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Erat enim exercitus magnus et fortis, habens viginti pene milia virorum, qui sua ordinantes acies, distincte cum vexillis propriis ambulantes et in equis et in equis et vehiculis suis glaciem maris calcantes sonitum tamquam tonitrui magni faciebant e collisione armorum et vehiculorum concussione et motu strepituque virorum et equorum cadentium et iterum surgentium hac et illac super glaciem, que plana erat tamquam vitrum, ex australibus et pluviosis aquis, que tunc inundaverant, et de gelu, quod subsequebatur. Et magno labore mare transiverunt, donec tandem gaudentes ad litus Osilie devenerunt.

(Henrici Chronicon Livoniae, XXX, 3)

ENGLISH (based on Henrici Chronicon Livoniae translated by P. Bugiani )

It was indeed a great and mighty army, with twenty thousand men marching in orderly formations, each under its own banner. As they tread on the icy sea with horses and sleighs they produced a sound similar to a great thunder, with the clanging of weapons, the sleighs shaking, the movement and noise of men, horse falling and getting up again on the ice, which was smooth as glass because of the southern wind and rains and the subsequent frost. With great fatigue they crossed the sea, until, joyful, they finally reached the shores of Ösel.

Not much needs to be added. After the repression of the 1223 rebellion, Ösel, nowadays Saarema, remained the latest pagan stronghold in Estonia. The Oeselians were formidable sea raiders. In 1222 the Danes built a stronghold on the island, but were pushed back. In 1227, with the whole continental Estonia and Livonia relatively pacified, a great enterprise against Ösel was launched, a common effort between different political players: the bishop of Riga; the Livonian Brothers of the Sword; Livonians, Letts and Estonian allies and pilgrims from the west. Around the 20th of January 1227, this great army of 20.000 marched towards the conquest of the island across five kilometres of frozen sea.

The XXX chapter of the chronicle, which is all about the conquest of Ösel is considered to be an appendix, written some years after the main corpus of the chronicle, and this goes a long way to explain the importance of the conquest of Ösel to the author, the illusion of having achieved a definitive peace under a Christian rule. These illusions were to be shattered soon after and wars and rebellions kept raging in the following years.

Description
Erat enim exercitus magnus et fortis, habens viginti pene milia virorum, qui sua ordinantes acies, distincte cum vexillis propriis ambulantes et in equis et in equis et vehiculis suis glaciem maris calcantes sonitum tamquam tonitrui magni faciebant e collisione armorum et vehiculorum concussione et motu strepituque virorum et equorum cadentium et iterum surgentium hac et illac super glaciem, que plana erat tamquam vitrum, ex australibus et pluviosis aquis, que tunc inundaverant, et de gelu, quod subsequebatur. Et magno labore mare transiverunt, donec tandem gaudentes ad litus Osilie devenerunt.

(Henrici Chronicon Livoniae, XXX, 3)

ENGLISH (based on Henrici Chronicon Livoniae translated by P. Bugiani )

It was indeed a great and mighty army, with twenty thousand men marching in orderly formations, each under its own banner. As they tread on the icy sea with horses and sleighs they produced a sound similar to a great thunder, with the clanging of weapons, the sleighs shaking, the movement and noise of men, horse falling and getting up again on the ice, which was smooth as glass because of the southern wind and rains and the subsequent frost. With great fatigue they crossed the sea, until, joyful, they finally reached the shores of Ösel.

Not much needs to be added. After the repression of the 1223 rebellion, Ösel, nowadays Saarema, remained the latest pagan stronghold in Estonia. The Oeselians were formidable sea raiders. In 1222 the Danes built a stronghold on the island, but were pushed back. In 1227, with the whole continental Estonia and Livonia relatively pacified, a great enterprise against Ösel was launched, a common effort between different political players: the bishop of Riga; the Livonian Brothers of the Sword; Livonians, Letts and Estonian allies and pilgrims from the west. Around the 20th of January 1227, this great army of 20.000 marched towards the conquest of the island across five kilometres of frozen sea.

The XXX chapter of the chronicle, which is all about the conquest of Ösel is considered to be an appendix, written some years after the main corpus of the chronicle, and this goes a long way to explain the importance of the conquest of Ösel to the author, the illusion of having achieved a definitive peace under a Christian rule. These illusions were to be shattered soon after and wars and rebellions kept raging in the following years.