Ethnogenesis of Slavs in the Light of Polish Chronicles by Marcin Kromer and by Marcin and Joachim Bielskis
Abstract
The first part of the article analyzes the origin of Slavs on the basis of Polish chronicles by Marcin Kromer and by Marcin and Joachim Bielskis. The chroniclers' accounts present the Slavs' ancestry that is known from earlier chronicles. They introduce the term “Slavonic people” to denote many Slav tribes constituting the Slavonic peoples' community. In the accounts it can be seen that the chroniclers compete with each other showing glorious sources of the Polish State. Kromer and the Bielski brothers strongly emphasize that Poles descend from Slavs and belong to the so-called “Slavonic nation”. Part two of the article shows the views that many researchers and academics present about the ethnogenesis of Slavs, starting from a few mentions made of Slavs in antiquity, then in the Middle Ages, and ending with the 19th and 20th centuries. It should be stressed that literature on this issue is extensive, and hence only selected historians' views are presented in the article.
References
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