STUDIES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
EDITORIAL BOARD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF YORK
Elizabeth M. Tyler (University ofYork)
Julian D. Richards (University ofYork)
Ross Balzaretti (University ofNottingham)
VOLUME 12
BORDERS, BARRIERS, AND
ETHNOGENESIS
Frontiers in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Edited by
Florin Curta
@
BREPOLS
34 JOACHIM HENNING
developments, while of fundamental significance, do not seem to have had a direct
influence on the decision-making process leading to the construction ofstrongholds.
The circular ringforts emerged as a Central European phenomenon of the early
Middle Ages, first tested against Viking raids into coastal areas (Netherlands and
Frisia),29
then against Slavic and Magyar attacks across the Elbe. This type of
stronghold was later adopted by Vikings (e.g. the so-called Trelleborg forts in Denmark30)
and Slavs. By the late 800s, the geographic distribution of circular strongholds
had reached the river Oder. Shortly before or after 900, it crossed the Vistula.
From the point of view of fortification methods, the eastern frontiers first of the
Carolingian and later of the Ottonian Empire were much more areas of cultural
equalizing, compensation, and exchange than a shield of civilization against
barbarians.31
29
For the Netherlands, see R. Van Heeringen, P. A. Hendrikx, and A. Mars, VroegeMiddeleeuwse
ringwalburgen in Zeeland (Amersfoort, 1995). For Holstein, see Dirk Laggin,
'Die Stellerburg in Ditmarschen', Hammaburg, 9 (1989), 191-98. For Brittany, see JeanPierre
Nicolardot, 'Elements de datation du champ de Peran, Pledran (C6tes-du-Nord)', in
Bretagne, pays de Loire, Touraine, Poitou al'epoque merovingienne: Actes de la vf Journee
Nationale de !'Association Fram;aise d'Archeologie Merovingienne, Rennes, Juin 1984
(Paris, 1988), pp. 73-77.
30 Else Roesdahl, 'Dendrochronology and the Viking Studies in Denmark, with a Note on
the Beginning of the Viking Age', in Developments around the Baltic Sea in the Viking Age:
The Twelfth Viking Congress, ed. by Bjiim Ambrosiani and Helen Clarke (Stockholm, 1994),
pp. 106-16.
31 I wish to express my gratitude to Angela Ehrlich (Frankfurt am Main) for the computergraphics
drawing ofFigures 2 and 3.
The Limes Saxoniae
as Part of the Eastern Borderlands
of the Frankish and Ottonian-Salian Empire
MATTHIAS HARDT
F
ollowing the so-called Migration period and the first mention of the Slavs in
East Central Europe, a new frontier region developed, which divided Europe
into a Germanic and Romance West, on the one hand, and a Slavic and
nomadic East, on the other. While in Antiquity the contrast had been between a
civilized South on Mediterranean shores and a barbarian North beyond the rivers
Rhine and Danube, the early medieval division of the European continent into a
western Frankish-Saxon and an eastern Slavic area followed a line running from the
Bay of Kiel in the North to the Bay of Trieste in the South. People speaking
Germanic and Slavic languages intermingled in several settlement areas along this
invisible line: between the Baltic Sea and the Elbe River (the focus of this essay);
west of the Elbe in the regions of Lower Saxony and Sachsen-Anhalt known as the
Hannoversches Wendland and the Altmark;1in the region to the south from Magdeburg;
in Thuringia, west of the Saale River (Fig. 1); along the Upper Main River and
west of the Regnitz River in Upper Franconia, as well as in the Bohmerwald, the
mountain range separating Bavaria from Bohemia; in Upper and Lower Austria; in
the Drava valley, as well as in the mountains ofAustrian Carinthia and Slovenia.
The frontier emerged in several phases. Initially, there seems to have been large
forested areas, swamps, and marshlands separating Saxons, Thuringians, Bavarians,
1
Matthias Hardt, 'Das Hannoversche Wendland- eine Grenzregion im fiiilien und hohen
Mittelalter', in Beitrage zur Archaologie und Geschichte Nordostniedersachsens: Berndt
Wachter zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. by Wolfgang Jfuries (Ltichow, 1991), pp. 155-67; Matthias
Hardt and Hans K. Schulze, 'Altmark und Wendland als deutsch-slawische Kontaktzone', in
Wendland und Altmark in historischer und sprachwissenscha.ftlicher Sicht, ed. by Roderich
Schmidt (Ltineburg, 1992), pp. 1-44.
36
Slavic peoples and marches between
the Elbe, Saale and Oder Rivers during the tenth century
1:3000000
0 50 100 150
s o R B EN area of slavic groups
A place of slavic castle
t archbishop's see
~ bishop's see
MATTIIIAS HARDT
l:Jeornholm
0 s S E E
southern boundary of polabic place
and field name occurence
northern boundary of sorbian place
and field name occurence
western boundary of accumulated
slavic place name occurence
Kartographie; G. Pflpay
Figure 1. Slavic peoples and marches between the Elbe, Saale, and Oder Rivers
during the tenth century. Source: Otto der Groj3e, Magdeburg und Europa, ed. by
Matthias Puhle (Mainz, 2001), p. 66.
