Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes „Ragnit“ und „Tilsit“ in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts

DARIUS IVOŠKA Institute of the Lithuanian Language ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0003-3898-0000 Scientific research areas: Onomastics, Baltic-Slavic-German language contacts. DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all83-06 ON THE QUESTION OF THE BALTIC PROPER NAMES OF THE RAGNIT AND TILSIT AREA IN THE ORDER DOCUMENTS OF THE 14TH–15TH CENTURIES On the Baltic proper names of the Ragainė and Tilžė area in 14th–15th-century Order documents ANNOTATION This article deals with the proper names of two selected areas of Prussian Lithuania, Ragnit and Tilsit. The starting point of the study was the investigation of Baltic personal names and, where applicable, place names, with particular attention to their possible previously unknown attestations and etymology. In the course of analyzing the empirical material, the project had to be expanded to address the problems involved in researching historical proper names in general. Consequently, an attempt was made to address, among other things, the scope of research into historical proper names, aspects of its objectives, and the selection and determination of suitable research sources and material. KEYWORDS: historical onomastics, historical proper names, Order folios. ANNOTATION The article examines proper names in two selected areas of Prussian Lithuania, i.e. Ragainė and Tilžė. The primary aim and objective of the research was to examine personal names as well as place names (in case any would have been identified in the course of the 132 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes Ragnit und Tilsit in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts research) with key focus exclusively on their possibly unknown mentions and etymology. However, in the course of the research, the aims and objectives had to be expanded by supplementing them with an attempt to answer questions related to the problems of Historical Onomastics in a broad sense, its research scope, main objectives, the selection of appropriate research sources and materials, etc. KEYWORDS: Historical Onomastics, historical proper names, German Order folios. 1. INTRODUCTION, OBJECTIVE, AND CHOICE OF RESEARCH SUBJECT Research into Baltic historical proper names has, over the course of the last centuries, developed a well-established tradition based on a well-structured methodology. Many fundamental studies have been conducted and numerous works have been written¹. Research on Baltic historical proper names continues today and is easier in some respects than before. Free access to the historical documents available in archives and libraries as well as online, the foundational work of predecessors, and the improved possibilities for processing empirical materials through modern technologies constitute favorable circumstances for the contemporary name scholar to work efficiently. The author of this contribution belongs precisely to the generation of onomasticians whom these circumstances have enabled to become familiar with the highest-quality sources of Baltic historical proper names The first attempts by various skilled scholars and representatives of different fields, inspired by history and onomastics, to register proper names and interpret them may be regarded from the standpoint of modern onomastics as insufficient or deficient, but they are nevertheless of great value. This applies especially to research on Baltic, and particularly Prussian, place and personal names. If, for example, one were to discuss Caspar Hannenberger’s (1595: 156) popular etymological interpretations of certain settlement names in the 16th century, or the controversial “Preußische Siedlungen westlich der Weichsel. Versuch einer etymologischen Deutung heimatlicher Flurnamen” published in 1983 by the Carthusian priest Wilhelm Reinhold Brauer (for more on this, see Ivoška 2016: 213), one might perhaps find much to criticize, but all the empirical material they presented is interesting and important even for contemporary onomastics. The names William Pierson, Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann, Adalbert Bezzenberger, Ernst Lewy, Georg Gerullis, Reinhold Trautmann, Rozalia Przybytek, and Grasil da Blažienė, and their works on which all contemporary historical Baltic onomastics rests, require no introduction or detailed discussion here. 1 The first attempts by various skilled scholars and representatives of different fields, inspired by history and onomastics, to register proper names and interpret them may be regarded from the standpoint of modern onomastics as insufficient or deficient, but they are nevertheless of great value. This applies especially to research on Baltic, and particularly Prussian, place and personal names. If, for example, one were to discuss Caspar Hannenberger’s (1595: 156) popular etymological interpretations of certain settlement names in the 16th century, or the controversial “Preußische Siedlungen westlich der Weichsel. Versuch einer etymologischen Deutung heimatlicher Flurnamen” published in 1983 by the Carthusian priest Wilhelm Reinhold Brauer (for more on this, see Ivoška 2016: 213), one might perhaps find much to criticize, but all the empirical material they presented is interesting and important even for contemporary onomastics. The names William Pierson, Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann, Adalbert Bezzenberger, Ernst Lewy, Georg Gerullis, Reinhold Trautmann, Rozalia Przybytek, and Grasil da Blažienė, and their works on which all contemporary historical Baltic onomastics rests, require no introduction or detailed discussion here. Straipsniai / Articles 133 DARIUS IVOŠKA to become familiar with them. After the thorough, though still incomplete, examination of Order folio no. 105 (hereafter – OF 105), from which the dissertation “Baltic Proper Names in the Documents of the Teutonic Order” resulted, other Order folios essential to Baltic historical onomastics were also analyzed, and the problem of Lithuanian personal names was addressed in several contributions and conferences. In the present contribution, the author turned his attention to another Order folio, namely no. 131 (hereafter – OF 131), which is also known as “Das grosse Zinsbuch des deutschen Ritterordens (1414–1438)” (hereafter – GZB) and is referred to in the scholarly literature as the land register of the Teutonic Order (see Thielen 1958: XXXII). OF 131 is a distinctive register that can be divided into two parts in substantive and chronological terms. The first may be regarded as a handbook of the treasurer and contains information on the amount of arrears, the number of services and peasant hides (Haken) in the sovereign’s villages, as well as inventories of weapons, food supplies, and other items; the second part contains data on the number of occupied and deserted hides in the sovereign’s settlements, the allocation of land districts among village headmen, innkeepers, priests, and rent-paying peasants, the amount and type of rent income, the legal status and performance standards of service estates, and the provisioning and staffing of Order houses and estates. It was compiled by the Order chancery at the time of the economic and political crisis caused by the capitulating defeat of the Teutonic Order at Tannenberg in its struggle against the Lithuanian-Polish forces. The register was intended to serve for strict control and responsible collection of revenues, as well as the recording of debts. Through the responsible administration of financial resources and other property, the Order aimed to rebuild its economic and military power. The records of OF 131 contain numerous place names, including those of rent-paying towns, villages, and estates, as well as the personal names of owners of rent-paying property: innkeepers, village headmen, landowners, and others. OF 131 also provides a great deal of important information about agricultural processes, cultural and social relations, living conditions, and ways of life in the Prussian lands in the first half of the 15th century, offering an informative picture of the property and legal relations of the entire Order state in the modern era2. The aim of this study was to analyze two Prussian-Lithuanian areas, Ragnit and Tilsit, with particular attention to Baltic personal names; after carrying it out, it had to be established that 2 Thielen 1958: XXX–XXXIV. 134 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes Ragnit und Tilsit in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts that no Baltic personal names are documented in OF 131 for the year 1437/1438. Such a result of the investigation relating to the Baltic-named settlement³ was unexpected. The Ragnit-Tilsit area is a historically Schalwian region, originally inhabited by Baltic peoples⁴ and which must have remained predominantly Baltic even in the late Middle Ages. The focus and task of this contribution was therefore shifted to addressing the question of Lithuanians and Prussians in the period between the late Middle Ages and the beginning of the Duchy of Prussia, and their mentions in the documents of the Teutonic Order. If Lithuanians and Prussians had lived there for centuries before and after the Battle of Tannenberg, why do their traces not appear in the principal documents of the Order chancery? 2. THE RAGNIT AND TILSIT AREAS FROM THEIR FIRST MENTIONS IN HISTORICAL SOURCES TO THE DUCHY OF PRUSSIA Ragnit and Tilsit were regarded in European history as areas of Prussian Lithuania until the removal of the Prussian state from the maps of Europe after the Second World War. It is also well known that, in addition to Lithuanians, Poles, Prussians, and Germans lived in this area during the Order period 1231–1525 and afterward in the Duchy of Prussia 1525–1701 (Diehlmann 2008: 9*, 18*–20*). A very interesting period in the history of the areas under discussion is the second half of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era, between the establishment of the Order state and the beginning of the Duchy of Prussia. Ragnit and Tilsit are mentioned relatively early in historical sources. Peter of Dusburg describes the establishment of a settlement on a hill by the Memel River, which he says resulted from Brother Meneko’s incursion into the pagan land of Schalwen on Saint George the