The Northern Crusades: Second Edition

This book covers the Christianization of the Baltic region during the late middle ages. Christiansen does a very nice job assimilating the archaelogical and historical evidence, and then explaining it and telling a good "story" in a very readable fashion. This is a very complex area, and Christiansen has to deal with the collision of four different linguistic groups and cultural traditions: 1. The Christian West Germanic and North Germanic peoples, i.e., Saxons, Danes, Swedes, etc. 2. The pagan Baltic peoples such as the Latvians and Lithuanians. 3. The pagan Finnic peoples, including the Finns and Estonians, but also many tribes whose language and culture barely survives today, such as the Livonians, Ingrians, Karelians, etc. 4. The partially Christianized Slavic tribes.

There is very little published in English about this time and place in history. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject, or in the Baltic region in general, especially someone interested in a good overview as a start. As I've indicated, in spite of the complexity of the subject, it does read well.

As Christiansen notes early on, this extraordinary phase in Eastern European history has had little impact on popular memory. The only film to depict the Northern Crusades was Eisensteins 1937 classic, "Alexander Nevsky," a thinly-veiled piece of Soviet anti-German propaganda which portrayed the Teutonic Knights as cruel and hypocritical savages, destined for a deservingly bloody fate. Absent this kind of rank oversimplification, however, it is well-nigh impossible to find a single constituency with whom the modern observer might empathize. Of the Teutonic knights, one has to ask, how did a group of intelligent, ostensibly religious men take it upon themselves to visit extermination on so wide a scale? Not that the heathen Baltic peoples who they professed to "save" were particularly cuddly, either. As bizarre was the prolific, but genocidal St. Bridget of Sweden, whose many pamphlets encouraged Swedish and Teutonic crusaders to kill any pagan who refused instant baptism, on the grounds that the sooner their sinful lives were terminated, the better. This is a compelling history of the bizarre series of wars which introduced Christianity to Prussia and which forged the future of modern Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.

This is a very readable account of a subject largely inaccessible to the general reader. It covers the conquest and conversion of the pagan tribes of the Southern and Eastern Baltic Coasts from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the extension of German civilisation north-eastwards and the collision, and ultimate uneasy equilibrium between Latin and Orthodox Christianity in the area. The surprise of the book, for this reader at least, is the fact that the Dark Ages endured in this corner of Europe well into Medieval times, and that Paganism was still a vibrant force there almost until the period of the Renaissance. A significant strength of the book is the introductory section, which provides a fascinating overview of the peoples and cultures of the area at the opening of the period covered, and this is built upon in greater detail, when necessary in more detailed accounts of specific campaigns. The linkage to the overall Crusading ideal is well handled and though the transformation of the Teutonic Knights from a warrior order in Frankish Palestine to a frontier force skilled in forest, river and marshland warfare is a dominant theme, the roles of the Danes, Swedes and Russians, not to mention a host of Baltic tribes, receive equal attention. The mechanics of the warfare of the period, including the particular constraints imposed by climate and terrain, are well handled. In summary - a splendidly informative work that cast light on an obscure period that bred baleful myths with dire consequences in more recent times.

This book should be in e v e r y classroom in Europe and USA. It is an absolute must-read for everyone trying to understand European and especially Eastern European peoples history. Together with "History of the Goths" and "Agricola and Germania -Tacitus/Mattinly" reading this book will clarify Eastern European History , which for too long has been falsified, ignored or outright silenced away by intimidation.

This is an excellent introduction to the history of the Teutonic Order and the various "crusades" they carried out around the Baltic. It also covers Swedish activity in Finland.

The author carefully avoids the nationalistic controversies which still plague the history of the region. The account is even-handed in its treatment of the Order, its strengths & failures, and of the native peoples who were crusaded against.

It is a fast read with a lively narrative. I can highly recommended the book.