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Chronicon Terrae Prussiae (Chronicle of the Prussian Land)/Book 4 · Tercia pars: De bellis fratrum domus Theutonice contra Pruthenos
Chapter 154ChrP.4.154

De destructione castri Labegow.

The Scalovian Council and the Surprise Assault on Labegowe

The Scalovian elders, shaken by recent events, convene in council and dispatch four hundred warriors who launch a dawn surprise attack on the Teutonic brothers' castle at Labegowe, storming it, killing the men, sparing women and children, and carrying off vast plunder.

When word of these things reached the Scalowitians, they were thoroughly shaken, and their elders gathered in council to consider how they might take revenge.12 And they unanimously arranged four hundred chosen men for war, who came by ship to the brothers' castle at Labegowe and, arriving unexpectedly at the break of day while the men were still resting in their beds, took it by storm, killing every male they found there except the women and children, whom they had previously removed from the castle — which they had already burned — and led away with them along with an enormous amount of plunder.345

Read the original Latin

Cum autem hec ad aures Scalowitarum devenirent conturbata sunt omnia ossa eorum, et convenientes seniores populi concilium fecerunt in unum1', quomodo se possent vindicare. Ordinaveruntque concorditer cccc viros preelectos ad bellum, qui navigio venientes ad castrum fratrum Labegowe 3 improvise in ortu diei, quiescentibus adhuc hominibus in stratu suo, ipsum expugnaverunt, occidentes in eo quicquid masculini sexusc fuit, preter mulieres et parvulos, quos exusto prius Castro secum cum preda maxima deduxerunt.

Notes

  1. 1Scalowitarum is a gentilicium of uncertain lemma and declension; rendered as 'Scalowitians' following the candidate gloss.
  2. 2conturbata sunt omnia ossa eorum — lit. 'all their bones were troubled' — an idiomatic expression of deep distress, possibly echoing scriptural language (cf. Psalm 6:2, Vulgate). Rendered idiomatically as 'thoroughly shaken.'
  3. 3sexusc appears to be a truncated or corrupted form of sexus ('sex, gender'); rendered as 'male' in context (masculini sexusc = 'of the male sex').
  4. 4Labegowe is a toponym of uncertain case and lemma; treated as a place-name and left uninflected in translation.
  5. 5The sentence describes a military raid in the context of the Teutonic Order's campaigns in Prussia. The narrative voice is that of a chronicler, not a devotional text; no sacramental or Eucharistic register applies.

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