Martyr’s day ³ The earliest settlements are known from the Ice Age on the basis of archaeological data. One of them, mentioned by German historians as Landeshutte, is called the castle Raganita in 1289 in SRP I 151. Its name goes back to the river name, Lithuanian Ragnytė, and is connected with Lithuanian rãgas ‘a pointed piece of land extending into a body of water, a projecting promontory’ (Pēteraitis 1997: 323; MLE III 824, 835). ⁴ For more on this, see Chapter 2. Straipsniai / Articles 135 DARIUS IVOŠKA and the establishment of the castle Landeshute, which, according to Dusburg⁵, was already called Raganita around 1289 ⁶, begins. In the Preußisches Urkundenbuch (hereinafter – PUB), PUB I 363 mentions in 1291, among the witnesses to the act granting 10 haken to a Lithuanian refugee, “frater Conrad Stange comptur in Landeshute⁷”. It is credible that one of the first, if not the first, direct mention of the castle name Ragnitie can be found in documents written in Latin from the year 1300⁸. The name varies in different documents written in German: in the charter of 1302 preserved in the PUB, on the basis of which a part of the field Gryndin was granted to the Sambian Walgune by Konrad Sack, landmaster of the Teutonic Order, the witness “brudir Walrod von Lydelow kumpthur zcu Rang[nit]” was also mentioned. In other documents from 1302 and 1307, further records of Commander Walrod von Lydelow also follow, with the name varying between Rangnith and Rangnithe PUB I 483, 554; in the Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum (hereinafter – SRP), among the entries in the “Annales Pelplinenses”, one finds Ragenitien⁹; furthermore, the “Kurze Reimchronik von Preussen” records Rangnîten¹⁰. The territory and the town Ragnit were also frequently mentioned in OF 105, particularly in the descriptions of the borders of the Prussian landscapes in 1352 hus ⁵ The chronicle of Prussia by Peter of Dusburg is also available in an edition in Lithuanian (Lithuanian Petras Dusburgietis. Prūsijos žemės kronika), edited by Romas Batūra. The edition also contains the editor’s explanations, additions, and critical comments, which should provide a more precise overview not only of historical events but also of additional information about mentions of settlements and persons. The publication of such a work could, however, have been much more helpful and convenient to use if it had not only been fully translated but also provided with the original texts alongside the translation. ⁶ In the year of Our Lord 1289, the same Brother Meneko, desiring with the greatest eagerness to expand the borders and lands of the Christians and of Prussia, came with all the power of his warriors on the day of blessed George the martyr to the land of the Schalwings, and, to the praise of God and his glory, built a castle on a certain hill above the Memel, Landeshute, which in Latin means guardianship of the land, but is now commonly called Raganita... (SRP I 151). ⁷ On the basis of the charter of 1 May 1291, 10 hides of land were granted to Syrgele, who had fled Lithuania, and his heirs in the land of Wangen (see Blažienė 2000: 168, Wangen, Labiau district, Caymen parish), in the field of Mynxtrym (see Blažienė 2000: 95, Mynxtrym, deserted settlement in the land of Wangen, Labiau district). ⁸ In the document concerning the exchange of landholding in Grindes (Blažienė 2000: 45–46, Gründen, Labiau district, Legitten parish) Wilchytien (Wilkietihen, Gerullis 1922: 201), the witness “frater Ludewicus de Libencelle commendator in Ragnitie” is mentioned, PUB I 463. ⁹ Since Ragenitien, one thousand two hundred ninety-eight years (SRP I 271). ¹⁰ A year thereafter the Lithuanians were eager: they began to besiege Ragnîten and rode very vigorously here and there SRP II 8. 136 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes Ragnit und Tilsit in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts Rangnithen (OF 105 2ᵛ, 39ʳ, 39ᵛ, Ragnittin (OF 105 12ᵛ) and in the charters of 1342 fideli nostro Henconi de Rgnithen (OF 105 245ʳ), as well as around 1370–1400 Ragniten (OF 105 169ʳ, 208ʳ). Furthermore, Wigand of Marburg’s chronicle contains Ragneta¹¹; in many Lithuanian road reports, amid frequent variations, the form Ragnit¹² is already found in route description no. 12 from around 1393. The name was also recorded variously in the collection of documents “Die Türkensteuer im Herzogtum Preußen 1540¹³⁴”:...furm schlos Rangenit,...ampt Rangnidt (Diehlmann 2008: 129, 130). In his description of the Schalauer land in 1584, Caspar Hennenberger¹⁴ (1584: 38–40) mentions Ragnit several times, but also writes it as Ragnit and Rangit. Christophorus Hartknoch (1684: 409–410 describes Ragnit as a large administrative district, town, and castle. According to him, the castle itself must at that time have been “one of the best castles in the Duchy of Prussia”. The earliest indirect mention of Tilsit appears to be documented in SRP II 85, in the 14th-century chronicle of Hermann of Wartberg: In the same year [1365], around Valentine’s Day, three castles in Prussia were captured by Lithuanians, namely those of the Schalwings at Ragnithen, Kaustriten, and Splitter, with all the people carried off... The Schalwian