Pomerania and the Baltic Sea in the Imaginative Geography of the Polish Middle Ages From the End of the 10th Century to the Beginning of the 13th Century
Pomerania and the Baltic Sea in the Imaginative Geography of the Polish Middle Ages From the End of the 10th Century to the Beginning of the 13th Century

Summary/Abstract: SummaryThe paper deals with the problem of the place of Pomerania in imaginative geography of the inhabitants of the Polish lands since the rule of Mieszko I until beginning of the 13th century. The choice of the final date is justified by the political changes taking place at that time in Poland and in Pomerania itself, as well as the changes in imaginative geography, i.e. in the system of images of particular territories functioning in a community, in the case in question among the inhabitants of the Polish lands. The possibilities of reconstructing the images of Pomerania and the Baltic are limited because of the scarcity of sources, especially with reference to the earliest period. The article contains an analysis of the circumstances of creating and introducing into the written sources the names ‘Pomerania’ and ‘Pomeranians’. The picture of Pomerania in Gallus Anonymus’ chronicle has been extensively discussed, which results from the special position of that region in the spatial concept in that text. The paper indicates the main ways of the conceptualisation of the Pomeranian territory and its inhabitants by Gallus in the context of the contemporary system of learned geographical images, crusade ideology and political conditions of the textmaking and presenting the events. There is also a characterisation of the later mentions about Pomerania as a geographical space in the Polish sources of the beginning of the 13th century, among which the predominant place occupies Master Wincenty Kadłubek’s chronicle. The article shows how Master Wincenty Kadłubek presents Pomerania in various parts of his chronicle, especially in his narrative about the beginnings of the Polish state and nation, with possible causes and sources of the description. Finally, the article signals the changes which indicate that the period from the 13th to the 15th centuries should be regarded as a separate stage in the history of the Polish imagery of the Baltic and Pomerania.

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