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DARIUS IVOŠKA Institute of the Lithuanian Language ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0003-3898-0000 Research areas: onomastics, the historical Baltic name system, language contacts.
ANDREJ RYČKOV Lithuanian Institute of History ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-7008-9990 Research area: the legal and political culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th–16th centuries.
DOI:
doi.org/10.35321/all91-01
DRAWING THE BOUNDARY OF VYŽUONOS: PERSONAL NAMES OF 15TH-CENTURY NORTHEASTERN LITHUANIA AND THE (UN)FORGOTTEN ROAD*
Mapping the Boundaries of Vyžuonos: 15th-Century Personal Names and the Enduring Legacy of North-Eastern Lithuania
ABSTRACT
The article is based on an analysis of unique data from a manuscript preserved in the Jagiellonian University Library in Krakow (Poland). A witness-interrogation record dated to 1469–1477 mentions two important historical facts significant from the perspectives of both historical and linguistic research: testimony concerning the Brinkiškės Road, which at that time marked part of the boundary of the Vyžuonos estate, and the naming of 99 witnesses. This study analyzes the archival history of the record, questions concerning the localization of the road and the origin of its name, and the transmission of historical memory
* For consultations in preparing the historical part of the article and publishing the source, Andrej Ryčkov thanks Tomas Baranauskas, Darius Baronas, Jonas Drungilas, Artūras Dubonis, and Sergej Temčin.
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transmission. The study of the witnesses’ names reveals the tendencies in personal identification and naming that prevailed in the second half of the 15th century, as well as the circumstances that determined them.
KEYWORDS: Vyžuonos, estate boundaries, oral and written culture, historical name system, personal names, historical sources.
ANNOTATION
The article explores a unique manuscript housed in the Jagiellonian University Library in Krakow, Poland, focusing on a witness interview protocol dated between 1469 and 1477. The protocol highlights two key historical elements relevant to both historical and linguistic research: the Brinkliškės road, which defined part of the Vyžuonos estate boundaries at the time, and the naming of 99 witnesses. The paper delves into the history of protocol archiving, investigates the location and etymology of the Brinkliškės road, and examines the transmission of historical memory. Additionally, the study analyses the witness names to uncover the trends in personal identification and naming practices prevalent in the latter half of the 15ᵗʰ century and the factors influencing these practices.
KEYWORDS: Vyžuonos, boundaries of land ownership, oral and written culture, historical onomasticon, personal names, historical sources.
We know that the boundary is the Brinkiškės Road, and Algirdas established [this] boundary
Questioned about the boundaries of the Vyžuonos estate, which belonged to Radvila Astikaitis (†1477)¹, near Užpaliai, representatives of neighboring communities from Giedraičiai, Utena, Tauragnai, and Balninkai, as well as three subjects of Stanislovas (Stankus) Sudivojaitis, unanimously confirmed the words mentioned above in turn². They testified to events that had taken place approximately a century earlier: Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas (†1377) established part of the boundary of Vyžuonos, whose physical form in the natural landscape was reflected by the Brinkiškės Road. Although the interrogation data were written in ink on paper
¹ For more on the Vyžuonos estate, see Malczewska 1985: 156–157; Baliulis 2006: 98–114.
² “We know that the boundary is the Brinkiškės Road, and Algirdas established the boundary.” ВJ 329/99 [pages unnumbered]. For more, see Appendix 1.
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on the sheet³, the subsequent court proceedings may not have been documented in writing at all, and therefore no other circumstances of the court proceedings are known⁴.
It is difficult to answer unambiguously with which form of collective memory—communicative or cultural memory—the testimony of these members of territorial communities should be associated⁵. Undoubtedly, knowledge of the boundary was preserved through communicative memory, since it encompasses the recently experienced past (up to 75–100 years) and is usually expressed through oral narratives. On the other hand, this knowledge may have developed into, or been practiced through, forms of cultural memory. In that case, knowledge of the estate boundary must have been ritualized. The ritual that shaped collective memory was probably associated less with using the road itself than with the communities’ obligation to maintain and repair the Brinkiškės Road⁶.
According to Aliaksandr Hruša, during the era of Casimir Jagiellon, in 1440–1492, the expansion of legal writing intensified in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but it reached an “industrial” level somewhat later, during the reigns of Alexander and Sigismund the Old⁷. On the one hand, the witness-interrogation record that has survived to the present day and is published in this article is a unique source representing the emerging early practices of written culture. On the other hand, the data recorded in the record testify to this culture’s interaction with an archaic (pagan) oral culture⁸. Tomas Čelkis, who studied the expression of customary law
³ In what follows, we will conditionally call this document a witness-interrogation record, since this description best conveys the manuscript’s content. It should be noted that the scribe who wrote the record did not give it any name. Nearly a century after the document was written, those responsible for its archiving called it a register (Pol. rejestr, rejestr), see Appendix 1. This description of the document is probably related less to its content than to the arrangement of the text on the sheet of paper. The text was written in two vertical columns; in the 16th century, lists of various kinds of economic accounts (registers) were compiled in this way. So far, such economic documents have not been studied from the perspective of diplomatics. On archival registers, see Ragauskienė 2015: 111–138.
⁴ The record directly mentions that Radvila Astikaitis presented these witnesses for questioning by court officials (“Пана Родивиловых, воевод(ы) троцкого, свѣдков”). Although the subject of the court proceedings is not mentioned in the interrogation record, it is known from a dorsal note that was added when the document was archived. For more, see Appendix 1 (Original). It is likely that the case was heard in the grand duke’s court, since Radvila Astikaitis belonged to the Council of Lords. On the jurisdiction of the ruler’s court, see Valikonytė 2023: 67–88.
⁵ For more on Jan and Aleida Assmann’s classification of collective memory, see Assmann 1988: 9–19.
⁶ On archaic Baltic roads and their maintenance, see Čelkis 2021: 49–58; for more on the Brinkiškės Road, see footnote 70.
⁷ For more on the process by which documents became established in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century, see Hruša 2015: 200–242; 2019: 236–289.
⁸ On the entrenchment of written culture in Lithuania in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period and its relationship with oral culture, see Ališauskas 2009; Hruša 2015: 364–412; 2019: 433–483.
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in Lithuania in the 14th–16th centuries, noting that in court cases concerning property, land boundaries, obligations, and proof of nobility, “old men” (Rus. старые люди, мужы старые, Lat. senes) were called upon as witnesses because they preserved oral memory and knew customary law (Čelkis 2023: 121–134). In the historical sources that have reached us, they often remain anonymous. Only a single document from 1522 is known in which the personal names of five “old men” from Markovo district (present-day Маркова, Minsk Region, Belarus) are recorded⁹. This is considerably fewer than in the published witness record, in which as many as 99 persons living in the territory of present-day northeastern Lithuania are identified by names or by names and patronymics¹⁰. They are not directly called “old men” anywhere in the record. Their function in the court proceedings—remembering and testifying to the “true” facts of the past—allows us to assume that at least some of the witnesses belonged to precisely this social group¹¹. Their knowledge of legal customs and memory transmitted from generation to generation must have inspired confidence both in the parties to the case (or at least one of them, namely Radvila Astikaitis) and in the judges hearing the case.
