page_title: Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages
section_title: Tribal and territorial organization
hierarchical_section_title: Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages / Slavic Pomeranians / Tribal and territorial organization
caption_attribution_description: Mapa Polski za panowania Władysława II Jagiełły (1386 - 1434)
context_page_description: Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages covers the History of Pomerania from the 7th to the 11th centuries.
  The southward movement of Germanic tribes during the migration period had left territory later called 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 Oder as Veleti and later Lutici. A distinct Slavic tribe, the Rani, was based on the island of Rügen and the adjacent mainland. In the 8th and 9th centuries, Slavic-Scandinavian emporia were set up along the coastline as powerful centers of craft and trade.
  In 936, the Holy Roman Empire set up the Billung and Northern marches in Western Pomerania, divided by the Peene river. The Liutician federation regain independence in an uprising of 983 but succumbed to internal conflicts and disintegrated in the course of the 11th century. In late 960s, Polish Piasts acquired parts of eastern Pomerania, where the short-lived Diocese of Kołobrzeg was installed in 1000 AD. The Pomeranians regained independence during the Pomeranian uprising of 1005.
context_section_description: By the 9th to 11th century the region was recorded as inhabited by various tribes belonging to the Lechitic group of the West Slavs. The small tribes dwelling west of the Oder river were known collectively as "Veleti" (Wilzi), since the late 10th century as "Lutici" (Lutici), the tribes further east as "Pomeranians". Another distinct tribe, the Rani, lived on the island of Rügen and the adjacent mainland. These tribes spoke Polabian (Veleti, Rani) and closely related Pomeranian (Pomeranians) dialects. A Frankish document titled Bavarian Geographer (ca 845) mentions the tribes of Volinians (Velunzani), Pyritzans (Prissani), Ukrani (Ukri) and Veleti (Wiltzi) around the lower Oder.
  From the 9th to the 11th century, at least ten Pomeranian tribes dwelled between the Oder and Vistula river. They are not known by name except for the Volinians and Pyritzans. It is not known if these tribes ever formed any kind of a tribal union. It is also possible that on the two sides of the river, the tribes were split from the beginning into eastern and western Pomeranian groups, with the latter possibly related to the Veleti.
  The settlements of the distinct tribes were separated from each other and from their neighbors by vast woodlands. In 1124, it took Otto of Bamberg three days to cross the woods separating the Pomeranians from the neighboring Poles.
  Among the various Pomeranian tribes, the territory of the Volinians was the smallest, but also the most densely settled, with about one settlement for every four square kilometers, around 1000 AD. In contrast, the other tribe explicitly mentioned in contemporary chronicles, was that of the Pyritzans, who inhabited the area around Pyritz and Stargard but whose settlements numbered roughly only one for every twenty kilometers. The center of the Volinian territory was a town located at the site of the modern town of Wolin (Wollin) on Wolin (Wollin) island. Russian, Saxon, and Scandinavian merchants lived in the town.
  The Lutici tribes in 983 formed the Liutizian federation, comprising the Circipanes, Kessinians, Redarians, and Tollensians, probably also the Hevelli and Rani. The Volinians also played an important role. They were at various times both ally and military target of the Holy Roman Empire and Poland. The federation declined in the 1050s due to internal struggles (see below).
  There are sparse records of dukes in this area, but no records about the extension of their duchies or any dynastic relations. The first written record of any local Pomeranian ruler is the 1046 mention of Zemuzil (in Polish literature also called Siemomysł) at an imperial meeting. A "dux Pomorie" is recorded for the year 997 in a 13th-century vitae of Adalbert of Prague, most probably seated in Gdańsk (Danzig). Another chronicle written in 1113 by Gallus Anonymus mentions several dukes of Pomerania: Swantibor, Gniewomir, and an unnamed duke besieged in Kołobrzeg. A mention of a battle between the Pomeranians, Poles and Hungarians in the Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, taken as historical by earlier historians, has been identified as medieval folklore, since the author Simon de Keza mixed up historical events with legends. This 13th-century chronicle reports that the later Hungarian king Bela I had fled to Mieszko II of Poland (mistaken for Casimir I), and defeated a Pomeranian duke ("Pomoranie ducem") in a duel. The Annals of Pegau (Annales Pegaviensis), written in 1150, mention a Wilk de Posduwc (Wolf of Pasewalk) as one of the grandfathers of the founder of Pegau Abbey and later margrave of Meissen, Wiprecht von Groitzsch, born 1050. The annals say that Wilk held a "Pomeranorum primatum". Since the oldest parts of these annals are regarded to resemble "legendary tales", it is uncertain whether Wilk is a historical or legendary figure. Pomeranian historian Adolf Hofmeister proposed that the record might nevertheless have a grain of truth in it, but in this case sees Wilk not as a universal ruler of Pomerania, but as a local or subordinate prince.
caption: Duchy of Pomerania-Stolp was fief of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom 1390-1446, 1466-1474
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