The Problem of Martyrdom in Norwid's Work

Abstract

Norwid's whole life was marked by a strongly felt opposition to bloodshed. Paradoxically, that was the reason for the tenacious efforts he made in his poetry to grasp the essence of martyrdom. He viewed martyrdom as the very opposite of thoughtless and senseless, or at best hardly sensible, squandering of human life. According to Norwid, a martyr gives up his life after the most serious consideration, for he regards it as something extremely precious; and he does so in order to save something even more important than life.

The place of martyrdom within Norwid's worldview can be seen most easily in the epilogue to the Promethidion. We ought to realise that his well-known postulate that martyrdom should become superfluous is not just a brilliant idea that he luckily let flow from his pen, but that it follows from the Christian philosophy of history, of which the Promethidion contains a careful and original presentation.