(Vol. ii., p. 282.)
It does not at all follow, that if a city perished by the encroachment of
the sea, it was a very striking event at the time: it might have happened
gradually, not suddenly. Instances both ways seem to have occurred on the
shores of the German Ocean (see Lyell's _Principles of Geology_, ch. 16.).
A great flood happened in 1154 (Helmold, p. 216. b. ii. c. 1. s. 5.), but
it is mentioned with respect to the oceanic rivers only, and not as to the
Baltic, or destruction of houses or buildings.
But was Julin drowned at all? Helmold does not say that it was (his account
is in Book i. c. 2. s. 5.); and he does say that it was not, but destroyed
by a certain Danish king. It is most inconceivable that he should not have
known who the Danish king was, if it happened in his own time. The passage
savours of much later interpolation.
Koch, _Rivol._ vol. i. p. 280., states positively that Julin was Wollin,
and was destroyed by Waldemar I. in 1175, for which he seems to rely upon
Helmold, or at least his continuator, Arnold. Helmold himself died in 1170.
Saxo Grammaticus lived at that time, and was probably well acquainted with
the events, since he was intimate with Archbishop Absolon, who took part in
them in a military as well as ecclesiastical sense. In p. 333. he says:
"Waldemar the 1st, goes with a fleet through the month of the river
Zwina, then to the river which adjoins Julin and Camin, and has its
mouth divided into two. There was a long bridge joining the walls of
Julin. The king having landed 'ex adverso urbis in ripa Australi,
pontem disjici jussit.' The king cleared the way for his fleet; got to
an island Chrisztoa; crossed the river and went to Camin. He went out
to sea by that mouth."
This is given very much at length.
All this is the geography of the present day, and the names, if you read
Wollin for Julin. The Oder expands into a wide lake, shut off from the sea
by a bar of land, through which there are three channels. The Zwein is the
middle one of the three; that which passes by Wollin and Kimmin is the
eastern one.
In p. 347. he says:
"Rex ... classem ... Zuinsibus ostiis inserit, Julinique vacuas
defensoribus ædes, incendio adortus, rehabitatæ urbis novitatem,
iterata penatium strage, consumpsit.... Juilinenses, cum urbis uæ
recenses ruinas, ferendæ obsidioni, inhabiles cernerent, perinde ac
viribus orbati, deserta patria, præsidium Caminense petiverunt, aliena
amplexi moenia, qui propria tueri diffiderent."
In p. 359. he says: The king "per Suinam invectus, Julinum oppidum,
incolarum fugâ desertam, incendio tentat."
Saxo mentions Julin, p. 182-24.: "Nobilissimum illius provinciæ oppidum,"
under Harold Blatand, King of Denmark, who reigned in the latter half of
the ninth century. He put a body of troops into it, who became dreadful
pirates.
In p. 225. he says that the Danes compelled them to give up their pirates,
who were punished. In p. 381., in the reign of Canute, son of Waldemar,
there is an expedition against the Julinenses, the result of which is
expressed "Julinensium rebus absumptis."
In p. 382., the king sets out for Julin, but seems to have attacked only
Camin. Waldemar died in 1182, Canute, 1202 (Koch.)
Arnold (b. iii. c. 8. s. 4.) speaks of the Sclavi as finally subdued and
made tributary, about 1185.
In the notes to Saxo (p. 197.) there is a long extract about Wollinum, from
Chytræus, a writer who lived 1530-1600, taken from the information of a
learned old man whose uncle was born there. He says he went there to see,
accompanied by many of the principal inhabitants, the remains of Julin,
destroyed in 1170 by Waldemar. Wollin he calls "mediocris civitas." From
the ruins, it had been more than a German mile round. Part of it was
"ineditiore paulum colle." He speaks of four montes, which had castles. He
says Wollin is "non aspernenda civitas," but not a thirtieth part of the
ancient size.