Everything about Sel totally explained
Saaremaa,
Œselia,
Œsel was an
ancient Estonian
independent eldership. It corresponded to the present territory of
Saare County:
Saaremaa +
Muhumaa.
History
According to archeological finds, the territory of Saaremaa has been inhabited for at least five thousand years. In old Scandinavian sagas, Saaremaa is called
Eysysla which means exactly the same as the name of the island in Estonian:
the district (land) of island. This is the origin of the island's name in German and Swedish,
Ösel, Danish,
Øsel, and in Latin
Osilia. The name
Eysysla appears sometimes together with
Adalsysla, 'the big land', perhaps 'Suuremaa' or 'Suur Maa' in Estonian which refers to mainland Estonia. Sagas talk about numerous skirmishes between islanders and vikings. Saaremaa was the wealthiest eldership of ancient Estonia and the home of notorious
Estonian pirates, sometimes called the Eastern Vikings. The
Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a fleet of sixteen ships and five hundred Œselians ravaging the area that's now southern Sweden, then belonging to Denmark. In 1206, the Danish
Valdemar II the Victorious built a fortress on the island but they found no volunteers to man it. They burned it down themselves and left. In 1227,
Saaremaa was conquered by the
Livonian Order, but remained a hotbed of Estonian resistance. The Order founded the
Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek there. When the Order was defeated by the
Lithuanian army in the
Battle of Saule in 1236, Œselians rebelled. The conflict was ended by a treaty that was signed by the Œselians and the Master of the Order.
The Œselians along with
Curonians were known in the
Old Norse Icelandic Sagas and in
Heimskringla as
Víkingr frá Esthland (in English, Estonian Vikings) . Their sailing vessels were called pirate ships by
Henry of Livonia in his Latin chronicles from the beginning of the 13th century.
Eistland or
Esthland is the historical Germanic language name that refers to the country at the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea in general, and is the origin of the modern national name for Estonia. The mainland of modern Estonia in the
8th century Ynglinga saga was called
Adalsyssla in contrast to
Eysyssel or
Ösyssla that was the name of the island (
Swedish):
Ösel or (
Estonian):
Saaremaa, the home of the Œselians (
Estonian:
Saarlased). In the
11th century Courland and Estland (Estonia) were both denoted separately by
Adam of Bremen .
On the eve of
Northern Crusades, the Œselians were summarized in the
Livonian Rhymed Chronicle thus: "The Œselians, neighbors to the
Kurs (Curonians), are surrounded by the sea and never fear strong armies as their strength is in their ships. In summers when they can travel across the sea they oppress the surrounding lands by raiding both Christians and pagans."
Battles and raids
Saxo Grammaticus describes the Curonians and Estonians as participating in the
Battle of Bråvalla on the side of the
Swedes against the
Danes, who were aided by the
Livonians and the
Wends of
Pomerania. It is notable that
Baltic tribes — for example, the
Letts and
Lithuanians — are not mentioned by Saxo as participating in the fight.
Snorri Sturluson relates in his
Ynglinga saga how the Swedish king
Ingvar (
7th century), the son of
Östen and a great warrior, who was forced to patrol the shores of his kingdom fighting Estonian pirates. The saga speaks of his invasion of Estonia where he fell in a battle against the men of
Estland who had came down with a great army. After the battle, King
Ingvar was buried close to the seashore in Estonia and the Swedes returned home.
According to
Heimskringla sagas, in the year
967 the
Norwegian Queen Astrid escaped with her son
Olaf Tryggvason from her homeland to
Novgorod, where her brother Sigurd held an honoured position at the court of
Prince Vladimir. On their journey, Oeselian Vikings raided the ship, killing some of the crew and taking others into slavery. Six years later, when Sigurd Eirikson traveled to Estonia to collect taxes on behalf of Valdemar, he spotted
Olaf in a market on
Saaremaa and paid for his freedom.
A battle between Oeselian and
Icelandic Vikings off
Saaremaa is described in
Njál's saga as occurring in
972 AD.
About
1008,
Olaf the Holy, later king of
Norway, landed on
Saaremaa. The Osilians, taken by surprise, had at first agreed to pay the demands made by Olaf, but then gathered an army during the negotiations and attacked the Norwegians. Olaf nevertheless won the battle.
Around the year
1030, a
Swedish Viking chief called
Freygeirr may have been killed in a battle on
Saaremaa.
According to the
Novgorod Chronicle,
Varyag Ulf (Uleb) from
Novgorod was crushed by Estonians in a sea battle close to the town of
Lindanise in
1032.
From the
12th century, chroniclers' descriptions of Estonian, Osilians and
Curonian raids along the coasts of
Sweden and
Denmark become more frequent.
The
Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a fleet of sixteen ships and five hundred Osilians ravaging the area that's now southern
Sweden, then belonging to
Denmark. In the XIVth book of
Gesta Danorum,
Saxo Grammaticus describes a battle on
Öland in
1170 in which the Danish king
Valdemar I mobilised his entire fleet to curb the incursions of Couronian and Estonian pirates.
