172 



XOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 97. 



V. Julin alias Wollin, made in Pomerania, and 

 noted from personal testimony and Pomeranian 

 clironicles. 



But, first, to correct an erreur de plume of 

 Dr. Bell's. He says, in statinir the position of 

 Vineta (Vol. ii., p. 283.), " opposite tlie small town 

 of Demmin, in Pomerania." Dr. Bell lias mis- 

 written tlie name : there is no such ])lace on the 

 Baltic. The real name is Datnet-ow, on the Isle of 

 Usedom. A little lower he remarks, speakinp; of 

 Wollin, "No riidera, no vestiges of ancient gran- 

 deur, now mark the spot ; not even a tradition of 

 former greatness." In this I think Dr. Bell will 

 find (and, I am sure, will readily allow, in the 

 same spirit of good faith in which I make my 

 observations) that he is in error, from the follow- 

 ing nari ative. 



The gentleman who has kindly given me, by 

 word of mouth, the following particulars, is a 

 native of Wollin, and of one of the most ancient 

 and noble families in that island, a relative of that 

 Baron Kaiserling who was the Cicero of Frederick 

 the Great, but of an elder branch of that family, 

 the Counts of Kaiserling. M. de Kaiserling states 

 that, when a young man, in his n;itive town, he 

 took a delight in reading the records of its bygone 

 glory, and in tracing out the ruins in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the town, extending to the distance of 

 about one English mile from its outskirts. The 

 fimndations of houses and tracks of streets* are 

 still exposed in the operations of agriculture, and 

 my informant has in his possession several Byzan- 

 tine and Wendisli coins whicli he at that time 

 picked up. He has likewise seen a Persian coin, 

 which was found in the same neighbourhood by a 

 friend. Having been led by circumstances to 

 examine the evidence t^j'O and con. in this cpiestion, 

 he has come to the conclusion that Wollin and 

 Julin or Jumne are identical. He treats the 

 story of Vineta as a nursery tale and a myth. 



From the recently-published work on Wollin 

 (D(e Insel Wollin und das Seehad Alisdroy. His- 

 torische Skizze von Georg Wilhclm von liaumer : 

 Berlin, 18.31) I extract the following account of 

 AVollin in 1070, as 1 think it important to have all 

 the best evidence attainable f: — 



" Adam of Bremen, a contemporaneous liistoriaii, lias 

 left us a curious description of Wollin as it appeared at 

 the time of its mercliaiit greatness; yet he was himself, 

 most probahly, never there, but compiled his account 

 from the narratives of sailors, from whose mouth he, 

 as he says, heard almost incredibililies about the splen- 

 dour of the town. He describes the famous city as the 

 chief staple place of the trade of the surrounding Sla- 

 vonians and Russians : also as the largest of all towns 



* Particularly the Salmarks (Wendish for Fish- 

 markets), as they were called. 



j- Likewise, repetition must be excused, as it is here 

 scarcely avoidable. 



at this end of Europe, and inhabited by Slavonians, 

 Russians, and various pagan nations. Also many 

 Germans from Lower Saxony had come to the town, 

 yet it was not permitted them to appear openly as 

 Christians ; though the political interests of a trading 

 place, then as now, caused all nations to be allowed the 

 liberty ofincolation (Niedcrlassinigsrec/it) and toleration. 

 The peculiar inhabitants of the place, particularly those 

 who held the government, were mostly pagans, but of 

 great ho'^pitality, of liberal and humane customs, and 

 great justice. 'J he town had become very rich, by 

 means of the trade of Northern Europe, of which they 

 had almost the monopoly -. every comfort and rarity of 

 distant regions was to be foimd there. The most re- 

 markable thing in AVollin was a pot of Vulcan, which 

 the inhabitants called Greek fire. * Probably we 

 should imderstand by this, a great beacon tire, which 

 the Wolliners sustained by night on account of naviga- 

 tion, and of wliich a report was among the sailors that 

 it was Greek fire: but it is also jiossible that in the 

 trade with the Orient, which the discovered Aral)ic 

 coins prove, real Greek fire was brought to Wollin in 

 pots. A tricapiited idol of a sea-god, or Neptune, 

 stood in Wollin, to denote that the island Wollin was 

 surrounded by three different seas: that is to say, a 

 green one, the Ostsee ; a white one, under which we 

 should probably understand the Dicvenow ; and one 

 which was retained in raging motion by continual 

 storms, the Haff. The navigation from Wollin to 

 Demmin, a trading place on the Peene, is sliort ; also 

 from Wollin to Samland, in Prussia, ci^ht days only 

 were necessary to go by land from Hamburgh to 

 Wollin, or by sea, across Sehleswig ; and forty-three 

 days was the time of sailing from Wollin to Ostragard 

 in Russia. These notices point to the chief trade of 

 Wollin by sea, that is, wiili Demmin, Hamburgh, 

 Schleswig, and Holstein, Prussia, and Russia. 



" So magnificent was ancient Wollin, according to 

 the narrative of the seamen ; yet it must not be con- 

 sidered exactly a northern Venice, but a wide-circuited 

 place, chiefly, however, of wooden houses, and sur- 

 rounded by walls and palisades, in which (in compari- 

 son with the then rudeness and poverty of the countries 

 on the Ostsee) riches and merchandise were heaped up. 



" And now it is time to mention the fable of the 

 drowned city Vineta. While an old chronicler, 

 Helmold, follows Adam of Bremen in the description 

 of the city Wollin, he puts, through an error of tian- 

 scription f, in place of Julinum or Jumne, which name 

 Adam of Bremen has, Vineta ; such a place could not 

 be found, and it was concluded, therefore, that the sea 

 had engulfed it. The celebrated Buggenhagen j: first 

 discovered, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, 

 a great rock formation in the sea, at the foot of the 

 Streckelberg, on the island of Usedom 5. and then the 



* " 011a Vulcani qua? incolae Graeam vocant igncm 

 de quo etiam meniinit Solinus,"adds Adam of Bremen. 

 Solinus speaks of oil, or rather naphtha, from IMoesia ; 

 and it is not improbable that the Wolliners imported it 

 for their beacons in pots. 



f The oldest MSS. are said not to have this error. 



I A native of Wollin, by the bye. 



§ Close by Damerow. 



