Simon Grunau (c. 1470 – c. 1530) was the author ofPreussische Chronik,[nb 1] the first comprehensivehistory of Prussia. The only personal information available is what he wrote himself in his work: that he was aDominican priest from Tolkemit (Tolkmicko) nearFrauenburg (Frombork) just north of Elbing (Elbląg) in theMonastic State of the Teutonic Order.[1] He preached in Danzig (Gdańsk) and claimed to have metPope Leo X and Polish KingSigismund I the Old. The chronicle was written in theGerman language sometime between 1517 and 1529. Its 24 chapters deal with Prussian landscape, agriculture, inhabitants, their customs, and history from earliest times to up to 1525 when theProtestantDuchy of Prussia was created.[2] It also contains a short (about a hundred words) vocabulary of thePrussian language, one of the very few written artifacts of this extinct language. While often biased and based on dubious sources, this work became very popular and is the principal source of information onPrussian mythology.[3] The chronicle circulated as a frequently copied manuscript and was first published in 1876. Modern historians often dismiss thePreussische Chronik as a work of fiction.[2]
Grunau lived at the time of political division and fierce religious conflicts in Prussia, and as a Catholic priest, was biased against Protestants. In 1525, theMonastic State of the Teutonic Knights was transformed into theDuchy of Prussia, the firstLutheran state in the world.[4]Royal Prussia, under the sovereignty of theCrown of Poland, also became largely Lutheran; only theBishopric of Warmia remained Catholic.
Traditions of theOld Prussians, the indigenous people of the region prior to thePrussian Crusade andinflux of German colonists, were used in an attempt to find a common ground.[4] Under such circumstances, Grunau was extremely critical of theTeutonic Knights and favored local Prussians, emphasizing their non-German origin.[3] He wrote about their origins, customs, and religion in order to differentiate the Prussians from the Germans.
Grunau claimed that he incorporated an ancient chronicle, written by the first Prussian bishopChristian (died in 1245).[5] Supposedly Grunau discovered the manuscript, calledLiber filiorum Belial, three hundred years after it was written. Christian's manuscript itself used three sources: personal observations by Christian, a book written by parish priest Jarosław fromPłock, and notes by naturalist Dywonys, who was a sole survivor of an expedition stranded in Prussia by accident.[4] Dywonys kept a diary in Russian using theGreek alphabet. His notes were discovered only 1200 years later by Christian. No such manuscripts are known to exist and scholarly consensus is that the entire story was invented by Grunau.[4]
For the history of more recent times Grunau used all available sources (such as chronicles byPeter von Dusburg, official documents of the Teutonic Knights, and especially works by Erasmus Stella)[3] and added his own imagination. For example, he took a description of Prussian holy place Romove (Romuva temple) fromPeter von Dusburg and improved it by adding an eternally green oak, decorated with portraits of three idols and guarded byvestal virgins. Scholars agree that this addition was most probably borrowed fromAdam of Bremen and his description of theTemple at Uppsala.[4]
These stories were widely copied by other authors and spread into folklore. In 1853,Max Toeppen was the first to draw serious criticism to historical accuracy and value of Grunau's work.[2] Modern historians almost universally dismiss the chronicle as a work of fiction except for excerpts about events that Grunau eye-witnessed himself.[2] However, some Lithuanian researchers, includingGintaras Beresnevičius, believe such approach is overly critical and the chronicle should be more carefully analyzed to identify possibly valid information.[6]
To prove that Prussians had their own language, which was different from bothPolish andLithuanian, Grunau included a hundred-word glossary in the chronicle.[2] Some words are distorted, but as one of the very few written sources for the now extinctPrussian language, it is still valuable. Grunau claimed that he could speak some Prussian, but he often mixed in Polish or Lithuanian words as if they were Prussian.[4] Grunau also included the allegedly Prussian-language version of theLord's Prayer. In 1962, Wolfgang P. Schmid proved that the prayer is actually in a mixture ofLatvian andCuronian.[4][7] Since the only other Prussian dictionary is the Elbing Prussian Vocabulary from about 1350 and hardly any written sources of Lithuanian or Latvian exist till after Grunau's death, the list by Grunau is still a very important document for the study of the Baltic languages.
