Norwid, the Cradle of the Aryans and Europe as a Multicultural „principium”

Abstract

Norwid, who lived in exile in Paris, took a great interest in comparative mythology and historical linguistics, using a similar methodology for both. This article attempts to establish the sources of his own mythological and linguistic speculations. It turns out that he knew both the writings of the acknowledged authorities in this field who used a positivist methodology, and the Catholic dictionaries published by the Abbé Migne which aimed at reconciling the discoveries of positivist science with the Christian tradition. Norwid’s knowledge derived from both sources, although he felt a greater closeness to the perspective of the Catholic dictionaries (even though he did not blindly accept all their findings). The “archaic” (from a positivist perspective) roots of his mythological and linguistic speculation defended him, however, against the temptation to give in to a [pseudo-]scientific racial discourse. Here, his Christian universalism goes hand-in-hand with Renan’s agnostic universalism. The essential element of this universalism derived, in both cases, from an emphasis on the supranational value of traditions linked with the Old Testament and Judaism.