Lech, Czech and Rus
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According to an old legend, Lech, Czech and Rus were eponymous brothers who founded the three Slavic nations:
- Poland (formerly also known as Lechia),
- Bohemia (Čechy – now the major part of the Czech Republic), and
- Ruthenia (Rus', whose successor states are now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine respectively).
In one of the legend's variations, the three brothers went hunting together but each of them followed a different prey and eventually they all travelled in different directions.
Rus went to the east, Czech headed to the west to settle on the Říp Mountain rising up from the Bohemian hilly countryside, while Lech travelled 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 (Polish adjective from gniazdo, or "nest") 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 include: Lechus, Lachus, Lestus and Leszek.
Czech, or Praotec Čech (Forefather Čech) also comes under the Latin name Bohemus or German Böhm.
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[edit] Legend versus reality
The earliest mention of Lech, Czech and Rus is found in the Chronicle of Greater Poland written in 1295 in Gniezno or Poznań. In Bohemian chronicles, Czech appears on his own; he is first mentioned as Bohemus in Cosmas's chronicle in early 12th century.
The legend suggests the common ancestry of the Poles, the Czechs and the Ruthenians (or modern-day Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians) and illustrates the fact that as early as the 13th century, at least three different Slavic peoples were aware of being racially- and 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 and Moravia), and Rus' (Ruthenia). In fact, the term "Lechia" derives from the tribe of Lędzianie (see: Poland's name). See also: Etymology of Rus and derivatives.
[edit] 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 more than 500 years old.
[edit] Legend in Croatia
A very similar legend (with partly changed names) was registered also in folk tales at two widely separated sites in Croatia: in the Kajkavian dialect of Krapina in Zagorje (northern Croatia), and also in Chakavian dialect of Poljica at Adriatic (middle Dalmatia). This Croatian variant was described and analysed in detail by S. Sakač 1940 (Krapina-Kijev-Ararat: priča o troje brace i jednoj sestri. Zivot 21/3: 129–149, Zagreb).
[edit] External links
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