The portion of the Slavonic frontier which will be considered this
evening is the north-western, beginning with the parts about the
Cimbric peninsula, and ending at the point of contact between the
present kingdoms of Saxony and Bohemia; the leading physical link
between the two extreme populations being the Elbe.
For this tract, the historical period begins in the ninth century. The
classification which best shows the really westerly disposition of the
Slavonians of this period, and which gives us the fullest measure of
the extent to which, _at that time at least_, they limited the easterly
extension of the Germans, is to divide them into--_a._ the Slavonians
of the Cimbric peninsula; _b._ the Slavonians of the right bank of the
Elbe; _c._ the Slavonians of the _left_ bank of the Elbe; the first and
last being the most important, as best showing the amount of what may
be called the _Slavonic protrusion into the accredited Germanic area_.
_a._ _The Slavonians of the Cimbric Peninsula._--Like the Slavonians
that constitute the next section, these are on the right bank of the
Elbe; but as they are _north_ of that river rather than east of it, the
division is natural.
_The Wagrians._--Occupants of the country between the Trave and the
upper portion of the southern branch of the Eyder.
_The Polabi._--Conterminous with the Wagrians and the Saxons of
Sturmar, from whom they were separated by the river Bille.
_b._ _Slavonians of the right bank of the Elbe._--_The Obodriti._--This
is a generic rather than a specific term; so that it is probable
that several of the Slavonic populations about to be noticed may
be but subdivisions of the great Obotrit section. The same applies
to the divisions already noticed--the Wagri and Polabi: indeed the
classification is so uncertain, that we have, for these parts and
times, no accurate means of ascertaining whether we are dealing with
_sub_-divisions or _cross_-divisions of the Slavonians. At any rate
the word _Obotriti_ was one of the best-known of the whole list;
so much so, that it is likely, in some cases, to have equalled in
import the more general term _Wend_. The varieties of orthography
and pronunciation may be collected from Zeuss (_in voce_), where we
find _Obotriti_, _Obotritæ_, _Abotriti_, _Abotridi_, _Apodritæ_,
_Abatareni_, _Apdrede_, _Abdrede_, _Abtrezi_. Furthermore, as evidence
of the generic character of the word, we find certain _East-Obotrits_
(_Oster-Abtrezi_), conterminous with the Bulgarians, as well as the
_North-Obotrits_ (_Nort-Abtrezi_), for the parts in question. These are
the northern districts of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, from the Trave to the
Warnow, chiefly along the coast. Zeuss makes Schwerin their most inland
locality. The _Descriptio Civitatum_ gives them fifty-three towns.
In the more limited sense of the term, the Obotrits are not
conterminous with any German tribe, being separated by the Wagri and
Polabi. Hence when Alfred writes _Norðan Eald-Seaxum is Apdrede_, he
probably merges the two sections last-named in the Obotritic.
Although not a frontier population, the Obotrits find place in the
present paper. They show that the Wagri and Polabi were not mere
isolated and outlying portions of the great family to which they
belonged, but that they were in due continuity with the main branches
of it.
_Varnahi._--This is the form which the name takes in Adam of Bremen. It
is also that of the Varni, Varini, and Viruni of the classical writers;
as well as of the Werini of the Introduction to the _Leges Angliorum et
Werinorum, hoc est Thuringorum_. Now whatever the Varini of Tacitus may
have been, and however much the affinities of the Werini were with the
Angli, the Varnahi of Adam of Bremen are Slavonic.
_c._ _Cis-Albian Slavonians._--Beyond the boundaries of the Duchies of
Holstein and Lauenburg, the existence of Germans on the right bank of
the Elbe is _nil_.
With Altmark the evidence of a Slavonic population changes, and takes
strength. The present Altmark is not German, as Kent is Saxon, but only
as Cornwall is, _i. e._ the traces of the previous Slavonic population
are like the traces of the Celtic occupants of Cornwall, the rule
rather than the exception. Most of the geographical names in Altmark
are Slavonic, the remarkable exception being the name of the _Old
March_ itself.
The Slavono-German frontier for the parts south of Altmark becomes
so complex as to require to stand over for future consideration. All
that will be done at present is to indicate the train of reasoning
applicable here, and applicable along the line of frontier. If such was
the state of things in the eighth and ninth centuries, what reason is
there for believing it to have been otherwise in the previous ones? The
answer is the testimony of Tacitus and others in the way of external,
and certain etymologies, &c. in the way of internal, evidence. Without
at present saying anything in the way of disparagement to either of
these series of proofs, the present writer, who considers that the
inferences which have generally been drawn from them are illegitimate,
is satisfied with exhibiting the amount of _à priori_ improbability
which they have to neutralize. If, when Tacitus wrote, the area between
the Elbe and Vistula was not Slavonic, but Gothic, the Slavonians
of the time of Charlemagne must have immigrated between the second
and eighth centuries; must have done so, not in parts, but for the
whole frontier; must have, for the first and last time, displaced a
population which has generally been the conqueror rather than the
conquered; must have displaced it during one of the strongest periods
of its history; must have displaced it everywhere, and wholly; and
(what is stranger still) that not permanently--since from the time in
question, those same Germans, who between A.D. 200 and A.D. 800 are
supposed to have always retreated before the Slavonians, have from A.D.
800 to A.D. 1800 always reversed the process and encroached upon their
former dispossessors.