Polish legends, which I invite you to watch, are presented in a slightly changed and modernized form.




The first is the 16th-century legend of Jan Twardowski, who, desiring great knowledge and acquiring knowledge of magic, made a pact with the devil, and because he wanted to outsmart the devil, he added a paragraph to the pact that his soul can only be taken to hell from Rome - to which not at all he was going to leave. The devil, however, outsmarted him and when it was time to fill out the pact, dragged him to an inn called "Rome" from where he wanted to take him to hell. But Twardowski, praying to God, managed to escape the devil and flew away on a huge rooster towards the moon - where he was to stand as the first man and - according to the legend - he stays there to this day.

This version of the legend is changed and adapted to modern realities - it's worth watching.


The subtitles are in several languages, but are mostly in english:









The second legend is the story of Baba Yaga, a witch who had a famous gingerbread hut on a chicken leg, where the siblings Staś (Stanislav) and Małgosia (Margareth) ended up (although they have different names in Germany and probably also in Great Britain). In any case, this legend has also been updated.






The story of Basilisk - a hybrid of a snake, a rooster and a lizard whose gaze turned all living creatures into stone - is rather famous. A Polish legend tells of a Basilisk living in the sewers of Warsaw, who was finally defeated by one daredevil using a mirror. This is also how it was shown in this video.






The last legend filmed by the Allegro group is the story of the Wawel Dragon who lived in a cave in Krakow. According to the myth, it was in prechristian times, when prince Krak ruled Krakow. He had two sons - Krak the Younger and Lech, the latter, jealous of power, murdered his brother and hid his body in a grotto near Krakow, and he himself said that wild animals attacked them and only he managed to survive. The old father died of grief over the loss of his son, and Lech ascended the throne. Unfortunately, the gods, seeing the crime committed by the new prince, decided to punish the Vistulans (the tribe inhabiting Krakow) and sent a monstrous dragon to the people, who devoured cattle and sheep and made the whole area dangerous. He was made sacrifices of young virgins to appease the gods, but in the end the dragon was defeated by a shoemaker named Dratewka, who killed the ram, took its insides out of it and filled its skin with sulfur, and then sewed it up. Then he carried the bait to the grotto, and when the dragon ate the ram filled with sulfur, he was very thirsty. So he drank water from the Vistula River. He drank until it burst open, thus freeing Krakow from danger. Dratewka then discovered the body of Krak the Younger, which caused the people to expel the fratricide from the country, and the throne was taken over by the old Krak's daughter - Wanda (eventually she died drowning in the Vistula River, because she did not want to marry a German prince. and soon after the tribe of Vistula was dominated by Polans from the north, who finally united other tribes, creating the Polish state.





That's it.

I enjoyed those, especially the modern retake of the legend of Jan Twardowski - a very clever plot and I liked all the little allusions such as Hell being at minus 666 on the elevator panel and "wipe your hooves, it's not a stable" etc.

I think Baba Yaga is a purely Slavic character and doesn't really exist in British folklore (unless someone here suggests otherwise) although the old fairy tale about the children at Baba Yaga’s hut is clearly echoed by the Germanic story recounted by the brothers Grimm of Hansel and Gretel (the names by which they are also usually known in English), and of course there's no shortage of evil witches in British folklore. The idea that Baba Yaga is sometimes a three-in-one trio of sisterly witches is similar to the Irish mythological being known as the Morrigan (or Mór-Ríoghain in Irish) which often manifests itself as a single black crow but sometimes resolves itself into three separate sisterly individuals called the three Morrígna. These, depending on the story, are usually either elemental earth spirits, powerful witches or shape-shifting banshees, but whatever the case are usually something to be avoided or at least treated very warily and with great respect as they are associated with foretelling doom and the balance of fate, such as whether one will find death or victory in a forthcoming battle. The idea of three-in-one determiners of destiny is also echoed in ancient Greek mythology by the three Moirai or Fates: Clotho, who held the distaff bearing the stuff of a person's life; Lachesis, who spun that into the thread of events and actions for the individual's life; and Atropos, who finally cut the thread of life with a pair of scissors.

And regarding the basilisk - as well as mirrors or a smartphone he could have used a weasel, the smell of which, at least so Pliny the Elder thought, was fatal to the basilisk. Are weasels particularly odoriferous?