castle is identified by the editors of SRP as the later Tilsit castle. The Tilsit castle was not built until 1407–1408, also on the site of the former Schalwian castle. According to Lucas David (1813: 86), the newly built castle on the Memel was “not as large or as strong as the first,” which had burned down, but it was intended to defend against the constant attacks of enemies ¹¹ At last, in the same year [1347], the same king came near Ragneta, where he stayed for three days and caused much disturbance with fire and plunder, etc. SRP II 509. ¹² This road was taken by Zada of Laukirken, Wilkyn of Labiow, Gedekant, and Waynigede of Ragnit SRP II 673. This route description is also available in Lithuanian to readers familiar with the Lithuanian language in “Kraštas ir žmonės: Lietuvos geografinių ir etnografinių aprašymai (XIV–XIX a.)”, edited by Juozas Jurginis and Algirdas Šidlauskas, 1988. In this edition, the transmissions of place and personal names are given partly in Lithuanianized and partly in non-Lithuanianized form; the original text of the route reports from the SRP is not provided alongside it. This diminishes the value and usability of the publication to such an extent that in some respects it can hardly be used as a reliable source for scholarly purposes. ¹³ Printed edition of “the East Prussian Folio” 911a (hereafter – Ostpr. Fol. 911a) by Hans Heinz Diehlmann, 2008. ¹⁴ In his work “Kurtze vnd warhafftige Beschreibung des Landes zu Preussen” (1584). Straipsniai / Articles 137 DARIUS IVOŠKA necessary. The contemporary chronicler Johann von Posilge15 reports on the construction of two houses, “one house on the Memel called Tylsat, and one house in Samogitia called Vredeborg16,” both included in the chronicle chapter “Houses were built in Samogitia” (SRP III 291). The first administrator of Tilsit has been known since 143617. Another castle in the Ragnit commandery was built by Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode around 1360 on the right bank of the Memel River and called Neuhaus18. Near Tilsit stood the houses of Splittern19 and Caustritten20, both first mentioned in 1365. Six miles above Ragnit, Grand Master Karl von Trier founded the castle Christmemel21 in 1313; it also had a vogt around 1409. In 1259–1260, the Georgenburg22 was established; it was later destroyed and rebuilt only in 133623. In the same year 15 Johann von Posilge / de Pुसilie was a historian who must have been born around 1340 in Posilge (Polish Żuławka near Marienburg, in former West Prussia, now the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship) and died on 14 July 1405. In 1372 he was provost in Deutsch-Eylau (Polish Iława, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship); from 1376 he served as official of the Diocese of Pomesania in Riesenburg (Polish Prabuty, Pomeranian Voivodeship) and as provost in Ladekopp (Polish Lubieszewo near Gdańsk) (Access: http://www.geschichtsquellen.de/autor/3337 [accessed 10.10.2020]; SRP III 31–38). 16 After the siege of Welun (Lithuanian Veliuōna) by the Teutonic Order in 1328 and its total destruction in 1333, Duke Henry of Bavaria erected a new castle called Frieden­burg (Kviklys 1965: 339). 17 Pėteraitis (1997: 406) derives the place name Tilsit from the river name Lithuanian Tilžė and connects it with Lithuanian tilžti ‘to become wet, waterlogged’, tilžūs ‘waterlogged and wet ground’. Daiva Deltuvienė (2006: 216) also discusses the place name, but unfortunately does not note the earliest attestations of Tilsit; she gives Tilse / Tilsit from 1785 as the earliest. In a scholarly work devoted to the place names of the 14th–18th centuries, it would nevertheless be useful to provide the earliest known attestation of the historical place name. 18 The castle Neuhaus (Lithuanian Naujieji Namai, Naujoji pilis) must have been converted into a stone castle around 1404–1409 (Kviklys 1968: 728; MLE IV 524). 19 Lithuanian Spitrė; the castle was built around the same time as the castle of Caustritter, later destroyed, and never rebuilt (Kviklys 1968: 728; MLE IV 521). 20 Lithuanian Kaustrýčios; after its destruction, the castle was never mentioned again in historical sources. It must have stood 4 km east of Tilsit on the hill later called Tilsiter Schloßberg, on the Memel River (MLE IV 521). 21 The wooden castle Christmemel (Lithuanian Skirsnemunė) was built in a forest 55 km from Ragnit opposite the Lithuanian castle of Bisena (Kviklys 1968: 594). 22 The Georgenburg (Lithuanian Jūrbarkas) is considered one of the oldest and most frequently mentioned castles of the Teutonic Order in Lithuania in historical sources (Vanagas 1996: 82). 23 It should be noted that our men are now compelled to transport provisions to the castle of Jurgenburg, situated in the land of the Lithuanians CDP III 1848: 123–124. 