Pagan Customs of the Veleti According to Notker Labeo

The article studies a literary fragment written by Notker Labeo around 1000 in Old High German, which mentions a strange cannibalistic custom of the Slavs. This fragment had almost been forgotten by scholars of pre-Christian Slavic culture. It is a commentary on Notker’s translation of De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii by Martianus Capella, which was considerably influenced by a certain literary tradition. The paper looks into Notker’s sources, his influences and the trustworthiness of his evidence.

language (which disappeared in the 18th century), the group of the Polabian Slavs also included the Sorbs1 (Lusatian Serbs), who still speak Lusatian languages today and number around 30,000 people living in Germany. 2 While the Obodrites, the Veleti and the Rujani are considered to be both Polabian and Baltic Slavs because they lived close to the Baltic coast, the Lusatian Serbs never had access to the sea and are thus classed as Polabian, but not Baltic Slavs.A different group of Baltic Slavs, who were not Polabian Slavs, were the Pomeranians.They inhabited about one fifth of present-day Poland in the north-west of the country and spoke the Pomeranian language, which was close to both Polabian and to a certain extent also to Polish (Brüske 1955: 3-5).These five groups were divided into many tribes, but had a common destiny, which is why they are categorised as the Polabian-Baltic Slav community.For a long time, they struggled to remain independent and to preserve their Paganism against Christian states such as Germany (Holy Roman Empire), Denmark and Poland.In some places they stood their ground until as late as the 1170s,3 but they were eventually defeated in the late 12th century and were annihilated or assimilated by the conquering nations (ЖОБ 2021: 524-525, 644-656).
A number of attempts have been made to collect all the fragments that deal with the Paganism of the Polabian-Baltic Slavs in one publication, from the classical work by K. H. Meyer4 to the recent compendia by J. A. Álvarez-Pedrosa and J. Dynda. 5However, these collections cannot be considered comprehensive.This small study looks at the text that was missed by the abovementioned scholars, as it is peculiar in its genre and its content.I will consider this text as it is preserved in all the relevant languages and briefly analyse it.
Although this passage seldom draws the attention of Western scholars, it has never been forgotten in the works of Russian mediaevalists.Alexander Kotlyarevsky, Alexander Veselovsky, Aleksey Sobolevsky, Vyacheslav V. Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov, among others, commented upon this text in the 19th and 20th centuries. 6Oddly enough, the fact that Friedrich Engels mentioned this passage in his History of Ireland was mostly left unnoticed by the Soviet scholars.He wrote: The reports of the classical writers of antiquity about the [Irish] people do not sound very edifying.Diodorus recounts that those Britons who inhabit the island called Iris […] eat people.Strabo gives a more detailed report: "Concerning this island I have nothing certain to tell, except that its inhabitants are more savage than the Britons, since they are man-eaters […] they count it an honourable thing, when their fathers die, to devour them […]" The patriotic Irish historians have been more than a little indignant over this alleged calumny.It was reserved to more recent investigation to prove that cannibalism, and especially the devouring of parents, was a stage in the development of probably all nations.Perhaps it will be a consolation to the Irish to know that the ancestors of the present Berliners were still honouring this custom a full thousand years later (Engels 1970: 34-35).
Engels' text then proceeds to quote the passage from Notker (following Jacob Grimm) that interests us.His commentary on cannibalism is in itself a curious document of his time, and we will also refer to the ancient geographers below.

II.
A detour is needed to access Notker's text.A mysterious author flourished in late Antiquity, called Martianus Capella.We know virtually nothing about him apart from the fact that he lived in Carthage and wrote in Latin.His main work is variously dated by scholars from the early 5th to the early 6th centuries.7That should not bother us here because Capella only provided the source for the text we will explore.
Martianus' work is named De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, or "On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury".8This text is unusual in form and its genre defies simple characterization.Clive Staples Lewis famously said: "For this universe, which has produced the bee-orchid and the giraffe, has produced nothing stranger than Martianus Capella" (Капелла 2019: 6).9 usually, De nuptiis is defined as an encyclopaedia or a handbook of the Liberal Arts -Grammar, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Dialectic and Music.Seven of the nine books of the treatise (3rd-9th) are devoted to each of these arts.At the same time De nuptiis can also be read as a work of fiction (Капелла 2019: 9-11).
