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The Oeselians or Osilians were a historical subdivision of Estonians inhabiting Saaremaa ((ラテン語:Oesel) or ラテン語:''Osilia''), an Estonian island in the Baltic Sea. In modern Estonian, they are called ''saarlased'' ( "islanders"; singular: ''saarlane''), which also applies to present-day inhabitants of the island. They are first thought to be mentioned as early as the 2nd century BC in Ptolemy's ''Geography III''.〔( A History of Pagan Europe By Prudence Jones, Nigel Pennick; p.195 ) ISBN 0-415-09136-5〕 The Oeselians were known in the Old Norse Icelandic Sagas and in Heimskringla as ''Víkingr frá Esthland'' ((英語:vikings from Estonia)).〔(Olav Trygvassons saga at School of Avaldsnes )〕〔(Heimskringla; Kessinger Publishing (March 31, 2004); on Page 116; ) ISBN 0-7661-8693-8〕〔(A History of Pagan Europe by Prudence Jones; on page 166; ) ISBN 0-415-09136-5〕〔(Nordic Religions in the Viking Age by Thomas A. Dubois; on page 177; ) ISBN 0-8122-1714-4〕 Their sailing vessels were called pirate ships by Henry of Livonia in his Latin chronicles from the beginning of the 13th century.〔(The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia ) ISBN 0-231-12889-4〕 ''Eistland'' or ''Esthland'' is the historical Germanic language name that refers to the country at the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea in general, and is the origin of the modern national name for Estonia. The mainland of modern Estonia in the 8th century Ynglinga saga was called ''Adalsyssla'' in contrast to ''Eysyssel'' or ''Ösyssla'' that was the name of the island ((スウェーデン語:Ösel), (エストニア語:Saaremaa)), the home of the Oeselians. In the 11th century, Courland and Estland (Estonia) were both denoted separately by Adam of Bremen.〔(History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen By Adam of Bremen Page 196-197 )〕 On the eve of Northern Crusades, the Oeselians were summarized in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle thus: "The Oeselians, neighbors to the Kurs (Curonians), are surrounded by the sea and never fear strong armies as their strength is in their ships. In summers when they can travel across the sea they oppress the surrounding lands by raiding both Christians and pagans."〔(The Baltic Crusade By William L. Urban; p. 20 ) ISBN 0-929700-10-4〕 == Battles and raids == Saxo Grammaticus describes the Estonians and Curonians as participating in the Battle of Bråvalla on the side of the Swedes against the Danes, who were aided by the Livonians and the Wends of Pomerania. Other Baltic tribes — i.e., the Letts and Lithuanians — are not mentioned by Saxo as participating in the fight.〔(Pre- and Proto-historic Finns by John Abercromby p.141 )〕 Snorri Sturluson relates in his ''Ynglinga saga'' how the Swedish king Ingvar (7th century), the son of Östen and a great warrior, who was forced to patrol the shores of his kingdom fighting Estonian Vikings. The saga speaks of his invasion of Estonia where he fell in a battle against the men of ''Estland'' who had come down with a great army. After the battle, King Ingvar was buried close to the seashore in Estonia and the Swedes returned home.〔(Heimskringla; 36. OF YNGVAR'S FALL )〕 According to Heimskringla sagas, in the year 967 the Norwegian Queen Astrid escaped with her son, later king of Norway Olaf Tryggvason from her homeland to Novgorod, where her brother Sigurd held an honoured position at the court of Prince Vladimir. On their journey, Oeselian Vikings raided the ship, killing some of the crew and taking others into slavery. Six years later, when Sigurd Eirikson traveled to Estonia to collect taxes on behalf of Valdemar, he spotted Olaf in a market on Saaremaa and paid for his freedom. A battle between Oeselian and Icelandic Vikings off Saaremaa is described in Njál's saga as occurring in 972 AD. About 1008, Olaf II Haraldsson, later king of Norway, landed on Saaremaa. The Oeselians, taken by surprise, had at first tried to negotiate the demands made by the Norwegians, but then gathered an army and confronted them. Nevertheless, Olaf (who was 12 or 13 years old) won the battle. Around the year 1030, a Swedish Viking chief called Freygeirr may have been killed in a battle on Saaremaa. According to the Novgorod Chronicle, Varyag Ulf (Uleb) from Novgorod was crushed by Estonians in a sea battle close to the town of Lindanise in 1032. From the 12th century, chroniclers' descriptions of Estonian, Oeselian and Curonian raids along the coasts of Sweden and Denmark become more frequent. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a fleet of sixteen ships and five hundred Oeselians ravaging the area that is now southern Sweden, then belonging to Denmark. In the XIVth book of Gesta Danorum, Saxo Grammaticus describes a battle on Öland in 1170 in which the Danish king Valdemar I mobilised his entire fleet to curb the incursions of Couronian and Estonian pirates. Perhaps the most renowned raid by Oeselian pirates occurred in 1187, with the attack on the Swedish town of Sigtuna by Finnic raiders from Couronia and Oesel. Among the casualties of this raid was the Swedish archbishop Johannes. The city remained occupied for some time, contributing to the decline as a center of commerce in the 13th century in favor of Uppsala, Visby, Kalmar and Stockholm.〔(The raid on Sigtuna )〕 The Livonian Chronicle describes the Oeselians as using two kinds of ships, the ''piratica'' and the ''liburna''. The former was a warship, the latter mainly a merchant ship. A ''piratica'' could carry approximately 30 men and had a high prow shaped like a dragon or a snakehead as well as a quadrangular sail. Viking-age treasures from Estonia mostly contain silver coins and bars. Compared to its close neighbors, Saaremaa has the richest finds of Viking treasures after Gotland in Sweden. This strongly suggests that Estonia was an important transit country during the Viking era. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oeselians」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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