The name Lettau, like its variants
Lettow Lettow was a by-name given to a few Pomeranian nobles from a noble family from Vorbeck who went to assist Algirdas and Vytautas, the Great Dukes of Lithuania, in the 14th century. ''Lettow'' meant " Lithuania" in the Saxon language, and it appear ...
and
Lettou, derives from a
medieval Saxon name for Lithuania. It appears in the
General Prologue
The General Prologue is the first part of ''The Canterbury Tales'' by Geoffrey Chaucer. It introduces the frame story, in which a group of pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury agree to take part in a storytelling com ...
to ''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...
'', wherein it is said of
the Knight, a veteran of the
Baltic Crusades
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were Christian colonization and Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the ...
: "Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bigonne / Aboven alle nacions in
Pruce; / In
Lettow Lettow was a by-name given to a few Pomeranian nobles from a noble family from Vorbeck who went to assist Algirdas and Vytautas, the Great Dukes of Lithuania, in the 14th century. ''Lettow'' meant " Lithuania" in the Saxon language, and it appear ...
hadde he
reysed, and in
Ruce Ruce may refer to:
* ''Ruce'' (book), a book of poems by Otokar Březina
* "Ruce" (short story), a Czech short story by Jan Weiss
{{Disambig ...
, / No Cristen man so ofte of his degree."
Lettau was the German name for the village of Litwa
Litwa (województwo warmińsko-mazurskie) near Włodowo (Waltersdorf) in the Masurian Lakeland
The Masurian Lake District or Masurian Lakeland ( pl, Pojezierze Mazurskie; german: Masurische Seenplatte) is a lake district in northeastern Poland within the geographical region of Masuria, in the past inhabited by Masurians who spoke the Masuri ...
, formerly part of the ''Oberland'' (highlands) of East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
. It was located beside Lettau See ("Lake Lithuania"), now called Jezioro Litewskie ("Lithuanian Lake"), which lies on the border between Olsztyn
Olsztyn ( , ; german: Allenstein ; Old Prussian: ''Alnāsteini''
* Latin: ''Allenstenium'', ''Holstin'') is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. ...
and Ostróda
Ostróda (; Old Prussian: ''Austrāti'') is a town in northern Poland, in the historic region of Masuria. It is the seat of the Ostróda County within the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship and has approximately 33,191 inhabitants (2009).
Ostróda is ...
, counties of northeastern Poland's Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship or Warmia-Masuria Province or Warmia-Mazury Province (in pl, Województwo warmińsko-mazurskie, is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Olsztyn. The voivodeship has an are ...
.
People with the surname include:
* Georg Lettau (1878–1951), German lichenologist
* Heinz Lettau
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six contine ...
(1909–2005), Professor of Meteorology at the University of Wisconsin
* Kevyn Lettau Kevyn Lettau (born 1959 in West Berlin, West Germany) is a vocalist whose most popular works are in the styles of adult contemporary pop, west coast fusion/smooth jazz, and Brazilian jazz.
She scored success in the United States in the early 1990 ...
(born 1959), German-born jazz vocalist
* Reinhard Lettau (1929–1996), German-American writer and professor
* Andre Lettau, live midstakes poker player known as the winner of the 2014 EPT Barcelona
See also
* German toponymy
Placenames in the German language area can be classified by the language from which they originate, and by era.
German names from prehistoric and medieval times
Suffixes
* '' -ach'' ("river"). Examples: Echternach, Salzach.
* ''-au'' (from ...
References
* ''Dictionary of American Family Names'', Oxford University Press, 2013
External links
Website of Lettow-Vorbeck family
(in German)
Lithuania and Britain: an entwined history, by Dr. Francis Young, 2020
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