Wends

Uncommon card · No. 104941

Wends is a historical name for the Polabian Slavs who inhabited the present-day northeast Germany and Poland. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various people, tribes, or groups depending on where and when it was used. In the modern day, communities identifying as Wendish exist in Slovenia, Austria, Lusatia, the United States (such as the Texas Wends and the Iowa Wends), Australia, Canada, and in South Africa. One present-day group, the Lusatian Sorbs, of Eastern Germany and Poland, remain in the Wendish homeland; members of which descended from no less than two distinct tribes, the Milceni and the Lusici. In German-speaking Europe during the Middle Ages, the term "Wends" was interpreted as synonymous with "Slavs" and sporadically used in literature to refer to West Slavs and South Slavs living within the Holy Roman Empire. The name has possibly survived in Finnic languages (Finnish: Venäjä [ˈʋenæjæ]; Estonian: Vene [ˈvene]; Karelian: Veneä), denoting modern Russia.

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