This article is a case study intended to establish when and under what circumstances the witness-interrogation record was written and to reconstruct its archival history. An equally important task is to determine who the custodians of the collective memory of the Giedraičiai, Utena, Tauragnai, and Balninkai communities mentioned in the record were and how that memory was expressed. Finally, this study seeks to examine the circumstances in which the road marking the boundary of the Vyžuonos estate acquired its name and to attempt to locate it; on the basis of an analysis of the names of the 99 witnesses, it also presents assumptions about possible tendencies in the development of Lithuanian anthroponymy during the period in question. A detailed analysis of the formation and origin of these names lies outside the scope of this work because of the publication’s limited length; only generalized conclusions arising from the study are presented.
The study of the names was conducted using the method of morphological comparative analysis, with the aim of determining the principles of name formation and carrying out an etymological analysis that revealed the origin of the names.
¹⁰ It was probably important for the scribe to know and remember the exact number of witnesses; in order to distinguish one person from another, he marked the end of each person’s designation with a dot. See Appendix 2. Accordingly: 14 from Giedraičiai, 31 from Utena, 23 from Tauragnai, 28 from Balninkai, and 3 subjects of Stanislovas (Stankus) Sudivojaitis. See Appendix 1.
¹¹ For more, see Appendix 1. Cf. Čelkis 2023: 121–134.
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1. DATING AND ARCHIVAL HISTORY
The mention of Trakai voivode Radvila Astikaitis in the record allows this document to be preliminarily dated to the 1460s–1470s12. This dating is refined by the watermark—a bull’s head (from between whose horns grows a flower with six petals, while a Latin cross extends downward from its muzzle). It should be noted that this variant of the watermark was unknown to Edmundas Laucevičius13. It corresponds to watermark no. 70183, included in the electronic Piccard watermark database14. Paper bearing this watermark was used in a document written in 1469 in Brescia (present-day Lombardy, Italy). It is difficult to determine exactly where the sheet of paper used to write the record was manufactured, but it was undoubtedly in northern Italy15. It is considerably more difficult to establish how long the process took from the manufacture of the paper until it reached a user in one or another European region (especially Lithuania)16. Therefore, the dating of the published record is conditional, establishing a boundary and indicating that it was written no earlier than 1469 and no later than 1477, when Radvila Astikaitis died17.
It is likely that the witness-interrogation record was written not in court but after a court-authorized official had been sent out18. The latter questioned the witnesses on site and was required to submit written testimony to the court as evidence. It should be noted that the record was not sealed. This suggests that the judges trusted the testimony written on paper, while verification of the text’s authorship, like the court proceedings themselves, may have taken place verbally. During or after the court proceedings, the sheet of paper on which the witness record was written came into the possession not of the court but of Radvila Astikaitis and his descendants. This document is precisely the one mentioned in the 1638 inventory book of the archive of Prince Kristupas Radvila (†1640), among eight other documents from the ninth bundle of the Vyžuonos estate,
12 Radvila Astikaitis (†1477) held the office of Trakai voivode in 1466–1477 (Petrauskas 2003: 215–216; UWKL II 225).
15 Cf. Rábai 2021: 218–243. According to E. Laucevičius, paper was imported into Lithuania from Italy, France, and Germany in the 15th century (Laucevičius 1967b: 51).
16 On the paper trade in medieval England, see Rold Da 2020: 58–93.
17 Naturally, the actual date on which the record was written must have been closer to 1469 than to 1477.
18 For more on the ruler’s court officials—diečkus, žvėlgūnas, vaznys, and scribes—see Valikonytė 2023: 54–66.
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which although of little significance, are necessary to preserve for future times19. The record is easily recognizable from the description written by the archivist: an old list of witnesses concerning the demarcation between Užpaliai and Vyžuonos by the Brinkiškės Road, which Algirdas constructed20. In this case, it should be noted that the person who made the archival entry misunderstood the statement in the record, “Въдаѣм, што ж граница – бринкгелева дорога, а Ольгирдъ дѣлал границу.” Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas established the boundary, but did not construct the road; the road must have existed before the boundary was established.
There are also four entries on the dorsal side of the record that make it possible to reconstruct its archival history from the 16th to the 19th century21. The earliest can be dated to the mid-to-second half of the 16th century22. In it, as in the entire text of the record, the Vyžuonos estate had not yet been mentioned. On the basis of the analogous case of Albertas Goštautas’s archive from the first half of the 16th century (Ragauskienė 2015: 99), it is likely that in the archives of Mikalojus Radvilaitis and Jurgis Radvila the record was kept together with other documents of the Vyžuonos estate, as it had been in the time of Radvila Astikaitis (Malczewska 1985: 156–157). This dorsal entry contained only a brief annotation of the record, not a reference to the document in the archival register23; it did not necessarily facilitate the document’s retrieval among the other documents of the Vyžuonos estate or provide the document’s owner with prior knowledge. Apparently, this is precisely why, in 1520, the then grand duke’s cupbearer and elder of Grodno, Jurgis Radvila, did not use the record’s data in his case with Trakai voivode and the ruler’s marshal Grigas Astikaitis concerning the peasants of the Vyžuonos estate seized by force24. Already in the time of Jurgis Radvila’s son, Mikalojus Radvila the Red, or his grandson, Kristupas Radvila Perkūnas, approximately at the end of the 16th century, another entry was left on the dorsal side of the record when personal archives were reorganized and new ones created25. It mentioned Vyžuonos directly for the first time. Thus, from that time onward, even after the record had been separated from the remaining documents, it could be easily recognized and assigned to the documentary complex of the Vyžuonos estate. Apparently, until the destruction of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the document was kept in the Radziwiłł family’s
19 [...] although of little use, nevertheless it should be preserved for future times (AGAD, AWR, 160: 72).
20Old register of witnesses for the demarcation between Užpaliai and Vyžuonos, the Brinkiškės Road which Algirdas made (AGAD, AWR, 160: 72).
21 See Appendix 1 (Original).
22 Witnesses on the Užpaliai land of the Radziwiłł family. See Appendix 1 (Original).
23 Cf. Ragauskienė 2015: 111–138.
24 Indeed, he did not mention his grandfather at all, arguing that his father, Mikalojus Radvilaitis, ruled those peasants of the Vyžuonos estate. RIB 20: 912. Algirdas Baliulis believes that the Vyžuonos mentioned in this case belonged not to the Radziwiłł family but to the Astikai family; cf. Baliulis 2006: 98–99.
25Old register of witnesses for the demarcation between Užpaliai and Vyžuonos. More precisely—Appendix 1 (Original).
