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Surrender of the slavonian temple-stronghold
Arkona at the isle of Rügen june 1168

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Surrender of Arkona at the isle of Rügen


 1999
 84 x 105 cm
 Oil on hardboard

Historical background

From 10th to 12th century the island of Rügen and the domestic slavonian tribe, the Ranen, had been assaulted several times by their northern neighbours, the vikings and their danish descendants. The vikings didn't succeed in conquering Rügen.

The temple-stronghold Arkona in the northern part was the main sanctury of the island. At this place Svantevit, a wooden effigy of the local god of war and fertility, guarded the temple-treasure, banner and oracle. The priests of Svantevit had more influence on the islanders than their sovereigns.

In the middle of the 12th century the danish were weakened by a lasting "War of princes". Only king Waldemar I., the danish king from 1157 to 1182, and the arc-bishop Absalon of Roskilde (1128-1201) continued to foster the danish hegemony in the area of the Baltic Sea.

May of 1168 the allied fleets and troops of Denmark, Mecklenburg and Pomerania disembarked under the command of Waldemar I. and bishop Absolon at the western coast of Rügen. Having been sieged for weeks the stronghold Arkona surrendered on the 15. of June (according to other sources at Whitsuntide) without greater resistance.

Waldemar agreed to accept the capitulation under three conditions: the delivering of the temple-treasure, the turning away from the cult of Svantevit and the christianisation.