The Limes Saxoniae as Part ofthe Eastern Borderlands 37
and Lombards from the Slavic groups to the east. Following the integration of the
former into the Frankish kingdom, especially after the Saxon wars of 772-8052
and
Charlemagne's coronation as a Roman Emperor, a true frontier organization came
into being in apparently close imitation of the Roman frontiers of Late Antiquity
along the Rhine and the Danube.3
While the Diedenhofen capitulary of 805 mentions
a few places in the eastern borderlands of Saxony, Thuringia, and Bavaria, which
served for the control oftrade, especially with weapons, with the neighbouring Slavs
and Avars,4
in 806 Charlemagne for the first time ordered the building of forts on the
banks of the rivers Elbe and Saale.5
For a short while during the early 800s, the
Empire was thus protected on the eastern border by a series of forts built along the
main rivers, with at least two bridgeheads at Magdeburg, on the Elbe, and at Halle,
on the Saale River.6
The archaeological evidence suggests that the system remained
in existence in the northern districts only during the life of Charlemagne and,
possibly, the reign of his successor, Louis the Pious. By 850, for example, the
Hohbeck fort in the Hannoversches Wendland, located across the Elbe from Lenzen,
the tribal centre ofthe Slavic Linones, had been completely abandoned.7
The picture began to change shortly after Charlemagne's intervention in the
region north of the Elbe River. First, the Emperor transferred in 804 the entire area
between the Elbe and the Eider rivers to the Slavic tribe of the Obodrites, who had
2
Lothar Dralle, 'Wilzen, Sachsen und Franken urn das Jahr 800', in Aspekte der Nationenbildung
im Mittelalter, ed. by Helmut Beumann and Wemer SchrOder (Sigmaringen, 1978),
pp. 205-28.
3
Matthias Hardt, 'Hesse, Elbe, Saa1e and the Frontiers of the Carolingian Empire', in The
Transformation ofFrontiers: From Late Antiquity to the Carolingians, ed. by Waiter Pohl, Ian
Wood, and Helmut Reimitz (Leiden, 2001), pp. 224--32; and 'Prignitz und Hannoversches
Wendland: Das Fiirstentum der slawischen Linonen irn fiiihen und hohen Mittelalter', in I m
Dienste der historischen Landeskunde: Beitrage zu Archaologie, Mittelalterforschung,
Namenkunde und Museumsarbeit vornehmlich in Sachsen. Festgabe for Gerhard Billig zum
75. Geburtstag, dargebracht von Schiilern und Kollegen, ed. by Rainer Aurig, Reinhardt Butz,
Ingolf GriiBler, and Andre Thieme (Beucha, 2002), pp. 96-98.
4
Capitulary of Diedenhofen, in MGH Legum If, Capitularia regum Francorum I, ed. by
Alfred Boretius (Hannover, 1883), p. 123.
5
Royal Frankish Annals, ed. by Friedrich Kurze (Hannover, 1895; repr., 1950), MGH SS
rer. Germ. 6:120.
6
Chronicle ofMoissac a. 806, ed. Georg H. Pertz (Hannover, 1826), MGH SS 1:308. See
also Matthias Hardt, 'Linien und Siiume, Zonen und Riiume and der Ostgrenze des Reiches im
fiiihen und hohen Mittelalter', in Grenze und Differenz im friihen Mittelalter, ed. by Waiter
Pohl and Helmut Reimitz (Vienna, 2000), pp. 42-45.
7
The fort is mentioned for the last time in the Royal Frankish Annals a. 811, MGH SS rer.
Germ. 6:134. For the archaeology ofHohbeck, see Bemdt Wachter, 'Das Hi:ihbeck-Kastell bei
Vietze', in Hannoversches Wend/and, ed. by Bemdt Wachter (Stuttgart, 1986), pp. 202-03.
See also Hardt, 'Das Hannoversche Wendland', pp. 156-57.
38 MATTHIAS HARDT
been loyal allies of the Franks during the Saxon wars.
8
He also moved Saxon inhabitants
of that area into the heartland of his Empire.9
But these aggressive policies produced
no long-term peace in the region. Five years later, the Emperor made the decision
to build a fort at Esesfeld, in response to Danish raids from across the Elbe.
10
In
810, he summoned the King of the Obodrites in Verden, on the Aller River, to
discuss the terms of the old alliance.11
It is possible that an important item of the
agenda was the status of the frontier separating the Saxon from the Slavic lands.
12
If
so, whatever agreement was eventually reached, it must have been short-lived. The
frontier was under attack in 817, during the anti-Frankish rebellion of Sclaomir,
'king of the Obodrites', who allied himself with the sons of the Danish king
Gottrik.13
Sclaomir was captured two years later by the 'prefects' of the limes
Saxonicus and by the Emperor's legati who led a quick military intervention in the
region north of the river Elbe. He was consequently brought to Aachen.