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in the Biržai branch of the family archive26. Later Vyžuonos, together with the entire archive, passed to the Pusłowski (Pol. Pusłowscy) family, which, although it sold the estate to Count Edward Hutten-Czapski in 1856 (Słownik XIII 689), retained at least part of the estate archive27. After the death of the last representative of the Pusłowski family, Ksawery, in 1968, his extensive collection of artworks, books, and manuscripts was inherited by Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Zlot 2018: 105)28. From the mid-1990s onward, the Jagiellonian University Library received the Pusłowski family’s manuscripts and has allowed them to be consulted in the Library’s Manuscript Department since 1999 (ibid.).
Having discussed the record’s history, we now turn to an analysis of the data recorded in it. To understand Lithuanian naming principles at the time when the record in question originated, it is necessary to briefly review the development of Lithuanian names and the significance of the names mentioned in the record.
2. WITNESS NAMES AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THEIR RECORDING FOR RESEARCH ON THE HISTORICAL LITHUANIAN ANTHROPONYMY
Before the Christianization of Lithuania, monomial personal naming with a Lithuanian or Baltic-origin name predominated (Maciejauskienė 1991: 20–21). Monomial naming was characteristic of everyone, regardless of social status. The very first Lithuanian names attested in diplomatic documents of international significance are those of Lithuanian dukes29, e.g., Mindaugas (1251, 1253, 1257 Mindowe rex Lettowie (PUB I 181, 207), 1257 Mindowe dei gratia rex Lettowie (ibid.: 38)), Gediminas (1323 Gedimіnne dei gratia letphanorum Ruthenorumque rex (KDL 12)), Vytautas and Kaributas (1388 Witoldus et Conradus frater eius duces Littuanie Karobut frater pretensi regis Polonie (ibid.: 47), and others.
26 This is inferred from the third dorsal entry: No(mer) 10. Fasc(ykul) 7. wizunskich. See Appendix 1 (Original). For the specifics of the archival descriptions of the Biržai and Kėdainiai branches of the Radziwiłł family, see Krom 2002: 11–14.
27 The fourth dorsal entry is associated precisely with the period when the record entered the Pusłowski archive: Rejestr świadkow o rozgraniczenia ziemi ouszpolskiej y outency: bryndhielowa droga, ktorą czynił Olhira. See Appendix 1 (Original).
28 For more on the Pusłowski collection, see the catalogue of the exhibition held in 1998: Xawery 1998.
29 Kazimieras Būga standardized the names of Lithuanian dukes taken from historical documents in which they were attested in foreign languages and established their Lithuanian forms (I 1913/1958: 232–269).
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One should not be surprised to find in the sources of this period persons bearing names of non-Lithuanian (non-Baltic) origin but regarded as Lithuanians. First of all, the term Lithuanian (leitis) denoted belonging to the monarch’s social and military organization; only later did it come to be associated with an ethnic group, and still later with the political nation of Lithuania³⁰. Moreover, it cannot be ruled out that Lithuanians themselves bore names of non-Baltic origin³¹.
In the 14th century, and especially at the beginning of the 15th century, binomial naming began to take hold. Alongside a name, bynames began to be used; at that time these were common words that identified a person more precisely, often indicating their origin (or place of residence), kinship, occupation, and so on. For example, in 1400 Отъ наместника отъ Полоцкого отъ Монтигирда (RLA 104), the person is identified by means of an office and the name of a place of residence or rule³². In 1401 Woyschwuid cum filio Radiwilo, and in 1401 the witness Moniwido capitaneo Wilnensi (MMAH VI 73). The beginning of the use of patronymics with a person’s name may be dated to the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century, when the names of dukes and nobles were written together with patronymics: 1401 dux Ywanus Olgimunti cum filiis suis; Kesgaylo et Zzwinwolt Wolymuntonis and others (ibid.), 1409 Andrei Olgerdowitsch, Witold Keistutiewitsch (RLA 138). After the nobility, persons of the lower estates also came to be identified using patronymics or descriptive appellatives, which became the basis for the formation of surnames (Maciejauskienė 1991: 31). It is noteworthy that the Goštautas family of Lithuanian magnates was the first to acquire a hereditary family name, using it throughout the 15th and 16th centuries³³.
The names recorded in the witness record analyzed in this study reliably illustrate a transitional period in personal naming, when monomial naming gradually turned into binomial naming. In addition, the record’s data, its dating, and the anthroponyms allow us to consider, at least nominally, the witnesses’ social status and the Christianization process taking place in Lithuania.
³¹ E.g., Antanas, Jonas, and Eustatijus, who belonged to Algirdas’s retinue and professed Orthodoxy (Baronas 2000); for more, see Zinkevičius 2005: 15–52.
³² Giving a person’s origin or place of residence in identification was also characteristic of earlier periods; cf. 1264 Pabilte de Crowen, 1284 Rameyze de Kernowe (RSB 83, 84).
³³ The last member of the family, Stanislovas Goštautas, died in 1542 (Petrauskas 2003: 112; Ragauskienė 2015: 118).
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2.1. Names of Noble Witnesses in the Witness-Interrogation Record
Only a small proportion of the witnesses, for example, the lords from Giedraičiai, were nobles. This can be inferred not only from the fact that only the witnesses from Giedraičiai are called by the term indicating nobility nah. Almost all the remaining witnesses are identified only by name, whereas those from Giedraičiai are identified by name and patronymic³⁴. In this case, the subjects of Stanislovas (Stankus) Sudivojaitis, the brothers Eikimaitis (Еда Екумович, брат его Монивил)³⁵, may also have been nobles, as may the Utena resident Gineitis Kriačevčius (Киниеит Кряцевич)³⁶. Moreover, he is mentioned first in the list of people from Utena, which may also testify to his high status in the community.
The two ponai iš Giedraičių are identified by patronymics indirectly, avoiding repetition of the father’s name. When recording the names of two brothers, the second is identified by his relationship to the first (брат его). On the other hand, the repeated patronymic Кяцнубилович attached to Мауко and Мувко may indicate that these two witnesses are not brothers. It is noteworthy that only one witness’s name is the two-stem native Lithuanian name Daūmantas (Дюмонть), while the patronymic Voinevič (Войневич) is probably the patronymic form of Vainius. The surname *Vainevičius is absent from the register of contemporary Lithuanian surnames, but Vaināvičius is recorded. Although the latter is associated with the Lithuanian personal name Vainius and derived from Lithuanian vainà ‘defect, fault, cause’, or possibly from Lithuanian vainoti ‘to scold, accuse; to censure, despise’, it is proposed that parallels with the Polish surnames Wojnowic, Woynewicz should not be ignored (on these, see LPDBBe Vaināvičius and Vainius). Of course, connections with Polish surnames must be rejected in this case, since Polish influence on Lithuanian naming in the early fifteenth century is doubtful. The patronymics Рачевич and Чижевич should also be assigned to the category of unclear origin, since parallels exist both with Lithuanian personal names and with Slavic ones. The remaining designations of the 11 witnesses demonstrate a clear Lithuanian naming
34 For more on the naming of nobles in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, see Būga I 1913/1958: 232–269; Maciejauskienė 1991: 31–37; Petrauskas 2003: 48–56, 111–117; Zinkevičius 2008: 31–32, and elsewhere.
