Novel
An Ancient Tale
Stara baśń
Józef Ignacy Kraszewski · 1876
Opening lines
Poranek wiosenny świtał nad czarną lasów ławą, otaczającą widnokrąg dokoła.
A spring morning was dawning over the black wall of forests that ringed the horizon.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from wolnelektury.pl
Synopsis
In the ninth century, among the Polans, Prince Popiel, whom his subjects nickname Chwostek, and his German wife Brunhilda want to rule as absolute masters, in the manner of Germanic princes, over free peasants accustomed to deciding in assembly. When the prince has the clan chiefs he invited put to death at a feast, the country rises up, under the eyes of a German merchant, Hengo, who has come as a spy, while the humble wheelwright Piast keeps the old customs and hospitality.
Context
Written in 1876, while the author was living in Dresden, the novel opened that same year, from Gebethner and Wolff, the series Dzieje Polski, twenty-nine novels that run through the history of the country up to the Saxon period. The author draws on the legends of Popiel and Piast and on his research into the customs of the ancient Slavs, and forges an archaising language, nourished by borrowings from the other Slavic languages. A second edition, illustrated by Michał Andriolli, appeared in 1879. Władysław Żeleński made an opera from it in 1907, Jerzy Hoffman a film in 2003.
Who it is for
A long historical adventure novel, in a deliberately archaic language; it can be read without knowing Polish history. No French translation.
Prizes and reception
The best-known of its author's novels and one of the most frequently reissued Polish novels, with seventy-eight editions between 1944 and 2010.
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