138 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes Ragnit und Tilsit in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts also Marienburg24 on the island of Romayn25 and, in 1337, near Welun26, opposite the ruined Christmemel, built the Baierburg27. Furthermore, in 1369, after the Grand Duke of Lithuania had rebuilt the destroyed Kowno Castle28 on the island of Wyrgall29 opposite Naweze30, Winrich von Kniprode built Gotteswerder31 as a defensive fortress. If it is true that in 1389 two houses were built at Gotteswerder on the site of the destroyed older one32, then Goteswerder must have become the principal support of Order rule in Samogitia at the beginning of the 15th century. Marienwerder33 on the Nerge34 was the most advanced outpost into pagan Lithuania 24 For the rebuilding of Georgenburg and the founding of Marienburg, see also Batūra, “Piestvēs pilis Lietuvos gynyboje. Legendinės Lietuvos pradžios pilis”, 2003: 96. 25 Voigt (IV 544) presents the founding of Marienburg as the hurried construction of a fortress intended to protect against attacks by pagan Lithuania. The castle stood on the island of Romain (Lithuanian Romáinių salà), located at the confluence of the rivers Dubysa and Memel (Batūra 2003: 89). 26 Kowno (Lithuanian Kaūnas) is located 55 km northwest of Welun (Lithuanian Veliuõna) and is among the oldest and most significant settlements in Lithuania (Kviklys 1965: 338; Vanagas 1996: 82). 27 Die Baierburg, named after the Bavarian duke Henry of Bavaria (Latin Hinricus dux Bavariae), SRP II 501, was one of the strategically most important castles and one of those farthest from the Prussian lands. The first Baierburg was built in 1337 and the third and last in 1387; the latter was rebuilt on the site of Georgenburg and later also called by that name (Zabiela 2005: 163–164). Voigt (IV 545) describes it, alongside Marienburg (on the island of Romayn), as the second strong castle on the Memel River. 28 The first castle of Kowno, known since 1361 (Latin Kauwe, Lithuanian Kaūnas), was destroyed on Palm Sunday in 1362, SRP II 81. 29 Lithuanian Virgalės sala, on the Memel River at the confluence of the Memel and the Nawezo River (Lithuanian Nevėžis) (Access: https://www.vle.lt/Straipsnis/Gotteswerder-26767 [accessed 3.11.2020]). 30 Lithuanian Nevėžis, the right-bank tributary of Memel. 31 According to the reports of Lindenblatt / Posilie (1823: 31), the castle Gotteswerder must have been conquered by Lithuanians, but later recaptured by the Order. On the founding of Gotteswerder, see also (Access: https://www.vle.lt/Straipsnis/Gotteswerder-26767 [accessed on 3.11.2020]). 32 Lindenblatt / Posilie (1823: 115) reports on the construction of two houses in place of the destroyed one, in which several Gebietiger together with many skilled construction workers participated for four weeks from Pentecost onward. Voigt (VI 173, 193) also mentions the strengthening of the fortresses in Ragnit and Gotteswerder. 33 Wigand of Marburg reports on the construction of Marienwerder in the year 1384, SRP II 626. 34 Also Wilia, Lithuanian Neris, the second-largest river of Lithuania and the largest (right-bank) tributary of Memel. Straipsniai / Articles 139 DARIUS IVOŠKA A castle built on the site of old Kowno under Konrad Zöllner von Rothenstein in 1384 and destroyed in the same year by Witold³⁵. 2.1. Ragnit and Tilsit in OF 131 A more precise and complete picture of the historical events throughout Prussia, in the regions discussed here and in all territories inhabited by Baltic peoples, is provided by the historical documents composed after the arrival³⁶ of the Teutonic Order and the formation of the Order State. Since the languages of the Baltic tribes had no writing of their own in the pre-Order period, the history of the area is based predominantly not on the historical traditions of native chroniclers. When dealing with the history of Prussia or of the Baltic peoples in general, it may be asserted that it has been presented in diverse works without major “gaps”; however, when precise, research-specific, and locally restricted data are needed, purely historical works are usually insufficient. Therefore, the Order chancellery documents, i.e. those from OF 131, are also used, among other sources, to investigate the focus of this article. At the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries, the names Ragnit and Tilsit appear much more frequently in the historical sources, especially in various documents of the Order chancellery, which help to provide a clearer picture of the regions of Prussia under consideration. The main source used in conducting this study is OF 131. Its entries, comprising both lists of income and inventories of weapons, food supplies, and other items, provide a wealth of high-quality and detailed information about the towns, villages, their inhabitants, social conditions, and so forth. It is impossible today to determine exactly what possessions the towns and regions Ragnit and Tilsit had at the beginning of the 15th century, around 1419–1438, but the entries in OF 131 testify to a well-developed administration of household affairs and the procurement of supplies to meet the needs of the inhabitants in the town and the commandery: ³⁵ Lindenblatt / Posilie (1823: 55–56). ³⁶ Since the beginning of the 13th century (1226–1235), when the conquest of the Prussian tribes began, the native peoples fell under the power of a new realm in which not only literate chroniclers but also administrative and chancery officials acted as certain kinds of historians (Ivoška 2019: 7). 