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by the Rans in the times of Charlemagne, which was supposed to leave a tracę in the shape of the cult of Guy (St Vitus), later tumed into Sventovit. The only authentic element of this fascinating mystification is the fact that the famę of Sventovit and Arcona reached in the 12thc. the abbey in Corvey, which tried to take advantage of the convergence of the names of their saint patron and the pagan deity, and claimed the rights to Rugen until the 14th c. (Osięglowski, 1967, p. 255-267; Soszyński, 1984). J. Herrmann (1974, p. 202) tried to find some truth in the story. The legend from Corvey gave occasion to describe the cult of Sventovit and the information cannot be neglected. Still before the surrender of Arcona Helmold (I, 6) wrote in his chronicie that the Rans “pride themselves (...) on the name of St Vitus, for whom they built a magnificent tempie with a statuę; they regard him as the first of all gods, and from all Slavonic countries people come there with ąuestions to the oracie and bring annual offerings. They do not allow merchants who came there by chance to trade until they have offered the most valuable goods to the god, and only then was it allowed to bring merchandise to the market. They respect their priest not less than their king. Since the time when thy abandoned the Holy Faith they have been practis-ing idolatry until now.” The legend about the cult of St Guy in Rugen was also known to Saxo Grammaticus (XIV, p. 661-662; cf Soszyński, 1984).

Relating the surrender of the town Helmold (II, 108) repeated, though with a different comment, the Corvey legend. He did not rely on it entirely and classified it as “a dark tale,” adding that “the Rans began to worship St Vitus as a god, having erected an enormous statuę. (...) This superstition grew so strong that Sventovit, the god of the land of the Rans, attained the primacy among all Slavonic deities. He was considered the most famous thanks to his victories and the most truthful in oracles. Thus, until our times not only the land of Wagrier but all Slavonic territories annually paid tribute to him, recognizing him as the god of gods. The king is not very highly esteemed in comparison with the priest, because the latter interprets the oracie ant the results of lot-casting. The priest depends on the lots, but the king and the people on his will. Among other sacrifices the priest sometimes offered a Christian, claiming that gods delight in such blood.” To illustrate the custom of sacrificing people to Sventovit Helmold narrated the story of Christian priest Gotschalk from Bardowik. In November traders, who - having paid the due share to Sventovit - were buying herrings caught in great amount at that season, invited Gotszalk. He said the mass in the island, which seemed outrageous to the pagan priest, who “called the king and the people and told them that the gods were specially angry and would not be propitiated in any other way than by the blood of the priest who dared to celebrate foreign faith among them. Answering to that the frus-trated barbarians called the merchants and asked them to give the priest away, so that they could offer him to propitiate the gods. The Christians, however, hesitated to do it and proposed 100 marcas instead.” Fortunately, the traders, whose ships had already been loaded with fish, escaped at the following night with the priest. In his narration Helmold included the infor-mation that the priest in Arcona had the power to summon a counselling meeting, probably not only in case of sacrilege. He concludes his description (II, 108) mentioning for the first time the name of the fort: “The Capital of this country is called Arcona.”

Apart from Helmold’s chronicie, the fali of Arcona is recorded by annals and other docutnents. Amałes Magdeburgenses (year 1169) fully expressed the disappointment of Henry the Lion and the Germans, who had had half of the spoił guaranteed in the agreement with the Danes. According to them, the Danish king “having seized much gold and silver from the main tempie of the Rans, impressed a seal of Christianity on them, but soon it was wasted by his own avarice as well as by scarceness and laziness of teachers.” In the text quoted the rancour for the lost spoił clearly underlies the com-plaints about the alleged insufficiency of the work of missionaries, which were exaggerated. Helmold (II, 108) stressed that king Valdemar founded twelve churches in Rugen after the surrender of Arcona. The rancour under-mined the Danish-Saxon alliance and very soon Pomeranian and Abodrite princes resumed piratical raids on Denmark (Helmold, II, 109-110).

In the expedition to Arcona Henry the Lion was represented, not very efficiently as we could see, by bishop Berno. Emperor Frederick’s privilege from January 1170, which confirmed the establishment of the bishopric in Schwerin, contains a rapturous description of Bemo’s ardour in missionary work. It was probably interpolated into the original document around 1225-1229, but it is nevertheless valuable for the present survey. Un-doubtedly, Berno was present at Arcona, but the author of the interpolation overstated his importance, making him, and not Valdemar and Absalon, the main instigator of the expedition. He mentioned Pomeranian and Abodrite princes among its participants, but concealed the role and even the presence of the Danes. After a struggle with pagans near Schwerin bishop Berno “finally, as the tribe of Rans did not want to to listen to God’s words and abandon outrageous idolatry abhorrent to God and people, the mentioned bishop looked for some benefit from his neophytes and he found it: he caused that the princes and the people with true Christian ardour forced the idolaters to conversion. He himself acted as a standard-bearer to Christian recruits, and after the destruction of their idol Sventovit gathered them for baptism on the day of blessed Vitus the martyr...” (MUB, vol. 1, 1863, No 91, p. 85-87; cf Szacherska, 1968, p. 33-34). Ironically, the baptism of Rugen really took place around the day of St Guy, celebrated on the 15th of June (Soszyński, 1984a, p. 469).

The conquest of Rugen by king Valdemar was confirmed by a buli of pope Alexander III, which in 1169 (PUB, vol. 1, No 52) included Rugen in the bishopric of Roskild, but the document does not say much about paganism. Nevertheless, it is worth knowing that the famę of pagan Rans

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