Life / How is Sienkiewicz's Trilogy perceived in today's Poland? [12]


It is in the part of the first book where the heroes have gone to rescue Pan Michael's fiancée from the hideout Bohun had placed her in and they talk about these bizarre infantile vampires as well as monsters that are human heads with spider's legs.

Life / How is Sienkiewicz's Trilogy perceived in today's Poland? [12]


The Ruthenian witches' teeth flashing took place in the first book around the person of Chiemelnicki in his tent, and there was also a giant Ruthenian witch guarding Pan Michael's fiancée in Bohun's remote hideout.


Yes it was between them.


I agree that most of the humor in the Trilogy derives from the rascal Zagloba, but the part with Pan Michael's servant relating his family's dispute with their neighbors over a pear tree while the heroes are waiting for him to impart other urgently awaited information gave me the most laughs. Also the whole moustache theme throughout the Trilogy was funny culminating in the weakly mustachioed Pan Wołodyjowski's attraction to the brunette with a light moustache in the third book. I suspect Sienkiewicz had read Schopenhauer's writing about the laws of sexual attraction wherein the genius of the species would make a unimpressively mustachioed man attracted to a woman with a moustache because their offspring would have healthy moustaches.

Thank you for answering my questions Gregog.

Life / How is Sienkiewicz's Trilogy perceived in today's Poland? [12]


Alex, you don't think the third book, in which a great portion is devoted to the odyssey of Pan Wołodyjowski's wife after she escapes her abductors, absolves Sienkiewicz of the charge of only having weak female characters in the Trilogy?

Life / How is Sienkiewicz's Trilogy perceived in today's Poland? [12]

Ironside if that engraving is suppossed to be of the giant Lithuanian's death from the first book I'd say that the artist didn't make him look tall enough.

Anyone having seen the ending of the movie Grand Torino with Clint Eastwood has seen a homage to the scene pictured above.

Life / Young Poles' manners? [10]


They may have hit you too hard Tomek but at least they left you shiney.

History / Insoluble Judaeo-Polish imbroglio? [44]


Ah because the colonized aren't allowed to make history. That remains the purview of the colonials..... What a load of garbage! Hey Yehudi you Zionists better start accommodating the Arabs you rule, as well as the Arabs you refuse to let return to their homes in Palestine, because there is a wave of democratic revolution sweeping the Middle East and you are not going to have corrupt Arab dictators around anymore that will take money to suppress their people's desire for justice for their Palestinian brethren. You have relied upon stories of Polish Anti-Semitism for too long to justify your disgusting racist colonial project in Palestine. From the river to the sea all of Palestine will be free!

Language / Polish texts/stories with audio and English translation? [10]

Here is the link to the Librivox.com Polish pages: librivox.org/list-translated-pages-polish/

Librivox has Ferdinand Ossendowski's epic account of his odyssey throught Siberia, Mongolia, and China in English called Beasts, Men and Gods too: librivox.org/beasts-men-and-gods-by-ferdinand-ossendowski/

History / Insoluble Judaeo-Polish imbroglio? [44]

There needs to be equal rights for everyone living between the River Jordan and the sea. The world can see what the fate of Arabs under Zionist rule is. Arabs in the "Jewish State" are second class citizens and Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank have no rights at all. Ethno-supremacist states are a racist anachronism. If the Zionists wanted an exclusively Jewish state they shouldn't have settled in Palestine where most of the indigenous population is not Jewish.

History / Insoluble Judaeo-Polish imbroglio? [44]


I am not proposing either Jewish rule or Arab rule but democracy where everyone has equal rights regardless of ethnicity. If you think a Jewish supremacist state is so moral and that it somehow rights the horrible wongs perpatrated by German racists against Jews then put a Jewish dominated state in Gemany. Palestine is a multi-ethnic place. Jewish domination is not the answer but equality is.


you need to examine your racist assumptions about Arabs. How well did Germany guarantee religious tolerance and democracy in the 1930's and 1940's? How well is the Zionist entity in Palestine guaranteeing it today, when Arab refugees with the "wrong" religion are not permitted to return to their homes? Why don't you say that Jews are unable to guarantee religious tolerance and democracy too? I believe all humans regardless of ethnicity or religion are capable of tolerance and democracy.

Food / Taste of food in Poland vs other countries [186]

I think the general lack of spice in Northern European cuisine is consequence of geography. In colder regions food doesn't spoil as quickly and thus it doesn't need spices to mask the flavor of decay nor as preservatives.

Food / Eat goulash from a cat and a steak from a dog in Poland! [114]


No need to apologize, but some of us vegetarians are really more like bulls.

Food / Eat goulash from a cat and a steak from a dog in Poland! [114]


No i mean that like the bull (a vegetarian animal) we are large, muscled and we charge.
youtube.com/watch?v=OGronVtmq-o

USA, Canada / Poles and American Poles. What do you think about those two groups and their interactions. [85]


Assuming "many" from a "few" is an example of fallacious inductive reasoning. That being said the racism of some Polish-American posters on this forum is very disappointing.

