 13th century in Pomerania
Pomerania during the High Middle Ages
Pomerania during the High Middle Ages covers the History of Pomerania in the 12th and 13th centuries.The early 12th century Obodrite, Polish, Saxon, and Danish conquests resulted in vassalage and Christianization of the formerly pagan and independent Pomeranian tribes...
, the tribe was assimilated by German and Danish settlers during the Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung
Ostsiedlung , also called German eastward expansion, was the medieval eastward migration and settlement of Germans from modern day western and central Germany into less-populated regions and countries of eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The affected area roughly stretched from Slovenia...
, resulting in a gradual Germanisation
Germanisation
Germanisation is both the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, and the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet...
of the Rani. The Principality of Rugia
Principality of Rugia
The Principality of Rugia or Principality of Rügen was a Danish principality consisting of the island of Rügen and the adjacent mainland from 1168 until 1325. It was governed by a local dynasty of princes of the Wizlawiden dynasty...
remained Danish until 1325.
Settlement
In the late migration periodMigration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, the areas settled before by Germanic tribes
Early history of Pomerania
After the glaciers of the Ice Age in the Early Stone Age withdrew from Pomerania, in what are now northern Germany and Poland, they left a tundra. First humans appeared, hunting reindeer in the summer. A climate change in 8000 BC allowed hunters and foragers of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture to...
were found to be settled with Slavs. In the case of Rugia and the adjacent mainland, where the Rugii were recorded before the migration period, Slavs first appeared in the 9th century. In the case of Rugia, continuous settlement from the pre-Slavic to the Slavic era is suggested based on pollen
Pollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
analyses and name transitions, so a Rugian remnant seems to have been assimilated. The tribal name of the former inhabitants, the Rugii, might be the root of both the medieval name of Rugia and the tribal name of the Slavic R(uj)ani, though this theory is not generally accepted.
Religion
Cape Arkona
Cape Arkona is a cape on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Cape Arkona is the tip of the Wittow peninsula, just a few kilometres north of the Jasmund National Park....
in the northernmost part of his isle of Wittow
Wittow
Wittow is the northernmost peninsula of the island of Rügen. Wittow was a separate isle until the High Middle Ages, since then it is connected to the Jasmund peninsula of Rügen by the Schaabe spit. Wittow is most famous for Cape Arkona hosting the remnants of a former Rani temple burgh....
. This temple was worshipped and collected tributes not only from the Rani, but from all Baltic Wends
Wends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...
after Rethra, which was the main Wendish religious centre before, had been destroyed in a German raid in 1068/9.
Other gods were Tjarnaglofi with his temple on Jasmund
Jasmund
Jasmund is a peninsula of the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is connected to the Wittow peninsula and to the Muttland main section of Rügen by the narrow land bridges Schaabe and Schmale Heide, respectively. Sassnitz, Sagard and the Mukran international ferry terminal are on...
near today's Sagard
Sagard
Sagard is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.-External links:*...
, further there were Rugievit, Porevit
Porewit
Porewit is the West Slavic deity in Wendish mythology revered in the town of Charenza on Rugia.Porewit was the second of the three gods, revered in Charenza, along with Rugiewit and Porenut. A wooden idol of the Porewit stood in the temple, which was dedicated to him. Porewit was depicted with...
and Porenut
Porenut
Porenut was one of the Slavic deities worshipped by the Rani in the ancient town of Charenza on Rugia. In a wooden temple a wooden statue of four-faced Porenut was held . Other deities worshipped in Charenza include Porewit and Rugiewit....
with temples in the capitol, Charenza, and other gods with temples all over the Rani realm.
After the forced Christianization
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
, monasteries and churches replaced the temples. In the church of Altenkirchen
Altenkirchen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Altenkirchen is a municipality in the north of the island of Rügen on the Baltic Sea coast of Germany. It is in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern....
, a large stone from Arkona was used with a relief showing a Svantevit priest.
Administration and culture
Medieval chronicler Helmold of Bosau described the Rani as the only WendishWends
Wends is a historic name for West Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas. It does not refer to a homogeneous people, but to various peoples, tribes or groups depending on where and when it is used...
tribe ruled by a king, and describes them as subduing many others while not tolerating subordinance themselves. Common decisions of the Wendish tribes were only made with the approval by the Rani. The mightiest position however was held by the High Priest called Drvovid, who stood above the king. The oracle decided if and where campaigns were mounted, and after a victory the monetary and noble metal part of the loot was given to the temple before the rest was partitioned. Subdued tribes were made subordinate to the temple.
The Rani political capital was Charenza
Charenza
Charenza, also Karentia or Karenz, later also Gharense, was a medieval burgh on the island of Rügen. It was the administrative center of the Rani tribe and of the Principality of Rugia. Today, the remnants are called Venzer Burgwall....
(then Korenitza, today an unsettled site called Venzer Burgwall). Rani dukes also resided at Rugard castle, a precursor of the modern city of Bergen
Bergen auf Rügen
Bergen auf Rügen is the capital of the former district of Rügen in the middle of the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Since 1 January 2005, Bergen has moreover been the administrative seat of the Amt of Bergen auf Rügen, which with a population of over 23,000 is...
. Throughout the Rani lands there were castles (burghs), all having a ring-like wall of wood and clay, protecting villages and/or religious sites, and functioned as strategic strongholds or seats of the gentry.
The Rani also established a main, mixed Slavic and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n trading center in Ralswiek
Ralswiek
Ralswiek is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.-External links:*...
