The neighbours in the east – from the Sorbs of Lusatia to the temple of Arkona.
As the Germanic peoples moved west and south during the Migration Period, the Slavs pressed in from the east. By around 600 they had reached the Elbe–Saale line – the frontier between the Germanic-German and Slavic settlement areas, which for centuries ran right through what is today Germany.
The Milceni (Upper Lusatia) and Lusici (Lower Lusatia) are the only Polabian Slavs who survive as a people to this day. The Sorbs are a recognised national minority of Germany with their own language (Upper and Lower Sorbian), flag and anthem – a living piece of Slavic heritage right on the doorstep.
Two great tribal confederations. The Obotrites in the northwest, the Lutici (Veleti) in the northeast with their sanctuary of Rethra. In 983 they threw back German rule and Christianity in a great uprising for some 150 years.
One of the last pagan tribes. Their temple at Arkona, with the four-faced god Svantevit, held supra-regional importance – until the Danes under Valdemar I and Bishop Absalon destroyed it in 1168.
The Hevelli around the Havel (Brandenburg) and the Pomeranians along the Baltic. Their land passed into German margraviates during the high-medieval eastern settlement – often with princes who carried on ruling as Christian vassals.
The great West Slavic peoples farther east founded kingdoms of their own (Great Moravia, Poland under the Piasts, Bohemia) and were Christianised early.
The advance of the Slavs was followed, from Charlemagne onward, by counter-pressure: the Limes Saxoniae, the margraviates of Gero and Billung, the Wendish Crusade of 1147 and finally the eastern settlement. It was a fluid contact zone of war, mission, trade and merging – not a sharp "eternal struggle of peoples".
The West Slavs are known for their pronounced temple cult – unlike the more grove-worshipping Germanic peoples. Famous are the many-headed idols: Svantevit (four-headed, Arkona), Triglav (three-headed, Stettin) and Svarozhic (Rethra). At Arkona prophecies were made with a sacred white horse.
Among the West Slavs the pagan cult stands out. On the island of Rügen, at Arkona, stood a temple of the four-faced god Svantevit, which the Danes destroyed in 1168 (recorded by the chronicler Saxo Grammaticus). Famous too is the Zbruch idol, a stone pillar several metres high with four faces, often associated with Svantevit.
