De impugnacione castri et civitatis Elbingensis.
The Women of Elbing Stand as Men
When Duke Swantepolcus attacks Elbing in the absence of the Teutonic brothers and citizens, the women of the city arm themselves, mount the walls in men's dress, and so daunt the duke that he withdraws in shame—a deed the chronicler notes was repeated elsewhere whenever women defended fortifications in the absence of men.
Swantepolcus, duke of Pomerania, realizing that the brothers and the citizens of Elbing were absent, gathered a great army and at last advanced there to attack the castle and the city. When the women saw this, they set aside their feminine adornment, put on the dress of men, and girding their thighs with swords climbed the walls, arranging themselves for defense so manfully that nowhere did any weakness of sex appear.12 From this the duke, judging that the army of the brothers and citizens had returned, withdrew in shame. And don't think this happened only here, but many times in other places where, in the absence of men, the fortifications would have been endangered had the boldness of women not held firm.3
Read the original Latin
Swantepolcus dux Pomeranie, intelligens absenciam fratrum et civium de Elbingo, congregato magno exercitu ad impugnandum castrum et civitatem ibi dem processit. Quo viso mulieres deposito ornatu muliebri, meutern virum induerunt, et femur cingentes gladio menia ascenderunt, tarn viriliter se ad defensionem disponentes, quod nusquam ibi sexus fragilitas1' apparebat. Unde dux estimans exercitum fratrum et civium reversum, cum verecundia recessit. Nec credas hoc solum hic factum, sed pluries in aliis locis ubi in absencia virorum municiones fuissent periclitate, si non restitisset audacia mulierum.
Notes
- 1 ↩The word meutern (token 6) is of uncertain reading and meaning; it is omitted from the translation as its sense cannot be established with confidence.
- 2 ↩The form tarn (token 15) is read as tam ('so') following the gloss, though the manuscript reading is uncertain.
- 3 ↩The verb restitisset (token 20) is uncertain; it may derive from resistere ('to hold out, withstand') rather than restare. The translation follows the gloss 'had remained' but interprets it as 'had held firm' to fit the conditional context.
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