. In the 11th and 12th centuries, they also raided their neighbors in a Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
manner.
Language
The Rani spoke a PolabianPolabian language
The Polabian language is an extinct West Slavic language that was spoken by the Polabian Slavs in present-day North-Eastern Germany around the Elbe river, from which derives its name...
tongue, which belonged to the Lechitic
Lechitic languages
The Lechitic languages include three languages spoken in Central Europe, mainly in Poland, and historically also in the eastern and northern parts of modern Germany. This language group is a branch of the larger West Slavic language family...
group of the West Slavic
West Slavic
West Slavic can refer to:* West Slavic languages* West Slavic peoples...
languages. In the course of the 12th to 15th centuries, it was replaced by Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
as politics and ethnic structure had changed
Pomerania during the High Middle Ages
Pomerania during the High Middle Ages covers the History of Pomerania in the 12th and 13th centuries.The early 12th century Obodrite, Polish, Saxon, and Danish conquests resulted in vassalage and Christianization of the formerly pagan and independent Pomeranian tribes...
due to the Ostsiedlung. The Rani language became extinct, when the last Rujani-speaking woman died on the Jasmund peninsula in 1404.
History
In 955, Rani participated in the Battle of RecknitzBattle of Recknitz
The Battle of Recknitz river]]") was fought on 16 October 955 between the forces of Otto I of Germany allied with the Rani tribe on one side, and the Obotrite federation under Nako and his brother Stoinegin with their allied and tributary Slav neighbours on the other in the region of present-day...
, assisting German Otto I in defeating the Obotrites
Obotrites
The Obotrites , also commonly known as the Obodrites, Abotrites, or Abodrites, were a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes within the territory of modern Mecklenburg and Holstein in northern Germany . For decades they were allies of Charlemagne in his wars against Germanic Saxons and Slavic...
at the Recknitz
Recknitz
The Recknitz is a river in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in northeastern Germany. The Recknitz's glacial valley stretches as far south as the heights at Glasewitz near Güstrow. The river has no definite source, but rather builds up from streams and drainage ditches...
(Raxa) River.
As the Obodrite state expanded in the late 11th century, the Rani were also pressed and in 1093 had to pay tribute to Obodrite prince Henry
Henry (Obotrite prince)
Henry was an Obotrite prince or king from the Nakonid dynasty; he was regarded by contemporaries as "King of the Slavs"...
. They launched a naval expedition in 1100, in the course of which they sieged Liubice
Liubice
Liubice, also known by the German name Alt-Lübeck , was a medieval West Slavic settlement near the site of modern Lübeck, Germany. Liubice was located at the confluence of the Schwartau with the Trave across from Teerhof Island, approximately four kilometres north of Lübeck's island old town...
, a predecessor of modern Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
and then the major Obodrite stronghold. This attack was however repulsed. In 1123, the Rani struck again and killed Henry
Henry (Obotrite prince)
Henry was an Obotrite prince or king from the Nakonid dynasty; he was regarded by contemporaries as "King of the Slavs"...
's son Waldemar. When in 1123/24 an Obodrite army led by Henry
Henry (Obotrite prince)
Henry was an Obotrite prince or king from the Nakonid dynasty; he was regarded by contemporaries as "King of the Slavs"...
reached the Rani territory, the Svantevit priests were forced to negotiate a peace. Henry's army consisted of 2,000–6,000 men, devastated the coastal settlements, and the terms of the subsequent agreement were that the island would only be spared in return for an immense sum which had to be collected from the continental Slavs further east. Regrouping after Henry's death (1127), the Rani again assaulted and this time destroyed Liubice in 1128. At this time they seem to have been devoted pagans, with their priests holding theocratic powers.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith—yet returned to their pagan beliefs as the Danish headed back.
A force of Rani attacked the Danish fleet during the 1147 Wendish Crusade
Wendish Crusade
The Wendish Crusade was an 1147 campaign, one of the Northern Crusades and also a part of the Second Crusade, led primarily by the Kingdom of Germany inside the Holy Roman Empire and directed against the Polabian Slavs ....
. Saxon
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...
armies repeatedly managed to raid Rugia.
The Danes, who had assaulted the Rani already in 1136 and 1160, finally conquered the Rani stronghold of Arkona
Cape Arkona
Cape Arkona is a cape on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Cape Arkona is the tip of the Wittow peninsula, just a few kilometres north of the Jasmund National Park....
in 1168, forced the Slavs to become vassals of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and to convert to Christianity. The wooden statues of their gods were burned and monasteries and churches were built throughout the Rani lands.
The former Rani realm henceforth became the Danish Principality of Rugia
Principality of Rugia
The Principality of Rugia or Principality of Rügen was a Danish principality consisting of the island of Rügen and the adjacent mainland from 1168 until 1325. It was governed by a local dynasty of princes of the Wizlawiden dynasty...
.
List of rulers
Reported names of Rani tribal leaders ("kings" or "princes") were:- c.955 Wizlaw
- c.1066 KrutoKrutoKruto , son of Grin or Grinus, was a prince of Wagria. James Westfall Thompson believed his family belonged to the Rani of Rugia....
(Krito) - c.1100 Grines (Grimmus)
- c.1138 Ratislaus (Ratislaw, Ratze)
- 1164 Tezlaw (became Danish Prince of RugiaPrincipality of RugiaThe Principality of Rugia or Principality of Rügen was a Danish principality consisting of the island of Rügen and the adjacent mainland from 1168 until 1325. It was governed by a local dynasty of princes of the Wizlawiden dynasty...
in 1168)