In the Middle Ages, Martianus Capella's book became the definitive text in the education system.According to one scholar, "His work may be likened to the neck of an hourglass through which the classical liberal arts trickled to the medieval world" (Капелла 2019: 7).Martianus Capella is quoted as an authority on the most important disciplines by Gregory of Tours, Isidore of Seville, the Venerable Bede and many others, and he later influenced Dante, although his importance diminished by the advent of the Renaissance (Капелла 2019: 11-12).
The first two books of De nuptiis do not deal with the individual arts, acting instead as a narrative framework for the whole treatise.In the first book, the Roman gods decide to marry Mercury to a lady named Philology.The second book opens with Philology divining about her future marriage (it turns out that the bride and groom suit each other perfectly), then the bride is variously dressed and decorated by her friends and kin.Philology is then adopted into the ranks of the immortals and communicates with the gods, travelling across their numerous abodes.Then follows the marriage.Beginning with book three, the author addresses the Liberal Arts, one per book.
Martianus' work was a very popular school text and was often commented upon in the 9th and 10th centuries.The most influential commentary was written circa 900 by Remigius of Auxerre, a student of John Scotus Eriugena and a renowned expert in philology and philosophy.

III.
Around the year 1000, Notker Labeo (also known as Notker the German), a monk and teacher at the famous centre of study, the Abbey of St. Gall, translated the first two books of De nuptiis into High German.10I date this translation to the period between 983 and  1020. 11This was not the only thing Notker did for the development of a literary German language,12 but what interests us here is the evidence of Pagan culture of the Veleti found in his translation.
The early 11th century was a high tide in the history of the Veleti.In the first 80 years of the previous century, the German state, especially under Otto the Great, the founder of the "Ottonian" branch of the imperial Saxon dynasty, succeeded in subduing the Polabian Slavs, including the Lusatian Serbs, the Southern Veleti and the Obodrites (Brüske 1955: 16-38).However, by the end of the 900s the situation had changed.A Great Slavic Pagan Revolt erupted in 983, which started in the lands of the Northern Veleti -the Lutici.The revolt aimed to gain independence from the Germans, destroying the emerging ecclesiastical system in the Slavic lands and bringing back the traditional religion.The Lusatian Serbs did not succeed in the revolt, but the Veleti and the Obodrites did (Brüske 1955: 39-54).In the words of Adam of Bremen, who wrote his chronicle in the 11th century: the Slavs, more than fairly oppressed by their Christian rulers, at length threw off the yoke of servitude and had to take up arms in defence of their freedom […] the rebel Slavs wasted first the whole of Nordalbingia13 with fire and sword; then, going through the rest of Slavia, they set fire to all the churches and tore them down to the ground.They also murdered the priests and the other ministers of the churches with diverse tortures and left not a vestige of Christianity beyond the Elbe.At Hamburg, then and later, many clerics and citizens were led off into captivity, and even more were put to death out of hatred for Christianity […] And so all the Slavs who dwell between the Elbe and the Oder and who had practiced the Christian religion for seventy years and more, during all the time of the Otto's, cut themselves off from the body of Christ and of the Church with which they had before been joined. 14he Lutici, also known as the Northern Veleti, gained significant power from that point onward.During the war with Poland in the years 1002-1018, Henry II, the Holy Roman Emperor, was even compelled to enter into alliance with the Lutici and practically legalize their Paganism.This inflamed such authoritative contemporaries as Bruno of Querfurt and Thietmar of Merseburg, but also became an incentive for them to record information about the Slavic deities, their cults and shrines (Álvarez-Pedrosa 2021: 64-76). 15The revolt contributed to popularising the Veleti, but they were also demonized as being especially brutal barbarians.I believe Notker followed this line, being a contemporary of Bruno and Thietmar.Not so long ago, it seemed that the Germans had succeeded in suppressing their eastern Pagan neighbours, but after 983 the new reality had to be accepted: the Slavs were once again politically independent, possessed a formidable military power and were determined to develop their Pagan culture.Meanwhile, the Germans did not yet possess the necessary resources to crush them.
