Galindians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term Galindians may be applied to two distinct tribes of the Balts. Their name is thought to derive from the Baltic word *galas ("the end"), alluding to the fact that they settled for some time further west and further east than any other Baltic tribe. In written documents named Prussian chronicles the name of the Galindians is derived from the name of Galindo – a "brother" of Warmo, Natango and other eponyms of the Old Prussian clans.
Some Galindians are known to have joined Germanic groups as early as the Visigoths going westwards to Spain and later Saxons against Charlemagne. Thus the family name Galindo, still found in Germany today, has become very numerous in Spain and thus in America as well.
Contents |
[edit] Western Galindians
The Western Galindians (Old Prussian: *Galindis, Latin: Galindae) were at first a West Baltic tribe, and later the Old Prussian clan, which lived in Galindia, roughly the later Masuria. The territory actually reached further south in, what after 1000 became known as the duchy of Masovia. It was adjacent to the territory of the Yotvingians, which is today in Podlachian Voivodeship.
Ptolemy was the first to mention the Galindians (Koine Greek: Galindoi) in the 2nd century AD. From the 6th/7th century until the 1600's the former central part of the Galindian tribe continued to exist as the Old Prussian clan of *Galindis.
The language of the Old Prussians in Galindia became exinct by 1600s, mainly because of the 15th and 16th centuries influx of Protestants seeking refuge from Catholic Poland into Galindian area and German-language administration of Prussia.
[edit] Eastern Galindians
The Eastern Galindians (East Galindian: *Galindai, Russian: golyad', голядь) is an extinct East Baltic tribe, which from the 4th century lived in the basin of the Protva River, near the modern Russian towns of Mozhaysk, Vereya, and Borovsk. It is probable that the Eastern Galindians, as the bearers of the Moshchiny culture, also occupied all the Kaluga Oblast, until the Early East Slavs invaded the Moshchiny culture's area at the turn of 7th and 8th centuries[1].
The Ruthenian chronicles first mention Eastern Galindians as Golyad' in 1058. Yury Dolgoruky arranged a campaign against them in 1147, the year he founded Moscow in the land of the Galindians. After that, the Eastern Galindians are not mentioned in chronicles. Neverthless, it's likely that they were not completely assimilated by Russians until the 15th (or 16th) century.[2].
[edit] References
- ^ Седов В.В., Восточные славяне в VI-XIII вв., М., 1982, c. 41-45.
- ^ Седов В.В. ГОЛЯДЬ