14
Nothing
else is known about either the 'prefects' or their place of residence, but a few years
later the Royal Frankish Annals report the fortification of yet another site called Delbende.15
The exact location of that site in the region north of the Elbe River is still a
8 Raimund Ernst, Die Nordwestslaven und dasfriinkische Reich (Berlin, 1976), pp. 154-74.
9
Royal Frankish Annals a. 804, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:118.
10
Royal Frankish Annals a. 809, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:129. For the topography and the
strategic location of Esesfeld, see Herbert Jankuhn, Die Friihgeschichte: Vom Anfang der
Volkerwanderungszeit his zum Ende der Wikingerzeit (Neumiinster, 1957), pp. 73, 137, and
144. For Charlemagne's policies against the northern neighbours of the Empire, see Jankuhn,
Die Friihgeschichte, pp. 141--42 and 145--46; and 'Karl der GroBe und der Norden', in Karl
der Groj3e: Lehenswerk und Nachlehen, vol. I, ed. by Helmut Beumann (Diisseldorf, 1965),
pp. 699-707.
11 Annals ofSt Amandus a. 810, ed. by Georg H. Pertz (Hannover, 1826), MGH SS 1:14.
12 For the negotiations in Verden, see Arno Jenkis, 'Die Eingliederung "Nordalbingiens" in
das Frankenreich', Zeitschrift der Gesellschqft for schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte, 79
(1955), 81-104; Wolfgang Prange, Siedlungsgeschichte des Landes Lauenhurg im Mittelalter
(Neumiinster, 1960), p. 162; Jankuhn, Die Friihgeschichte, p. 141; Elisabeth Noli, 'Der Limes
Saxoniae und seine Burgwallanlagen aus archaologischer Sicht', in Krieg und Frieden im
Herzogtum Lauenhurg und in seinen Nachharterritorien vom Mittelalter his zum Ende des
Kalten Krieges, ed. by Eckardt Opitz (Bochum, 2000), p. 16. According to Karl Kersten,
Vorgeschichte des Kreises Herzogtum Lauenhurg (Neumiinster, 1951), p. 117, the beginnings
of the limes Saxoniae may be dated to the years between 815 and 817.
13 Bernhard Friedmann, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des ahodritischen Fiirstentums his
zum Ende des 10. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1986), p. 65.
14
Royal Frankish Annals a. 819, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:149, English translation by Bernhard
Waiter Scholz and Barbara Rogers (Ann Arbor, 1970), p. 105. See also Jankuhn, Die
Friihgeschichte, pp. 137 and 141--42.
15
Royal Frankish Annals a. 822, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:158. See Jankuhn, Die Friihgeschichte,
p. 142.
The Limes Saxoniae as Part ofthe Eastern Borderlands 39
matter of dispute,
16
but it seems likely that the fort was built not far from the region
in which the limes Saxonicus would reportedly emerge two hundred years later.
However, according to the eleventh-century chronicle of Adam of Bremen, the
beginnings of the limes Saxonicus go back to the ninth-century construction of the
fortified frontier along the Elbe and Saale rivers. Adam claims to have seen a charter
of Charlemagne giving a description ofthe limes:
We have found a description of the Saxon frontier (limes Saxonicus) on the other side
of the Elbe River, as designed by Charlemagne and other emperors. It ran as follows.
From the eastern banks of the river it went to the little river called Mescenreiza by the
Slavs. At its upper course, the limes turns away from that river and runs through the
Delvenau forest to the Delvenau River. From there it proceeds to the Hornbek Mill
River and to the springs of the Bille River. From there it goes on to the stone of
Ludwine, to some marked birch trees and to the river Barnitz. From there it turns to the
river Swamp- or Southern-Beste and reaches up to the Trave forest, then through that
forest upward to the Blunkerbach lowlands. Then the limes proceeds to the woods at
the fields' rim and then in direct way upward to the ford through the rivulet at the field
rims. At that place Burwido has won a single combat against a Slavonic fighter who
was then killed by him. There was a commemorative stone set in that place for the
event. From that rivulet, the limes goes down to the Colse Lake, from there to the
eastern Schwentinefeld and to the Schwentine River. Along that river the frontier goes
on to the Scythian Gulf and into the Baltic Sea.17
16
Hermann Hofmeister, 'Limes Saxoniae', Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft for schleswigholsteinische
Geschichte, 56 (1927), 126-28; Kersten, Vorgeschichte, pp. 117-19; Jankuhn,
Die Friihgeschichte, pp. 143--44. See also Karl-Wilhelm Struve, 'Der Raum zwischen Elbe
und Trave in slawischer Zeit', in Kreis Herzogtum Lauenhurg, ed. by Fritz Rudolf Averdieck,
vol. I (Stuttgart, 1983), pp. 118-19; Torsten Kempke, 'Bemerkungen zur Delvenau-Stecknitz
Route im friihen Mittelalter', in Archiiologischer Befund und historische Deutung: Festschrift
fiir Wolfgang Hiihener, ed. by Hartwig Liidtke (Neumiinster, 1989), p. 183; Torsten Kempke,
'Archaologische Beitrage zur Grenze zwischen Sachsen und Slawen im 8.- 9. Jahrhundert',
in Studien zur Archiiologie des Ostseeraumes: Van der Eisenzeit zum Mittelalter. Festschrift
fiir Michael Miiller-Wille, ed. by Anke Wesse (Neumiinster, 1998), p. 376; Noli, 'Der Limes
Saxoniae', pp. 17-20 and 32; Arne Schmid-Hecklau, Slawenzeitliche Funde im Kreis
Herzogtum Lauenhurg (Neumiinster, 2002), pp. 197-200.