However, the golden age of the Lutici was short-lived.In 1056-1057, a devastating internecine war subverted their power.According to Adam of Bremen, "many thousands of pagans were laid low on both sides". 16Military campaigns against the Baltic Slavs intensified, led by neighbouring powers.With the rapid decline of the Lutici, their lands were taken by the Obodrites, the Rujani, the Pomeranians, the Polish, the Danish and the Germans (Brüske 1955: 78-118;ЖОБ 2021: 593-597).But Notker died before that in 1022.
IV. Now I turn to Notker's passage on the customs of the Veleti.It is part of a translated text by Martianus Capella, which includes a commentary on the original treatise and was influenced by other texts.For certain vowels of the Germanic language Notker used acute and circumflex accents, which he thought was crucial, as he himself had written to Hugo of Sitten. 17This orthography is preserved in German editions of Notker, which I follow here.
Notker did not only base his translation on the text by Martianus, but also on the corpus of commentaries on De nuptiis, such as the ones by John Scotus Eriugena and Remigius of Auxerre.In addition, he also turned to "more than sixty sources", which figure in the commentary by James C. King. 18Notker notably "preferred Remigius to other commentators" (Notker latinus 1986: XV), and opened his translation with a direct reference to him. 19 In the second book of De nuptiis, the last one to give the bride adornments is her mother Phronesis, whose name is Greek for "discretion".The scene takes place at the break of dawn, which ushers in the day of the wedding.Martianus describes this morning in a verse fragment (II, 116) (Martianus 1866: 31): Et iam tunc roseo subtexere sidera peplo coeperat ambrosium a promens Aurora pudorem.
And now Aurora, with the modesty befitting an immortal, began to hide the stars with her rosy gown. 20otker did not only translate these lines but provided an explanation, which he based on the tradition of commentary.What follows is the commentary to this text by Remigius of Auxerre (48.20) (Lutz 1962: 158)

Translation:
And now she started to cover the stars with a rosy gown -[he] describes the break of day.And now Aurora started to cover -that is, to occult or wrap the stars in a rosy gown.For at the break of day the splendour of the stars disappears.Bringing forth, means manifesting, that is, Aurora [makes manifest] the shame (pudorem), that is, the crime (facinus) of the Ambrones (ambronum).The Ambrones are the peoples in Scythia who eat human flesh and mostly devour people whom they catch roving in the night.That's why he [Martianus] depicts that Aurora, that is the break of day, makes manifest their atrocity which they commit by night.Brosis in Greek means food, and thus "Ambrones" means the same as "Anthropophagi", that is, eaters of humans.
In this commentary, the most important distortion of the text occurs, impacting how it is understood later.In Martianus we see the word ambrosium, meaning "immortal", which refers to the blush (pudor) on the goddess' cheeks and is a metaphor for the blush of dawn.But Remigius, who reads a garbled manuscript, mistakenly accepts ambronum instead of ambrosium, interpreting it as the name of savage tribes.Whatever the time and circumstances of this distortion, 21 Remigius felt the urge to inform the reader about the Ambrones (completely unknown to Martianus' text!), who figure in the ancient sources, and also to add a story of their nocturnal evildoings, made manifest by the dawn (Aurora).
Translated from Old High German by Matvey M. Fialko:23 And now Aurora, began to occult, i.e., cover the stars with her rosy gown.
-And there was the day [i.e., dawn] covering these stars.Bringing forth the shame, i.e., the disgrace of the Ambrones.And aroused (?) [the dawn] shame in the man-eaters.Food in Greek is called "brosis", thus they are called "the Ambrones".They are called the Anthropophagi, that is "eaters of humans", who are in Scythia.They eat by night, because they are ashamed to do it by day.It is also said that the same is done by the witches who inhabit these parts.But the Weletabi who live in Germany, and whom we call the Wiltzi, are not ashamed to admit that they have more rights to eat their parents than do the worms. 24o, here is the text regarding the customs of the Veleti.According to Notker, they are cannibals, like the "Ambrones", and they admit to eating their own parents.Where do these notions come from and are they trustworthy as evidence? V.
As has been said above, Martianus Capella knows nothing about the Ambrones, although he does mention the Anthropophagi.This tradition is no doubt descended from ancient Greek historiography through intermediary texts.Its main topos is Scythia, inhabited by the Anthropophagi, the Man-eaters.