35 Regarding Еда Екумович, see “Peasant Names in the Witness Examination Record” – Еда and Ека Монивил – Манvilas is not found in the present-day Lithuanian anthroponymy, but is a recommended Lithuanian dithematic name (PVS).
36 Кряцевич. The origin of Gineitis’s patronymic (Киниеит Кряцевич) is unclear. There is no Lithuanian name with the stem *Krec- / *Kriac or *Kreč- / *Kriač. Given that the son was still called by a Lithuanian name, the father’s name should likewise not be of foreign origin. Perhaps it was a nickname-derived name from the appellative krešti → krečia ‘to shake’; ‘to rattle’; to mould, build, brick up, or krickuoti ‘not to give peace, to pester’ (LKŽe).
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principle – a baptismal name37 + a Lithuanian-origin patronymic: Юшко Гагaилович, Мачко Кгинивилович, Ганусь Кошцевич, Мицко Кгинивилович, Пашко Довкгвидович, Петраш Шерешкович, Станко Монкгалович, Волотко брат его, Єндрювко Можекович, Гань Кептовович, Станко брат его. Attention should be drawn to the fact that the parents or grandparents of the witnesses listed were Christian neophytes and therefore had Christian names. Nevertheless, their children or grandchildren were identified not by a Christian name but by a Lithuanian ethnic patronymic. This tendency is also clearly noticeable in the names of nobles and their children in Vytautas’s time, when, alongside a Christian name, a Lithuanian ethnic name was still used. For example, the sons of Stanislovas Valmantas—Lampertas Rumb a u das, Mykolas Kęsgaila, Jonas Jaunius, Motiejus Šedbaras, Gudigirdas, and Sudivojus (the Christian names of the last two are unknown)—used the patronymic Valmantaitis, not Stanislovaitis38. The same can be said of the descendants of Mykolas Kęsgaila, who used a patronymic formed from their father’s Lithuanian ethnic name39. On the other hand, as Rimvydas Petrauskas, who studied the Lithuanian nobility in Vytautas’s time, points out, the children of Mykolas Kęsgaila’s grandson, Jonas Kęsgailaitis—Stanislovas and Mikalojus—were called by the “already very universal” patronymic Jonaitis (ibid.: 112). Vacys Vaivada’s study of the spread of Christianization in Samogitia, based on data concerning changes in the personal names of nobles in the Karšuva, Kražiai, and Telšiai districts, revealed that in the 1480s–1510s ethnic Lithuanian names were no longer bestowed, although they were used as noble patronymics until the middle of the sixteenth century (Vaivada 2015a: 217–218; 2015b: 242–243; 2015c: 260–261).
2.2. Peasant names in the witness-interrogation record
Almost all the people of Utena mentioned in the record, all those from Tauragnai and Balninkai, as well as at least one of Stanislovas (Stankus) Sudivojaitis’s subjects, were probably peasants. When the list of names is read, the role of social status in personal naming becomes immediately apparent, namely, the new tendency to specify a person’s
37 These are biblical names of Greek, Latin, or Hebrew origin adapted in a particular language. The names presented in this manuscript—Юшко (from Juozapas or Jurgis), Мачко (from Motiejus), Мицко (from Dimitrijus), Станко (from Stanislovas), Гань (from Jonas)—are adapted to Slavic usage. Only Ганусь was borrowed from the form of Jono’s name adapted to German usage, Hans.
38 See Petrauskas 2003: 306, 286, 250, 247, 301, 244, 299, 112. The page references are arranged in the order in which the identifications of the persons mentioned in the sentence are presented in the book.
39 Kęsgailaičiai: Mykolas, Jonas, Petras, Dobeslavas, Taliatas (?). The patronymic of Butrimas, the only son of Mykolas Kęsgaila, is not mentioned in the sources (Petrauskas 2003: 250–254).
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identification by two names has so far appeared only when recording the names of nobles. Peasants are identified by only one.
Slightly more than half of the peasant witnesses are identified by Lithuanian-origin names. Among them are compound names—Širvydas (Сирвид), Girdeikà (Кирдеенко), Nárvydas (Нарвид), and so on. There are many names of appellative origin—Pikčius (Пикнюс), Dagilis (Докeшли), Mólius (Мóлис) (Молюс), Žvirblis (Жвирблис), etc. Some of them are nickname-like, such as Tratilas (Тратил)⁴⁰, *Raugėta (Ровкжета)⁴¹, Tričis (Тричис)⁴². Most personal names of appellative origin are derivatives with suffixes—Augūtis (Агвути), Rusteika (Рустеко), Rimtūtis (Римтутis), Rameikà or Romeikà, Roméika (Ромеuko), Maldūtis (Молдути), Jauneikà (Евнеико), Žodūtis (Жодутu), and others. Attention should be drawn to the fact that a considerable number of those listed are derivatives with diminutive suffixes.
The other half of the witness names presented consists of Christian names—Pėtkus (Петкус), Jackà or Jàckus (Иацко), Daneikà (Даненко), Bėnius (Бенюс), Jokūbas (Иакуб), Mikalõjus (Миколау), Martýnas (Мартин), and others. It is evident that, only a century after Lithuania’s baptism, Christian names had been Lithuanianized by adapting names from other languages to Lithuanian usage. This is an important fact in the development of Lithuanian anthroponymy. Particularly noteworthy is the adaptation into Lithuanian of names of Hebrew, Greek, or Latin origin, or names characteristic of the usage tradition of those languages, by creating shortened forms—Pėtkus (Петкус) ← Polish Piotr, Russian Петр, Jàčius (Ианос) ← Polish Jakub, Russian Иаков, Stãnius (Станюс) ← Polish Stanisław, Russian Станислав, Mãčius / Močiùs (Мотюс) ← Polish Maciej, Russian Матфей, etc. There are also a couple of cases of Lithuanian suffixal formation—Mateikà (Мотенко) ← Polish Maciej, Russian Матфей, Daneikà (Даненко) ← Polish Daniel, Russian Даниил⁴³.
The fact that all these names are mentioned in the 1460s–1470s is also particularly important. When the historical studies of Lithuanian anthroponymy conducted to date, their sources, and their data are assessed, it should be noted that the earliest thoroughly studied authentic primary historical sources (administrative and chancery documents, diplomatic correspondence, and resources of other kinds preserved in archives) are generally based on documents dating from the sixteenth century onward.⁴⁴ There are also few reliable studies of historical documents from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries; therefore, the personal names recorded in the manuscript under discussion should be regarded as among the earliest, or the earliest, attestations of these names.