Perhaps the most renowned raid by Estonian pirates occurred in
1187, with the attack on the Swedish town of
Sigtuna by Finnic raiders from
Couronia and
Estonia. Among the casualties of this raid was the Swedish archbishop
Johannes. The city remained occupied for some time, contributing to the decline as a center of commerce in the 13th century in favor of
Uppsala,
Visby,
Kalmar and
Stockholm.
The
Livonian Chronicle describes the Estonians as using two kinds of ships, the
piratica and the
liburna. The former was a warship, the latter mainly a merchant ship. A
piratica could carry approximately 30 men and had a high prow shaped like a dragon or a snakehead as well as a quadrangular sail.
Viking-age treasures from
Estonia mostly contain
silver coins and bars. Compared to its close neighbors,
Saaremaa has the richest finds of Viking treasures after
Gotland in Sweden. This strongly suggests that
Estonia was an important transit country during the Viking era.
Religion and mythology
The superior god of Oeselians as described by
Henry of Livonia was called
Tharapita. According to the legend in the chronicle Tharapita was born on a forested mountain in
Virumaa (Latin:
Vironia), mainland Estonia from where he flew to
Oesel, Saaremaa The name Taarapita has been interpreted as "Thor, help!" (Taara a(v)ita in Estonian) and associated with the Scandinavian god
Thor. The story of Tharapita's or Taara's flight from Vironia to Saaremaa has been associated with a major
meteor disaster estimated to have happened in 660 ± 85
B.C. that formed
Kaali crater in Saaremaa.
Archeology
Estonia constitutes one of the richest territories in the Baltic for hoards from the
11th and the
12th centuries. The earliest coin hoards found in Estonia are Arabic
Dirhams from the
8th century. The largest Viking-Age hoards found in Estonia have been at
Maidla and
Kose. Out of the 1500 coins published in catalogues, 1000 are Anglo-Saxon.
Decline
With the rise of centralized authority along with a bolstering of coastal defense in the areas exposed to Vikings, Viking raids became more risky and less profitable. With the growing presence of Christianity and the rise of kings and a quasi-
feudal system in Scandinavia, these raids ceased entirely. By the 11th century, the Scandinavians are frequently chronicled as overpowering the Vikings from the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, which would eventually lead to German, Danish and Swedish participation in the
Northern crusades and the Scandinavian conquest of Estonia.
The eastern Baltic world would be transformed by military conquest. First the
Livs,
Letts and
Estonians, then the
Prussians and the
Finns underwent defeat, baptism, military occupation and sometimes extermination by German, Danish and Swedish forces.
Conquest of Œselians
In 1206, the Danish army led by king
Valdemar II and
Andreas, the Bishop of Lund landed on Saaremaa and attempted to establish a stronghold without success. In 1216 the
Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the bishop Theodorich joined forces and invaded Saaremaa over the frozen sea. The following spring the Osilians raided the territories in Latvia that were under German rule in return. In 1220, the Swedish army led by king
John I of Sweden and the bishop
Karl of Linköping conquered
Lihula in
Rotalia in Western Estonia. Osellians attacked the Swedish stronghold the same year, conquered it and killed the entire Swedish garrison including the Bishop of Linköping.
In 1222, the Danish king
Valdemar II attempted the second conquest of Saaremaa, this time establishing a stone fortress housing a strong garrison. The Danish stronghold was besieged and surrendered within five days, the Danish garrison returned to
Revel, leaving bishop
Albert of Riga' brother Theodoric and few others behind hostages as pledges for peace. The castle was leveled to the ground by Œselians.
In 1227, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, the town of
Riga and the
Bishop of Riga organized combined attack against Saaremaa. After the surrender of 2 major Oeselian strongholds,
Muhu and
Valjala, the Œselians formally accepted Christianity.
In 1236, after the defeat of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the
Battle of Saule, military action on Saaremaa broke out again.
Œselians accepted
Christianity again by signing treaties with the
Livonian Order's Master Andreas de Velven and and the
Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek in 1241. The next treaty was signed in 1255 by the Master of the Order, Anno Sangerhausenn, and, on behalf of the Œselians, by men called Ylle, Culle, Env, Muntelene, Tappete, Yalde, Melete, and Cake The treaty granted several additional rights to the Osilians. The 1255 treaty included clauses concerning the ownership and inheritance of land, the social system and religious rules.
In 1261, warfare continued as the Œselians had again renounced Christianity and killed all the Germans on the island. A peace treaty was signed after the united forces of the
Livonian Order, the
Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek, the forces of
Danish Estonia including mainland Estonians and Latvians defeated the Osilians by conquering the Kaarma stronghold. Soon thereafter, the
Livonian Order established a stone fort at
Pöide.
On
July 24,
1343, the Œselians killed all the Germans on the island, drowned all the clerics and started to besiege the
Livonian Order's castle at Pöide. After the surrender the Osilians levelled the castle and killed all the defenders. In February 1344, Burchart Dreileben led a campaign over the frozen sea to Saaremaa. The Osilians' stronghold was conquered and their
King Wesse was hanged. In the early spring of 1345, the next campaign of the
Livonian Order took place that ended with a treaty mentioned in the Chronicle of
Hermann von Wartberge and the
Novgorod First Chronicle. Saaremaa remained the vassal of the master of the
Livonian Order, and the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek.
Chronology
Further Information
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