They are first mentioned by Herodotus, who is directly quoted neither by Martianus, nor by Remigius, nor by Notker.The father of history deals at length with cannibalism among the barbarians.For example, he uses this topic to illustrate the varying conceptions of what is sacred among different peoples (Herod., Hist.III, 38): 25   When Darius was king, he summoned the Greeks who were with him and asked them what price would persuade them to eat their fathers' dead bodies.They answered that there was no price for which they would do it.Then he summoned those Indians who are called Callatiae, who eat their parents, and asked them (the Greeks being present and understanding by interpretation what was said) what would make them willing to burn their fathers at death.The Indians cried aloud that he should not speak of so horrid an act. 26  But the main corpus of evidence on cannibalism is found in book four.First, he introduces the name of the people "Androfagi" (Ἀνδροφάγοι) (Herodotus 1928: 218) in IV, 18 and IV, 106: 27 The Man-eaters are of all men the most savage in their manner of life […] they are the only people of all these that eat men.
Then, Herodotus describes the details of cannibalism, although in relation to other nations, for instance in IV, 26: 28It is said to be the custom of the Issedones, that whenever a man's father dies, all the nearest of kin bring beasts of the flock, and having killed these and cut up the flesh they cut up also the dead father of their host, and set out all the flesh mingled together for a feast.

This place echoes I, 216: 29
Now, for their [the Massagetes'] customs […] when a man is very old all his kin meet together and kill him, with beasts of the flock besides, then boil the flesh and feast on it.This is held to be the happiest death; when a man dies of a sickness, they do not eat him, but bury him in the earth, and lament that he would not live to be killed.
The fact that the authors who interest us here do not make direct references to Herodotus is irrelevant.The historians and geographers of later ages who wrote about Northern and Eastern Europe have taken such legends into account.In time they appeared in Latin letters.In the middle of the first century CE, Pomponius Mela quotes Herodotus' story of the "Essedones" (sic) almost verbatim (II, 8 ( 9)) (Древняя Русь 2017: 233).In his Naturalis historia, his junior contemporary Pliny the Elder, read by Remigius (Lutz 1962: 23) and Notker (Notker latinus 1986: XVIII), uses the names Anthropophagi and Essedones alongside other ethnonyms found in Herodotus (IV,88).Pliny the Elder is also one of the first to mention the Venedi (IV, 97), that is, the Slavs (Древняя Русь 2017: 244, 246).Many more examples can be given.The topos of bizarre savages taken up by Herodotus was repeatedly exploited over the centuries.Despite the plots and ethnonyms becoming increasingly anachronistic, these stories continued to be reimagined and mixed in various forms, retaining their popular appeal.
I will not dwell upon cannibalism as represented in Latin literature.It is worth noting, however, that the stories of cannibals remained popular in mediaeval literature in the West.The old names of nations merged with new ones, and half a century later Notker Adam of Bremen wrote (IV, 19): 30The Cynocephali 31 are men who have their heads on their breasts.They are often seen in Russia as captives and they voice their words in barks.In that region too, are those who are called Alani or Albani, in their language named Wizzi; very hard-hearted gluttons, 32 born with grey hair.The writer Solinus mentions them.Dogs defend their country.Whenever the Alani have to fight, they draw up their dogs in battle line […] Finally there are those who are given the name Anthropophagi and they feed on human flesh.In that territory live very many other kinds of monsters whom mariners say they have often seen, although our people think it hardly credible.
Here, there is a curious gloss to the word "ambrones" in Adam's chronicle, which echoes Notker's evidence, specifically the scholia 124 (120): 33 In their language they are called Wilzi; most cruel gluttons [ambrones], whom the poet calls Gelani. 34  According to the scholarly commentary (Бременский 2011: 150 сн. 98), the "poets" are Virgil (Geor.III, 461) and Lucan (Phars.III, 283).They only mention the swift Geloni 35 , without speaking of the Ambrones or the Wiltzi.Therefore, the identification was either made by Adam of Bremen himself, or borrowed by both Adam and Notker from some common mediaeval source.Another alternative is that Adam followed the literary fashion, randomly mixing the bizarre images of Northern European nations. 36 Another ancient geographic work calls for attention here.It is the Geographical Guidance written in the 2nd century by Claudius Ptolemy (III, 5.10): 37 Back from the Ocean, near the Venedicus Bay, the Veltae dwell, above whom are the Ossi; then more toward the north the Carbones, and toward the east are the Careotae and the Sali; below whom are the Gelones.