⁴⁰ Cf. Lithuanian surnames Trãtas, Tratùlis, derived from Lithuanian tratùs ‘one who talks much and unnecessarily’; plepùs, tratė́ti ‘to chatter, crackle, clatter, talk a lot, prattle’ (LPDBė). ⁴¹ Cf. the Lithuanian surname Raugas, from Lithuanian raugas ‘a sour-faced person, a grump, a bad-tempered person’ (LPDBė). ⁴² Cf. the Lithuanian surname Tričius, associated with Lithuanian tričàs ‘a hot-tempered person, a coward’ (LPDBė). ⁴³ For the Polish and Russian equivalents of the names, see SSNO I–VII and Petrovskij 1966. ⁴⁴ Among recent works examining early Lithuanian personal names, Daiva Sinkevičiūtė’s articles should be mentioned (see Sinkevičiūtė 2018a; 2018b; 2019).
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Among other things, the record contains quite a few names no longer used in our naming system today and, as far as is known, not recorded in the compendium of Lithuanian personal names: Madenis / Modenis (Моденис), Tratilas (Тратил), (only Trātas, Tratūlis (LPDBe) is recorded), Viešgalas (Въжьгал)⁴⁵, Rimtutis (Римтутить), Kičius (Китюс)⁴⁶, Raugeta ar Raugeta (Ровкгета), Melikis ar Mėlikis (Мъликис), Purpšys (Пурпшис), Videita (Видеито)⁴⁷, Žadutis ar Žodutis (Жодути), Bernutis (Бернути), and, in a completely unique case, the compound ethnic Lithuanian names Daugedas (Довкгеит) and Žvilbutis (Жвилбут). The latter attests to a noble family whose surname is commemorated in the name of the village and estate of Žvilbučiai (in Zarasai District).
Lithuanian compound personal names Совикинь and Совикгед should also be mentioned. Their first stem, *Sav(i)-, has not survived in present-day Lithuanian personal names, but has changed into *Sau-. Cf. Lithuanian personal name Saūginas (PVS), included in the list of recommended names because it is known from historical sources but has not survived in Lithuanian surnames. The second stems –gin and –ged are the first or second components of many Lithuanian compound names; therefore, there is no doubt that the Lithuanian names used in the fifteenth century included *Saviginas or *Sauginas and *Savigedas or *Saugėdas. Likewise, Еикгинь is not found in the Lithuanian naming system today, but the compound Lithuanian name Ėiginas (PVS) is recommended. For the stem *Eig, cf. Ėibutas, Ėigirdas, Ėinaras, etc. For *Gin, see Gimbutas.
Some names remain whose authentic form and origin are uncertain: Beeumt, which could be *Beitis (?), cf. personal name Andreae Beycis (father) and Beyczys (son) in 1685–1731.⁴⁸ Also cf. Lithuanian surnames Beĩtis, Báĩtis (LPDBe). Бу́ля and Бу́лчак can be compared with Lithuanian surnames Bilius, Bil̃ys, associated with Lithuanian bilùs, bylùs ‘talkative, loquacious, eloquent’. On the other hand, cf. Belarusian surname Быль (for which see LPDBe Bilys). Булчак is probably a derivative with the Slavic suffix -ak- [-ак-]. Whether *Bilč can be associated with the Lithuanian personal name of unclear origin Bilčius is likewise unclear (for Bilčius, see LPDBe).
45 Not to be confused with the Viešgalas presented by Zigmas Zinkevičius (2008: 161, 259), whose source the author does not indicate, making it difficult to assess the reliability of this attestation at all. Such a name is not included in the other compendium of Lithuanian anthroponymy. The principles of recording Lithuanian names followed by Russian-writing scribes when recording Lithuanian names permit the well-founded conclusion that in this case the compound personal name Viešgalas is meant.
46 The origin is unclear, but it is highly probable that the personal name is associated with Lithuanian kitas ‘another, different’; ‘the second (of two)’; ‘coming, following’; ‘being after this’ (LKŽe). The form Kičius is likewise supported by the analogous recordings Jačius / Яцюс, Mačius or Močius / Моцюс, Mičius / Митюс, Pikčius / Пиктюс, Spečius / Спятюс.
47 Cf. Lithuanian surname Videikà (LPDBe).
48 Daugailiai baptismal register (IAK).
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Бин. In the Užpaliai baptismal register, Ioannes Binis was recorded in 1678–1698, while the later Utena baptismal registers mention Iacobus Biniakas, Mariana Biniunska and Chrystophorus Binieski in 1729–1771 (IAK).
Бускутъ, *Buskutis or *Buckutis, cf. personal name Kazimierza Bucki in 1749.⁴⁹, Buczkis in 1685–1731.⁵⁰ Perhaps this is a case of hybrid formation—a derivative with the Lithuanian diminutive suffix -ut from a personal name of Slavic origin; cf. Polish Bucki, Russian Буцко, Бутъко (for them, see LPDBbe Bučkus).
Еда. Cf. Mameу Едовичъ in 1528,⁵¹Трусцлис Едович in 1537.⁵² Perhaps this is the name from which the Lithuanian surnames Eidа, Eidỹs (LPDBbe) and suffixal surnames, e.g. Stephani Eydakas in 1708–1740,⁵³ later arose.
Ека. Perhaps this is an abbreviation of the baptismal name Jokimas, Russian Иоаким, from which the surnames Jakimavičius, Jekimavičius later developed patronymically (LPDBbe).
Микос. Cf. personal name Miganis in 1665⁵⁴ and Lithuanian surnames Migis, Migỹs (LPDBbe).
Милеииус, *Mileišis. This personal name may be of Polish origin; cf. surnames Milašius, Miłaša, Miłašas (LPDBbe).
Моденис, *Madenis (Modenis). It cannot be said precisely whether the *mad- root is associated with the Lithuanian surname Medėlis or with Lithuanian madūoti ‘to save, be able; to try’ (LPDBbe).
Румъ. Cf. personal name Simonis et Eva Ruta in 1729–1771⁵⁵, Valentini Rutis in 1652–1672.⁵⁶ Perhaps this is the name from which the present-day Lithuanian surnames Rūtá or Rutė arose (LPDBbe).
Стерькиша, *Sterkša. There are no Lithuanian names or surnames with the root *Sterk-. A parallel can be found only with the name of the village Sterkiškio⁵⁷ and the name of the lake bearing the same name, Stérkiškio. Vanagas (1981: 314) derives the name of the lake from the village name. In this case, it cannot be ruled out that the village may have been named after a name of anthroponymic origin. The fact that the village already existed in the fifteenth century is also attested by other historical
⁴⁹ The surname is given in the genitive case; the IAK slip indicates the place where the personal name is widespread—the city of Vilkaviškis.
⁵⁰ Daugailiai baptismal register (IAK).
⁵¹ From Tendžiogala (IAK).
⁵² List of obligations of the Samogitian districts (IAK).
⁵³ Linkmenys baptismal register (IAK).
⁵⁴ Paparčiai baptismal register (IAK).
⁵⁵ Parents, Utena baptismal register (IAK).
⁵⁶ Father, Videniškiai baptismal register (IAK).
⁵⁷ Sterkiškis, a village in Anykščiai District Municipality, 3 km from Debeikiai.
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sources⁵⁸. The links between the village’s ruling family and the property it controlled, including in Slavic lands, suggest that the village was given a name of Slavic origin. Tubys. The form is unclear.