The legend of Jan Twardowski is similar to the story of Faust, which was ostensibly based on the historic character of Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480–1540), a notorious German itinerant alchemist, astrologer and dabbler in the occult. The first known printed version of the legend of Faust was the little book, 'Historia von D. Johann Fausten', published in 1587 in Germany, and which in an English-language copy provided the source for Christopher Marlowe's well-known play ' The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus' (1604).

The legendary tales of both Faust and Twardowski originated at roughly the same time in the mid-16th century but did they have a common origin or were they influenced by each other? Then again both stories, but particularly the Polish setting of the Twardowsk legend, may also have been influenced by the life of the Englishman Dr. John Dee.

John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist and alchemist. When in 1558 Elizabeth I succeeded to the English throne, Dee became her astrological and scientific advisor - it was he that chose her coronation date - and from the 1550s to the 1570s he served as an advisor for England's voyages of discovery to the New World. He also spent much of his time on alchemy, divination and the arcane pursuit of 'Hermetic philosophy'. By the early 1580s Dee was becoming frustrated at his lack of progress in learning the secrets of nature but in 1582 he met Edward Kelley (then calling himself Edward Talbot) who impressed him with his supposed ability as a "scryer" or crystal-gazer, able to contact spirits and so see the future. Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to these supernatural pursuits. This was potentially heretical stuff and further served to diminish his already waning influence and recognition in court circles.

In 1583 Dee met the impoverished yet popular Polish nobleman Olbracht Łaski, who, after overstaying his welcome at the English court, invited Dee to accompany him back to Poland. Faced with his steadily declining prospects in England Dee decided to do so. He, Kelley and their families left for Poland in September 1583 but Łaski proved to be bankrupt, out of favour in his own country and unable to offer any meaningful support. Dee and Kelley thus began a nomadic life in central Europe, constantly searching for patronage while continuing their spiritual conferences. Dee had audiences with Emperor Rudolf II in Prague Castle and King Stephen Báthory of Poland in Krakow's Niepołomice Castle, but while Dee was generally seen by both rulers as a man of deep knowledge, he was mistrusted for his connection with the English monarch, for whom some thought that Dee was a spy, as well as for his potentially heretical ideas.

After six disheartening years roaming central Europe, Dee returned to an England that was now even less hospitable to his magical practices and natural philosophy. He sought support from Elizabeth and eventually in 1595 she appointed him Warden of Christ's College, Manchester, but it was a position with little real influence in affairs of the country. In 1605 he returned to London but by that time Elizabeth was dead and James I refused to give him any support. Dee spent his final years in poverty at his house in Mortlake, to the west of London, forced to sell off his books and scientific instruments to support himself until his death, aged about 81, in late 1608 or early 1609.

Sigbert, I'm going to have to watch those videos in stages (not saying they are overly long but there are a few of them so better watch one at a time, then have a pause, and understand it properly than look at them in one fell swoop and not absorb the finer details).  I watched the first and second TV series of The Witcher which is based on Andrej Sapkowski's books and short stories (which I haven't read).  Some folk who have read the books say the adaptation is somewhat loose in places.  My understanding is that Sapkowski took inspiration from slavic (slavonic?*) legends including ones from his native Poland.  Baba Yaga is said to have partly inspired one of the characters in the second series of the show.  https://www.looper.com/715761/the-deathless-mother-from-the-witcher-season-2-explained/

Thanks for the background detail about John Dee and the Polish nobleman, MM.  You are as ever a mine of information.

* I'm not sure which of these words is more appropriate and searching on the internet hasn't helped me.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I watched the first and second TV series of The Witcher which is based on Andrej Sapkowski's books and short stories (which I haven't read).  Some folk who have read the books say the adaptation is somewhat loose in places.  My understanding is that Sapkowski took inspiration from slavic (slavonic?*) legends including ones from his native Poland. 

I didn't watch the Witcher with Cavill in the lead role (only selected fragments) and maybe that's why I didn't like this story in this series. But since I haven't watched the whole thing, I can't be honest. But I saw the Polish version of The Witcher (2001 movie and 2002 series) with Michał Żebrowski in the lead role and I must admit honestly, from then on the Witcher will always have Żebrowski's face for me (just like Juliusz Cezar will always have a face Ciaran Hinds from the series "Rome" - which in my opinion really captured the true character of Caesar and is - I think - the best performance of this character in the history of the film).








