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ALLACHIAN SETTLERS IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION. A HUMANIST TALE OF MIGRATION AND COLONIZATION, AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MENTAL MAPS OF EARLY MODERN EUROPE

 

Stefan Donecker

Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald, E-Mail: stefan.donecker@eui.eu

 

 

Acknowledgments

The article is based on a paper presented at the SecondInternational Conference of the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies: Black Sea and Baltic Sea Regions: Confluences, influences and crosscurrents in the modern and contemporary ages, at Târgoviste, May 20-22, 2011. I would like to express my gratitude to the organisers for their kind invitation. Furthermore, I would like to thank the Stiftung Alfried Krupp Kolleg, Greifswald, which generously funded the underlying research on migration narratives in early modern thought, and the Österreichische Forschungsgemeinschaft (project MOEL-415), whose support enabled me to explore the life and writings of Friedrich Menius.

 

Abstract

During the 1550s, humanists at the University of Wittenberg in Germany first suggested that Wallachians from present-day Romania had migrated to the Baltic Sea, settled in Livonia and became the ancestors of Estonians and Latvians. This colonization allegedly took place at some time in the 5^th or 6^th century AD. Although such a theory seems bizarre from a modern point of view, it was considered a perfectly reasonable hypothesis by contemporary scholars. For approximately 150 years, up to the early 18^th century, the idea of a Wallachian colonization of Livonia retained its place in the historiography of the region, before it was refuted by the more sober-minded approach of enlightenment historians. The paper provides an overview of the scholarly theories on a kinship between Wallachians, Estonians and Latvians that were formulated between 1550 and 1700. Although these fanciful hypotheses are not supported by any discernible historical facts, they provide important insights on the position of Wallachia and Livonia in the symbolic geography and the mental maps of the early modern res publica litterarum. 

 

 

 

Rezumat:

În anii 1550, umanistii de la Universitatea din Wittenberg, Germania, au sugerat pentru prima data ca valahii din România de azi au migrat spre Marea Baltica, s-au stabilit în Livonia si au devenit stramosii estonienilor si letonilor. Aceasta colonizare se presupune ca a avut loc la un moment dat, în secolul al V-lea sau al VI-lea d. Hr. Desi o astfel de teorie pare bizara din punct de vedere modern, aceasta a fost considerata o ipoteza perfect rezonabila de catre cercetatori contemporani. Pentru aproximativ 150 de ani, pâna la începutul secolului al XVIII-lea, ideea unei colonizari valahe a Livoniei a retinut locul sau în istoriografia regiunii, înainte de a fi respinsa de abordarea mai echilibrata a istoricilor iluministi. Lucrarea ofera o imagine de ansamblu a teoriilor stiintifice privind o înrudire între valahi, estonieni si letoni, care au fost formulate între anii 1550 si 1700. Desi aceste ipoteze fanteziste nu sunt sprijinite de fapte istorice perceptibile, ele ofera perspective importante cu privire la pozitiile Valahiei si Livoniei în geografia simbolica si în hartile mentale de la începutul res publica litterarum moderne.

 

Keywords: Livonia, Wallachia, migration, genealogy, mental maps, early modern historiography

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