wapipedia.org

Widewuto

 

Widewuto or Waidewut, a legendary early king of the Prussians, ruled along with his brother, the priest Bruteno in the area known as Prussia, according to s recorded in later times. Adalbert of Prague was martyred by the Prussians in 997 after the holy oak of the Prussians was cut by Adalbert, Bishop of Warmia, with an axe given to him by Christ himself. After seeing the power of their gods destroyed, the Prussians became Christian, according to Vita Sancti Adalberti. It should be pointed out that the story of the holy oak and its felling closely imitates the story of Saint Boniface felling the holy oak of the Saxons or the earlier Saint Martin of Tours felling a sacred oak in Poitou. It is possible that either the evangelist or the story-tellers imitated earlier examples. According to sagas, Waidewut had twelve sons, whose names were memorialized in the districts of Prussia and adjoining districts they controlled. Some of these names are coincidentally and anachronistically linked to the names of leaders of other peoples, for example, the Frankish merchant leader King Samo, known to us from the Chronicle of Fredegar. King Samo ruled from 622-658. His realm was probably mainly in Moravia, Lower Austria, Slovakia and Carinthia.

 



Related articles may be found in:


More information may be found on the Wikipedia entry for Widewuto
Note: this article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.


Wapipedia > Index > W > Wi > Wid > Widewuto



Random Entry