Simon Grunau

Simon Grunau (16th century) was the author of the first comprehensive history of Prussia. It was written in the German language sometime between 1510 and 1529. The only personal information available is what he wrote himself in his work: that he was a Dominican priest from Tolkmicko (Tolkemit) near Frombork (Frauenburg) just north of Elbing (Elbląg) in the Polish province of Royal Prussia. Before writing the book, he preached in Danzig (Gdańsk), Poland. While his trustworthiness is similar to another writer of his time, Jan Długosz, often based on fantasy and more than dubious, this chronicle became very popular and wide-spread. The chronicle was first published in 1876 and circulated as a frequently copied manuscript. Its 24 chapters deal with Prussian landscape, agriculture, inhabitants, their customs, and history from earliest times to up to 1525 when Protestant Duchy of Prussia was created. It also contains a small (about a hundred words) vocabulary of the Prussian language. As one of the very few written monuments in this extinct language, the vocabulary is valuable in attempts to reconstruct the language.

Author bias
As a Catholic priest, Grunau was strongly biased against Protestants. At the time when the chronicle was written there was a fierce conflict between Catholics and Protestants. It resulted in transformation of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights into the Duchy of Prussia, the first Lutheran state in the world. Royal Prussia, part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, partly also became Lutheran and only the Bishopric of Warmia remained completely Catholic. Parts of Prussia, divided by religious and political disputes) attempted to continue common identity and re-unite all three Prussian regions, but that did not happen until Frederick the Great.

Traditions of the Old Prussians, the indigenous people of the region prior to the influx of German colonists, were used in an attempt to find a common ground. However, Grunau or other activists were not interested in recording real religion or customs of the people. They needed a tool for their ideological purposes. What was not known, could be invented. Grunau followed Erasmus Stella and elaborated on his works. Grunau noted that many of the records had been destroyed during years of wars and that he attempted to locate whatever documents were still available.

In such light, Grunau is extremely critical of the Teutonic Knights and favors local Prussians. He tried to emphasize non-German origin of the Prussians. He wrote about their origins, customs, and religion trying to convince the reader that the Prussians were different from the Germans.

Legendary content
Grunau allegedly incorporated an ancient chronicle, written by the first Prussian bishop Christian. Grunau claimed that he discovered the manuscript, called Liber filiorum Belial, three hundred years after it was written. The manuscript itself used three sources: personal observations by Christian, a book written by parish priest Jaroslav from Płock, and notes by naturalist Dywonys, who as a sole survivor of an expedition, which was stranded in Prussia by accident. Dywonys kept a diary in Russian using Greek alphabet. His notes were discovered only 1200 years later by Christian.

Grunau composed ancient history of Prussia based on this Liber filiorum Belial manuscript. No such manuscript is know to exist and scholarly consensus is that the entire story was an invention by Grunau. For the history of more recent times Grunau used all available sources (such as chronicles by Peter von Dusburg and official documents of the Teutonic Knights) and added his own imagination. For example, he took a description of Prussian holy place Romove (Romuva temple) from Peter von Dusburg and improved it by adding an eternally green oak, decorated with portraits of three idols and guarded by vestal virgins. He called the place Rickoyto. Scholars agree that this addition was most probably borrowed from Adam of Bremen and his description of Temple at Uppsala.

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. Modern historians almost universally dismiss the chronicle as work of fiction except for excerpts about events that Grunau eye-witnessed himself.

Prussian dictionary
To prove that Prussians had their own language, which was different from the Polish and from Lithuanian languages, Grunau included a hundred word dictionary in the chronicle. Some words are rather distorted, but as one of the very few written sources for now extinct Prussian language, it is still very valuable. Grunau claimed that he could speak some Prussian, but he often mixed in Polish or Lithuanian words as if they were Prussian. Grunau also included a prayer, allegedly written in Prussian. It was much later proven that the prayer is actually a mixture of Latvian and Curonian languages. Since the only other Prussian dictionary is the Elbing-Prussian Vocabulary from about 1350 AD and no written sources of Lithuanian or Latvian existed till after Grunau's death, the list by Grunau is still a very important document for all the Baltic languages and history.