The hilly, forested heart of Samogitia, where its strongest hillforts stand on the highest hills: Medvėgalis above Kaltinėnai and Laukuva, Šatrija by Luokė, and the forts of Medininkai (Varniai), Kražiai and Tverai.
Its lands are small districts round these forts, each with its elders.
Who holds it
- Title
- elders and dukes of the upland lands
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
The lands here (Medininkai, Laukuva, Kražiai and others) are named in Mindaugas's grants of 1253-1259; nothing is known of their leaders in 1200.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing; no overlord. The Curonians hold the lands west of it.
Wealth
Farming in the valleys, cattle and horses, forest goods.
Military
Hillfort refuges and levies; mounted retinues of the dukes.
Customs and assemblies
Elders and dukes of the land with the free farmers decide its affairs; the hillfort is the refuge and meeting place in war. No written law; pagan cult at groves and hills.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Lands known from the 1250s and 14th-century war reports.
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.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, Medvegalis (first mentioned 1316; taken 1329)
- Z. Kiaupa, J. Kiaupiene, A. Kuncevicius, The History of Lithuania before 1795 (Vilnius 2000), pp. 43-51, as cited in Wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.