Origins of Northern Slavs – the later Czech Chronicles (1200s-1300s)

Batch 2 of Slavic chronicles includes some interesting stories as well as some more refinements to the foundational myths of the Slavs.

Czech Chronicles – the Dalimil Chronicle

In the Czech corner we have the famous Dalimil Chronicle (Kronika Dalimila) which is, remarkably for those days, written in Czech (it was written about 1314-1319) and which for the first time in history mentions Lech and Czech in the same document (though not really –  rather, “a lech named czech.”).  That part of the text reads as follows (in the 1877 version of Památky Staré Literatury České if you are into the Czech literary preservation efforts of Josef Jireček):

Or, if you are into the real deal, you can read the following in one of the manuscripts (we include it here in the blogtext so that, again, you don’t have to strain your bifocals):  “W Srbskem jaziku jest zemie Siez charvati jest ymie.  w tev zemi bycje lech.  Semiz ymie bycje cech.” 

Either way, it says pretty much the same thing:

“In the Serbian/Serb language there is a country

whose name is croatia.  

in this country there was a lech [i.e., a young man].  

whose name was czech.” [this rhymes (in Czech), we were not getting trigger happy with the “return” key]”

Dalimil then says that Czech had to leave the country because he killed someone.  Not a very glorious beginning.

Three points are of interest here:

1) There was no Polish Lech (as per the author) – a “lech” (whose name was Czech) was simply a youth (a jut in Pesci-lingo) gentleman that came from Croatia;

2) Czech came from Croatia but… since we know from other sources (e.g., De Administrando Imperium & others) that White Croatia was somewhere in the neighborhood of Cracow, this Czech may have been traveling South which is consistent with the same sources which tell us that the Croats came from the North.  Moreover, Czech, as per Dalimil, was one of seven  brothers.  Note that the Croats had six brothers and two sisters when they arrived in Croatia from White Croatia (i.e., probably southern Poland).

(This, of course, is not consistent with the Nestor Chronicle or all the later Slavic chronicles that try to tie the Slavs to Pannonia or elsewhere to the South – we think because of the desire to attach the Slavs to Japheth as per the then needs of the authors to tie the Slavs to those nations that made their way into the Frankish Voelkertaffel);

3) Perhaps the most interesting reference appears to us to be the one to the “Serbian” language.   Not Slavic but Serbian.  Even though we are told that about the turn of the millennium the Slavic language was virtually the same  everywhere it was spoken (and the Dalimil Chronicle is not that much younger), the author feels it necessary to call the Slavic language, Serbian. Hmmmm…

BTW For those Dalimil fans (the “Dalmilers” – but don’t call them “Dalmis”!)* who only speak Latin, the good news is that  you may now read the so-called Latin fragment discovered in 2005 (ok, someone translate what we just wrote here for them).  While that fragment does not cover the above passage (or put differently those pages of the Latin version have not yet been found), it was upgraded from the dreary Czech for a cosmopolitan Euro-audience with resulting multicolor pictures – here is one in a sneak preview:

Interestingly, the Czech government tried to stop the sale of the “Paris Fragment” of the Dalimil Chronicle but was unable to halt the 2007 auction.  As told by the Czechs themselves, they had to bid on it just like everyone else (http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/the-chronicle-of-dalimil-sold-to-the-czech-republic-for-nine-million-crowns) apparently utilizing a “mystery blonde” as the actual bidder with beneficial results for the Czech pocketbook:

For our German readers, there are also at least two German versions of the Dalimil chronicle – though, we warn you, it is best to work yourself slowly into this book – we suggest a few screenings of Django Unchained followed by a day or two of Machete.   If, after watching these, you can still look at a picture of Jamie Foxx or Danny Trejo and ask, ever so innocently, Wie geht es Ihnen, mein lieber Mann?, then, maybe, just maybe, you could be ready for the Czech nose choppers of the Dalimil Chronicle (hint: Edvard Beneš was a rechter Germanophile in comparison to Dalimil). 

So according to Dalimil Bohemus‘ real name was Czech.  So, there you have it – that’s the value added on the question of Czech origins of this particular chronicle.

Czech Chronicles – the Pulkava Chronicle

Those, looking for more proof (or, depending on your point of view, repetition of the familiar), will want to look at the Nová kronika česká by Přibík Pulkava from Radenín, aka, the New Czech Chronicle (relatively new – presumably newer than the Cosmas [Czech] Chronicle and the Dalimil Chronicle) written before 1380 (i.e., the year of Pulkava’s meeting with his maker) (we will call it the Pulkava Chronicle).

Pulkava, like Dalimil, provides a killing as a motive for the migration of Czech – apparently, he had to leave the old country because he had killed a local nobleman.  Further, he came with Czech and, yes, the old country was once again Croatia.  Oh yes, too Pulkava does not list Poland or Russia among Slavic countries (though does list Croatia – perhaps White Croatia which, likely, was in Poland).  Pulkava’s other interesting addition is the claim that Bohemia was derived from the Czech (Slavic) word for godly, i.e., Bozena or some such contraption.

Note also that Dalimil & Pulkava are written in Czech.  The Polish Chronicles thus far are all in Latin.

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