Talk:Pillage of Sigtuna

Alternative explanation found - these might have been Estonians from Saaremaa
There is equally little reason to doubt that the well-organised people of Saaremaa (and the men of Courland to a lesser extent) with their pyraeticas, which were suitable for sailing across open seas, were much-feared pirates and looters around the entire central region of the Baltic Sea. Who else in the Baltic Sea region other than the men of Saaremaa could have been bold and capable enough to row and sail to the well-protected Lake Malar, attack Sigtuna itself, and loot the city (and perhaps even burn it to the ground) in the year of 1187, while Saladin was defeating the poorly-led army of crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in a desert far away in Palestine and launching the subsequent, decisive besieging of Jerusalem?

OR

Perhaps the most renowned raid by the inhabitants of Saaremaa occurred in 1187, with the attack on the Swedish town of Sigtuna (other candidates as raiders are Karelians and Curonians). Among the casualties of this raid was the Swedish archbishop Johannes. Archaeological excavations have not verified the traditions of destruction of the town. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saaremaa#History

Source: Published in the 15th Yearbook of the Estonian Scientific Society in Sweden, 2010-2014 (Eesti Teadusliku Seltsi Rootsis aastaraamat XV. 2010-2014), edited by Ants Anderson (Stockholm, 2015), pp 13-36. Reprinted with the permission of the author and the publisher in the biennial of Saaremaa Museum: Saaremaa Muuseum, Kaheaastaraamat 2015–2016, Kuressaare 2017 (ISSN: 0424-6519)

Found from: The History Files

--D72 (talk) 14:13, 7 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Of course one can always speculate, but all the sources (2?) writes about Karelians. If you like, you can make additional chapter with sources about this speculation but thera are no historical sources to back it up.Velivieras (talk) 07:01, 8 January 2021 (UTC)