In reply to V. from Belgravia (Vol. ii., p. 230.), I am partially at a
loss to know the exact bearing of his Query. Adam of Bremen's account of
Julin is no _legend_, nor does he mention it at all as a _doomed city_.
On the contrary, his description is that of a flourishing emporium of
commerce, for which purpose he selects very strong superlatives, as in
the following account (_De Situ Damæ_, lib. ii. cap. ii.):
"Ultra Leuticos qui alio nomine Welzi dicuntur Oddera Flumen
occurrit; amnis dilectissimus Slavonicæ regionis. In cujus
ostro, qui Scythicas alludet paludes, nobilissima civitas
Julinum celeberrimam Barbaris et Græcis qui in circuitu præstet
stationem. De cujus præconio quia magna et vix credibilia
recitantur, volupe arbitror pauca inserere digna relata. Est
sane maxime omnium quas Europa claudit civitatum, quam incolunt
Slavi cum aliis gentibus Græcis et Barbaris. Nam et advenæ
Saxones parem cohabitandi legem acceperunt, si tamen
Christianitatis titulum ibi morantes non publicaverint. Omnes
enim adhuc paganicis ritibus aberrant, ceterum moribus et
hospitalitate nulla gens honestior aut benignior poterit
inveniri. Urbs illa mercibus omnium septentrionalium nationum
locuples nihil non habet jucundi et rari."
As Adam is supposed to have been a native and a priest at Magdeburg,
whence he was translated by Archbishop Adalbert to a benefice in the
cathedral of Bremen, he must, from his comparative proximity to the
spot, be supposed a competent witness; and there is not reason to
suppose why he should not have been also a creditable one. He died about
1072, and the _legends_, if any, concerning this famous place, here
described as the most extensive in Europe, must have been subsequently
framed.
For about one hundred years later (1184) we have from Helmold, the
parish priest of Bösan, a small village on the eastern confines of
Holstein, a repetition of Adam's words, for a place which he calls {283}
"Veneta," but always in the past tense as, "quondam fuit nobilissima
civitas," etc.; so that it is plain from that and his expression
"excidium civitatis;" as well as, "Hanc civitatem opulentissimam quidam
Danorum rex, maxima classe stipatus, fundetus evertisse refertur." The
great question is, Where was this great city? and, are the _Julin_ of
Adam and the _Veneta_ of Helmold identical? Both questions have given
rise to endless discussions amongst German archæologists. The published
maps, as late at least as the end of the last century, had a note at a
place in the Baltic, opposite to the small town of Demmin, in
Pomerania:--"Hic Veneta emporium olim celeberr. æquar. æstu absorpt."
Many, perhaps the majority, of recent writers contend for the town of
Wallin, which gives its name to one of the islands by which the Stettin
Haff is formed,--though the slight verbal conformity seems to be their
principal ground; for no _rudera_, no vestiges of ancient grandeur now
mark the spot, not even a tradition of former greatness: whilst Veneta,
which can only be taken to mean the _civitas_ of the Veneti, a nation
placed by Tacitus on this part of the coast, has a long unbroken chain
of oral evidence in its favour, as close to Rugen; and, if authentic
records are to be credited, ships have been wrecked in the last century
on ancient moles or bulwarks, which then rose nearly to the surface from
the submerged ruins. But the subject is much too comprehensive for the
compressed notices of your miscellany. I hope to have shortly an
opportunity of treating the subject at large in reference to the
Schiringsheal which Othere described to King Alfred, about two hundred
years earlier.
An edition of Adam and Helmold is very desirable in England, even in a
translations as a part of Bohn's _Antiquarian Series_.