Jomsborg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jomsborg was a legendary Viking settlement in territory at the Baltic Sea later referred to as Pomerania. According to the Jomsvikinga Saga, it was inhabited by a guild of mercenaries known as the Jomsvikings. It is generally disputed whether such a settlement existed at all, all mentions coming from later sagas composed in distant Iceland.
Contemporary sources mention a city known as Julin, Jumne (or Wolin), Vineta which supposedly was a home of Slavic-speaking pirates, but where Danes and other Scandinavians could also easily find refuge. Vineta was supposed to have been a most glorious city, which vanished. However no traces have ever been found.
The actual territory (surrounding Jomsborg) was conquered by the disinherited Swedish prince Styrbjörn Starke who later gave it to the Danish king Harold Bluetooth (910-985/86), who had to take refuge from his son there. In 1040 the territory along the Baltic Sea is first time recorded as Pomerania, when a duke (Dux Bomerania) took part in an imperial meeting.
