How powerful she looked, and noble! How snowy-white her plumage...

[Cleaner_Tomorrow]

In case you were wondering...

The White Eagle of Poland


Long, long ago, there lived in Poland a Duke named Lech. He ruled the people as a King and led their armies into battle. So strong was he, and brave, that stories of his mighty deeds spread far and wide about the world and many trembled at his name. But though his enemies might fear him, the Polish people loved him, for he was wise and just, and would willingly have died for the country that he served.

Now Lech, like all the princes of his time, was fond of hunting, but even more than hunting, he loved hawking. The Duke owned many hawks and was justly proud of them, for he had trained them all himself. "One day," he loved to boast, "I shall train an eagle, and be the envy of all the princes!"

His falconers assured him that this could never be. "For," they said, "even if it were possible to train so fierce a bird, you would never find one here on our gentle plains. The eagles dwell in the mountains and build their nests upon the highest peaks."

Nevertheless, Lech still cherished the hope that one day he might capture and train a young eagle, and so fulfil his heart’s desire.

One morning in the merry springtime, Lech called his courtiers to go a-hawking. With shouts of joy they got ready, and soon a goodly company rode forth, the Duke leading, with his favourite hawk upon his wrist.

They had not ridden far, however, when Lech was filled with a great longing to be alone. He struggled against the longing for he did not wish to spoil the sport, but at length it overcame him. He reined in his horse and giving his hawk to the Master, said briefly "Leave me, for I would be alone."

The Master and his followers were disappointed and not a little puzzled. They watched in silence while the Duke, setting spurs to his horse, galloped away; then they turned back.

But Lech rode onward, swift as the wind, for now he was very sure that some great adventure lay before him. Suddenly, in the distance, he saw what he thought to be a hill, but as he drew nearer, he found that it was no hill but a massive crag, overhung with tangled bushes and brambles. Rising abruptly from the level ground, the huge rock looked like some mighty fortress standing there. Lech stayed his horse and gazed at it in wonder. Then his heart beat fast and he shouted with joy, for high upon its summit he saw an eagle’s nest, and on the nest a mother eagle with her young ones all around her.

How powerful she looked, and noble! How snowy-white her plumage! It was just such a bird as this, that he, the Duke of Poland, longed to hold upon his wrist.

He leapt down from his horse and began to climb the rock in haste, for he could scarcely wait to own one of those eaglets. The mother watched him as he climbed, and her eyes grew hard as steel. She spread her wings about her young, and they nestled close to her in fright. Lech shouted out and waved his arms to scare the bird away. But she neither flinched nor moved her eyes. The Duke went nearer and stretched his hand towards the nest; the eagle pecked him then, in warning. But nothing heeding, Lech drew forth his sword, and holding it aloft, put out his hand once more to snatch a little one. The mother swooped upon him and beat him with her mighty wings, but she was wounded, and Lech could see the scarlet blood upon her breast. "She will not struggle long," he thought, and reached again towards the nest, but the eagle drove him back. He tried again, and yet again; he tried a score of times. But every time, the mother bird beat him off to save her young.

Lech paused awhile and gazed upon the wounded bird. His heart was touched with pity, yet filled with admiration for this noble creature who would rather die than let her young be captured. He would not rob her of her young. She was too brave a bird. He left the nest and clambered down the rock.

At the foot he rested. Before him lay the fair lands of Poland, and gazing at them, Lech felt such a love for his country that his face glowed and his whole being trembled. How beautiful she was! How happy were her people! He would protect her always even as the eagle had protected her nest. As he pondered these thoughts, another came to him--that the eagle should become his country’s emblem! Let the eagle be blazoned on her flags and banners and on her shields, to show the world that just as that noble bird had been ready to die to save her little ones’ freedom, so would the sons of Poland be ready to save their people’s freedom.

The Duke rejoiced in this thought and mounting his horse he galloped home to share it with his counsellors. When they heard it, they rejoiced too.

"The eagle shall be our emblem," they said, "and no less bravely than she, shall we defend our country’s freedom."

And as the eagle was dear to the Duke, so was the place where he had found her. He took his people to see it and said "Let us build our nests here as do the eagles!"

So they built a castle there, and about the castle, a city. Lech named the city "Gniezno," which, in the Polish of those days, meant "Nest." Gniezno stands to this day, and to this day Poland has a great white eagle as her emblem. From: Polish Folk Tales and Legends. Lilian McCrea, ed. London: Pitman, 1959.

[Cleaner_Tomorrow]

THE WHITE EAGLE - 700 YEARS OF THE COAT OF ARMS OF THE POLISH STATE



The Crowned White Eagle has been the Coat of Arms of the Polish State for seven centuries now. It is one of the oldest State Coats of Arms in the world. There are very few other countries who have managed to maintain their coats of arms for such a long period of time. Several historic traditions and legends have referred to the origin of the White Eagle, moving it back to the times when the Polish State was being established, and even earlier. The Eagle was connected with Poland's first capital, Gniezno, where Lech, the legendary ancestor of the Piast dynasty was to find an eagle's nest (in Polish: "gniazdo"), and thus took the eagle as his coat of arms. On the other hand, Jan Dlugosz, Poland’s most distinguished chronicler living in the 15th century, wrote that Duke Boleslaw Chrobry was granted the Eagle as his coat of arms by the Emperor Otto III during the meeting of both Monarchs in Gniezno in the year 1000. The origin of the White Eagle is neither as fine nor as distant in time however. Generally, coats of arms did not exist before 12th century.

