Wanda (legend)

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The legend of Princess Wanda was in 12/13. Written by Wincenty Kadłubek in the 17th century , which historians believe he invented the legend.

legend

According to legend, Wanda was the daughter (or granddaughter) of the Krakow Duke Krak and is said to have ruled over the Poles around 700 .

In Kadłubek's legend, Vanda (Wanda) ruled over a large area by the river Vandalus, which was named after her, and all the people who lived there were called vandals . According to Kadłubek, Wanda achieved a long life after the German prince killed himself.

Jan Długosz changed the legend and wrote that a German prince Rüdiger , to whom she had refused her hand in accordance with her vow of constant chastity , waged war on Poland. She defeated him, but threw herself into the Vistula to save Poland from further wars.

reception

The Mogiła hill near Kraków is still referred to as Wanda's tomb today.

The legend was one of the founding myths of the Polish aristocratic republic , after the partition of Poland it remained a national myth. Around 1800 it was also extremely popular in the German-speaking area. It has been picked up by several Polish poets, including Cyprian Norwid and Zygmunt Krasiński . Zacharias Werner also wrote a drama Wanda . Also Antonin Dvorak opera Wanda is based on the legendary material.

The Slavist Aleksander Brückner came to the conclusion that the legend was an invention of Vincentius Kadłubek: “Only one of all locals and foreigners who have ever dealt with Polish prehistory saw the right thing, the Lviv Archbishop Gregor von Sanok in the XV. (!!) Century [...] [He has] the indication of the mag. Vincentius rejected […] Gregor correctly recognized that the wrong equation alone likes Poloni = Vandali. Vincentius had seduced to appoint his Vanda and consequently rejected it; all of his successors have been less careful and have only piled error upon error. ”Vincentius Kadłubek invented the legends in order to make up for the Poles' lack of their own historical tradition.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ K. Kumaniecki, Podanie o Wandzie w świetle źródeł starożytnych , Pamiętnik Literacki 22–23 (1925–26)
  2. ↑ K. Romans Podanie o Kraku i Wandzie, Biblioteka Warszawska 1876
  3. ^ Richard Roepell : History of Poland. First part. Published by Friedrich Perthes , Hamburg, 1840. First chapter: The historical saga of the Poles , p. 51 ff., Here p. 56 f.
  4. ^ J. Banaszkiewicz, Rüdiger von Bechelaren, którego nie chciała Wanda. Przyczynek do kontaktu niemieckiej Heldenepik z polskimi dziejami bajecznymi , Przegląd Historyczny, 75, 1984
  5. ^ Andreas Degen / Elżbieta Dzikowska, Wanda. Femme polonaise , in: German-Polish places of memory. Volume 1: Shared / Together. Edited by Hans Henning Han / Robert Traba. Munich 2015, pp. 524-526.
  6. ^ A. Brückner: Contributions to the oldest history of the Slavs and Lithuanians, IV. Krak and Wanda , in: Archives for Slavic Philology, Volume 23 (1901) , ed. by Vatroslav Jagić , Berlin, pp. 221–230, here p. 224 f.

literature

  • Andreas Degen / Elżbieta Dzikowska, Wanda. Femme polonaise , in: German-Polish places of memory. Volume 1: Shared / Together. Edited by Hans Henning Han / Robert Traba. Munich 2015, pp. 521-534 ISBN 978-3-506-77338-8