Lendians

Cherven Towns as part of Poland until 981

The Lendians (Polish: Lędzianie) were a Lechitic and West Slavic eastern Wends tribe recorded to have inhabited the ill-defined area in East Lesser Poland and Cherven Towns between the 7th and 11th centuries.

Since they were documented primarily by foreign authors whose knowledge of Eastern European geography was often vague, numerous speculations have accrued to their name, which include Lendzanenoi, Lendzaninoi, Lz’njn, Lachy, Landzaneh and Lendizi.

Sources

Sources mentioning Lendians: Annales regni Francorum (805), Annales Mettenses(805), Annales Fuldenses(805) – Lechum Bavarian Geographer (843) – Lendizi – (33) on the map, Constantine VII (912–959) – Lendzanenoi, Lendzaninoi, Josippon (Jewish chronicler), 890–953) – Lz’njn, Nestor the Chronicler (11th century under the date of 981) – Lachy', Kinamos (Byzantine chronicler, 11th century) – Lechoi, Al-Masudi (Arabian chronicler, c.a. 940) - Landzaneh)

In Latin historiography the Bavarian Geographer (generally dated to the mid-9th century) attests that Lendizi habent civitates XCVIII, that is, that the "Lendizi" had 98 gords, or settlements.

The Lendians are mentioned, among others, by De administrando imperio (ca. 959, as Λενζανηνοί), by Josippon (ca. 953, as Lz’njn), by the Primary Chronicle (ca. 981, as ляхи), by Ali al-Masudi (ca. 940, as Landzaneh).

Name

Main article: Name of Poland

Lędzianie ( *lęd-jan-inъ) derived from Proto-Slavic and Old-Polish word "lęda" mean "field". In modern Polish language still exist word "ląd" meaning "ang. Landmass" in pol. "ziemia". Ziemia has in Polish many meanings such "landmass" or "soil" but "Ziemia" was also historical unit of administration in Poland. The name of tribe Lędzianie comes from slash-and-burn agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. According this meaning Lendian was a farmer "wood burner". According to German-Russian linguist Max Vasmer the original ethnonym as lęděninŭ, deriving it from the Slavic word for "fallow, wasteland", which is cognate to English "land".

Lendians is also other name for the Poles in a number of languages.

• Carolingian Empire: Lechum (Lech (Bohemian prince)) mentioned 805 by imperial Frankish records
• East Slavic: Lyakh (also transliterated as Lach and Ljach)
• Old Norse: Laesir; see Heimskringla (also transliterated as Laesar and Ljachar);
• Lithuanian : Lenkas
• Romanian (now dated) : Leah
• Byzantine Greek: Lechoi and Lendzeninoi (Λενζενίνοις)

Directly from Lędzianie, Lendzianie, Lędzice

• Hungarian: Lendiel, Lengyel
• South Slavic: Ledianin

The Lendians also left their mark in Polish names such as Lachy Sądeckie which was an endonym used by Poles in south-eastern Poland. The north-eastern region of Podlaskie (Podlasie) signifies "under the Poles", with the Lithuanian name for the region Palenkė having the same meaning.

In the early 11th century, Scandinavians referred to the Polish tribe of Polans in the region of Gniezno as Laesar. In High-Icelandic, Poland is known as Læsialand.

In the 11th century chronicles by Nestor, the term Lachy was used to refer to all Western Slavs who were not Czechs or Slovaks. Nestor stated that the Lachy had divided into many tribes, including the Polans, Pomeranians (Slavic tribe), Mazovians, and Lusatians.

The terms Lechites, Lechia and Lechitic languages stem from the latter form. That form was also used in many Middle Eastern languages.

Tribal area

File:RuskieIRP.png

Although the extent and borders of Lendians territories are still not clearly known, it is very likely that most of it was similar to the area of Ruthenian Voivodeship of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Constantine VII reports that in the year 944 Lendians were tributaries to the Rus and that their monoxylae sailed under prince Wlodzislav downstream to Kiev to take part in the naval expeditions against Byzantium. This may be taken as an indication that the Lendians had access to some waterways leading to the Dnieper, e.g., the Styr River.

Based on Constantine's report, it appears likely that the Lendians occupied the historical region of Chervona Rus, centred around Przemyśl. This conclusion is at variance with the Primary Chronicle which implies that the region was settled by the White Croats. In order to remove the perceived discrepancy, some Polish historians proposed alternative readings of the text in question, which would move the location of the White Croats considerably to the east, for instance, to the Vorskla River basin.

The uncertainty of extant 10th-century descriptions of the upper Dniester and Bug River region makes it plausible to infer that the White Croats, Lendians and probably some other peoples shared this vast territory along the border of modern-day Ukraine and Poland. Attempts to positively identify the Lendians with the Buzhans or Dulebes lose in probability in light of these considerations.

History

Map showing an approximation location of Polish tribes. Lendians (Lędzianie) can be found in the bottom-right corner.

Main article: Red Ruthenia

In pre-Slavic times the region was populated by the Lugii and Anarti, associated with the Przeworsk and Puchov cultures. They were followed by East Germanic tribes, the Goths and Vandals. After these vacated the territory, the West Slavs (Lendians and Vistulans) moved in.

Around 833 the land of the Lendians was incorporated into the Great Moravian state. Upon the invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of Central Europe around 899, the Lendians submitted to their authority (Masudi). In the first half of the 10th century, they paid tribute to Igor I of Kiev (Constantine VII).

From the mid-950s onward, the Lendians were politically anchored in the Bohemian sphere of influence. Cosmas of Prague relates that the land of Krakow was controlled by the Přemyslids of Bohemia until 999. His report is buttressed by the foundation charter of the Archdiocese of Prague (1086), which traces the eastern border of the archdiocese, as established in 973, along the Bug and Styr (or Stryi rivers.

Abraham ben Jacob, who travelled in Eastern Europe in 965, remarks that Boleslaus II of Bohemia ruled the country "stretching from the city of Prague to the city of Krakow". At one point in the 970s, the region seems to have been taken over by Mieszko I of Poland. This may be inferred from the Primary Chronicle which reports that Vladimir I of Kiev conquered the "Cherven towns" from the Poles in 981 (actually, in 979).

The region returned to Polish sphere of influence in 1018, when Boleslaw I of Poland took the Cherven towns on his way to Kiev. Yaroslav I of Kiev recovered the borderland in 1031; it remained part of Kievan Rus and its successor state of Halych-Volhynia until 1340 when it was once again taken over by Kingdom of Poland under Casimir III of Poland. It is presumed that the Lendians were assimilated by East Slavs by that period. The most important factors contributing to their fate could be:

• linguistic and ethnic similarity
• influence of Kievan Rus' and Orthodox Christianity
• deportations to central Ukraine by Yaroslav I the Wise after 1031
• colonization by Ruthenians fleeding west during Mongol assaults on Ruthenia during reign of Danylo of Halych

See also

• List of Medieval Slavic tribes