[gothic-l] Re: Sarmatians and Goths in Poland

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

> 
> Hi!
> Once I read a book, a novel, in Poland a well-known book from 
> nationalromantic period in the beginning of the 20th c, by Henryk 
> Sienkiewicz. It´s called "Potop" or the "flood" in english. It´s 
> about the 1650ies in Poland and the nationalistic nobelmens effort 
to 
> push out a invading army from a well-known nordic country. There in 
a 
> bysentence you are allowed to follow the swordfencing nobelman 
> Michael Volodjovsky´s thoughts. And the story goes approximately 
like 
> this:"and as a nobelman from the slachta(nobility-class), he not 
only 
> had to learn the art of sword-fencing, but must also learn latin and 
> gothic. But he wasn´t very interested in books". In books and films, 
> especially the nobility is often depicted as being blond. 
> 
> I wonder if it was a myth during the nationalromantic period or did 
> the polish noblemen in general, until the 17th c also speak gothic. 
> And if they did that, why did they do that?
> 
> 
> Håkan Liljeberg


Hi Hakan,

there is no chance in the world that the 17th century (or 
earlier/later) Polish nobility spoke Gothic. I remember that when in 
the 13th and 14th century the German order knights conquered the land 
of the Prussians and Masovia, a Polish chronicler spoke of the threat 
of the Goths, thus equating Germans with Goths. Also, a German 
printing script widely used at this time is still called Gothic 
(Gotische Frakturschrift), maybe he was refering to that. At any rate 
no Gothic was spoken in 17th century Poland!

cheers
Dirk




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