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Concept
Rani (tribe)
Summary
The Rani or Rujani (Ranen, Rujanen) were a West Slavic tribe based on the island of Rugia (Rügen) and the southwestern mainland across the Strelasund in what is today northeastern Germany.
The Rani tribe emerged after the Slavic settlement of the region in the ninth century, and ranked among the most powerful of several small Slav tribes between the Elbe and lower Vistula rivers before the thirteenth century. They were among the last tribes to hold to Slavic paganism, and the influence of their religious center at Arkona reached far beyond their tribal borders.
In 1168, the Rani were defeated by King Valdemar I of Denmark, and his adviser Absalon, Bishop of Roskilde, resulting in the conversion of the region to Christianity. In the course of the Ostsiedlung of the thirteenth century, the tribe was assimilated by German and Danish settlers and the Rani were gradually Germanised. The Principality of Rugia remained Danish until 1325.
In the late migration period, areas that had previously been settled by Germanic tribes became settled by Slavs. In Rugia and the adjacent mainland, where the Rugii were recorded before the migration period, Slavs first appeared in the ninth century; continuous settlement from the pre-Slavic era is suggested based on pollen analyses and name transitions, so a Rugian remnant seems to have been assimilated.
The tribal name of the former inhabitants, the Rugii, may be the root of both the medieval name of Rugia and the tribal name of the Slavic R(uj)ani, though this hypothesis is not generally accepted.
The Rani believed in multiple gods, all of which had several faces and were worshipped as tall wooden statues in their respective temples. They were worshipped in temples, holy groves, at home and in ritual meals. The most powerful of their gods was Svantevit, a four-headed god whose temple stood at Cape Arkona on the northernmost shore of Wittow, at that time still an island immediately to the north of Rügen.
Official source
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