Bolezlaue, Bolezlaue, dux gloriosissime ...

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Bolezlaue, Bolezlaue, dux gloriosissime ... ( Boleslaw, o Boleslaw, you famous, strong prince! ) Is the incipit of the panegyric poem on Bolesław III. Crooked mouth . It makes up the 11th chapter of the third book of the Chronicle of Gallus Anonymus , written in Middle Latin .

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The poem is referred to in the 10th chapter as cantilena ('song'). This term is also used by the author for a few other poems, e.g. B. Pisces salsos et fetentes ...

The poem comprises a total of 20 verses, each consisting of 15 syllables and having a caesura after the eighth syllable . Two verses are connected by a pair of rhymes and four verses each form a stanza.

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The poem is put into the mouths of German guards by Emperor Heinrich V during the armed conflict with Bolesław in 1109. This praise from the mouth of the enemy increases the importance of the song of praise.

In the first stanza, Bolesław is praised as a vigilant defender of his homeland, who never lets his enemies rest. In the next stanza the false hope of the German warriors to be able to defeat Bolesław quickly is listed. This is due to the antithesis that the besieged Bolesław was keeping the Germans in captivity (“conclusos in carcere”) despite being outnumbered. In the third stanza, the minority is taken up again to show Bolesław as a more suitable ruler compared to Henry V. If Bolesław only gathered all his troops, the emperor would be unable to resist him. The fourth stanza lists Bolesław's victorious battles against the Pomorans , for which he was to be received with triumphal procession. Because, as indicated in the fifth stanza, it was a legitimate war ("bella licita") against pagans . In contrast, Henry V wages a war against Christians, which the soldiers reject as illegitimate ("illicita"). That is why God will let Bolesław win.

expenditure

  • Kazimierz Liman (ed.): Antologia poezji łacińskiej w Polsce . Średniowiecze. Wydawnictwo UAM, Posen 2004, p. 260 .
  • Karol Maleczyński (Ed.): Galli Anonymi cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum (=  Monumenta Poloniae Historica. Nova Series . Volume II ). Polska Akademia Umiejętności, Krakau 1952, p. 97 .

literature

  • Ryszard Gansiniec : Liryka Galla Anonima . In: Pamiętnik Litearcki . Czasopismo kwartalne poświęcone historii i krytyce literatury polskiej. No. 49/4 , 1958, pp. 358-373 .
  • Teresa Michałowska: Średniowiecze (=  Wielka Historia Literatury Polskiej . Volume 1 ). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warsaw 2002, ISBN 978-83-01-12851-7 , p. 128 (first edition: 1995).
  • Teresa Michałowska: Bolezlaue, Bolezlaue dux gloriosissime…, Anonim Gall . In: Literatura Polskiego Średniowiecza . Leksykon. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warsaw 2011, ISBN 978-83-01-16675-5 , p. 138 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Josef Bujnoch (ed.): Poland's beginnings . Gallus Anonymus: Chronicles and Deeds of the Dukes and Princes of Poland. Verlag Styria, Graz et al. 1978, ISBN 3-222-10554-5 , p. 181 .