Tadeusz Wolański‘s other claims are also interesting but it is hard to know what to make of them.
Lech of the Scriptures
One of them is the thing he noticed about the so-called Paralipomenon. In his own words:
“[T]he mention there near [the name of] Lech of names: Lada and Maresa makes a strange impression on us, recalling to us Slavic Deities: Ladda and Marzanna.”
What is he talking about? Well, he is describing here this passage of the Paralipomenon:
“The sons of Sela the son of Juda: Her the father of Lecha, and Laada the father of Maresa, and the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen in the House of oath.”
The Chabad version reads:
“The sons of Shelah the son of Judah: Er, the father of Lechah, and Ladah, the father of Mareshah, and the families of Beth-Abodath Habbuz of the house of Ashbea.”
In other words, Juda/Judah begat Sela/Shelah who begat Her/Er and Laada/Ladah. In turn, Her/Er begat Lecha /Lechah and Laada/Ladah begat Maresa/Mareshah.
This, however, is among a multitude of other names whose connotations are only constrained by your imagination. Moreover, what you think of them, depends on the spelling. Let’s take a look at just a few of these:
- Hus/Hushah (like Jan Hus!)
- Jara/Jaroah (like Jarowit)
- Jacan (like Jason)
- Jesisi/Jeshishai (like Yessa)
- Jecsan/Jokshan (Jason)
- Jesboc/Jishbak (Yes-bog meaning Juterbog)
- Buz (like Boz)
- Booz (like Boz)
- Mosoch/Meshech (like Mieszko)
There are countless others in this list of Chronicles. There is Beor (for the Swedes) and Bela (for the Hungarians) and Huri (for the Danes).
For example, take this passage:
“These were the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jara, the son of Galaad, the son of Michael, the son of Jesisi, the son of Jeddo, the son of Buz.”
or:
“These are the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz.”
But for Michael/Abihail, you could have believed that this was a Viking Saga name list.
It’s not clear what any of these traditions reflect but, whatever they reflect, it cannot be said that they reflect anything clear at all.
Just take a look at this.
Popilius the Popiel
One of the founding legends of the Polish state is that of Duke Popiel and Piast the Plowman. Who was this Popiel? We do not know but Wolański finds one of these in Rome by noting the following name:
Flavius Popilius Nepotianus
This is Flavius Julius Popilius Nepotianus Constantinus, a usurper (that is a rebel who lost) to the imperial throne (perished about 350 A.D.).
Yet Popilius is not unknown name in the ranks of the Romans. Thus, for example, we have the family of Popillii Laenates who, as one might guess, had an ill-reputation – at least in the B.C. era of Rome. (The Laenates were apparently just a branch of the Popilli but we do not hear much of the rest of the family). There was a Via Popilia built by one of these gentlemen and the town of Forlimpopoli may have been founded by them as well (it was called Forum Popilii). Now, this (like the place those Buccios seem to come from) is in the Emilia–Romagna.
What does any of this have to do with Popiel? At first glance not much.
On the other hand, it is certainly true that no one (as far as I know) tried to see how a pre-Slavic language (proto-Slavic) would have been rendered by Latin speaking Romans. Such a task would likely exceed the abilities of any linguist and would, even more importantly, necessarily be founded on such flimsy footing that it could not be taken seriously. I say, flimsy footing not because it is unimaginable that Italians – particularly in the North – spoke such a language before the Latin expansion but rather because we are too far into the future to likely ever be able to uncover any such connections (if, in fact, there had been any) with any degree of certainty – at least not via the tools of linguistics alone).
Take for example this.
The Pople family association home page! They mention that there were Popels, Popleys, Popples, Poppells and, of course, Poples.
In search of their origins they look to Hubba the Viking and the Etruscans… But who was Hubba (who raided England in 866 during the time of Alfred the Great) ethnically? He was most likely Danish but could he have been one of the Veleti? Think Kaszubas. And while contemporaneous sources speak of Danes and heathens being the invaders, Asser later says that the invaders came from the Danube (but probably he meant Denmark). Some sources also suggested Frisians but as we know there may have been Slavs in Holland as well…
If so, the Poples could, of course, have arrived in England as Slavs with Hubba.
And the Etruscans, those are a whole other story.
But why look so far afield? Right next to Somerset lies Wales and, specifically, the old Kingdom of Gwent. Gwent probably comes from the Veneti and so there you have it.
Incidentally, if you want to look for Popiel, you do not need to look so far as England. There are a number of places in Germany that suggest the Popiel name. And as regards Popiel’s feast where he poisoned his uncles, well, all you have to do is look to is look at Gero whose murderous feast Widukind describes approvingly.
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