| Jagiełło is up there as one of the greatest greats of all time in Polish national mythology. I mean I’m no historian, but my impression here in Europe is that every nation has its heroes. And that those same heroes are often villains in the histories of neighboring national mythologies. I know this isn’t some big insight. But from my Polish perspective I think it’s all much more recent than we would like to think. We learn all of this stuff on the basis of a highly politicized curriculum. For instance most of the current Polish national stories/facts date back only to 19th century literature, which was highly focused on restoring the Polish national myth. Our minds can’t wrap their way around time very well. So, we end up believing that someone from the 19th century somehow knew more than we do about the 17th century. Fact is, someone from the end of the 18th century probably could already have distorted knowledge about the beginning of the 18th century. So I think shitty nationalist arguments over Jagiełło’s rule have more to do with what modern Poles and modern Lithuanians think, than with what was really going on in that historical period. Anyways I’m surprised Jaggielonians were this important historically later. I’m a bit suspicious about modern motivations around supporting myths that they’re worth cherishing. Are there ancestors who have an interest in making themselves “royal” for the purposes of their ego? What’s more - why is this even on Hacker News? Isn’t this, like completely off topic? edit: I don’t want to be harsh - the subject does sound very interesting, and worth investigating. Oxford historians are probably more than very well aware of everything I said above. |
Lithuanians were the last remaining pagans in Europe, retaining a lot of pagan customs and practices even after their nominal conversion to Christianity. Poles were much more devout Catholics.
The two languages are absolutely mutually incomprehensible, plus there were significant minorities that spoke other incomprehensible languages.
There wasn't any good road system etc., and the country had just a few ports worth their name. It also existed a dangerous neighbourhood: Prussia, Sweden, Turkey.
But it still endured for 400 years. That is quite remarkable. If I saw a Linux server with 25 years uptime, I would be equally surprised.