In Poland, the eagle appeared as a coat of arms for the first time on seals of several Dukes of the Piast dynasty (they were portrayed both standing and on horseback) in the years 1222-1236. It was their personal and family coat of arms and at the same time the emblem of their dukedoms. The eagle was selected as their coat of arms for its symbolic values. As the king of all birds it was a primeval symbol of power, victory, force and kingship. For the same reason, many monarchs in other countries, used the eagle in their coats of arms. The eagle of the Piast princes had different colors than the others. From the very beginning it was the White Eagle in the red shield (on "gules", according to heraldic terminology).



In the beginning, the eagle of Piasts had no crown. It was as late as when trends to unify Polish lands and to restore the Kingdom of Poland (disrupted as early as in the second half of the 11th century) emerged - when the Eagle's head was crowned. It took place in 1290, when the Duke of Great Poland and Kraków, Przemysl II put forward a plan to unite Poland, together with his own claim to the royal crown. When Przemysl II was crowned as the King of Poland in 1295, he introduced the White Eagle in a crown on the back side of his royal seal of majesty, as the Coat of Arms of the whole Kingdom of Poland. All Polish kings that followed accepted it in that character.



Beginning from the times of Wladyslaw Jagiello, that is from the end of 14th century, the Polish White Eagle was accompanied by "Pogon" (a knight on a horse with the raised sword in his hand), the coat of arms of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was a sign of the union of the two States under the rule of the same King.



The shape of the White Eagle changed following consecutive artistic styles in different times. The gothic Eagle of the Piasts and the Jagellons was followed in 16th century by a Renaissance one, then by a decorative baroque one, and finally by a harmonious and yet deprived of power of expression, classicistic 18th century one. At the beginning of 19th century the design of the Polish military eagle worn on soldiers’ caps developed. As the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Poland, the White Eagle was at the same time the personal Coat of Arms of each King. Beginning from 16th century, the connection between the Eagle and the King was expressed by his monogram on the Eagle's breast, later by his family coat of arms.



Despite the changing artistic form of the White Eagle, its ideological message was always the same. It was a symbol of the sovereign and independent Polish State, and of the King who personified all his subjects. As a symbol of the State and the King, it was present on royal seals and documents, on coins, army banners, on royal tombstones and residences, on State office buildings and more important churches; it was used during State and Court ceremonies. In 1705 King August II established the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle, existing untill now.



In 1795, in the consequence of the partition of Poland by Russia, Prussia and Austria, and in the consequence of the breakdown of the State, the White Eagle lost its significance as the coat of arms an was replaced by the emblems of the foreign monarchies. It reappeared however, in every national uprising and in other attempts to restore independence (in 1831, 1846, 1848 and 1863/64). It became at that time the main visual symbol of the struggle for national independence. The left-oriented liberation movement took for their emblem the "democratic" White Eagle without the crown.



In 1918, when Poland regained freedom, the crowned White Eagle became once again the Coat of Arms of the Republic of Poland. Before the 2nd world war it had two officially accepted forms - the one from 1919 and the other from 1927 (the latter designed by Professor Zygmunt Kamiñski). Apart from the official designs, several stylistic forms of the White Eagle were in use at that time.



After the defeat in 1939 and during the German and Soviet occupation of the country the White Eagle, as Poland's coat of arms, was strictly forbidden. Once again it became the symbol of fight for free Poland. It was used by the underground army at home and by the regular Polish army abroad. The left-oriented armed forces, however, as well as the Polish army created in the Soviet Union, adopted the White Eagle without the crown. And such became the official Coat of Arms of Poland after 1945. Removing the crown from above the Eagle's head meant a change of the State's political system, from now on based on the principle of "people's democracy." That form of the White Eagle, though officially used till the end of 1989, was not commonly accepted by the Polish nation, so much attached to their previous, centuries-old national emblem.



And thus, when in consequence of the events of the 1980s, the political system in Poland was changed, it was possible again to restore the crowned White Eagle. On the 29th of December 1989, the Polish Sejm (Parliament) decided to bring back the White Eagle's crown. In 1990 its official design was defined, closely relating to that of 1927. In 1993 traditional emblems of the Polish Army were restored, among which was the Crowned White Eagle.



In 1995, the 700th anniversary of the White Eagle's coronation as the Coat of Arms of the Polish State was celebrated.

[Aryan Lord]

LOL - I just love fairy tales! Specialy about "noble" and "wise" poles!


Oh dear, I hope that this is not another attempt to divide our race? Let`s put this ridiculous Teuton-Slav thing behind us and unite and fight our true racial enemies.