While the ethnonym "Ven(e)di" was used by German authors to refer to the Polabian-Baltic Slavs as late as the early Middle Ages, Venedicus (Οὐενεδικῷ) Bay was the Baltic Sea.I will not touch upon the dubious matter of whether Ptolemy's Veltae (Οὐέλται) were linked to the mediaeval Slavs -Veleti. 38My point is to show that from an early period, the "Wilzi", whoever this ethnonym referred to, were firmly placed among other barbaric nations in geographical literature.Among Notker's sources identified by James C. King, two deserve special consideration (Notker latinus 1986: 156-157).The first one is the Life of Charlemagne (Vita Caroli Magni) written by Einhard in the 9th century (chapter 12): 39 [In 789 CE] he [Charlemagne] waged war against the Slavs, whom we are accustomed to call Wilzi, but who properly -that is, in their own tongue -are called Welatabi […] There is a gulf stretching from the western sea towards the East, of undiscovered length […] The Slavs and the Aisti and various other nations inhabit the eastern shore, amongst whom the chief are these Welatabi against whom then the king waged war.Notker borrowed his "Weletabi" from this passage.I believe it is beyond doubt that the geographical description of North-East Europe (Scythia/Baltic region) first attempted by Herodotus was subsequently expanded by various authors.Over time, this list of nations included the Veleti, who were sometimes confused with their "neighbours" the Geloni, the Ambrones, the Anthropophagi, and others.We see here a typical example of a literary game.By providing an intertext with references to earlier sources, the new author could first show his erudition and bow to the authoritative texts, and then proceed to make his story more vivid by adding old material and interpretations or etymologies, no matter how fantastical they might be.
The second text to mention the Veleti in the time of Charlemagne was written by another Notker -Notker Balbulus, or Notker "the Stammerer" (c.840-912) (Ноткер Заика 2023: 389).He also worked at the Abbey of St. Gall, but a century earlier than Notker Labeo.Around 885 he wrote The Deeds of Charlemagne (Gesta Karoli Magni), in which he mentions the Veleti and "worms" in a somewhat boastful context.In the following story, he mentions an enormous and mighty warrior of Charlemagne's throng named Eishere (II, 12): 40 38 Some literature can be found in Птолемей (1994: 54-62), although this topic needs special treatment. 39(Eginhard 1999: 12); "Sclavis, qui nostra consuetudine Wilzi, proprie vero, id est sua locutione, Welatabi dicuntur, bellum inlatum est […].Sinus quidam ab occidentali oceano orientem versus porrigitur.[…] At litus […] Sclavi et Aisti et aliae diversae incolunt nationes; inter quos vel praecipui sunt, quibus tunc a rege bellum inferebatur, Welatabi" (Einhardi Vita 1911: 15). 40(Ноткер Заика 2023: 439-440); "Is itaque cum in comitatu cęsaris Bemanos, Wilzos et Avaros in morem prati secaret et in avicularum modum de hastili suspenderet, domum victor reversus et a torpentibus interrogatus, Therefore, when he was in the company of Caesar, he mowed the Bohemians, the Wilzi and the Avars like the grass in the meadow and stringed them on his spear like little birds.When he returned home and was asked by those who wondered how did he fare in the region of the Veneds, he answered, despising the latter and chafing at the former: "What are these froglets to me?I usually stringed seven, eight or even nine of them on my spear and carried them around, while they were blathering I don't know what.Our Lord the Caesar and us just wasted our time on these worms".
It is, however, unclear to what extent this Notker influenced the other.

VI.
