This book seeks to illuminate the process of Christianization of much of north-eastern Europe by investigating the character of the interactions between missionaries and crusaders, on the one hand, and the native pagan populations, on the other, between the late tenth and the late thirteenth centuries. Although its title refers to the “Baltic Rim,” the book has a somewhat narrower scope than this name might suggest, since it deals with the conversion and conquests of the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea, primarily Wagria, Pomerania, and Livonia. Prussia is considered in connection with the mission of St Adalbert in the tenth century, but not with its conquest by the Teutonic Order in the thirteenth, which is perhaps regrettable as this would have offered a useful comparison with the near-contemporary Christianization of Livonia. The principal evidential base of the study is provided by narratives of conversion and crusade, notably the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae Pontificium of Adam of Bremen, the Chronica Slavorum of Helmold of Bosau, the Chronicon Livoniae of Henry of Livonia, the anonymous Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, and some shorter hagiographical narratives dealing with the missionary activity of St Adalbert, St Bruno of Querfurt and St Otto of Bamberg. Most of the eight analytical chapters (which are followed by a concluding epilogue) are each focused around one or more of these sources, probably because the book builds on seven separate studies previously published by the author in article form.
The unusual title of the book warrants some explanation. Jezierski’s starting point and principal thesis is that the Christian societies which emerged on the Baltic Rim were “underpinned by amplified senses of risk and uncertainty” (23), here drawing on the theories of the German sociologist Ulrich Beck (1944-2015) regarding risk society. This is certainly a promising perspective, considering the extent to which the fledgling Christian communities were exposed to diverse and near constant threats, and the author argues that risk in its various manifestations can be treated “as the central and chronic conditions of missionary and crusader communities” on the high medieval Baltic frontier (29). He makes the convincing point that risks and hazards were rarely articulated in a rational manner in premodern societies, and consequently investigates how the vocabulary of emotion features in his sources as the principal means of exploring the manner in which risk was experienced, an approach which has been similarly employed by Stephen Spencer in connection with the crusades to the Holy Land. Chapters 3-5 discuss a variety of encounters between Christian missionaries and Slavic or Baltic pagans, such as the mission of the Spanish bishop Bernard to the town of Wolin in Pomerania, which provide numerous examples of fear and fearlessness as prime emotional indicators of risk, although one wonders whether some missionaries, such as Adalbert, may have actively sought martyrdom rather than hoping to make any religious impact on his “hosts,” as Jezierski would term them. Sieges of pagan fortifications in Wagria and Livonia (the subject of chapter 6) provide numerous examples of how emotions are displayed in the sources. Trust also emerges as a significant factor, and here Jezierski is right to follow Henrik Janson in interpreting relapses into apostasy by pagan communities as a breaking of political allegiances rather than fundamental shifts in religious belief.
The definition of hosts and hospitality is crucial, for the issue of “host-guest relations” (25) is the second main theme of the book, taking in the relationship between the religious and military forces of Christianity (who we might also think of as colonizers) and the pagans and neophytes whom they encountered as enemies, allies, or (ultimately) as subjects. Here Jezierski sets out and analyses the whole gamut of interactions between the two groups, attempting to understand both the thinking of missionaries and crusaders and the (much more difficult to establish) responses of pagan powers and populations. His categorization of the whole range of such relationships as “hospitality” (25), however, is problematic, as the positive meaning of this term in modern English sits uncomfortably with the actual experience of the Christian newcomers, which was often one of unremitting aggression shown by the pagan peoples. Much of the evidence analysed suggests that most of the responses of the native peoples to the new faith, at least initially, ranged from casual indifference to active hostility, rather than being characterized by the notions of welcome and trust, which is what most modern readers would associate with the notion of hospitality. In this respect one would welcome a clearer discussion of the terminology involved in the sources, given the fluidity of meaning of relevant terms in medieval languages. Thus, in Middle High German (the language of the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle), the term gast covers the entire semantic field from “guest” to “stranger,” and thus by extension, “enemy,” meaning that it can be employed in radically different contexts. Jezierski evidently regards even aggressive responses to Christian missionaries as still belonging to a spectrum of hospitality, yet seems to recognize this phenomenon as problematic by employing the neologism “hostipitality” (evidently coined by Jacques Derrida), to cover such cases (104-105, 258-260), although it is a weakness that he does not problematize or elaborate on this definition at the point where it is introduced, which might well confuse or alienate the reader. It should also be noted that several of the episodes discussed in chapter 5, such as the confrontation between King Niels of Denmark and his nephew Knud Lavard, or the later Danish civil wars, actually deal with encounters between Christians, so it is not immediately clear how these are relevant to the interface between Christians and pagans.
In a review of this length, it is difficult to give a sense of the full range of material explored in this work. Overall, Jezierski shows an impressive command of the primary sources as well as of the main theories of emotions and hospitality, although his exposition of the latter is sometimes hampered by a very dense—occasionally near impenetrable—prose style and phrasing, such as a liking for verbless sentences and some non-idiomatic English expression. In connection with some key issues—notably ideas of hospitality—one would like to be presented with less theory and more concrete definition. Jezierski might also take a more critical attitude to some of the secondary literature that he cites, especially with regard to translations of sources. Thus, in interpreting a decretal of Pope Honorius III from 1222 he follows Henry C. Lea’s book The Ordeal (1973) in translating the phrase fratres Templariorem ordinem as meaning “the Teutonic Knights of Livonia”, when at that time it could only have referred to the Order of the Sword Brethren (208). In such cases the careful reader might well want to critically check Jezierski’s interpretations. Nevertheless, most readers will find this book innovative and inspiring, since its approaches could be applied to many other areas of study of the Middle Ages. Chapters 7 and 8 especially, which offer extensive and detailed analyses of the lexical content of the chronicle of Henry of Livonia and the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, are the most solid part of the entire volume, and constitute a welcome contribution to the historiography of the medieval Baltic countries.