3. THE BRINKLIŠKĖS ROAD, „DER BRENGELISCHE WEG“, «БРИНКГЕЛЕВА ДОРОГА»; THE QUESTION OF ITS LOCALIZATION AND NAME
In the record, the Brinkliškės Road is not mentioned for the first time in historical sources that have reached us. Information about it emerges in the context of relations between Lithuania and the Teutonic Order. Under the 1398 Treaty of Salynas, part of the border between Lithuania and Livonia was to be established along it⁵⁹. Based on the witness record, the road was certainly functioning already during the reign of Grand Duke Algirdas⁶⁰. Tomas Čelkis, who studied the evolution of land roads in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, regards this road as one of the old, long-distance “great roads” (Čelkis 2021: 53–54, especially see footnote 215). It cannot be ruled out that it may have emerged as early as the eve of the formation of the Lithuanian state, running from the northwest (probably from Riga) into the territory of the core of the Nalšia land (Zabiela 1992: 16, 21–22). Apparently, this is the oldest Lithuanian road whose memory is still cultivated in the vicinity of Sėdasai⁶¹. Despite the name “Brengeliškių road” established in historiography for this object, it is obvious that the use of the name is based solely on historical forms of the name recorded in foreign languages. Although attempts have been made to determine the road’s location on the Lithuania–Livonia border⁶², the origin of the road’s name has not been examined.
It must be acknowledged that the origin and localization of the toponym are unclear. Whether this object marking the boundary of the Vyžuonos estates can be regarded as a road leading to Brinkliškės⁶³ is difficult
⁵⁸ In the mid-sixteenth century, a description of the Masalskis family’s lands adjoining their holdings in the Lutsk district (Ukraine) also mentions Sterkiškis, which had been in the Vilnius district (Brandenburg 1892: 88).
⁵⁹ KDL 255; LECUB IV 205, 219, 224; CDP V 168; CEV 52; see footnote 70 for more details.
⁶⁰ According to Darius Baronas, in the fourteenth century the eastern part of Aukštaitija (Kernavė, Maišiagala, Ukmergė, Linkmenys, Tauragnai, and Užpaliai) was within Algirdas’s sphere of influence, rather than that of his brother Kęstutis (Baronas 2004: 51).
⁶¹ It is believed that the memory was transmitted through cultural memory, when local communities performed the duty of maintaining the road. See footnote 70 for more details.
⁶² Plačiau žr. Lickеvič 2022: 50.
⁶³ Utena District Municipality, Daugailiai Eldership.
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to say. The main problem in seeking the origin of the name is the variation in its old attestations: 1398 ad viam, vulgariter nuncupatam der Prengelsche węg (LECUB IV 224), ad uiam uulgaritur nuncupatam der Brengelische weg (KDL 255), 1469–1477 бринкеелева дорога. In this case, the particular difficulty lies not in the varying p and b at the beginning of the name, or even e and i in the root, but in the invariant g (Russian къ = g). This regularity should indicate the original form of the name, but a search for personal names or other place names with the roots Breng- / Preng or Bring- / Pring shows that there are none. Historical documents likewise contain no attested variants of this name Brenk- / Brink or Prenk- / Prink, raising the question of whether scribes could have confused the sounds k and g when recording the road’s name. K. Būga (I 1913/1958: 235) regards the recording of the g sound with the Cyrillic letters къ and к as regular and provides several attestations supporting this. Moreover, the etymological dictionary of the Old Lithuanian language contains clear evidence that in the inflection of the verb brinkti, in various paradigms, and in deriving the noun brįnga ‘breast’, there was alternation between k and g (ALEW I 135). It is entirely convincing that the physical characteristics of the road, related to the relief of the landscape, or the effect of natural conditions on the road’s features, could have led inhabitants to name it using at least one of the meanings of the verb brinkti: brinkti ‘to swell (when moist), puff up, rise’; ‘to become swollen, thicken’; ‘to dry, stiffen’ (LKŽe; ALEW I 135). Is it really possible to reject the assumption that the road itself, Der Brengelische weg, бринкелева дорога, may have been called *Brink-kelis / *Bring-kelis⁶⁴ until the fifteenth century and later, and that its name need not necessarily be associated with the name of the settlement of Brinkliškės? Although the road running in the direction of the old settlement of Brinkliškės may indeed have been named after it (see footnote 70 for more detail). In any case, the root *Brink would be, from the perspective of the historical period, area, and diachronic study of the naming system, the only possible and supportable basis for explaining the origin of the road’s name. Cf. the land name in Zarasai District Brinklinė and the aforementioned village name Brinkliškės (LVŽ I 569), Lithuanian surname Brinkis (LPDBe). Deriving this name from a personal name would be irrational because an object such as a road ought to have been named after a duke or nobleman⁶⁵, but there is no evidence confirming this. One must therefore hypothetically rely on the appellative origin of this name and call the road after the place name that has survived in the area under discussion—Brinkliškių keliu.
⁶⁴ In spoken language, a double consonant k or g was not pronounced; cf. Lithuanian pusserė, so the witnesses could have pronounced it Brinkelis or Bringelis.
⁶⁵ Cf. Čelkis 2021: 53–54.
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CONCLUSIONS
To summarize the study of the witness record, it is worth noting that its text was written around 1469–1477 on paper manufactured in northern Italy. After the record was used in the court proceedings of Radvila Astikaitis concerning the boundaries of the Vyžuonos estate, it came into the possession of, and was preserved for four centuries in, the archives of members of the Radvila family. Later, the Vyžuonos estate was taken over by the Puslovskiai, and documents connected with the estate also came into their hands. The record remained in the hands of the Puslovskiai until the mid-twentieth century, when, after the death of the last representative of the family, his extensive collections were inherited by Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
Nothing certain can be said about the age of the witnesses mentioned in the record. Judging from the manuscript’s dating, it may be assumed that the witnesses were representatives of the second or third generation after Lithuania’s conversion to Christianity. Despite the Christianization process, already approximately a century old, many of them still used ethnic Lithuanian names. The manuscript of the record therefore contains much valuable material for historical and linguistic scholarship. Particularly important are the attestations of Lithuanian historical personal names, which:
• added 13 new names to the list of Lithuanian historical personal names, names not only unused in today’s naming system but also absent among known historical personal names: single-stem and compound ethnic Lithuanian names Bernutis, Dauეgidas, Kičius, Madenis / Modenis, Melikis / Mėlikis, Purpšys, Raugeta / Raugėta, Rimtutis, Tratilas, Videita, Viešgalas, Žadutis / Žodutis, Žvilbutis;
• provided important information about Lithuanian naming tendencies in the fifteenth century. First of all, the names of the 14 noble witnesses from Giedraičiai, recorded together with patronymics, are revealing. Only the name of one representative of the second or third generation after the baptism of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Daumantas, is Lithuanian; all the others are Christian or of unclear origin. Meanwhile, of the 9 patronymics mentioned (three others are repeated), 7 are Lithuanian. The names of the peasants are distributed almost evenly by origin among the remaining four witness groups and clearly show the still greater prevalence of Lithuanian names: among the 31 people of Utena whose names are attested, 17 were Lithuanian and 14 had names of Christian or unclear origin; of the 23 people from Tauragnai, 14 had Lithuanian names, while 9 had names of Christian or unclear origin; among the 28 names from Balninkai, there were 17 persons with Lithuanian names and 11 with names of Christian or unclear origin, while among the remaining three subjects of Stanislovas (Stankus) Sudivojaitis, 1 person had a Lithuanian name and 2 had names of Christian or unclear origin. In total, the record mentions 61 Lithuanian names and 38 names of Christian or unclear origin.
