The Smeldingi were a small group of Polabian Slavs living on the border of the Old Saxony in the 9th century, probably between the Elbe and the Havel.
[5] In that year, however, they switched their allegiance to the Danish king Gudfred and in response the Frankish king Charles the Younger ravaged their lands:But Charles, the son of the emperor [Charlemagne], built a bridge across the Elbe, and moved the army under his command as fast as he could across the river against the Linones and Smeldingi.
Charles laid waste their fields far and wide and after crossing the river again returned to Saxony with his army unimpaired.
[7] Rather than come to the aid of their Obotrite allies directly, by attacking the Danes, the Franks launched a punitive expedition against the weaker Smeldingi and Linones, who were both more accessible and more immediately threatening as they lived on the border of the empire.
[11]The annalist's maxima civitas (largest city) is called Semeldinc Connoburg in the Chronicle of Moissac, but that is not its native Slavic name.