Legend about Vineta - translated by the students from Class VIa
Vineta or Wineta,
also named Jumme, is an ancient and possibly legendary town believed to
have been on the German
or Polish
coast of the Baltic Sea. It was commonly said to be on the present site of Wolin
in Poland
or of Zinnowitz
on Usedom
island in Germany.
Today it is said to have been near Barth
in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. At all these places,
Vineta museums and Vineta festivals try to attract tourists.
Around 970 Ibrāhīm
ibn Ya`qūb, envoy of the Caliph of Córdoba, reported that in Pomerania
was a large port "with twelve gates", whose armed force is superior
to "all peoples of the north".
A Danish
fleet destroyed Vineta in 1159 during the Christianizing
of the Wends.
Traders in the 11th
and 12th century
reported about a town that was the most powerful port of the Baltic Sea. Bishop
Adam of Bremen wrote that Vineta was the largest of all towns in Europe.
There is a legend
that Vineta sank in a storm tide because of the sinfulness of its inhabitants,
and that before the sinking there were warning portents.
It is thought likely that Vineta sank because of shifting of distributary
channels in the delta
of the river Oder.
Many archaeologists
search for remains of Vineta along the Baltic Sea. Scientific evidence for the
existence of Vineta is still missing.
No comments:
Post a Comment