As for the Slavic legends, Sapkowski actually drew from them (although, of course, in a rather loose form). Some countries also have their reflection in reality, such as Redania, whose symbol is the White Eagle - it is simply a reflection of the Kingdom of Poland, Aedirn - the Kingdom of Germany, Temeria - the Kingdom of France, and Cintra symbolizes - in my opinion - the Kingdom of England, and Kedwen - Kingship of Scotland or Wales. All these Northern lands are inhabited by Nordlings, and the further south of the Amell Mountains are the lands of the Nilfgaard Empire, which eventually conquers some of the Northern countries (eg Cintra), but ultimately loses the war with the Nordling coalition.


Map of The Witcherland

https://www.techpedia.pl/app/public/files/big/43682.jpg


As for the legends, I recently watched all eight episodes of the "The White Princess" miniseries.There is talk of an English legend about the lost two princes of the Tower.




although I must admit that I was not interested in this issue more closely and treated it rather as one of the episodes of the Tudor era in England, although I know - as it seems to me - quite a lot about Henry VIII and his eight wives, the effect of which is, for example, this series on my blog:


https://grotaragnara.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_88.html

And:

https://grotaragnara.blogspot.com/2016/03/henryk-viii-i-jego-cztery-ostatnie-zony.html


But I would like to know the story of the princes of the Tower, told by you.

Sigbert, there is a thread about the Princes in the Tower.  Different members of the board have varying opinions about Richard III.  I didn't watch The White Princess because it is based on a Philippa Gregory novel and PG's work just isn't my cup of tea.  I haven't watched a lot of Killing Eve but Jodie Comer acted well in what I did see.  I'll try to look at your blog when I have time but I'll have to use the translator suggested by the browser.

Sometimes a certain actor does epitomise a character for a viewer.  I still think of Charles Laughton as the definitive Henry VIII although the film where he played the character wasn't wholly true to history.  I didn't mind Henry Cavill's Geralt but I haven't seen the Polish adaptation.

Here is a link to the Princes in the Tower thread.  It's round two - there had previously been round one and round one and a bit.  It is a subject that has been discussed quite thoroughly you will see but there is always room for more discussion.  It's a subject I have gone back and forth on - I think well it does seem most likely that Richard ordered the 'disappearance'.  Then sometimes somebody will make a plausible explanation that perhaps the princes could have escaped.   The Princes in the Tower (Round Two) - Page 18 (forumotion.com)

I'm 99% sure that King Richard ordered the killings, but 1% of me could be persuaded that they were carried out by the Duke of Buckingham who sought the King's favour by removing the two potential rivals to his reign; rather like the knights taking it upon themselves to kill Thomas a' Beckett in 1170.

clicking on the link below may be giving a bit more information :



 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0bvhk4q/lucy-worsley-investigates-series-1-3-princes-in-the-tower



Dirk

MarkUK wrote:

I'm 99% sure that King Richard ordered the killings, but 1% of me could be persuaded that they were carried out by the Duke of Buckingham who sought the King's favour by removing the two potential rivals to his reign; rather like the knights taking it upon themselves to kill Thomas a' Beckett in 1170.

The story of Thomas Becket, who was murdered in 1170 on the orders of King Henry II, is said to be a copy of a similar story from the history of Poland. Well, king Bolesław II the Bold also ordered the murder of the bishop of Kraków - Stanislaw of Szczepanów, who also (as in England) put the matters of the Church above the interests of the state. Bishop Stanislaw was murdered in 1079 (almost a hundred years earlier) by order of the king, and the legend has it that the king personally killed the bishop and then chopped up his body into small pieces.

Later, during the partitions and captivity it was believed that Poland, torn in three parts, would be reborn and united into one whole, just as (according to legend) the body of the murdered bishop was supposed to miraculously regrow.

However in my private opinion, Bishop Stanislaw of Szczepanów was simply a traitor who served more often not only the Pope (which was obvious due to his office) but also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.


The murder of St. Stanislaw by King Bolesław II (Stanislaw, like Becket, was canonized by the Pope after his death).

https://wfdif.online/media/1843985/zab%C3%B3jstwo-%C5%9Bw-stanis%C5%82awa_obraz.jpg?mode=max&rnd=132714294670000000


As for the princes of the Tower, I must honestly admit that this story is still unclear to me.