Food / Eat goulash from a cat and a steak from a dog in Poland! [114]

The method that some use to slaughter dogs for human consumption is rather clever if also rather cruel. They starve the dog for a few days and then set a large bowl of uncooked rice before it. The dogs wolfs it all down and then the rice expands after absorbing the dog's gastric juices eventually causing the dogs stomach to burst killing it. Then its fur and viscera are removed and the dog is roasted and the people eat it and its rice stuffing. Man's "best friend" has saved the cook some labor by participating in its own preparation!

Food / Eat goulash from a cat and a steak from a dog in Poland! [114]

It is true that Dolphns as well as larger fish, like swordfish, often do have toxic levels of mercury in their systems because they are at the top of a food chain in which mercury is more and more concentrated in the bodies of bigger fish eating smaller fish. Most whales feed on plankton rather than fish, and thus they have far lower levels of mercury. Mercury in the seas is a result of the smoke unleashed by burning coal.

Food / Eat goulash from a cat and a steak from a dog in Poland! [114]

I said dolphins as well as larger fish. I never said that dolphins are fish.

Life / Polish nonfiction literature: Moczarski, Borowski, Grudziński etc. [5]

Out of the works you've listed I've only read Borowski's short story, but I have read the memoirs of Jan Pasek and I found them fantastic. I heard that they were written on cow hides and when they were discovered they were presumed to be a fake perpetrated by a professional writer, but then they discovered mention of the amazing otter that he had to give the king in the royal records. Truly some of the most entertaining memoirs I've ever read and and a fascinating account of the Deluge and its aftermath. I assume the are very famous in Poland, is that so?

Food / Typical lunch in Poland? [50]

What kind of wines do Poles drink with their meals? Is wine drunk at both dinner and supper?

Life / What is Poland's view on obesity? How healthy, fit are Poles? [166]

I've heard that the French lack many obese people because both snacking in between meals and taking second helpings during meals are considered taboo. An interesting historical precedent for developing a svelte society is found in the Spartan Constitution devised by Lycurgus. He made citizens eat their meals together in communal dining halls and thus eliminated gluttony because no one wished to be seen acting like a pig in full view of their neighbors.

Food / Typical lunch in Poland? [50]

I don't understand. Do you mean they cannot afford a hot lunch because they don't earn enough money?

Life / An idea about Polish Literature [32]


Witold Gombrowicz

Food / Eat goulash from a cat and a steak from a dog in Poland! [114]


Whales are magnificent creatures. Does anyone really need money that much?

UK, Ireland / The mystery of Ireland's worst driver "Prawo Jazdy" [37]

I'm not sure I understand how the Irish police are making this mistake. Is it because the Polish immigrants they stop are showing them a Polish drivers license?

History / A question regarding Christian/Pagan military alliance in First Millenium Central Europe [17]

Indeed it does, but I distinctly remember reading about this. War can bring about strange alliances, just look at the Allies in WW2. I really wish there was someone on this forum who could tell me if they have heard of this incident. The Administration's taking this out of the History category, when it obviously belongs there, and placing it in the Off-Topic Lounge hopefully will not prevent a learned person from seeing it.

History / A question regarding Christian/Pagan military alliance in First Millenium Central Europe [17]


You are wrong. It was an actual alliance between Christians and Pagans to defeat a Pagan Slavic tribe not the Pagan Old Prussian Balts. Read my entire post. The converted Poles would not have been fighting under a Goddess banner.

History / A question regarding Christian/Pagan military alliance in First Millenium Central Europe [17]


Christianity, regardless of appropriating some Pagan aspects, does not believe in the Goddess. Although it is true that the Virgin centered Roman Catholicism one finds in Poland, and elsewhere, has surely succeeded because it appeals to people whose religious sensibilities are descended from Goddess worshipers. The event I am referring to in this thread occurred at a time when most of the Western Slavic tribes were still Pagan, and still powerful, and the Christians in the region could not yet afford to be arrogant towards them, hence the Pope's apology.

Bratwurst Boy this occured long before the 13th century and is not related to the Prussians.

History / A question regarding Christian/Pagan military alliance in First Millenium Central Europe [17]


Why are you so sure this is about the crusade against the Prussians? I have explained that this occurred centuries before. I have already tried to find mention of this on the internet but without any luck. I read about this incident in a book in my University library. You will not find it mentioned on Wikipedia. This is the reason I posted the thread here in hopes that an historian with knowledge about the pre-Christian Western Slavs would read it and recognize the incident.


That is possible Daisy but I distinctly remember it being explained as an alliance between unconverted Pagans and Christians.

History / A question regarding Christian/Pagan military alliance in First Millenium Central Europe [17]

Yes Nomad since "the sheperds were in the fields with their flocks" and Palestine is chilly at night at the end of December, it is highly unlikely that the Nativity occurred on Dec. 25th. The date was chosen because of the Winter Solstice festivals of the Pagan world in a successful attempt to redirect the festivities into a Christian mode.

History / A question regarding Christian/Pagan military alliance in First Millenium Central Europe [17]

Thank you for your insight Ziemtowit. You put me on the path to what I believe may be the Christian/Pagan alliance I read about. The Obotrite tribe did have a military alliance with the Franks from the 9th century through the 12th and they fought wars against both the Pagan Saxons and the Pagan Western Slavs known as the Veleti. The Obotrites were not converted to Christianity until the 12th Century by St Vicelinus. So the incident I read about may have occurred during a Frankish/Obotrite campaign against the Veleti.