Gryf

The Griffins, or House of Pomerania, were a West Slavic dynasty named after the griffin on their ducal seal, first attested for Casimir II in 1194. Their first historical ruler, Wartislaw I, built a duchy on the southern Baltic coast and died around 1135.

The duchy split in 1295 into Pomerania-Wolgast and Pomerania-Stettin, ruled jointly by several Griffin dukes in 1337. Eric of Pomerania became king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and head of the Kalmar Union in 1397.

Bogislaw X reunited the duchy in 1478, and the nobility adopted Protestantism at the Treptow diet of 1534. The last duke, Bogislaw XIV, died without heirs in 1637 during the Thirty Years' War, after which Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia divided Pomerania; the last Griffin, Anna von Croy, died in 1660.