17
Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammahurgensis ecclesiae pontificium II 18, ed. by Bernhard
Schmeidler (Hannover, 1917), pp. 73-74: 'Invenimus quoque limitem Saxoniae, quae trans
Albiam est, prescriptum a Karolo et imperatoribus ceteris, ita se continentem, hoc est: Ab
Albiae ripa orientali usque ad rivulum, quem Sclavi Mescenreiza vocant. A quo sursum limes
currit per silvam Delvunder usque in fluvium Delvundam. Sicque pervenit in Horchenbici et
Bilenispring. Inde ad Liudwinestein et Wispircon et Birznig progreditur. Tunc in Horbistenon
vadit usque in Travena silvam, sursumque per ipsam in Bulilunkin. Mox in Agrimeshou, et
recto ad vadum, qui dicitur Agrimeswidil, ascendit. Ubi et Burwido fecit duellum contra campionem
Sclavorum, interfecitque eum; et lapis in eodem loco positus est in memoriam. Ab
eadem igitur aqua sursum procurrens terminus in stagnum Colse vadit, sicque ad orientalem
40 MATTHIAS HARDT
The description of the limes makes it clear that Adam must have taken it from
some royal charter, possibly one accompanying a donation or the foundation of a
bishopric.18
From the 1700s onward, Adam's description has been taken literally as
the basis for the reconstruction of a fortified frontier north of the Elbe River. Apart
from a few details, scholars have long agreed on the precise location of the place
names mentioned in the text (Fig. 2).19
Today, it seems clear that the charter Adam
saw contained a description of a border, with a number of names of rivers, woods,
and landmarks. River names served to structure visually the landscape as a borderland.
After the Elbe/0
the most important river mentioned in the charter is Mescenreiza,
whose Slavic name may be translated as the 'land between two rivers'?
1
That
land must have been next to the mouth of another river flowing into the Elbe that is
mentioned in the charter, the Delvenau.22
'Horchenbici' may be translated as the
campum venit Zuentifeld, usque in ipsum flumen Zuentinam. Per quem limes Saxoniae usque
in pelagus Scythicum et mare, quod vocant orientale, delabitur.' My English translation ofthe
text follows closely the German translation by Wemer Trillmich, Quellen des 9. und 11.
Jahrhunderts zur Geschichte der Hamburgischen Kirche und des Reiches (Darmstadt, 1961),
pp. 247 and 249.
18
Hofineister, 'Limes Saxoniae', p. 96.
19
For the reconstruction of the limes Saxoniae, see Walter Lammers, 'Germanen und
Slawen inNordalbingien', Zeitschrift der Gesellschaftfor schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte,
79 (1955), 17-80 with map A; Franz Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen" und das
Problem des Limes Saxoniae', Bliitterfor deutsche Landesgeschichte, 88 (1951), reprint in his
Beitriige zur Siedlungsgeschichte und historischen Landeskunde: Mecklenburg-PommernNiedersachsen,
ed. by Roderich Schmidt (Cologne, 1970), p. 263 pl. 84. See also Hofmeister,
'Limes Saxoniae', pp. 96-115 and 137-50; Carl Matthiessen, 'Der Limes Saxoniae', Zeitschrift
der Gesellschaft for schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte, 68 (1940), 43-57; Kersten,
Vorgeschichte, pp. 115-16; Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen'", pp. 257-69; Jankuhn,
Die Friihgeschichte, pp. 137-40; Prange, Siedlungsgeschichte, pp. 156-61; Helmrich
Ostertun, 'Der Limes Saxoniae zwischen Trave und Schwentine', Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft
for schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte, 92 (1967), 9-37; Struve, 'Der Raum zwischen Elbe
und Trave', pp. 116-17; Wemer Budesheim, 'Der "limes Saxoniae" nach der QueUe Adams
von Bremen, insbesondere in seinem stidlichen Abschnitt', in Zur slawischen Besiedlung
zwischen Elbe und Oder, ed. by Wemer Budesheim (Neumtinster, 1994), pp. 28-43; Ulrich
March, 'Die Wehrverfassung der Grafschaft Holstein', Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir
schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte, 96 (1971), 15-18; Schmid-Hecklau, Slawenzeitliche
Funde, pp. 115, 117-20, 169-74 with map 19, 370 with map 24, and 375; Hardt, 'Linien und
Saume', pp. 46-51; Michael Schmauder, 'Uberlegungen zur ostlichen Grenze des karolingischen
Reiches', in Grenze undDifferenz, ed. by Pohl and Reimitz, pp. 58-62.
20
Antje Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen des Kreises Herzogtum Lauenburg und der Stadt Liibeck
(Neumtinster, 1990), pp. 387-89.
