Published: 2026-04-17

The Reception of Arthurian Legends in Medieval Poland

Krystian Węgrzyniak Logo ORCID

Abstract

The earliest written account of the British hero Arthur, credited with defending the islands against the Saxon invasion, dates back to the ninth century. Under the influence of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work, this figure was transformed into King Arthur, a just ruler and a formidable conqueror. The flourishing of chivalric and courtly culture in Western Europe contributed to the emergence of chivalric romances set at Arthur’s court, with central roles played by the knights gathered around the Round Table. In Poland, knightly culture did not develop to the same extent as in Western Europe, but its characteristic features reached Polish lands mainly through German and Czech influences. No extant evidence exists of Polish versions of the Arthurian legend, but this does not mean that they were unknown to Polish society. This article shows that the Arthurian tradition also left its mark on the culture of medieval Poland. The most striking evidence of its reception is found in works of art, yet Arthurian themes also inspired chroniclers and provided motifs for heraldry and sigillography. Familiarity with the stories of the Knights of the Round Table in Poland is also further suggested by the appearance of personal names inspired by literary characters.

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Węgrzyniak, K. (2026). The Reception of Arthurian Legends in Medieval Poland. Średniowiecze Polskie I Powszechne, 7–43. https://doi.org/10.31261/SPiP.2026.22.01

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2026
Published: 2022-11-23


ISSN: 2080-492X
eISSN: 2353-9720

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Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

Licence CC Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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