From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 8676
Date: 2001-08-22
----- Original Message -----From: tgpedersen@...Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2001 12:52 PMSubject: [tied] Re: Odin as a Trojan Prince[Piotr] >> -- hwaet!
[Torsten:] > My Gothic is a bit rusty - please translate?[Piotr:] It's Old English for "Lend me your ears!", and the first word of _Beowulf_.
[Piotr:] >> -- our Proto-Polish ancestors defeated Alexander the Great and repelled the Roman imperial armies on more than one occasion. It's a pity the Greek and Roman historians managed to cover it all up.[Torsten:] This is the second time I hear of these early Polish historians, but I never got the names. It's like you Poles are ashamed of them? And by what name would the Romans know the ancestors of the Poles?[Piotr:] Ashamed? God forbid. They are real celebrities. The oldest Polish chronicler was an anonymous Benedictine monk known as "the Gaul", who wrote three volumes covering the history of Poland up to 1113 (he lived at that time). It remains an important source of information on the early history of Poland (not quite unbiassed, though, as Boleslaw III, a very nasty-tempered ruler, was his sponsor) but when he wrote about the period before the rule of Mieszko I, his vivid imagination got the better of him. The next important work, written 1205-1207, _Magistri Vincenti chronica Polonorum_, is richly allegorical, contains many Graeco-Roman motifs and has a clear political and moral agenda. Again, it essential reading for anyone interested in the history and culture of 12th-century Poland, but the preliterate history of the country given there is imaginary. The two authors mentioned so far created between them the Polish origins myth, which later writers accepted and elaborated on. Lovers of fantasy should read Marcin Bielski's _Chronicles of All the World_ (1551), containing _The Polish Chronicle_ (published separately in 1597). If you want tales of Alexander and Roman emperors, Bielski is the one to consult. Maciej of Miechów's extremely influential _Tractatus de Duabus Sarmatiis, Asiana et Europiana_ (1517) gave rise to the "Sarmatian myth", according to which Polish noble families derived from Sarmatian warriors.
[Piotr:] >> Lastly, not even an English historian would dare to invent a fantastical genealogy to suggest that Wellington (aka Arthur Wellesley) had something to do with the half-legendary Arthur of Britain, or that his ancestors came from a Trojan or Macedonian royal house.
[Torsten:] > No, but they *would* have the gall to credit no one but the British for the outcome of the battle.[Piotr:] The cheek, more like ;) -- no offence meant to the thin red line of 'eroes, but it _was_ a joint success.