Mirator

“Heir to his Name and Blood”

Lars Kjær — 2025-04-15

This article examines the relations between the Valdemarian rulers of Denmark and their Slavic allies and subjects around the Baltic. The article examines John H. Lind’s work on the marriage alliances between the Danish royal family and the Ryurikid’s in the twelfth century and explore how Valdemar I, Cnut VI and Valdemar II utilised these and other connections in their relationship with Slavic elites. On this basis, the article argues that the relationships were stronger than has often been recognised and that the Valdemarian Empire in large part was created and maintained through the cultivation of such links with local elites.

Pro Fide Catholica

Carsten Selch Jensen — 2025-04-15

It is a well-known fact that the Order of the Sword Brothers in Livonia relied heavily on the support of Western crusaders who came to Livonia on an annual basis to fight the ‘Lord’s Wars’ against the pagan enemies of the Church. However, we know less about the use of other types of enlisted fighting men serving the Order. Therefore, this article will discuss the use of two main groups of armed men associated with the Sword Brothers: the recruitment of enlisted troops who served the Order primarily in return for money, and the acceptance of individual, secular knights who, for a shorter or longer period, chose to join a military order to fight in its wars. They did so with the promise of spiritual rewards in the afterlife. In some sources, these secular knights were referred to as ‘milites ad terminum’. The article will also briefly touch upon the Sword Brothers’ use of local warriors as an integral part of the Livonian army commanded by the Order’s own Master when on campaign. The article also takes a brief look at the relationship between the Sword Brothers and the (mostly German) merchants, whose ships linked the new mission fields in the East with the Christian heartlands in the West, thus forming an important military resource for the Order.

References to Children in Henry’s Livonian Chronicle

Sini Kangas — 2025-04-15

In his Chronicon Livoniae, Henry of Livonia frequently mentions the presence of Estonian and Latvian children defeated by the crusaders. Typical of crusader chronicles, his references to children are brief and sporadic, often appearing as part of lists of non-combatant victims of atrocities. The examples can be roughly divided into three groups: children baptized with their parents, peasant children slaughtered or enslaved with their mothers either by crusaders or pagans, and highborn children who were taken hostage into German-speaking areas to restrain their relatives from attacking the crusaders. The last two groups in particular reflect the conventional associations with the roles of children in the histories of the crusades.

Aleksanteri Julma – Aleksanteri Nevski tataaripäällikkönä

Jukka Korpela — 2025-04-15

Aleksanteri Nevski (k. 1263) oli Rusin suuriruhtinas, joka nykyisin on kunnioitettu sotilassankarina ja ortodoksisen kirkon pyhänä. Hänen sanotaan torjuneen Venäjää uhanneet katolisen lännen ja idän tataarien hyökkäykset. Nykyisellään Aleksanteri on suuri isänmaallinen symboli. Historiallinen kuva on kuitenkin syntynyt pyhimyselämäkerrallisessa ja nationalistisessa kirjallisuudessa uudella ajalla osana Moskovan Venäjän ja nykyisen Venäjän historiallisen legitimaatiokertomuksen luomista. Ruhtinas Aleksanterin aikalaislähteet ovat hänestä niukkasanaisia, mutta vanhimpien tekstien pohjalta hän näyttää olleen itäisen Rusin merkittäviä sotapäälliköitä ja ennen muuta tataarien hallitsijan lojaali vasalli monen muun aikalaisruhtinaan tavoin. Hän vahvisti tataarien valtaa erityisesti pohjoisessa ja pisti Novgorodin maksamaan veroja heille.

Var der en dominikansk (og franciskansk) mission omkring Den Finske Bugt i middelalderen?

Johnny Grandjean Gøgsig Jakobsen — 2025-04-15

While several recent studies have questioned a traditional view of the Dominican Order as deeply involved with a mission to the non-Catholic peoples of medieval Europe, I have argued that such proselytising efforts are probably still to be acknowledged when looking at Dominican contacts to pagan peoples on the north-eastern and northern borders of Western Christianity. In this chapter, evidence and indications are presented and discussed in terms of a possible Dominican involvement in the mission to the peoples along the Gulf of Finland, i.e. the Estonians, Finns, Tavastians and Carelians – and perhaps even the Orthodox Russians.