James C. King wrote "it is unclear where Notker borrowed the information about such a diet of these people from" and saw no parallels in the sources (Notker latinus 1986: 157).Wolfgang Brüske did not deal with this matter at all, only studying the forms of the ethnonym from the passage without translating or retelling it (Brüske 1955: 7 Anm. 29).Alexander F. Hilferding spoke of the Slavic cannibalism as "German fairy-tales", without taking the problem seriously (Гильфердинг 2013: 92-93).Alexander N. Veselovsky took the same approach (Веселовский 1906: 20).Alexander A. Kotlyarevsky found other German texts discussing the cannibalism of the Slavs in the early modern period, up until the 17th and 18th centuries.These texts seemed to allude more to Herodotus than to ethnographic evidence (Котляревский 2016: 118-120).He concludes that "one feature is particularly striking, namely that the Wilzi ate their elderly parents.As we find no similar customs among the Slavs or even the most savage peoples, we do not consider this to be an ethnographic account.Such tales were in vogue during the Middle Ages.Travellers and seafarers loved to boast about the miracles they saw abroad, and the gullible chroniclers were only too keen to record their stories as fact.The tale could also have a bookish and scholarly origin because mediaeval lore traced the origin of the Slavs to the Scythes and the Massagetes, who engaged in such customs, according to Herodotus" (Котляревский 2016: 121-122).
women because they are full of milk, dashing unweaned babes against the rocks like rats, while the others abstain even from the licit and irreproachable consumption of meat?
The commentary on the passage (Álvarez-Pedrosa 2021: 27-28) can be seen as a reference to Herodotus, specifically his account of the Amazons, who, according to later authors like Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, removed one of their breasts.The sceptical tone of the passage is due to the author being a witness to Slavic military raids.This episode only faintly echoes Notker.

VII.
To conclude, the possibility that the Veleti actually ate their parents seems highly unlikely.It is more probable that Notker engaged in a literary game, with origins in Herodotus.I argue that this passage in Notker was due to the fact that the Great Slavic Revolt of 983 had a deep impact on Germany.The cruelty of the Veleti towards the Christians prompted men of letters to write about ancient nations and their savagery.This was facilitated by the historical connections between the Veleti and other nations of North-East Europe from the time of Ptolemy, as documented in literature.Remigius, misinterpreting a passage in De Nuptiis by Martianus Capella, forged a connection that Notker accepted, leading to the conflation of the Anthropophagi/Ambrones with the Veleti.Tenuous as such links may be, they fit seamlessly into the mediaeval tradition of literary invention, a practice in which both Adam of Bremen and a Russian chronicler enthusiastically participated.I argue that it was the literary sources and not the ethnographic data that made Notker write of the Veleti as cannibals.The Abbey of St. Gall, where Notker "spent his entire life" (Ганина 2015: 39), was 600 km away from the closest settlements of the Veleti and he probably learnt about this people either from his contemporaries, who were horrified by the atrocious revolt of 983, or from literary works, which spoke of the northern and eastern barbarians engaging in cannibalism and other types of savagery.Notker was equally ready to ascribe the same cannibalism to the local witches ("hâzessa"), but it did not produce the same reaction as the account of the man-eating Wilzi.
Although it would have been perfectly natural for any Christian author writing about the Pagan Slavs, for two hundred years after Notker while Paganism was alive, no one mentioned such a barbaric and bizarre custom as cannibalism among the Veleti.This is notable as it could have been used for the purpose of Christian missions or calls to subdue the Pagans.On the contrary, when we turn to descriptions of Western Slavic customs by Thietmar of Merseburg ("Chronicon" VIII, 3) or St. Boniface, 250 years before him, we find cremation as a standard Slavic funerary rite. 42No other sources mention cannibalism 42 A letter from St. Boniface No. 73, addressed to Aethelbald, King of Mercia circa 746-747 (Бонифаций 1995: 416-417).Boniface compares the "rustic kindred of the Slavs and the savage Scythia" ("rustica gens hominum Sclaforum et Scythia dura") (Бонифаций 1995(Бонифаций : 414-415, cf. Álvarez-Pedrosa 2021: 50-51): 50-51).
among any Slavic people.It is highly likely that, much like the Greeks in the story told by Herodotus about King Darius' court (III, 38), the Slavs would have shuddered at the mere notion of the cannibalism ascribed to them by Notker.His use of literary tradition to interpret the events of the 983 rebellion should lead us to dismiss cannibalism as an aspect of Pagan Slavic culture.