21
Hofineister, 'Limes Saxoniae', pp. 97-98; Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, p. 407.
22
Hofmeister, 'Limes Saxoniae', pp. 98-99; Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, pp. 384-85.
The Limes Saxoniae as Part ofthe Eastern Borderlands 41
ORIENTAL I;)
Figure 2. The limes Saxoniae.
After Lammers, 'Germanen in Nordalbingien', map A.
42 MATTHIAS HARDT
Hombek Mill River, which is a tributary of the Stecknitz River.
23
The 'Bilenispring'
is obviously the source of the River Bille.24
'Liudwinestein' and 'Wispircon' may be
interpreted as landmarks. The former was a stone set by or called after a person
named Liudwin,25
while 'Wispircon'26
refers to a group of birch trees marked by
special signs, perhaps crosses, in order to mark a border. Birznig is most likely the
Bamitz River,27
a tributary of the Beste, mentioned as 'Horbistenon' in the charter.28
The Trave forest took its name from the river Trave,29
which flows by Lubeck.
'Bulilunkin' may refer to the lowlands of the Blunkerbach near Blunk,30
north of
what later became the city of Bad Segeberg. According to Wemer Trillmich,
'Agrimeshou' and 'Agrimeswidil' were the Old Saxon names31
of an area along a
little river now called Tensfelder Au.32
More interesting is Adam's mention of a
certain Burwido and of the duel which he had won against a Slavic warrior, perhaps
over a border dispute. The stone commemorating that victory was certainly set to
mark a frontier. Nothing else is known about this case and its participants, but it is
not unlikely that the stone had an inscription, perhaps in runes, that mentioned the
name Burwido. Lake Colse has a Slavic name, whose meaning suggests that it
should be identified with the Stocksee33
south of Lake Pl6n, near the modem city of
Pli:in. The Zuentifeld is evidently named after the river Zuentina (Schwentine),34
which flows into the Baltic Sea. Adam's rendition of Charlemagne's charter is thus a
detailed description of the frontier between Saxons and Obodrites from the Elbe near
Lauenburg to the Baltic Sea at the Bay ofKiel.
However, merely identifying the sites that Adam learned about from the Carolingian
charter does not take into consideration the nature of the frontier region
separating Slavs from Saxons during the early Middle Ages. Rivulets, lakes, stones,
23
Hofmeister, 'Limes Saxoniae', p. 99; Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, pp. 151-52 and 398.
24
Hofmeister, 'Limes Saxoniae', p. 99; Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, pp. 381-82.
25
Hofmeister, 'Limes Saxoniae', p. 99.
26
Herrmann Hofineister 'Wispircon im Limes Saxoniae (Sachsengrenze)', Zeitschrift der
Gesellschaftfiir schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte, 62 (1934), 311-19.
27
Hofineister, 'Limes Saxoniae', p. 100; Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, pp. 378-79.
28
Hofineister, 'Limes Saxoniae', pp. 100-01; Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, pp. 380-81.
29
Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, pp. 427-29.
30
Hofineister, 'Limes Saxoniae', pp. 101-02 and 113.
31
Trillmich, Quellen, p. 249.
32
Hofmeister, 'Limes Saxoniae', pp. 102 and 113-14.
33
Hofineister, 'Limes Saxoniae', p. 103; Antje Schmitz, Die Orts- und Gewassernamen
des Kreises Plan (Neumiinster, 1986), p. 217.
34
Hofineister, 'Limes Saxoniae', pp. 103-05; H. E. Hoff, 'Das Sventinefeld und der Limes
Saxoniae', Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft for schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte, 63 (1935),
357-68; Schmitz, Die Orts- und Gewassernamen, pp. 242-44.
The Limes Saxoniae as Part ofthe Eastern Borderlands 43
or specially marked trees were important for the description of settlement and property
borders, and there is plenty of evidence for concerns with such landmarks in
Carolingian and Ottonian charters.35
Carolingian land surveying was in many ways a
continuation of late antique agrimensural practices, but such practices had little, if
any, application in the borderlands north of the Elbe River. The limes Saxoniae is
mentioned as late as 1062 in a charter drawn for the Saxon duke Ordulf (Otto) to
whom Emperor Henry IV planned to give the Ratzeburg castle. In the charter, Henry
refers to the limes as distinct from his donation: 'castellum Razesburg [...] in proprium
dedimus atque tradidimus salvo per omnia et intacto Saxonie limite'.36
The
wording of this document makes it clear that the limes was not a borderline as
reconstructed with minute detail on the basis of Adam of Bremen's description.
Moreover, that it was to be distinguished clearly from Henry's concession of the
Ratzeburg castle suggests that the limes Saxoniae was not a line, but an area, namely
a frontier district on which the Emperor intended to maintain his direct control and
authority, regardless ofwho owned in fact the castle.
