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son-in-law, Pfemysl - but he is presented as the ideał judge, a tribal leader. Krok, like Krak, does not leave a małe heir, but his daughters resemble Wanda because of their magie powers. It is not him, but the father Bohemus (Ćech), who gave the name to the country, still there is a stronghold named after him.

The myths conceming the origins of various Slavonic countries and dynasties were drown from the common thesaurus of traditions and images, transferred into various local versions, undoubtedly with a contribution of some foreign influence. It seems that this tradition produced the two vari-ants of Krok-Krak, a hero connected with the legał order, who could also be the mythical legislator and the sovereign ruler and State founder as well as the ancestor of the dynasty, though only in the female linę. Hence, contrary to some reservations (SSS, vol. 2, p. 521), Krok is not an artificial character. The name Krak is well known in West-Slavonic territories (e.g. in Pomerania), just like the local names derived from it: apart from Kraków (Cracow) upon the Vistula, there is Kraków in Western Pomerania/Vor-pommem and the Czech Krakovec (SSS, vol. 2, p. 506). The meaning of the name Krak has not been sufficiently explained so far, it is sometimes derived from kruk (crow) or oak (Latin ąuercus) which is supposed to motivate the Identification of the Wawel hero with Perun (SSS, vol. 2, p. 506, Ivanov, Toporov, 1974, p. 174-177; E. Kowalczyk, 1976, p. 240-245).

Krak commands his sons to kill the Dragon, and they answer in the words that Vincent borrowed from Gratian’s Decrees: “It is your privilege to order and our duty to obey.” It is also their duty to fight. The motive of the opposition between the sovereign old age (Krak) and the active, cou-rageous youth (his sons) is very important. It can be found for instance at Livius (I. 3, 5-6), who contrasts the completely powerless Numitor with the brave twins, Romulus and Remus. Imitating Master Vincent’s style we could say that indolence does not become the youth while flghting does not become the old age. Therefore, the young heroes are obliged to struggle with the monster, which is a typical test of military abilities (Słupecki, 1987, p. 145). They have to demonstrate their value as warriors in order to gain the honour of succeding their father.

The struggle with the monster is meant to enable the tribe to inhabit the area around the centre, which is Wawel. The fact that the motive of the consecration of this place is intertwined with the fratricide reminds again of the legend about the origins of Romę, in which one of the brothers had to die for some important reason (Livius, I, 7). The lack of space does not allow us to analyse this motive properly. The main character of the Cracow myth is Krak: the hero, the founder of the town and the State, the legislator with the fuli power of the secular sovereign. He lacks the magie power, which, however, is represented by his daughter, Wanda. Krak’s sons repre-sent the war function. The story is set in the moment of the beginning, its core is the foundation of the State and the origin of the legislation organiz-ing it, as well as the consecration of its territory, which is habitable after the killing of the Dragon. The centre of the microcosm in which all these acts take place is Wawel, the mountain towering over the water, madę sacred through the killing of the Dragon, around which the town is built. The ruler’s seat is situated on the very mountain. According to Master Vincent, the town of Gracchovia was founded on the Dragon’s rock, but Długosz separated the two acts, stating that on the mountain Krak built only the castle.

For a long time archaeologists have been searching for the remains of the first Cracow on Wawel, which so rich in traces of buildings from the period of Christianization. They have not been suceessful. Rudolf Jamka (1962, p. 133-135; 1963, p. 154) noted with astonishment that very few archaeologi-cal finds dated to the pre-Christian period come from Wawel, although it is one of the best-explored sites in Cracow. The palisadę and the rampart around the hill were built as late as in the second half of the 9thc. (Pijanowski 1984, p. 28-30). Although S. Kozie! and K. Żurowska (SSS, vol. 6, p. 343-349) claim that in the 8th c. Wawel was surrounded by a hard-ly explored palisadę, generally speaking excavations undermined the thesis about the existence of a settlement on the hill before the late 9thc. They have not excluded, although have not proved either, the existence of a cult place there (Jamka, 1963, p. 154). Both sacred and secular stone buildings have been recorded on Wawel sińce the lOthc. (the cathedral at least sińce 1000), which, combined with the hilTs function as the seat of the royal stronghold and later castle, may mean that it has been reserved as a place of cult and authority “sińce time immemorial.”

The special role of the hill as the cosmic mountain and centre of the world in the Cracow myths provoked chroniclers to ascribing it also the function of a pagan cult place. Długosz (.Liber beneficiorum, vol. 1, 1863, p. 203), commenting on the pre-Romanesque rotunda of St Felix and Adaukt, which has survived on Wawel until now, stated that “[it was] built of stone in very old times in a very ancient style, and devoted to some deity before the Poles converted to Christianity.” Ascribing pagan origin to the rotunda is obviously incorrect (Labuda, 1988, p. 325), but it is worth noting in the context of the role of Wawel in the myth.

Another Cracow hill, Skałka, was also allegedly connected with pagan cult. According to Długosz (Vi’ta Sanctissimi Stanislai, 10; Opera Omnia, vol. 1, 1887, p. 62), St Michael church, traditionally believed to be the place of Bishop Stanislaus’s martyrdom, was “at one side surrounded with a smali lakę, near which the Poles before their conversion to Christianity used to bring and bum sacrifices worshiping their idols.”

If we want to explore all the possibilities provided by the sources, we have to relate also the legend about the death of Wanda, who paid with her own life for the demonstration of her magie power used in defense of the country (SSS, vol. 6, 1977, p. 311). According to Master Yincent (I, 7, MPH,

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