Hämeen kapina – uudelleentulkinta

Kirsi Salonen — 2025-04-15

Suomalaisen historiankirjoituksen mukaan Hämeen kapina oli hämäläisten kirkonvastainen kansannousu vuosina 1236/1237, jonka seurauksena paavi Gregorius IX joulukuussa 1237 kehotti ruotsalaisia tekemään ristiretken kapinoivia hämäläisiä vastaan. Historiankirjoituksessa hämäläisten kapina on yhdistetty silloisen Suomen piispan Tuomaan kovakouraisiin käännytystapoihin ja kirkollisen verotuksen vastustamiseen. Niin ikään suomalainen historiankirjoitus yhdistää niin kutsutun toisen ristiretken Suomeen paavilliseen kirjeeseen ja tarpeeseen rauhoittaa hämäläiset, mutta historioitsijat eivät ole päässeet yhteisymmärrykseen siitä, koska Hämeen-ristiretki on toteutettu. Historioitsijat eivät myöskään ole yksimielisiä siitä, mikä – jos lainkaan – oli vuonna 1240 Nevalle, novgorodilaisia vastaan suunnatun sotaretken tarkoitus ja mahdollinen yhteys Hämeen kapinaan tai paavilliseen ristiretkibullaan. Artikkelin tarkoitus on tarkastella tätä tapahtumavyyhteä ja yrittää selvittää mahdollisia linkkejä eri tapahtumien välillä. Artikkeli on rakennettu niin, että aluksi esitellään lyhyesti kaikki edellä mainitut olennaiset historialliset tapahtumat ja sen jälkeen käydään läpi Hämeen kapinasta kertovaa historiankirjoitusta. Artikkelissa pohditaan lopuksi, missä suhteessa olemassa olevat tulkinnat Hämeen kapinasta ovat totuudenmukaisia. Pohdinnan tuloksena syntyy ehdotus siitä, että Hämeessä on tuskin koskaan ollutkaan laajamittaista kapinaa ja että tulkintoja Hämeen-ristiretkestä olisi syytä arvioida uudelleen.

Norwegian ármaðr – Swedish ari – Gothic airus

Stefan Brink — 2025-04-15

The medieval royal administration in Norway and Sweden we had two officials with cognate titles ON ármaðr and OSw āri, both related to Gothic airus ‘emissary, messenger’. The stem ār- in these words denote an itinerant official: in the religious sphere, an angel, in the prophane sphere of the medieval royal administration in Sweden, an emissary, a king’s representative. The Norwegian ármaðr is probably a later developed composition, where the ár- has lost this “itinerant” semantic content and resulted in a term for a “stationary” royal official in the local administration.

Erik af Pommern og striden om Gotland 1435–1449

Jens E. Olesen — 2025-04-15

The Union King Eric of Pomerania (c. 1382–1459) is a well-known figure in Scandinavian History. He ruled the three Nordic realms for many years, but after a fundamental political defeat 1436 he took up his residence on the island of Gotland, which was an object of controversy between Denmark and Sweden. Several scholars have stated that Eric of Pomerania lived by piracy until he left the island 1449. This article argues that this somehow romantic interpretation of King Eric as a ‘pirate-king’ is misleading and has to be modified. The old king continued, however, to play a central role in Nordic politics involving the Hanseatic cities and the Teutonic Order in his endeavours to reach an agreement with king Christopher of Bavaria and the Counsellors of the realms. Gotland continued to be an object of controversy between Denmark and Sweden during the following decades.

Uppsala mod tyrken

Kurt Villads Jensen — 2025-04-15

In recent decades there has been a growing interest in the knowledge and attitudes towards Islam in the Nordic Middle Ages and in stereotypes about Muslims. The empirical material has been quite sparse, but a rich and unique source material exists that has been almost completely neglected by previous research. These are extensive notes for a 1484 lecture at Uppsala University by Ericus Olai, who interpreted Revelation as a prophecy about Muhammad and with sure signs of the imminent fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Ærkebiskop Erik Valkendorf og kortlægningen af det yderste nord i begyndelsen af 1500-tallet

Janus Møller Jensen — 2025-04-15

This article examines how the North was perceived and described during the Renaissance, particularly in the early 1500s. The northernmost border of the known Christian world began to be described on maps of the 15th and early 16th centuries as part of the Renaissance endeavour to describe the world cartographically. In particular, the article focuses on Norwegian Archbishop Erik Valkendorf’s (c. 1465–1522) descriptions of the North and their significance for the contemporary perception of the Arctic and Greenland, in a European context. The article argues that Valkendorf’s descriptions had a greater impact than previously thought on the perception of the North, and the people who lived there, outside Scandinavia. Particularly important in this respect was the connection between Valkendorf and the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller’s map, which is presented for the first time in the article. At the same time, the article points out that the existing knowledge was allegedly spread through international networks of scholars, diplomats and clergy, which have not been seriously explored in this context before.

Folkeviser fra Kong Hans og Christian 2.s tid

Lars Bisgaard — 2025-04-15

Denmark was among the first countries to publish medieval ballads, which were highly valued especially in the 19^th century. However, later scholarship has adopted a much more skeptical stand towards these ballads, generally suggesting that they are no older than the time when they were written down (1550–1600). This article critically examines this suggestion and presents a new reading of four ballads that comment on events from the reigns of Danish kings John and Christian II.

Introduction to the thematic number ‘Fighting for the East’

Jens E. Olesen — 2025-04-15

This text presents the content of the thematic number 'Fighting for the East'

Gränslinjer i terrängen och i huvudet. En gränsforskares vistelser i Finland

Henrik Stenius — 2025-04-15

A recollection of John Lind's research visits to Finland and his collaboration with Jarl Gallén.