Fortifications on the limes Saxoniae have long been the object of archaeological
research.37
Such forts as Niitschauer Schanze on the Trave River or Sirksfelder
Wallberg have been commonly viewed in relation to the frontier, the latter even as a
Slavic stronghold designed to secure the Obodritic borderlands.38
But as is often the
35
Reinhard Bauer, 'Friihmittelalterliche Grenzbeschreibungen als Quelle fur die Namenforschung',
in Friihmittelalterliche Grenzbeschreibung und Namenforschung, ed. by Friedhelm
Debus (Heidelberg, 1992), pp. 35-60. See also Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen"',
pp. 260-62; Matthiessen, 'Der Limes Saxoniae', pp. 41-42; Karl Riibel, Die Franken, ihr
Eroberungs- und Siedlungssystem im deutschen Volkslande (Bielefeld, 1904), pp. 102-04.
36
Die Urkunden Heinrichs IV., 1056-1076, ed. by Dietrich von Gladiss (Hannover, 1941),
no. 87, also published with German translation in Karl Jordan, 'Ratzeburg im politischen
Kraftespiel in Nordelbingien', in Ratzeburg- 900 Jahre, 1062-1962, ed. by Kurt Langenheim
and Wilhelm Prillwitz (Ratzeburg, 1962), pp. 34-35. See Erwin ABmann, 'Salvo Saxoniae
limite: Ein Beitrag zum Problem des Limes Saxoniae', Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft for
schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte, 77 (1953), 195-99; El)ge1, 'Die mitte1alterlichen "Mannhagen"',
pp. 270-71; Jordan, 'Ratzeburg im politischen Kraftespiel', pp. 25-28.
37
Carl Schuchhardt, 'Ausgrabungen am Limes Saxoniae', Zeitschrift des Vereins fiir
Liibeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, 15 (1913), 1-26; Hofmeister, 'Limes Saxoniae',
pp. 115-37; Kersten, Vorgeschichte, pp. 117-22; Jankuhn, Die Friihgeschichte, pp. 140 and
142-44; Prange, Siedlungsgeschichte, p. 163; Ostertun, 'Der Limes Saxoniae', pp. 31-33;
Karl-Wilhehn Struve, 'Archaologische Ergebnisse =Frage der Burgenorganisation bei den
Sachsen und Slawen in Holstein', Blatter fiir deutsche Landesgeschichte, 106 (1970), 48;
Schmauder, 'Uberlegungen zur ostlichen Grenze', pp. 60-61; Noli, 'Der Limes Saxoniae', pp.
25-34; Schmid-Hecklau, Slawenzeitliche Funde, pp. 21-26, 30-31, 117-20, 158, and 172-73.
38
Hofmeister, 'Limes Saxoniae', pp. 122-23 and 127; Kersten, Vorgeschichte, pp. 112-14,
117, and 121; Jankuhn, Die Friihgeschichte, pp. 142-44; and 'Die Ni.itschauer Schanze',
Zeitschrift der Gesellschaftfor schleswig-holsteinische Geschichte, 79 (1955), 257-66; Waiter
44 MATTHIAS HARDT
case in the contact regions between Germanic and Slavic populations, there is very
little information about power or administrative structures that can be gleaned from
the analysis of archaeological material, especially pottery.39
It remains unclear who
exactly had control over these forts at any given time. The Slavic settlement area
extended over the limes along the Delvenau River, up to the Bille River,40
but it is
not known whether that expansion pre- or post-dates the first description ofthe limes
Saxoniae. The ninth- to twelfth-century history ofthe settlement pattern in the region
between the Elbe River and the Baltic Sea is one of continuous change,41
and it is not
altogether impossible that the border stones mentioned by Adam of Bremen had
been erected in commemoration ofviolent conflicts between Saxons and Slavs.42
A number of place names in the region described by Adam allow a somewhat
more detailed insight into the nature of the limes Saxoniae. Franz Engel has already
pointed to the significance ofthe Mannhagen place names to be found not only north
of the Elbe River, but all over north-eastern Germany, especially in Mecklenburg
and Pomerania (Fig. 3).43
According to Engel, the limits of the Slavic settlementareas
were protected by man-made barriers planted in neighbouring woods. At a height
of about 2 m from the ground, all trees were cut off and tree-tops turned into hedges
and palisades that, added to already existing thorny bushes, made the area
impenetrable. Passage through the barrier was permitted only at specific points.44
Such barriers are referred to in medieval sources as indagines,45
and a variety of
place names of Slavic origin seem to support Engel's interpretation. Indeed, such
Lammers, Das Hochmittelalter bis zur Schlacht von BornhOved (Neumtinster, 1981), p. 145;
Noll, 'Der Limes Saxoniae', p. 32; Schmid-Hecklau, Slawenzeitliche Funde, p. 118.
39
Noll, 'Der Limes Saxoniae', pp. 20~25 and 28.
40
Schmid-Hecklau, Slawenzeitliche Funde, pp. 119 and 167.
41
Lammers, Das Hochmittelalter, pp. 144-50; Prange, Siedlungsgeschichte, pp. 162-{)3
and 348-49; Jordan, 'Ratzeburg im politischen Kraftespiel', pp. 27~28.
