sun, and overall as a way to instill fear in the enemy.

From the 7th through the 12th centuries, Mecklenburg was inhabited by Western Slavs who migrated there from Poland and north-western Ukraine. Among them were the Obotrites and other tribes that Frankish sources referred to as "Wends". The 11th-century founder of the Mecklenburger dynasty of Dukes and later Grand Dukes,