Lech and Czech
According to an old legend,
Lech, Čech and
Rus were
eponymous brothers who founded three
Slavic nations:
Variants of the legend
In the Polish version of the legend, three brothers went hunting together but each of them followed a different prey and eventually they all traveled in different directions. Rus went to the east, Čech headed to the west to settle on the
Říp Mountain rising up from the Bohemian hilly countryside, while Lech traveled to the north until he came across a magnificent white eagle guarding her nest. Startled but impressed by this spectacle, he decided to settle there. He named his settlement (
gród)
Gniezno (from the
Polish word for 'nest' -
gniazdo) and adopted the
White Eagle as his
coat-of-arms which remains a symbol of Poland to this day.
Other variations of Lech's name (pronounced ) include:
Lechus,
Lachus,
Lestus and
Leszek. Czech, or
Praotec Čech (pronounced ; Forefather Čech) also comes under the
Latin name
Bohemus or
German Böhm.
A variant of this legend, involving only two brothers, is also known in the
Czech Republic. As described by
Alois Jirásek in
Staré pověsti české, two brothers came to Central Europe from the east: Čech and Lech. As in the Polish version, Čech is identified as the founder of the
Czech nation (
Češi pl.) and Lech as the founder of the
Polish nation. Čech had to climb up the mountain
Říp, look to the landscape and settled with a tribe in the area, whereas Lech continued to the lowlands of the north.
A similar legend (with partly changed names) was also registered in folk tales at two separated locations in
Croatia: in the
Kajkavian dialect of Krapina in
Zagorje (northern Croatia) and in the
Chakavian dialect of Poljica on the
Adriatic Sea (central
Dalmatia). The Croatian variant was described and analysed in detail by S. Sakač in 1940.
Legend versus reality
Duke Czech
The earliest Polish mention of Lech, Čech and Rus is found in the
Chronicle of Greater Poland written in 1295 in Gniezno or
Poznań. In Bohemian chronicles, Čech appears on his own or with Lech only; he is first mentioned as
Bohemus in
Cosmas' chronicle (1125).
The legend suggests the common ancestry of the
Poles, the
Czechs and the
Ruthenians (
Ukrainians and
Belarusians) and illustrates the fact that as early as the 13th century, at least three different Slavic peoples were aware of being linguistically-interrelated, and, indeed, derived from a common root stock.
The legend also attempts to explain the etymology of these people's
ethnonyms:
Lechia (another name for Poland), the
Czech lands (including Bohemia,
Moravia, and
Silesia), and
Ruś (Ruthenia). In fact, the term "Lechia" derives from the tribe of
Lędzianie. See also:
Etymology of Rus and derivatives.
A prominent
Renaissance Polish
man of letters,
Jan Kochanowski, in his essay on the origin of the
Slavs, makes no mention of the third "brother", Rus. Moreover, he dismisses the legend entirely, stating that "no historian who has taken up the subject of the Slavic nation [...] mentions any of those two Slavic leaders, Lech and Czech". He goes on to assume that "Czechy" and "Lachy" are quite probably the original names for the two nations, although he does not dismiss the possibility that there might have been a great leader by the name Lech whose name replaced the original and later forgotten name for the Polish nation.
Oaks of Rogalin
Lech, Czech and
Rus are also the names given to three large
oaks in the garden adjacent to the palace in
Rogalin,
Greater Poland. Each of them is around one thousand years old.
