THE DISCOVERY of the BALTIC the NORTHERN WORLD North Europe and the Baltic C
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THE DISCOVERY OF THE BALTIC THE NORTHERN WORLD North Europe and the Baltic c. 400-1700 AD Peoples, Economies and Cultures EDITORS Barbara Crawford (St. Andrews) David Kirby (London) Jon-Vidar Sigurdsson (Oslo) Ingvild Øye (Bergen) Richard W. Unger (Vancouver) Przemyslaw Urbanczyk (Warsaw) VOLUME 15 THE DISCOVERY OF THE BALTIC The Reception of a Catholic World-System in the European North (AD 1075-1225) BY NILS BLOMKVIST BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2005 On the cover: Knight sitting on a horse, chess piece from mid-13th century, found in Kalmar. SHM inv. nr 1304:1838:139. Neg. nr 345:29. Antikvarisk-topografiska arkivet, the National Heritage Board, Stockholm. Brill Academic Publishers has done its best to establish rights to use of the materials printed herein. Should any other party feel that its rights have been infringed we would be glad to take up contact with them. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Blomkvist, Nils. The discovery of the Baltic : the reception of a Catholic world-system in the European north (AD 1075-1225) / by Nils Blomkvist. p. cm. — (The northern world, ISSN 1569-1462 ; v. 15) Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 90-04-14122-7 1. Catholic Church—Baltic Sea Region—History. 2. Church history—Middle Ages, 600-1500. 3. Baltic Sea Region—Church history. I. Title. II. Series. BX1612.B34B56 2004 282’485—dc22 2004054598 ISSN 1569–1462 ISBN 90 04 14122 7 © Copyright 2005 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................ vii List of Illustrations .................................................................... ix PART I THE DISCOVERY APPROACH. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM AND ITS THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Chapter One What is Europe to the Baltic? A Survey of the Main Topic and its Sub-problems ................................ 3 Chapter Two The Catholic World-system. A Theoretical Approach to Europeanization .............................................. 35 PART II FACING THE OTHER. A HEURISTIC APPROACH TO DISCOVERIES Chapter Three Cultural Encounters on the Baltic. Contemporary Descriptions of the Experience of Europeanization ...................................................................... 97 Chapter Four Network versus Territorial Control. The Political Dimension of Long 12th Century ‘Change Qualitative’ .............................................................................. 203 PART III THE RECEPTION OF EUROPE. THREE REGIONAL CASE STUDIES Chapter Five The Regional Panorama. A Brief Introduction to Chapters Six-Eight ...................................... 279 vi contents Chapter Six The Discovery of Kalmarsund. The Struggle for the Gateway to the Baltic North .................................. 301 Chapter Seven The Discovery of Gotland. The Compromising Society Strategy and the Emergence of International Law in the Baltic ............................................ 377 Chapter Eight The Discovery of the Lower Daugava. An Anatomy of a Clash ........................................................ 505 PART IV TOWARDS A CONCLUSION. THE QUEST FOR STRATEGIES OF SURVIVAL Chapter Nine The Catholic World-system and the Making of Baltic Rim States. Political and Nationalistic Reactions to the Coming of Europe in Sweden and Livonia .................................................................................... 567 Conclusions and Comments in Retrospect. The Coming of the Catholic World-system and the Baltic Rim Reaction ................................................................................ 679 Abbreviations .............................................................................. 715 Sources and Literature Medieval and Early Modern Texts ...................................... 717 References .............................................................................. 721 Index .......................................................................................... 