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Lechia

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Legendary brothers Lech and Czech in a 16th century Latin chronicle by Polish scholar Maciej Miechowita

Lechia is an ancient nationalistic name of Poland, stemming from the legendary founder Lech (a common first name today).

Lechina Empire is phantasmagory of Polish nationalists who miss greatness of past Polish empire.[citation needed] It bases on one medieval chronicle where the author to please his prince described great past of Poles who fought against Alexander the Great and Caesar.[citation needed]

Lechina Empire Theory

Further information: Names of Poland and Lechites

According to legend, the name derives from the first ruler of Poland, Lech. It is also the root of the term Lechitic languages.

Some suggest that most of early Polish history was forgotten due to foreign influence.[1] It is known that Polanians had to pay tribute to the Khazars.[2]

First historical sources mention Slavs at Byzantine borders in nowadays Romania.[citation needed] Some other chronicles[3] mention that Goths were fighting with them somewhere between Romania and Crimea. What we know we reconstruct from various sources: Arab chronicles, Byzantine chronicles, German chronicles, Frank chronicles and above all archeology and recently genetics.[citation needed]

This is popular among panslavists and Polish nationalists. The basis for this are legends produced by medieval chronicler - Wincenty Kadlubek who was ordered to write down history of Poland by Pope Clement XIII. He did this task walking "extra mile" and described Poland's ancient origins. According to him Poles fought and repelled Alexander the Great invasion. This was quite popular practice in medieval ages and the chronicler received high reward from the house at Jedrzejow.

The Slavs start showing up in the historical record in the sixth century. Jordanes mentions them in Getica (ca. 550):[4]

Near the left ridge [of the Carpathian Mountains], which inclines toward the north, and beginning at the source of the Vistula, the populous race of the Venethi dwell, occupying a great expanse of land. Though their names are now dispersed amid various clans and places, yet they are chiefly called Sclaveni and Antes. The abode of the Sclaveni extends from the city of [Noviodunum] and the lake called Mursianus [Schenker suggests Mursianus refers to the delta of the Danube - rusoved] to the Danaster [Dniester], and northward as far as the Vistula. The Antes, who are the bravest of these peoples dwelling in the curve of the Black Sea, spread from the Danaster to the Danaper [Dnieper] rivers that are many days' journey apart.[5]

So, here we have the term Sclaveni, which is a Hellenized version of the Slavic endonym *slavěni--Greek didn't like sl clusters, so they put in a /k/. The other two names are of less certain origin. Veneti belonged to a different tribe living around the Vistula in previous times. Antes was possibly the name of an Iranian tribe which either became Slavicized or otherwise associated with the Slavs by their neighbors. Schenker suggests that the geographic distribution of these tribes "may prefigure the dialectal division of Slavic".

Schenker gives several other 6th and early 7th century accounts of the Slavs[6], and the picture they paint is of a loosely-organized society ("they have lived of old under a democracy", according to Procopius; "they are independent, absolutely refusing to be enslaved or governed", according to the Strategikon); they are a "sturdy people"; they are skilled at navigating rivers; and they have effective military tactics, favoring javelins, small shields, and ambushes.

Mieszko I (and his name is a modern invention) - the first recorded by history ruler of Poland have never titled himself Dux Polonorum[7] - the duke of Poland. However German chronicler Adam of Bremen did write in his chronicle that in year 992 died Misica dux Vandalorum.[8]

The case of his son Bolesław I the Brave first christian ruler to become official European king.[9] He was crowned for king once in year 1000 AD by Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and second time by archbishop of Gniezno with the permission of pope in year 1025. In the half of 14th century his descendant king Casimir III the Great ordered to exhume the grave of king Bolesław they found on stone table the inscription: REGNUM SCLAVORUM, GOTHORUM SIVE POLONORUM.[citation needed] So Bolesław did not use title of king of Poland but instead he titled himself "King of Slavs, Goths and Poles".[citation needed] Who were the Poles if they were neither Slavs nor Goths and were listed as separate people? Maybe they were Sarmatians who lived on the territory of Poland together with Vandals before some of them left their land to attack Rome, Spain and finaly to found Vandalo-Sarmatian kingdom in Roman north Africa?[citation needed]

The titulature of Polish kings. Until the end of XVII century all Polish kings used the title of "kings of Goths and Vandals.

From history we known that both Vandals and Sarmatians lived on the territory of Poland.[weasel words] Some hypotheses originated that Slavs started in Oder and Vistula basins and stayed there during last 3,000 years, while others think that Slavs arrived to Poland between 5th and 6th centuries from Upper Dnieper.[10]

The root syllable of the legendary founder Lech survives in several languages of Europe, of Central Asia and the Middle East in names designating Poland, for example:

Modern use

Several Polish sports organizations have adopted the name Lechia. The best-known example is Lechia Gdańsk. Other examples include Lechia Lwów and Lechia Zielona Góra. In the Polish People's Republic, the Nivea branch located in Poznań was named the Pollena-Lechia Cosmetics Factory (Fabryka Kosmetyków Pollena-Lechia).

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ ancient 2016; "...Germans and Russians wanted to destroy patriotism and the will of the Polish people to fight back. Therefore, they may have decided to do away with the information related to Pre-Christian times in Poland."
  2. ^ Turchin 2009, pp. 191–217; "The Khazars also subjugated East Slavic groups, such as the Polanians, and forced others to pay tribute."
  3. ^ Bideleux & Jeffries 1998.
  4. ^ C. Mierow 1997.
  5. ^ Kessler & Dawson 2020.
  6. ^ The Making of the Slavs.
  7. ^ torino 2015.
  8. ^ łużyce 2016.
  9. ^ Miladinov 2013, pp. 183–314.
  10. ^ Grochowalski 2020; According to the autochthonous hypothesis, the Slavs developed and lived in the Oder and Vistula basins, and their roots in this area extend back to 1,200 to 1,000 years BC. In contrast, the allochthonous theory assumes that the Slavs arrived in this area between the fifth and sixth century CE from the Upper Dnieper basin, an area believed to be their cradle (Trzeciecki, 2016). This 100-year-old discussion has recently been joined by anthropologists and geneticists studying modern mtDNA and Y-chromosome polymorphisms (Malyarchuk et al., 2002, 2008; Branicki et al., 2005; Grzybowski et al., 2007; Rebala et al., 2007, 2013; Wozniak et al., 2010; Mielnik-Sikorska et al., 2013a) and recently also ancient DNA (Juras et al., 2014).

References

Books

Journals

Websites

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