140 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes Ragnit und Tilsit in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts Ragnite Dijje nochgeschreben notdorfft ist zcu Ragnite vff dem huße Czu erſten In der kuchеn P[r1]mo i schock flicken flej̈ch vnd v flicken Item xvi ochßen an trug flej̈che Item xxx sch Erwiß vn viii ton̄en habir grutcze Item uij m h̄n keze Item xv ſmere ungelmelçet Vnd uij ton̄e gelmelç ſmer Item ij ton̄e potter Item xxxvi ton̄e ſalç Item keller vnd baghuße Çu erſten xviij ſch gerſte vnd uijC ſch hoppe Iſe xxix leſte korniß vnd ii leſte weße Iſe x ſteyn buchßen v̄ xxi lothbuchlen Iſe vij to pulȝ Iſe m schok pfiele vn uij schok armbroſt Straipsniai / Articles 141 DARIUS IVOŠKA This is the provision in the malt house: 100 and 70 measures of malt. Item, 100 hops in the cellar; first, 15 barrels of beer, the barrel of two tons. Item, in the bakehouse, 13 sacks of flour. Item, 2 grindstones with flour. In the kitchen: first, 100 and 10 pieces of meat. Item, 4 oxen for roast meat. Item, 1 barrel of dry meat. Item, 2 barrels of poppy seeds. Item, 3 barrels of groats. Item, 5 barrels of hemp seed. Item, 1 load of peas. Item, 1 barrel of salmon. Item, 1 barrel of sturgeon. Item, 1 barrel of oil. Item, 3 barrels of cod. Item, 8 tons of flounder. In OF 131, 9 rent-paying kretczem in the town of labiau (Labiau)³⁷ and a further uffim lande 8 inns, 33 garte (gardens), and 2 molen <...> uf­fim lande are documented. The villages belonging to the commandery, Gertlaucken³⁸ with 26 belacȝ hube and 16 mŗg and 3 1/2 Jc., as well as dorff Pippeln³⁹ with 28 huben and 132 mŗg 19 1/2 Jc.; item do hat my̆ hŗ im camerampth zcu Labiau mit 116 besaczer huß item do hat my̆ hŗ irr camerampth zcu Laucken⁴⁰ geburJche besacȝer hoken must have paid the commandery of Ragnit a substantial amount in rent charges (OF 131 201–202). Here, It[em] jCˣj (121) frye dinJte In beyden kamerampten (i.e. in the chamber offices of Ragnit and Labiau), It[em] ¹¹Jchoken xij (162 1/2) dy beJacȝt Jint, It[em] xxiv (24 1/2) wuJte hoken are worth mentioning; they testify to the granting of land holdings on an hereditary basis, carried out as early as the 14th century (OF 131 75). ³⁷ Labiau, Labiau District, Labiau parish (Blažiene 2000: 75). ³⁸ Gertlauken, Old and New Gertlauken, Labiau District (Blažiene 2005: 64). ³⁹ Perhaps Piplinn, Memel District, Heinrichswalde administrative district (Goldbeck 1785: 120). ⁴⁰ Perhaps Lauken or Woynothen, Insterburg District (Goldbeck 1785: 84). 142 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes Ragnit und Tilsit in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts Tilsit occurs less frequently than Ragnit in OF 131, and the entries concerning rent-paying persons are considerably fewer, mainly relating to weapons and equipment units: 1419... and czur Thilȝad It[em] xiij (13) lodbuchȝen, It[em] / (1) steynbuchȝe. Tylȝad. It[em] iiij (4) steynbuchȝen, It[em] x (10) lotbuchȝen (OF 131 75). The section of OF 131 listing the armaments in the Ragnit region also contains a brief register of persons who possessed certain arms supplies: The following gentlemen to be written down at Ragnithe: first, Sir Echard Kaneworff had two horses in armor; Sir Kypolt, commander of the household, three horses in armor; Sir Johan von Ryßletey, three horses in armor; Sir Erbert von Truxes, administrator at Tiljeth, three horses in armor; Sir Wirĵberger; Sir Andrewiß ſnellewalt Schumeiſt Ite h johan willemethe ſmedemeiſt Ite h apucȝ ſtange iij pferde vȯn h[arnisch] Ite h michel hellewayn iij pferde harnisch Ite h kylian iij pferde vȯn h[arnisch] Ite h jurge prijſther Ite her joßeß armbroſt kuchmeiſt Ite hr nicluſ priſt[er] h[er] (OF 131 202). Straipsniai / Articles 143 DARIUS IVOŠKA In the sections of OF 131 concerning the Ragnit and Tilsit regions under consideration, Baltic personal names were also sought; they had to become the principal subject of the study, but are scarcely recorded there. Only one man—Apucz Stange—of the 12 persons named may have borne a Lithuanian name. Cf. also the name of a Lithuanian, Apus, who in 1353, together with his cousin Pomyne as a refugee41 from Lithuania, had received from Winrich von Kniprode, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, und eren beyden ereben und nokomelingen czwene hoken land at Gauleden (Wehlau District, Tapiau chamber office) (OF 105 70r). It is highly plausible that in the case of Apucz Stange this is merely a different way of recording the ending of the given name. The Lithuanian PN Apus is regarded as a one-stem Lithuanian PN derived from Lithuanian ãpušė ‘aspen, trembling poplar’42. All the other personal names of the Ragnit inhabitants mentioned in OF 131 are of German origin. However, if one traces the names of the inhabitants of the Ragnit-Tilsit region in later documents of the Teutonic Order, Baltic personal names are very frequent and numerous: 1539 Petraschs Budrei-tis, Jacob Nareickeitis, Michael Szadmantis, Gregoll Szadmantaitis; 1539 Dapkus; Wotickus Mantuteitis, Jacob Gailaitis (Diehlmann 2008: 16–17, 23); 1540 Mansche Darge; Johan Gedemyn; Waytkus Mergus, Peter Marge; Kyrkuth, Michell Sakuten (Diehlmann 2006: 25, 43, 49). The historical source used here for study and data comparison—The Turkish Tax in the Duchy of