Info on the Wends?

Zioneer

Banned
So I remember that I used to be very interested on the Wends/Sorbs/whatever, those Slavic fellows in modern-day northern Germany.

However, it's been a while, and from what I can remember, there wasn't much info on them anyways. I know that there's a few notable Wend noble families, and that they technically still exist as a culture, but not much else.

In any case, I'd like anyone who knows about them to give me some details on them: I'll put what I want to know in bullet points for ease of answering.

-Wendish culture: Their language, pagan-to-Christian religious quirks, how they saw themselves, and if possible, some of their laws and ways of life. What were the major tribes of the Wends?

-Wend interaction: How did they interact with their various neighbors? How did they treat warfare and how did they wage it? How did they treat religious authorities, pagan or Christian?

-Notable Wends: Who were the most famous and interesting Wends? What did they do? All I know is a few sparse Wikipedia articles on the "Nakonids", one of the stronger families.

-PoDs: What are good points of divergence for a timeline based on the Wends? How can they become more successful, and if possible, become/stay united as a culture and nation?

Thanks in advance for any answers.
 
Well. There's some good maps around....

Origins_700.png


694px-Lutizenbund.PNG


URL]



Also, I know it's wiki, but here's where you start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Slav

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutici

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veleti

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ucri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obodrites

----

Religious practices:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svetovid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Arkona

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_mythology (disproportinately distributed between Western Slavs and Russia, ignoring much of what's in the middle)

----

And this is for inspiration because Alfons Mucha is awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slav_Epic
 
i thought the wends were baltic, like the old prussians and pomeranians

also, i know that they raided denmark and sweden quite a bit
 

Zioneer

Banned
Well. There's some good maps around....


URL]



Also, I know it's wiki, but here's where you start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Slav

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutici

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veleti

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ucri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obodrites

----

Religious practices:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svetovid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Arkona

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_mythology (disproportinately distributed between Western Slavs and Russia, ignoring much of what's in the middle)

----

And this is for inspiration because Alfons Mucha is awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slav_Epic

Thank you for the links; I've checked most of them out before, but that doesn't mean I can't learn something from them again.

I might have enough for a TL, but likely not; this was more a question of curiosity than anything else.
 
Although under attack in the Wendish Crusade of the 1100s, the Wends weren't annihilated, but rather absorbed into Germany. In particular, the kingdom of the Obodrites eventually became the duchy of Mecklenburg (with a dynasty descended from the Obodrite kings). The Sorbs of North Germany survived but without a state of their own; there are still Sorb speakers today.
 
Top