42
Erich Hoffmann, 'Beitrage = Geschichte der Obodriten = Zeit der Nakoniden', in
Zwischen Christianisierung und Europiiisierung: Beitriige zur Geschichte Osteuropas in Mittelalter
undfriiher Neuzeit. Festschriftfiir Peter Nitsche zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. by Eckhard
Htibner, Ekkehard Klug, and Jan Kusber (Stuttgart, 1998), pp. 22~25.
43
Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen'", and 'Mannhagen als Landesgrenzen im
nordostdeutschen Kolonisationsgebiet', Baltische Studien, 44 (1957), 27-48.
44
Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen"', pp. 250-53; and 'Grenzwalder und
slawische Burgwardbezirke in Nordmecklenburg: Uber die Methoden ihrer Rekonstruktion',
in Siedlung und Verfassung der Slawen zwischen Elbe, Saale und Oder, ed. by Herbert Ludat
(GieBen, 1960), pp. 125-40. See also Matthias Hardt, 'Odland und Odmark', in Reallexikon
der germanischen Altertumskunde, ed. by Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, and Heiko Steuer,
vol. XXI (Berlin, 2002), p. 582. For the distribution of forested lands in the region of the limes
Saxoniae, see Prange, Siedlungsgeschichte, pp. 348-49; Schmid-Hecklau, Slawenzeitliche
Funde, pp. 126~29, 147-49, 151~53, and 158.
45
Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen"', pp. 242-43.
The Limes Saxoniae as Part ofthe Eastern Borderlands
tuncin
H~ilttnon
Volfit
tf 8innlg
pl"#fiiWII~VP
t
tf WirplrtMIII
inl/111/
l.ilulwintsftin
Ill
t
r/liltflispt'lllf
t
:ltl{ll#pttvt6itln Horrlltnbici
t
II£9U'in f!mi.lm Ptlvvnlf•m
t
usvuul/rlvulum, fiutm Jrl•ri
t
MtJt•nrria ro~1nt
1 a • 10 Km
0 Placon~meo;endingin"-h"lle""
••••• LineofthelimesMterHofmeister
40 Albtudemn.rke=(inmete"')
Figure 3. Limes Saxoniae according to Adam ofBremen's description.
After Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen"', p. 263, fig. 84.
45
46 MATTHIAS HARDT
toponyms as Ossek, Presieka, or Zasek may refer to clearings of the particular kind
described above. Given their distribution within the network ofroads and passageways
in the region, it seems probable that such place names indicate the checkpoints where
traffic and trade were monitored and regulated.46
One Mannhagen place name47
is
located west of the Slavic stronghold at Hammerburg48
that controlled traffic on the
early medieval road linking Hamburg the successor of the Esesfeld fort49
- to
Ratzeburg, the major centre of the Polabian Slavs.50
The same road51
running across
the western region of the limes could have been controlled from the Sirksfelder
Wallberg stronghold.52
The place name 'Witzeeze' north of modern Lauenburg may
also be interpreted as an indication of an earlier element ofthe limes Saxoniae.53
Elsewhere in East Central Europe, but especially in Bohemia and Silesia,54
barriers
were in existence in places still called Presieka. More than written sources,
interdisciplinary historical and onomastic research has greatly contributed to the understanding
of the Saxon-Slavic relations in other regions than that north of the Elbe
River. Jan Lesny demonstrated that a borderland of a similar nature existed in the
46
Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen'", p. 249; Aurelia Dickers and Matthias Hardt,
'Deutsch-Ossig im Tal der Lausitzer NeiBe: Bemerkungen zu den Ausgrabungen in einer
Dorfkirche stidlich von Giirlitz', Arbeits- und Forschungsberichte zur siichsischen Bodendenkmalpjlege,
40 (1998), 191 and 197.
47
Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen"', p. 257; Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, p. 223.
48
Hammerburg is on the Stecknitz River and may have been easily accessed by boat. The
site has been dated to the early ninth century by means of a cross-shaped belt mount of the
Blatnica type. It is therefore possible that Hammerburg served as a port of trade in the
immediate vicinity of the limes Saxoniae. See Kersten, Vorgeschichte, pp. 122-23, 127, 129-
30, and 248; Kempke, 'Bemerkungen zur Delvenau-Stecknitz Route', pp. 178-82; Noll, 'Der
Limes Saxoniae', pp. 30-31; Schmid-Hecklau, Slawenzeitliche Funde, pp. 118, 139, 145, 173,
229-38 with map 28, 379 with map 34, and 385.
49
Jankuhn, Die Friihgeschichte, pp. 144-46.
50
Jordan, 'Ratzeburg im politischen Kraftespiel', pp. 144-46.
51
Prange, Siedlungsgeschichte, pp. 51-52, expressed doubts as to the medieval age of the
road.
52
See note 38 above. Prange, Siedlungsgeschichte, pp. 52 and 163, was unsure about the
association between the Sirksfelder Wallberg stronghold and the road between Hamburg and
Ratzeburg.
53
Schmitz, Die Ortsnamen, p. 319.
