ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how Henry's depiction of Ösel and the Öselians relates to the archaeological material from the twelfth and thirteenth-century Estonian islands, and vice versa. It argues that the reasons for the Danish special interest in subduing Ösel were predominantly secular, their hostilities in Livonia were still driven by the ideology of crusade. The acceptance of Christianity might presumably have been the main prerequisite for contracting treaties with local authorities, as well as the first consequence after submission by force. On the assumption that the majority of tradesmen coming from Western Europe to the eastern Baltic did not sail up to Stockholm along the eastern coast of Sweden, but turned east near Gotland, they had, one way or another, to pass the Estonian islands. The biggest of these islands is Ösel. From the very beginning of the thirteenth century, at the latest, the Danish kingdom had expressed an interest in subduing Ösel.
