ABSTRACT
This chapter explains to broach the subject of the chronicle's rich material on ethnicity, which has become the traditional foundation for national histories, but which requires further detailed examination through the collaborative work of linguists, cultural anthropologists, ethnologists and historians. The German missionary and parish priest Henricus de Lettis, the author of Chronicon Livoniae, never called himself an ethnographer. This epithet the ethnographer was never used by his early thirteenth-century contemporaries, by his fellow missionaries, or by other actors on the stage of God's Vineyard called Livonia. Henry's Livonian chronicle is a treasury of names and designations for indigenous peoples, tribes and ethnic groups. Finding clear bearings in Henry's complicated system of ethnic designations requires scrupulous, specialized research. Therefore, the chapter outlines some of the aspects of such a demanding investigation. In what follows, use of the metaphor 'ethnographer' to refer to Henry's activities may prove impractical, as preliminarily suggested above.