54
Winfried Schich, 'Die "Grenze" im iistlichen Mitteleuropa im hohen Mittelalter',
Siedlungsforschung: Archiiologie-Geschichte-Geographie, 9 (1991), 135-46; Waiter Kuhn,
'Der Liiwenberger Hag und die Besiedlung der schlesischen Grenzwalder', Schlesien, 8
(1963), 5-20; Hans-Joachim Karp, Grenzen in Ostmitteleuropa wiihrend des Mittelalters: Ein
Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Grenzlinie aus dem Grenzsaum (Cologne, 1972), pp.
72-81; Hardt, 'Linien und Saume', p. 53.
The Limes Saxoniae as Part ofthe Eastern Borderlands 47
Drawehn Hills (Fig. 4),55
the west of a Polabian Slavic region -later to be known
as the Hannoversches Wendland- adjacent to the Saxon lands around Liineburg,
the headquarters of Herrrnan Billung, the powerful Ottonian margrave in charge of
the north-eastern borderlands. Just south of the point where Adam of Bremen places
the southern end of the limes Saxoniae, Lesny's study revealed the existence of a
string ofplace names of Slavic origin pointing to the existence of a forest barrier.
Similar conclusions could be drawn on the basis of the archaeological evidence
from the Machnower Krummes Fenn settlement excavated in the 1970s by Adriaan
von Muller. The dendrochronological analysis of wooden remains in the central
Brandenburg region ofTeltow (to the south-west from Berlin) showed a fortification
date of c. 1200 (Fig. 5). At that time, the place was a checkpoint of a passageway
through a densely forested area separating the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg
from the Wettinian duchy of MeiJ3en, both engaged in aggressive territorial expansion.
When the Wettinians were eventually expelled, the region was subject to a
process of melioratio terrae, one result of which was the transformation of the old
checkpoint into a small village. The village was abandoned some decades later, and
its inhabitants seem to have moved a few kilometres away, to Zehlendorf, at the
invitation of the Cistercian monks of Lehnin. The name of the village founded on the
checkpoint site is unknown, but it is quite possible that its name was Mannhagen,
Ossek, Zasek, or the like. As elsewhere, the collective memory could have preserved
the original function of the checkpoint on the passageway through the woods.56
This
was certainly the case of many villages that appeared in the limes area and in the
Drawehn Hills south of the river Elbe. Following the implementation in the second
half of the twelfth century of territorial power on both sides of the former frontier,
the vast forested lands considerably shrank due to systematic clearing efforts, as
local Saxons and Slavs, together with incoming Western immigrants, began turning
the limes Saxoniae borderlands into a predominantly agrarian landscape.57
By the
late 1200s, following the integration into the Empire of the Slavic principalities in
Eastern and Central Germany, the lands on the eastern frontier of the Ottonian and
Salian Empire had totally lost their function of frontier regions.5
8
They were replaced
55
Jan Lesny, 'Domniemane przedluzenie limesu saskiego w zachodnim Wendlandzie', in
Slowianszczyzna polabska mi~dzy niemcami a polska, ed. by Jerzy Strzelczyk (Poznat't, 1981),
pp. 245-54; Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen'", pp. 274-78.
56
Willy Bastian, 'Neue Forschungen zur slawischen Befestigung', in Probleme des friihen
Mittelalters in archiiologischer und historischer Sicht, ed. by H. A. Knorr (Berlin, 1966), pp.
141-54.
57
Engel, 'Die mittelalterlichen "Mannhagen"', p. 271; Prange, Siedlungsgeschichte, pp.
353-54; Schmid-Hecldau, Slawenzeitliche Funde, p. 134.
58
Hardt, 'Linien und Saume', pp. 54-56; Engel, 'Grenzwalder und slawische Burgward-
bezirke'.
48 MATTHIAS HARDT
Figure 4. Place names and frontier north and south of the Elbe River: 1. 'Mannhagen'
place names; 2. place names in '-hagen'; 3. place names in '-hege' (after Franz
Engel, with additions); 4. 'Presieka' place names; 5. 'Brona' place names; 6. the line
of the limes Saxoniae after Engel; 7. the region of the limes in the Wendish lands;
8. swamps (as in existence in the late 1800s); 9. important centres; 10. the Slavic
settlement area in the Wendish lands. After Lesny, 'Domniemane przedluzenie',
p. 246, fig. 1.
The Limes Saxoniae as Part ofthe Eastern Borderlands
Figure 5. The Machnower Krummes Fenn stronghold. Source: A. von Muller,
MuseumsdorfDiippel, 5th edn (Berlin, 1991), p. 21.
49
by a new concept of frontier emerging in the Prussian lands beyond the Vistula River
that came under the control of the Teutonic Knights.59
The history of the limes
Saxoniae is thus part of the long-term change of borderlands into frontiers
60
and of
the process ofaedificatio terrae in East Central Europe.
61
59
Karp, Grenzen.
60
Hans F. Helmolt, 'Die Entwicklung der Grenzlinie aus dem Grenzsaume im alten
Deutschland', Historisches Jahrbuch, 17 (1896), 235-64.
61
Charles Higounet, Die deutsche Ostsiedlung im Mittelalter (Munich, 1990); Christian
Ltibke, Das ostliche Europa (Munich, 2004), pp. 276-89 and 354-64.
I