Prussia 1540—was selected because of its similarity to OF 131 in terms of execution and purpose. The absence of Baltic personal names in the sections of OF 131 concerning Ragnit and Tilsit around 1419–1438, and their astonishing frequency in Ostpr. Fol. 911a around 1539–1540, require thorough analysis and a search for an explanation, which must be the subject of another contribution. It can presumably only be asserted that this must be due to several factors: it may be that Lithuanians and 41 This concerns a grant of land to refugees from Lithuania who had lost their property in their homeland. Such persons and their heirs were usually granted certain plots of land hereditarily on the basis of privileges. Such documents contained specific conditions of the grant, including, in the event of the conquest and baptism of Lithuania, provision for the recovery of the property. 42 For more on this, see Ivoška (2018: 38–39). 43 The creation of such a register was prompted by the edicts of 1529, 1532, and 1535, which were sent to all offices of the Duchy of Prussia and called for the collection of the “Turkish tax” to finance armament against the Ottoman attack. For more on this, see Diehlmann (1998: 15–21). 144 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes Ragnit und Tilsit in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts Prussians did not possess taxable property during the period under discussion, or it is connected with the objective circumstances and the intentions of the GZB. 3. ON THE RESEARCH PROBLEMATICS AND SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH SUBJECT IN HISTORICAL ONOMASTICS This article and the topics addressed in it may serve as a fitting demonstration of how complex and difficult to predict the study of a selected subject of investigation can be. If the task involved analyzing historical sources and the empirical material contained in them, or interpreting historical proper names, it would not be possible to expect that sufficient data, both qualitatively and quantitatively, would necessarily be available. Here it is necessary to state briefly but precisely what is to be understood by the sources to be investigated in historical name studies. Unlike contemporary onomastics, the researcher of historical proper names may not restrict themselves to name registers, databases, or official administrative documents—whether data from civil registration offices or church registers—which, among other things, regularly and almost completely provide information. The most valuable and important primary sources for historical proper names are precisely the holdings of archives and libraries, which contain the oldest and most reliable records of proper names. It is noteworthy that such holdings largely consist of documents whose purpose was not to record place and/or personal names, but either to write history or to collect and preserve precise administrative or household information, e.g. tax, debt, and inventory registers, contracts, privileges, and so forth. Therefore, the scope of historical onomastics has no temporal, spatial, or subject-defined boundaries. In dealing with the subject mentioned, the researcher of historical proper names is repeatedly surprised either by astonishing new discoveries or by the lack of evidence necessary for precise conclusions. The absence of expected or reasonably anticipated evidence of proper names in the available sources need not necessarily be regarded as a failure, because it then raises other broad questions for deeper scholarly Straipsniai / Articles 145 DARIUS IVOŠKA discussion. Moreover, it must also be emphasized that the field of study and interests of historical name studies is not limited to proper names themselves, but also concerns their broad context of origin, use, and transmission. 4. CONCLUSIONS The conclusion of the article may be summarized as follows: 1. The evidence reliably establishes that the historical Schalwian territories Ragnit and Tilsit were Baltic territories from the earliest known times and were also predominantly inhabited by indigenous inhabitants of Baltic origin. The German place names Vredenburg, Christmemel, Georgenburg, Marienburg, Baierburg, among others, documented in the historical sources of the 13th–14th centuries alongside the Lithuanian place or river names Caustritten, Splittern, Romayn, Welun, Wyrgalle, Nawezo, which at that time were located in the Ragnit-Tilsit area, testify to the renaming of places where the Teutonic Order had established its settlements. The facts connected with the historical events are well known to Lithuanian historical scholarship; Lithuanian onomastics is well acquainted with the place names, and almost all of them have been discussed, although the Lithuanian editions of some historical sources require critical and responsible consideration when used in onomastic research, and, in my opinion, this absolutely must be undertaken. The author also sees this as his task, in order to explain the enigmatic absence of the missing Baltic proper names. 