Truso in the Old English Orosius and Tczew, Poland

Abstract

Wulfstan’s description of his voyage to the Baltic is an addition to the Old English Orosius. It contains a notorious crux, as follows. Wulfstan (otherwise unknown) sailed to Truso, a trading-place near the mouth of the Vistula. Anglo-Saxonists and others have long identified Truso as somewhere on Lake Drużno, near Elbląg, Poland. But in 1985 the Polish philologist Stanisław Rospond disproved that. He regarded Truso as Tczew on the lower Vistula. Tczew (in German, Dirschau) is attested in early documents with forms (Trsow, Trssew, Treseu) that are compatible with Truso. Those for Drausensee or Lake Drużno (recorded in 1233 as Drusin) are not compatible with Truso. They start with the wrong letter and have an internal absent from spellings of Tczew. His conclusions have nevertheless been ignored, despite their implications for English history and Polish or Viking archaeology.