Dainava

Who holds it

Title

elders and dukes of Dainava (Lithuanian and Yotvingian)

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

Dainava appears in 13th-century sources as a land between Lithuania and the Yotvingians; its people were Yotvingians (Dainavians) as much as Lithuanians. Who led it in 1200, and whether it answered to the Lithuanian dukes, is not pinned.

How things stand that morning

Self-governing forest communities between Lithuania proper, the Sudovians across the Neman (the Prussians' ground on the Poland and Hungary map) and Black Ruthenia; drawn with the Lithuanians.

Wealth

Forest goods (furs, honey, wax, tar), hunting, small farms on the sands.

Military

Refuge forts in the forest; levies.

Customs and assemblies

The land's dukes (kunigaikščiai), the heads of its kindreds and the free farmers decide war and peace among themselves; the dukes lead in war, judge disputes and keep the hillforts with the labour of the land. No written law and no town assembly is recorded; the pagan priesthood and sacred groves bind the community. Several lands' dukes join for great raids.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Thin: the land name is 13th-century and its ethnic make-up is argued from place names.

On the map: Baltic lands were clusters of settlement round hillforts divided by forest and bog; the outline is a convention traced along rivers and later boundaries.

Primary sources for Lithuanians

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronicle of Novgorod (kept year by year; the Synodal manuscript written in the 13th and 14th centuries). Novgorod's own record, kept at St Sophia. Read online
• The Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission. Read online