De obsidwne cujusdam castri diuturna et quodam factoc mirabili. is.
The Nine-Year Siege and the Fish-Pond
The Ruthenians besieged a Scalovian castle near Raganita for nine years, only to withdraw when they learned the defenders survived on fish from a pond within the fortress.
The Scalovians had one castle near Raganita, on a certain mountain, and the Ruthenians besieged it with a great army for nine years before the brothers of the Teutonic House entered the land of Prussia. At last, worn out by the toil and expense, the Ruthenians asked the besieged what food they lived on. They answered: from fish. For they had a fish-pond in the middle of the castle, twenty paces long and nearly as many wide, which at that time abounded in fish — enough to feed all the besieged. When the Ruthenians heard this, they withdrew from the siege.
A Wondrous Sign and the Mystery of God's Judgments
The chronicler marvels that the fish-pond which once teemed with fish in pagan times now breeds frogs since the Scalovians' conversion, and he humbly acknowledges the incomprehensibility of God's ways.
Here is a wondrous thing: then, when the Scalovians were unbelievers, it teemed with fish; but now, since they are Christians, it breeds frogs. Nor does the said fish-pond have enough water left to sustain fish. Why this is so, I do not know. God knows — whose judgments are incomprehensible and whose ways are unsearchable.✦
Heading: The Capture of Raganita
A brief chapter heading announcing the capture of the castle of Raganita.
On the capture of the castle of Raganita.
The Assault and Destruction of Raganita
Brother Theoderic led a thousand men by ship to Scalovia, stormed the castle of Raganita with ladders and archers, massacred the defenders, took captives and booty, and burned the fortress and its surroundings.
Brother Theoderic, advocate of Sambia, came by ship to the land of the Scalovians — which lies on both banks of the Memel — taking with him several brothers and a thousand men who had been more thoroughly trained in storming fortifications. Approaching unexpectedly the castle then located where the castle of Raganita now stands, he began to attack it. Some, with ladders set against the walls, were trying to climb up. But although the Scalovians on the opposite side tried to resist them, the brothers' archers drove them back with a hail of javelins. So with great force — some entering over the walls and others through the gate of the castle — they cut down the entire multitude of infidels, who were more numerous inside the castle than the brothers' army, putting them to the sword and leading away the women and children along with the greatest booty of other goods. Once this was done, they burned the castle and its suburb and the other buildings that had been in the vicinity.
Read the original Latin
Scalowite habebant unum castrum circa Raganitamd in quodam monte, in cujus obsidione Rutheni cum maximo exercitu fuerunt ix annis ante ingressum fratrum domus Theutonice in terram Prussie. Tandem Rutheni fatigati laboribus et expensis, quesiverunt ab obsessis, de quo cibo viverent. Qui responderunt, de piscibus. Habebant enim in medio castri piscinam, habentem in longitudine xx passus et totidem fere in latitudinem, que tune habundabat piscibus qui sufficiebant obsessis omnibus ad vescendum. Quo audito Rutheni ab obsi dione recesserunt. Ecce mira res, tune habundabat piscibus, cum essent Sca lowite infideles; nunc autem fovet ranas, cum sunt Cristiani; nee habet dicta piscina tantum de aqua, que sufficeret piscibus ad manendum. Cur hoc sit, nescio; deus seit, cujus incomprehensibilia sunt judicia, et investigabiles vie. De expugnacione castri Raganite.
182h'77> Frater Theodoricuse advocatus Sambiensis de mandato magistri ducens secum plures fratres et mille viros, qui in impugnacionibus municionum fueruntf plenius exercitati, venit navigio ad terram Scalowitarum, que sita est in utroque littore Memele, et accedens improvise ad castrum, situm tune in eo loco, ubi nunc est castrum Raganita, incepit ipsum impugnare. Quidam scalis positis ad menia nitebantur ascendere. Sed cum Scalowite ex adverso se opponere vellent, sagittarii fratrum per crebra jacula ipsos repulerunt. Violenter igilur illis intrantibus per menia, aliis per portam castri, totam illam multitudinem infidelium, qui plures fuerunt in Castro, quam fratrum exercitus continebat, in ore gladii extinxerunt, mulieres et parvulos cum maxima preda rerum aliarum secum ducentes. Hoc facto castrum et suburbium ejus et alia edificia, que in vicino fuerant, combusserunt.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.11.33 — Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways!
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