2. The areas of focus in historical name studies to be investigated, the prospects conditioned by them and based on previous research, and the objectives of further investigations do not in certain cases yield outstanding discoveries and unequivocal results; rather, they create the prerequisites for continuous discussion of sources and material. The sole personal name of a Lithuanian inhabitant from the Ragnit region, Apucz Stange, which was mentioned among persons of German origin in OF 131, need not necessarily indicate that this region was not inhabited by Lithuanians and Prussians around 1419–1438. On the contrary, the tax registers of the Duchy of Prussia compiled a hundred years later, which contain numerous Baltic (Prussian and Lithuanian) personal names, oblige the contemporary name scholar to determine why the sought personal names are absent from documents dating from a hundred years earlier. For this purpose, it will be necessary to search for additional sources concerning the same 146 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII Zur Frage der baltischen Eigennamen des Gebietes Ragnit und Tilsit in den Ordensdokumenten des 14.–15. Jahrhunderts area and for evidence possibly documented in them. 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Hannig, Königsberg: in der Hartungschen Hofbuchdruckerei. Deltuvienė Daiva 2006: Baltic Oikonyms of Lithuania Minor from the 14th–18th Centuries, Vilnius: Vilnius University Press. Diehlmann Hans Heinz 1998: The Turkish Tax in the Duchy of Prussia 1540, vol. 1, Fischhausen – Schaaken – Neuhausen – Labiau, Hamburg: published by the association itself. Diehlmann Hans Heinz 2006: The Turkish Tax in the Duchy of Prussia 1540, vol. 2, Memel – Tilsit, Hamburg: published by the association itself. Diehlmann Hans Heinz 2008: The Turkish Tax in the Duchy of Prussia 1540, vol. 3, Ragnit – Interburg and Saalau, Hamburg: published by the association itself. Gerullis Georg 1922: The Old Prussian Place Names, Berlin and Leipzig: Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher Verleger Walter de Gruyter & Co. Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages. Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Access: http://www.geschichtsquellen.de/autor/3337. Goldbeck Johann Friedrich 1785: Complete Topography of the Kingdom of Prussia. Part One, Containing the Topography of East Prussia, Königsberg and Leipzig: at the author’s own expense and in his own publishing house. Straipsniai / Articles 147 DARIUS IVOŠKA GZB – The Great Rent Book of the Teutonic Order (1414–138), ed. P. G. Thielen, Marburg: N. G. Elwert Verlag, 1958. Hartknoch Christophorus 1684: Old and New Prussia, or Two Parts of Prussian History, Frankfurt and Leipzig, Königsberg: published by Martin Hallervorden / booksellers in Königsberg. Hennenberger Casparus 1584: A Brief and Truthful Description of the Land of Prussia. By Casparus Hennenberger, pastor at Mühlhausen in Natangen. In Königsberg in Prussia. Ivoška Darius 2017: Remarks on the Problems of Baltic Place Names West of the Vistula. – Acta Linguistica Lithuanica 74, 208–225. Ivoška Darius 2018: Baltic Proper Names in the Documents of the Teutonic Order: Dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor, Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language. 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Straipsniai / Articles 149 DARIUS IVOŠKA On the Baltic proper names of the Ragainė and Tilžė region in the 14th–15th-century documents of the Order ABSTRACT The author of this article, having examined in his earlier research several sources important for the historical Lithuanian and Prussian onomasticon—folios of the Teutonic Order—this time selected another folio, hitherto unstudied by him, No. 131, known as “The Great Rent Book of the Teutonic Order 1414–1438” (“Das grosse Zinsbuch des deutschen Ritterordens (1414–1438)”). This collection of the Teutonic Order’s financial documents is one of the most important historical sources in which a researcher of the onomasticon finds an abundance of place names and personal names in the registers of rent payers, inventories, owners of immovable and movable property, and taxed towns and villages. Two areas of Prussian Lithuania were selected for the study—Ragainė and Tilžė. The initial object of the study was Lithuanian and Prussian personal names, without excluding possible new facts associated with place names. During the study, after only one Baltic, most probably Lithuanian-origin, personal name—Apucz Stange—was found, questions arose that are examined in this article with the help of historical sources covering evidence from the area under investigation from the Teutonic Order’s invasion of the Prussian lands in the twelfth century to 1540, the period of the Duchy of Prussia. The article not only presents the historical context of Ragainė and Tilžė and briefly examines the ethnic composition and social relations of the area’s inhabitants, but also addresses the problems of historical onomastic research: the boundaries of the research object, aspects of selecting sources and material for study, and the nature and challenges of the research. Submitted on 15 November 2020. DARIUS IVOŠKA Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 5 Petro Vileišio St., LT–10308 Vilnius, Lithuania [email protected] 150 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXIII