4.12.25. History, literary imagination and our modernity..

4.12.25. History, literaryimaginationAnd our present...

A fresh two-volume fresh late appeared Elizabeth Cherezinska: (1)Bold, (2)Generosities (Zyk and S-ka, Poznań, October – November 2025). From the titles you can see that the author returns to Piast history. Like in Bolesław Chrobry It's a bone game. (Zysk and S-ka, Poznań 2010), it combines past and literary imagination, i.e. cognition corresponding to the state of technological investigation on the era with its own description of events and the imagination of its main characters. So it means both a communicative of political and social past from the reign of Bolesław the Bold, as well as a way of creating a character that involves discovering how they feel, how they think, how they perceive the world, who in reality defining their lives are actually people. Sometimes as a summary of stories about certain experiences of any of them there is besides a voice from a communicative distance. For example, as quoted below, characterizing Boleslaw's expected well-being at a time erstwhile he commissioned his goldsmiths to forge a crown for themselves, but evidently suffered from love which in his situation could not be fulfilled in marriage:

I see you: behold, you go up the Wawel hill, made of the blood and bones of the ancestors, but formed at your own discretion. You're complete, even though you think you're not complete without it. Wrong, but it's hard to see. You don't realize the essence of love between you. Something that's already happened can't be incomplete. A long time ago you stopped being a impatiently sniffing puppy, you're almost ready, your time and your place, in it you burn below the surface, like a fire warming a crucible in which it melts. You looked through the liquid gold and didn't see your reflection. It saw you inside. You had a feeling, you turned to silver. You get yourself killed, people pay you, and yet you don't sale yourself, and you inactive don't change for change. Go back to the gold, if you had the courage to watch your sword be forged, as of the 3 bites of iron handcuff the wedge you get and defend, have the courage to accompany the emergence of the crown. You're the 1 who says, "The kingdom, erstwhile others are blocking the principality." You made yourself up. Finish the work (Generosities, p. 137).

The fresh features historical and fictional heroes. The final pages contain appropriate lists of royal genealogy and imaginary characters. The time and place of subsequent episodes that are the subject of narratives are indicated in the titles concerning their chapters. Volume 1 covers the time from the large Thursday 1043 to the fall of the year1070. Volume two: from autumn 1071 to year 1081.

It is very moving erstwhile reading these stories that, although no communicative happens in a vacuum, in certain circumstantial contexts and at a peculiar time, the forms of action and problems of our ancestors from a 1000 years ago can easy be translated into modern times. Cherezinska in her second volume at any point will compose that "in akin times we live" (see p. 462).

The main character of the fresh Cherezińska fresh is 1 of the most prominent rulers of Poland. By the way, the author announces the continuation of the fresh on the Piasts. In the associate to Generous She writes: “I decided to go triptych. Noble – Herman – Krzywousty. I promise you today” (see p. 466). As for Bolesław Boldy, his titles of the fresh Cherezinski's nickname appear to be a large biography, but the reality was different. The author in the already quoted MP comments briefly: “The communicative of Bolesław the Bold is very Polish. This is the communicative of a man who becomes besides prominent for his contemporaries to service him. You outgrown them, they couldn't live in your radiance, nor in the shadows.. All that was to be won, he won and suffered defeat” (see p. 462).

On the 4th page of the cover of the first volume, we will find in any case a summary of the information that is the background of the events shown in it:

In the second half of the 11th century, Europe was shaken by powerful conflicts. In pagan rebellions bishops were murdered, a large schism began, a dispute between Papacy and imperialism reached the apogee. The king of Germany fought against his own subjects, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Ruś Kiev were plunged into fratricidal wars. During this stormy time, 15-year-old Bolesław after the abrupt death of his father, Kazimierz Renovator, became ruler of the ruined Kingdom of Poland. The mighty only waited for them to regulation from behind the back of the young prince. But he rapidly realized that in martial arts the most crucial is the diplomatic game, and the most hard battles take place with those closest to him. He proved that he was named after the first king for a reason, and confirmed his right to inheritance from him.

As regards volume two, we read:

Prince Boleslaw is already known as “the creator of the stumps”, though he himself is not even 30 years old. erstwhile he one more time pronounces obedience to the King of Germany, all imperial power comes to Poland. Boleslaw has his political secrets and the large war will erupt, but not in his kingdom. He'll be back in the country. He will skillfully usage the dispute between imperial and Papacy, reaching for the king's crown. His successes overwhelm the powerful and irritate Stanisław, Bishop of Krakow. They revive ghosts of the past and conflicts of pre-Piastian times. There's a conspiracy network around the king. Bolesław will cut it, not assuming it will pay the highest price.
The king is the warp of the novel, but it is women who weave it. His aunt, Princess of Kiev Gertrude. Sister, Duchess of the Czech Saint. Mother, Duchess of Dobronega. And the 1 whose name involves life. It's a communicative about how the bonds of kinship exude the Piasts and become a curse to them.
He was the most capable and most effective of the Piasts, and was remembered mainly from the dispute with the bishop. Since the day Stanislaus was chosen to be a martyr, it began to erase the king's actual history. It's time to bring her back.

If we now effort to item what else – apart from the message that people who are prominent in Poland have always been uphill – lies in Cherezinski's message about the similarity of our times to those thousands of years ago, we would request to draw attention to the fact of constant divisions of society. The divisions motivated and driven by family, social or political interests, the war of interviews, the political ambitions of players, their aspirations for power and wealth, and the belief that they have the right to find what the lives of others should look like, and resulting in the establishment of various coalitions, the spread of conspiracy theories, manipulation of conversations – for example homosexuality and zoophilia were attributed to boldness. However, in view of specified a list, it should be said that it reflects not only Polish specificity, but actually means the universal characterization of the human species in its Darwinist dimension.

For the past mentioned here, it seems to be significant, first of all, that from the full biography of Bolesław Śmiali (born c. 1042-1081) inactive re-separated and exposed his conflict with Bishop Stanislaus, or dragging a line between Wawel and Skałka, is between secular and ecclesiastical power. It did not substance then that the Bold understood the state-creation function of the Church and created space for its activity. However, the bishop was dissatisfied and the conflict developed. present it translates into the well-known and current problem of the real chapter of the Church and the State. In this context, you may want to look at the article entitled Silence Michał Okonski in the latest issue of "The Common Week" (02.12.2025).

The body of Bishop Stanislaus, who was punished with death on 11 April 1079, has, in any case, rested in the Wawel Cathedral since 1089. Modern studies of his skull stored there have reportedly revealed that there are traces of blunt force trauma on it, but besides that it actually dates from the 13th century, while bishops of the skeleton constitute de facto female remains (see essay Tomasz Karolak Legend and history, in ‘Teatr’ 2018. no. 6, pp. 38-43. This does not change the fact that the worship of the bishop continues, and the place of this cult and its material signs are the church on Krakówska Skałka, located in front of it a pond called “Kropienica Polski”, placed in its corners on 4 obelisks of silver eagles and a statue of Stanislaw of Szczepanów (1030-1079). You can read about this for example in A tiny encyclopedia of Krakow Jan Adamczewski (Wanda Publishing, Kraków 1996, password Rock on pp. 404-405). It is besides worth checking the guide The Holy Places of Krakow Michael Rozek (WAM Publishing, Kraków 2007, pp. 255-267). On how they spread and perpetuate the cultural importance of certain events over centuries, the following examples of the relation between the king and the bishop and events related to Stanisław's death show. Gall Anonymous (1066-1245) in the first 4th of the 12th century, or at least 30 years after the event, he wrote:

... but so much can be said that being himself anointed [God’s], he should not have [the other] anointed for any sin punished fleshly. For it did him much harm erstwhile he applied sin against sin and gave the bishop for treason to cut off members. We neither justify the bishop-traitor, nor urge the king who so ferociously came to his rights (quote for: The Holy Places of Krakow, jw. p. 258.

The cone rightly draws attention to Gall's reticence, which does not point to the individual active in this communicative by name, but, for this, clearly accentuates the problem of bishopish betrayal as the origin of the conflict. Almost a 100 years later, Bishop of Kraków Vincenty Kadłubek (c. 1150-1233) However, the April 11, 1079 event will show a different story:

So he orders [king] at the altar [...] kidnap the bishop! Whenever cruel servants effort to throw themselves at him, so many repentant ones, so many down to the ground are mildened. After all, the tyrant himself raises up the sacrilege hands by lying to them with large outrage, himself tearing off the bridegroom, the shepherd from the fold. [...] The holy [...] bishop of the innocent most cruel sacrilege will teardrop apart, individual particles will teardrop apart as if they were to be punished [even] by individual particles of members [...] For it was seen that 4 eagles came from the 4 sides of the world, which, circling rather advanced above the place of martyrdom, drove distant vultures and another bloodthirsty birds, so as not to torment the martyr. They worshiped him and kept him awake day and night. [...] For so many divine lights of unusual light have shined in various places, how many particles of the holy body were scattered, so that the sky itself envyed the earth of its ornaments, its glory, the earth of stars with any kind of light, and any – you would think – with rays. any of the fathers, who are joyful due to this miracle and zealous godly zeal, are eager to gather up scattered parts of the members. Step by step, they find the body intact, even without scars! They lift them up, take them away, with precious aromas the anointed hide in the basilica of this Saint Michael (quote for: The Holy Places of Krakow, jw. pp. 258-259).

Jan Długosz (1414-1480) in turn, in their about 400 years after Kadłubek Yearbooks, or Chronicles of the celebrated Kingdom of Poland, compiled with the utmost care and care for historical truth (PWN, Warsaw 2009, pp. 87-179) clearly utilized Kadłubek's records to cover this story, but he besides spread out throughout. So he described, among another things, the miracles that the bishop performed in his lifetime, including the resurrection of the deceased to bear witness to the bishop's rights to a certain estate. Yearbooks..., Book 3. pp. 134-139). The subject of controversy was then a communicative that vividly resembles an incidental about taking over the flat in stories about our current President, although in this case it was done without the intervention of a individual restored to life by the power of 1 of our contemporary bishops. Let us, then, take a longer quote from Longer Writings:

The Bishop of Kraków Stanislaus could no longer endure the ever-distant and hard to deal with the harshness and expanding decline in the dirty act of the Polish King Bolesław [...] Bravely, without realizing [of danger], raising his voice and first without witnesses, mildly and in fatherhood, with tears which have exasperated deep compassion and sympathy, words which were self-absorbed, gani and implores King Boleslaus, that he would not, contrary to the law of nature, defile the king's dignity and the excellent race, as if the animals rotting in his own fealty should not arouse disgust and disdain with God and men, so that his fame and publicity gained through many victories which the good God permitted him to receive, would not endanger the eternal shame that would affect him and his house. [...] Let him not harass those subject to request for transport services, which in Polish are called submarines, station demands and the imposition of benefits and taxes. Let there be no uncertainty that the cry of those who are subject to these burdens upon them will come to God’s throne without restraint, demanding vengeance. [...] The Polish king Bolesław was not moved by the salvific and beneficial admonition of the Bishop of Kraków Stanislaus from sincere, full of love and actual zeal of the heart. He was so angry that erstwhile the holy bishop came out of the palace in which it happened, he threw names and abusive words at him with a threatening face among the threats, saying that he would avenge the crazy and reckless act that the bishop had done against him as he might. [...] seeing that the Polish King Bolesław gave himself up completely and became hardy and stubborn, convinced that he should no longer hold and look at it with indulgence, with a desire to save, alternatively than to lose the king, following the advice of the venerable clergy, casts a curse on him [...] He besides commanded in all churches to publically announce that the king had been cursed and ordered that the faithful of all states in his diocese should absolutely avoid his company. Then King Bolesław began not only to be angry and to endanger God's husband Stanislaus, swearing that as shortly as he met him and wherever he met him, he would immediately kill him.

And so on, and so forth, until yet the king:

Not afraid of a place, a time and a bishop's state, not afraid of the majesty of God and the saints, the holy bishop who performs Mass cuts his head with a sword, mixing the bishop's blood with fresh sacrifices. The wicked and criminal king lays the dead body of the holy God, Bishop Stanislaus, who asks forgiveness for him and the another robbers and hatchets, kills and kills the bridegroom in the bosom of the bridegroom, the shepherd in his flock, the father in the embraces of his daughter and boy almost in the entrails of his mother. This 1 execution crime changes all the erstwhile fame gained through courage and valor to shame, publicity to forget, pride to scorn, and burns out the mark of eternal shame not so much as to its offspring and state. [...] the knights [...] who came with the king to commit the crime [...], threw swords and cords at the body of the holy husband who had fallen to the ground after the skull was torn apart by the king's blow. And those who, with God's power, were incapable to reconcile the living, cast countless dead bodies on the races, 1 hindering 1 another, in order that the king would look at this terrible crime, and he would win his greater graces, who had smitten the saint more cruelly. Hence, the body of the saint was cut into thousands of pieces, as if they felt that each associate should endure a separate punishment, and as if they felt that the saint should be punished with as many deaths as they had hit him. And King Boleslaus, who was enraged in him, declared that he was not satisfied with either cruel execution or crueler than him to cut the corpse. He ordered [the body] to leave them in different, even more distant places and to feed them to chaotic animals, dogs, vultures, ravens, and another predatory birds to wipe out the memory of the name of the man he deprived of his life. And shortly the knights obey the king's command, scattering pieces of the holy body around, and blooded with martyrs, as if they had done any heroic deed, return with King Boleslaw to the royal palace. In turn the Holy Soul of the Bishop of Kraków Stanislaus separated from the body by so many punches and punishments of the oppressors, rose to the blue, eternal seats ([this was] for Pope Gregory VII) in order to see the Holy Trinity in a very large procession, to find the right reward for its martyrdom and to take place between the first ranks of saints. With the aid of angels, they celebrated her coming, going to her gathering all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, followers, virgins, and all the souls who are already enjoying eternal happiness. The celebrated martyrdom of the holy man Stanislaus, made by the sword of the wicked king, began to be known and loud from this minute on, thanks to the vast and distinct miracles which glorified God's husband and proved that no trick or run could be obscured by his memory. [...]
When, the next day after the execution of the blessed husband Stanislaus, King Bolesław and the participants of the crime committed on the holy bishop, and the people who praised their criminal act, they thought that the chaotic birds and animals, which they had cut down and scattered, ate completely the chaotic birds and animals, saw how from the 4 sides of the planet an extraordinary form and size of eagles had arrived, which were rolling upwards over the place of torment, where members of the holy body were found, with large care drove distant from the holy remains of vultures, ravens and another birds and animals. And any venerable and God-fearing husbands saw, at night, just after the execution of the martyr, the rays of heaven appeared with unusual radiance in all parts of the shredded body and lit continually until dawn the next day. And in different places, there were as many blue lights as the particles of the holy body were scattered. With this visible sign God pointed out that his fighter Stanislaus had honored him with so many crowns of fame, how many deadly blows did he receive without knowing the brakes of the tyrant's cruelty. erstwhile in 2 days these miracles became loud [...], it added courage to any of the fathers of the Kraków church, the prelates and canons for a thoughtful gathering and a worthy burial of members of the holy body [...]. They simply finished the formation of members erstwhile they saw that abruptly all parts of the holy body under the influence of blue power had grown very powerfully without any trace of scars. Rejoiced with this wonderful view, without hold [...], with due reverence, in the large throng of all who were worthy to participate in these rites, they hastily carry the holy body to St. Michael's Church on the Rock, in which the saint suffered martyrdom and hid it in a coffin filled with spices, in front of the door, in the vestibule, in the open sky, so that the king, whose harshness has not yet quieted down, would not have him thrown out of the church (Years, jw. pp. 134-164).

Instead of commenting on this description, it is adequate to callback the late characterized (25.11.2025) by Michał Bilewicz in “Electoral Gazette” in the text History is the origin of “political gold”? different ways of presenting historical events. Thus, specified as the fact that only the facts matter, that is, taking (1) realistic, specified that it is allowed to think that it was so or possibly a bit different, that is, taking (2) comparative and such, the essence of which is shaping the perceptions of the recipients on a given subject, so taking (3) instrumental. As for the legend of Bishop Stanislaus the masters of this fresh trend were, as you can see, many...

Meanwhile, Adamczewski in the aforementioned slogan Rock au A tiny encyclopedia of Krakow Recalls by prof. Janusz Tazbir, which in 1992, so over 9 100 years after the fact, wrote:

We'll never know what he was executed for. Stanislaw of Szczepanów and who truly did it. The examination of the bishop's skull in 1963 showed that there were traces of blunt force trauma on it, which was a probable origin of death. Starting with Tad. Wojciechowski, part of the researchers, citing an enigmatic mention made by Gall, the names of Stanisław “a traitor”. Church representatives have no uncertainty that he was a holy martyr, and the modern historian can only envy the certainty of the court. For we are inactive in the ellipse of hypotheses. State Antagonisms with the Church caused that during the period of the People's Poland "the process of St Stanislaus" was transformed into a political dispute, which besides did not encourage the formulation of nonsubjective courts (A tiny Encyclopedia, p. 404).

Cherezinska in MP to Generous writes similarly, stating that “the communicative of Bolesław II resembles an equation with many unknowns” (p. 466). This does not change the fact that we are dealing with a inactive updated "turnover theme". In 1971, for example, it was created movie Boleslaw Bold (screenplay Władysław Lech Terlecki, directed by Witold Lesiewicz – to view online). In 1973, Scientific conference on this subject organized the Kraków Cardinal Karol Wojtyła. It should besides be remembered that the communicative of the dispute between the king and the bishop was fascinated Stanisław Wyspiański. As a result, he created a drama called Boleslaw Bold, supplementing it Rock (Premier in 1903; seeLegend and history, jw.).

Cherezińska continues with her song. Let us read, then, the fresh fragment of the “knife talk” which concerns:

The first spring storms cross the country, Perun thunders, throws thunder where it will fall. He'll set the home on fire, somewhere else an empty granary. Nevertheless, the orca moved, the seed must be sown to harvest. The peasants don't have time for beer and hang out at the inn now. What else in the cities, Lent is over, you can drink and say what spit on your tongue will bring. You're talking about [...]. But much more interesting to talk about a bishop whose head was cut off from the body and rolling around the Wawel courtyard, she kept talking, spreading terrible curses on the king, abusive, vulgar and dirty words that specified a bishop should not know, so the executioner had to teardrop her tongue, that head, and then chopped the bishop's members into pieces so tiny that by evening they chose them from among the Wawel stones. All was loaded into a crate, the crate was bound with an iron chain, and brought to the stone due to the fact that the king refused to be defiled on Wawel to bury. And then, around the church on the Rock, they saw a hoove of blood flowing across the sky toward the castle. Honey before the fresh harvest is expensive, a fistful of coppers for a pot, you want to drink, you gotta pay, and without drinking you won't perceive to any more, the flag, about how she fell, how she covered the body of a bishop, like a shroud. But what do you mean? – individual interrupts, doesn't drink so much, so he asks: – She covered it chopped, or is that it? They're surprised, I think, that was before the chopped-off head started throwing curses. Spring fairs flourish across the country, and with them the communicative of the bishop, king, head, Rock, banner. There are even songs: On Judas Day in Kraków, a head happened. individual says it was a coronation spectacle. What else will surprise us now, like these freaks of ours? (GenerositiesChapter: After Easter, 1079, p. 403).

The author of the novel, as has already been mentioned, has highlighted the political function of women in her part about the Piast times. Including Gertrude, native Polish, daughters Lives II, aunt Bolesław Bold, author of the alleged Latin Prayerbook Gertrude, which – as we will read in the book of an outstanding mediate Ages expert – “initiates literary works in our country” (see Teresa Michałowska, Gertrude's ego, PWN, Warsaw 2001). If only now, as usual in the finale of these Records, in relation to the problems of our school, it would should be said that supporters of historical literary education in this school, not especially about Gertrud with her feminine, clear ‘me', remember. It would be safe to presume even that those who do not know about it also, who have Polishness without ceasing on the language and without hesitation, spread the politically conditioned slogan “Thinking Poland”. The latter, on the another hand, would surely argue the thought of cultivating practice in schools in recognizing ways of instrumental treatment of past alternatively of presenting only the right truth...