Hannibal ante portas. Interpretacja fabuły z 21 rozdziału III księgi Kroniki polskiej Anonima tzw. Galla

• Main Author: Tomasz Pełech
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wydawnictwo IBL PAN 2016-01-01
• Series: Meluzyna: dawna literatura i kultura
• Subjects: reception of the Antiquity in the Middle Ages; “Chronica Polonorum”; Gallus Anonymous; Hannibal; warrior king; Bolesław the Wrymouthed
• Online Access: https://wnus.edu.pl/me/pl/issue/114/article/2923/

The aim of this paper is to interpret the fable from the third Book of the “Chronica Polonorum” of Gallus Anonymus. The chronicler created an image of Boleslaus the Wrymouthed as a great warrior. He emphasized this feature by referring to an excellent role model which was Hannibal. Anonymous presented the crossing of the mountain range of Sudetes by the Polish army conducted by Boleslaus as an extraordinary, almost epic, action that could be compared with the crossing of the Alps by the army under the command of the famous Carthaginian. The symbolic content used in the fable also shows that in the creation of the Wrymouthed made by Gallus there is a possibility of interpretation of the ruler as a leader capable to overcome the power of Rome, represented by the Czechs – the great enemies of the Poles and members of the Empire.