763 PREFACE The idea of studying the great and seemingly all-embracing processes of change that swept over the Baltic World during the 11th–13th centuries from a discovery perspective emerged in the early 1990s. It was indeed a time of widening horizons. I was involved in making contact with (until then) little-known colleagues from other countries bordering the Sea. In due course these interesting encounters devel- oped into the research project Culture Clash or Compromise (CCC), within which the present study has been finally written. The CCC project was generously financed by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation during the years 1998–2001. In addition, particular aspects of my work on the present book have been subsidised by Sällskapet DBW:s stiftelse, Wilhelmina von Hallwyls Gotlandsfond and Gotland Uni- versity. For all this generous support I express my profound gratitude. To write a book of this size and character is never a one-man-job. My thanks for services rendered and for good advice are due in many directions. All participants in the CCC project have been compelled to comment on it. Some more than others, though: Muntis Auns, Riga; Marika Mägi, Tallinn; Heiki Valk, Tartu; Romas Jarockis, Vilnius, and Detlef Kattinger, Greifswald, must all be specially men- tioned. Sverre Bagge, Bergen; Lars Ersgård, Visby; Lars Hermanson, Uppsala; Ingemar Jansson, Stockholm; Sven Lilja, Södertörn; Robert Sandberg, Södertörn; Enn Tarvel, Tallinn, have all read a preliminary draft; as have Bengt Ankarloo, Lund, and Eva Österberg, Lund, in a strenuous evaluation containing much constructive criticism. More recently Thomas Lindkvist, Gothenburg, read a version that I con- sidered more or less ready, which he however convinced me to arrange in a better order. I have had the advantage of discussing various aspects of the inves- tigation in many scholarly environments: at the five CCC confer- ences in Nida 1999, Greifswald 2000, Lund 2000, Tartu 2001, and Visby 2001; at the conference Scandinavians and Europe 800–1350 at the University of Hull in 1999; in a so-called Ringvorlesung at the University of Kiel in 2000; at the conference Inventing the Pasts in viii preface Leipzig 2000; in the Medieval seminar at Gothenburg University in 2002, and most recently at the International Medieval Conference in Leeds 2002. Specific chapters or problems have been submitted to the sharp eyes of Björn Ambrosiani, Stockholm; Henrik Janson, Gothenburg; John Lind, Copenhagen; Christian Lübke, Greifswald; Mats Roslund, Lund; Ivona Szkoluda, Visby, and Feodor Uspenskij, Moscow. I am also grateful to Hain Rebas, Kiel, for help and generosity in connection with a two-week stay at that venerable university; and to Thomas Lindkvist, for similar courtesy in Gothenburg. Not to mention the local staff at the Gotland Centre for Baltic Studies, par- ticularly Sven-Olof Lindquist, Dan Carlsson, Gustaf Svedjemo, Christina Söderberg, and Therese Lindström, all of whom have rendered ser- vices connected to its improvement. Special thanks go to Mikael Strömstedt of the Gotland University Computer staff, for his calm and professional response on a hot summer day, when I thought that the computer had collapsed, and was about to do the same, myself. Special thanks also to Luella Godman for the revision of my English. Finally of course, all possible gratitude to my family, particularly to my son Torsten for good advice in the field of History of Religion, and to my wife Carin who has participated in all the pains and pleasures of the work, and on top of that taken upon herself the Gargantuan task of producing the lists of sources and references. Nils Blomkvist Visby, February 1st, 2004 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1. The Baltic Rim, drainage system. Fig. 2. The Baltic Rim. Regions and places. Fig. 3. Northern and eastern European areas influenced by Islamic culture, 9th to 10th centuries. Fig. 4. The Catholic World-system ca 1200. Fig. 5. Rune Stones. Fig. 6. The Battle of Brávellir, emergence of tradition. Fig. 7. The mythical Battle of Brávellir, participating heroes, sup- port areas. Fig. 8. The Baltic Rim, 12th century sea routes. Fig. 9. Research areas. Fig. 10. Alliances across the Baltic around 1123/24. Fig. 11. Stemma, The Artlenburg Privilege after Hofmeister. Fig. 12. Stemma, The Artlenburg Privilege. Present interpretation. Fig. 13. The emergence of Visby, after Gun Westholm. Fig. 14. The Old System, nodes and trajectories. Fig. 15. The New System, nodes and trajectories. PART I THE DISCOVERY APPROACH An Introduction to the Problem and its Theoretical Framework CHAPTER ONE WHAT IS EUROPE TO THE BALTIC? A SURVEY OF THE MAIN TOPIC AND ITS SUB-PROBLEMS 1. Discovery as an Aspect of Europeanization On the title of the book Transeuntibus insulas Danorum alter mundus aperitur in Sueoniam vel Nortmanniam, quae sunt duo latissima regna aquilonis et