It becomes clear that the spread of Christian names must have been directly related to the expansion of the network of churches and parishes. At the time the record was compiled, only in Giedraičiai
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the Church of St Bartholomew had been operating since 1410, whereas churches in Balninkai, Tauragnai, and Utena were established only at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries66. It is no surprise that Lithuanian names were more frequent here. Although the tendency for Christian names to spread is evident, the rapid adaptation of names of foreign origin in Lithuanian is also noticeable, e.g. Jačius, Mačius / Mōčius, Pėtkus, Stānius, etc.
This article raises the previously undiscussed question of seeking the etymology of Brengelischen weg, Prengelsche wegk, бру́нкагелева дорога, attested in historical documents, and of the Brengeliškių kelio established in Lithuanian historiography. No unambiguous answer to this question could be found; therefore, despite the proposal to call the object mentioned in the record Brinkliškių keliu, alternative explanations remain possible. Moreover, transformed memory of this road survives to the present day. It should be regarded as the oldest of the known Lithuanian roads, having emerged as early as the eve of the state’s formation in the thirteenth century.
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MMAH VI – Monumenta Medii Aevi Historica Res Gestas Poloniae Illustrantia 6, Contains: The Epistolary Codex of Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Publication of the Historical and Literary College of Cracow no. 23, Cracow, at the expense of the Academy of Letters of Cracow, printed by Vlad. L. Anozyo et Comp., 1882.
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Mapping the Boundaries of Vyžuonos: 15th-Century Personal Names and the Enduring Legacy of North-Eastern Lithuania
SUMMARY
The study provides a detailed analysis of a witness interview protocol from 1469–1477, involving witnesses from Giedraičiai, Utena, Tauragnai, and Balninkai. This protocol, which is published as an appendix, was recorded by an anonymous court official in Ruthenian and documents the testimonies of 99 nobles and peasants. These witnesses, presented by Lord Radvilas Astikaitis of Lithuania (Pol. Radziwiłł Óścikowicz), unanimously affirmed the boundaries of the Vyžuonos manor, which were established by Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas (†1377) around a century earlier along the Brinkliškės road.
The research traces the protocol’s history, revealing that after the trial, it was archived by the Radziwiłł family for approximately four centuries. Following the transfer of Vyžuonos to the Pusłowski family, the protocol remained in their possession until the mid-20th century. Upon the death of the last Pusłowski family member, Xawery Pusłowski, his extensive collection, including the protocol, was inherited by the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The protocol is currently housed in the university library under storage unit code BJ 329/99, though the sheets within this unit are not numbered.
This document provides valuable insights into the Lithuanian onomasticon by documenting the names of 99 witnesses from the second half of the 15th century. Among these names, some have persisted as personal names or surnames in Lithuania today. However, it is particularly significant to note those that have fallen out of use, such as Bernutis, Daugėidas, Kičius, Madenis / Modenis, Melikhis / Mėlikis, Purpšys, Raugeta / Raugeita, Rimtutis, Tratilas, Videita, Viešgalas, Žadutis / Žodutis, Žvilbutis.
The research also uncovers crucial extra-linguistic information relevant to the study of the personal names of the Lithuanians and Balts. It reveals trends in naming practices, the influence of social status on naming conventions during the period, and the prevalence of Lithuanian names compared to those of other origins.
Received on August 15, 2024.
DARIUS IVOŠKA
Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 5 Petro Vileišio St., LT–10308 Vilnius, Lithuania
Brėžiant Vyžuonų ribą: Šiaurės rytų Lietuvos XV a. asmenvardžiai ir (ne)pmirštas kelias
APPENDIX 1
The text of the publication is divided into sentences, while the paragraphs correspond to those of the manuscript. The use of uppercase and lowercase letters and sentence punctuation has been modernized. In the manuscript, letters written above the line are distinguished in the publication by being set in italics. Additions by the editors that supplement the meaning of the text are given in square brackets. Abbreviations are expanded, with omitted letters written in parentheses. Scholarly comments are provided in footnotes, identifying persons and places.
Most Cyrillic letters no longer in use today have been retained: ѡ, ъ, є, ѧ. Only the form of two letters has been changed. The manuscript’s letter ѹ is rendered as у, and ѡ as я. It should be noted that only in the word Оутену̃ does the form of у correspond to the current letter у.
B. v. [1469–1477]
Members of the Giedraičiai, Utena, Tauragnai, and Balninkai communities and three subjects of Stanislovas (Stankus) Sudivojaitis testify that the boundary of the Vyžuonos estate near Užpaliai was established by Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, along the Brinklįškiai Road.
Original: BJ 329/99, fol. [unnumbered]. Paper, text written in two columns on one sheet measuring 32 × 21 cm. Watermark—a bull’s head, dated 1469 (Wasserzeichensammlung Piccard Online, no. 70183; available online: https://www.wasserzeichen-online.de/wzis/struktur.php?ref=IT1365-PO-70183. Four archival annotations on the verso of the sheet: 1) an entry from approximately the mid-to-second half of the 16th century, Swiadkowie na uszpolskiej ziemię radziwiłowskiej; 2) an entry from approximately the end of the 16th century in a practiced hand, Regestr stary swiadkow na rozgraniczenie miedzy Uszpolom a Wizunami; 3) an entry from the first half of the 18th century, No(mer) 10. Fasc(ykuł) 7. wizunskich; 4) an entry from approximately the 18th–19th century, Regestr swiadkow o rozgraniczenia ziemi ouszpolskiej y outency: bryndhielowa droga, którą czynił Olhird.
Copy (transliteration in Polish characters from the late 18th–early 19th century): BJ 324/99, fol. [unnumbered].
[Left column:] Ⱉ Ушполскую67 земля. Пана Родивилловых68, воевод(ы) троцкого, свѣдковъ. И на перво выставил кґедроитцкіи69 паны у головах: Доумонтъ Вѡиневич, Юшко Яктaилович,
67 Present-day Užpalai town (Užpaliai eldership, Utena district municipality).
68 Radvila Astikaitis (†1477) held the office of Trakai voivode in 1466–1477 (Petrauskas 2003: 215–216; UWKL II 225).
69 Present-day Giedraičiai town (Giedraičiai eldership, Molėtai district municipality).
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Mashko Kginivilovich, Gantsus Kgoilevich, Mitsko Kginivilovich, Pashko Dovkgvidovich, Petraush Shereikovich, Petko Rachevich, Stanko Monkga ilovich, Volotko his brother, Ondryushko Mozheikovich, Gant K gintovtovich, Stanko his brother, Stanko Chizhevich. And all spoke with one voice: “We know that the boundary is the Brinklįškiai Road70, and Olgierd71 established the boundary.” Utena72. Named: Kgin eit K rjachevich, Modenis, Eda, Piktyus, Petkus, Iatsko, Tratil, Věžgal, Daneiko, Rimtis, Benyus, Kitios, Sterksha, Ovguti, Molyuos, Mileishis, Ganos, another Piktyus, Jakub, Rovkg eta, Danilo, Rusteiko, Spiatyuos, Mikolai the bailiff, Sirvid, Mlikis, another
70 In historiography, it was known as the Brengeliškiai, Brengelis, Prengeliškiai, or Prengelis Road. It is mentioned in the 1398 Treaty of Salynas between Lithuania and the Teutonic Order, as well as in the Order’s 1402 agreement with Švitrigaila, Duke of Lithuania; cf. KDL 255; LECUB IV 205, 219, 224, 412; CDP V 168; CEV 52, 82. Translation of the Treaty of Salynas into Lithuanian: LIŠ I 82–83; the road’s name was Lithuanianized depending on the form used in the treaty copy (Brengelishe or Prengelsche), cf. Šmigelskytė-Stukienė 2009: 13; Čelkis 2014: 113, 114, 156; 2021: 54, footnote 215. Oleg Lickevič drew attention to the fact that the road mentioned in the Treaty of Salynas (Brengelischen weg, Prengelsche weҝk), running near the environs of Užpaliai, Utena, and Tauragnai, is probably associated with Brinkiškė Hillfort and the lake of the same name (present-day Daugailiai eldership, Utena district municipality) (Lickevič 2022: 50). For more on Brinkiškė Hillfort, see LAA II 42; Vaitkevičius 2006: 389. There are more place names in the region with the same root Brink- and Brinkl-, see LVŽ I 569. It is likely that local communities preserved a transformed memory of this road for many centuries. The memory may have been preserved not only because local communities used the road, but also because they were obliged—both peasants and nobles—to maintain it. Cf. Čelkis 2021: 103–110. Ethnographic expeditions in 1937 and 1974 in the Švedasai environs (in Švedasai and Miliniškiai village) recorded the Brindelis Road (the card index records roads). According to V. Raginytė, who collected the material in 1974, “The Brindelis road is a little road connecting the Rokiškis and Utena highways. They say that in Napoleon’s time General Brindel led an army along it” (Card Index of Place Names Recorded from Living Speech of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language’s Centre for Research into Baltic Languages and Onomastics (VK)). Only two places bearing Napoleon’s name are known in present-day Lithuania: Napoleon’s Hill, Napoleon’s Cap (VŽ 239); according to Virgilius Pugačiauskas and Olga Mastianica-Stankevič, viewed from the perspective of the Lithuanian national revival at the beginning of the 20th century, the war of 1812 was considered a matter of the Poles and the Polonized nobility, and was therefore an alien site of historical memory. On the other hand, Napoleon and his soldiers’ campaign left a deep imprint on oral folk culture; cf. Pugačiauskas, Mastianica-Stankevič 2021: 86–91; Vaitkevičius 2006: 36 (Paneriai), 51 (Brandelikiškės), 107 (Dūdai), 141 (Lake Variekos), 192 (Akušė), 242 (Mintaučiai), 262 (Skudutiškis), 266 (Svobiškėlis), 298 (Mežionys), 305 (Raudonė), 309 (Sudota), 327 (Čelniukai), 344 (Kupriai), 348 (Linkmenys), 354 (Naujasis Daugėliškis, Navikai), 365 (Rimšėnai), 371 (Tverečius), 389 (Daugilis), 392 (Deguliai), 406 (Kirkiai), 421 (Pakalniai), 444 (Šeimatis), 534 (Ažušiliai), 609 (Aželiai), 645 (Salakas), 652 (Stelmužė); LLP 104–105, 117, 118, 120, 202. The transformed memory associating this road with Napoleon’s army—the road of General Brindel—continues in the Švedasai environs to this day (Guoḃis 2023: 3, 8).
71 Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania (†1377), see Tęgowski 1999: 47–57.
72 The inhabitants of Utena are meant. Present-day Utena town (Utena city eldership, Utena district municipality).
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Rimtutys, Bilia, Bilchak, Martin, Matei. And they all said the same thing: “The boundary is the Brinkliškiai road.”
[Right column:] Еще свѣтчили бискуповы73 люди, товрокгняне74 — Ромеико, Жирблись, Кгирдеико, Нарвио, Іатось, Молдүти, Пурпшис, Совикгинть, Берни, Довѣтать, Видеито, Ликшись, Якубь, Гитень, Иван, Еикгинть, Евнеико, Кгить, Бускуть, Жодути, Петрь, Руть, Станюс. А тыи свѣтчили у тое ж слово.
The men of Prince Ivan Yurievich75, the people of Balninkai76, also testified: Rimkus, Trichis, Narutis, Netikša, Motyus, Beeitis, Droseiko, Mikolai, Mikgos, Bernutis, Dokgilis, Sukgint, Žvilbutis, Dovkg eit, Bilas, Tivus, Molžus, Bin, Miloš, Stanyus, Moteiko, Iakont, Mityus, Možeiko, Sukgintovich, another Možeiko, Mitr, Sovikgeð. And all these witnesses spoke to the same.
The men of Lord Stanko Sudivojevič77: Eda Ekimovich, his brother Monivil, E ka. They testified to the same.
73 Probably the Bishop of Vilnius, Jonas Losovičius (†1481) (Ališauskas et al. 2009: 123–124). As early as 1387, Jogaila, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, granted Tauragnai for the maintenance of the Bishops of Vilnius (Baronas, Rowell 2015: 459–460).
74 The inhabitants of Tauragnai are meant. Present-day Tauragnai town (Tauragnai eldership, Utena district municipality).
75 Probably Prince Jonas Jurgaitis Alšėniškis (†1481). Until now, there had been no data that Prince J. J. Alšėniškis ruled Balninkai or part of it. Nevertheless, it is known that Balninkai (or at least part of it) belonged to his kinsman, Prince Andrius Simonaitis Alšėniškis. After the death of Prince A. S. Alšėniškis and his widow, in 1486 Casimir Jagiellon, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, donated these estates to Anna, the widow of Martynas Goštautas, Voivode of Trakai (Wolff 1895: 107, 97–98). For more on Balninkai, see Wojtkowiak 2005: 65–67; Karalius 2014: 235–237.
76 The inhabitants of Balninkai are meant. Present-day Balninkai town (Balninkai eldership, Molėtai district municipality).
77 Stanislovas (Stankus) Sudivojaitis († before 1481-09-06) (Petrauskas 2003: 299–300).
