THE NOBLEMAN'S PARADISE 161To say that the origins of the Polish Nobility are clouded in mystery is some-
thing of an understatement. They are extremely obscure. Scholars infer that
some time in the early medieval period the Nobility emerged from preceding
forms of social elite. But this is no great discovery, since detailed information on
the earlier rycerstwo or 'knighthood' is equally meagre, and neither the
timetable nor the manner of the emergence can be properly documented. By the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when some awareness of the exclusive
nature of the noble estate was felt, the best that chroniclers could do was to trace
its origin to Noah, to Julius Caesar, or to Alexander the Great. Most noblemen
in Poland and Lithuania claimed only to belong to the szlachta odwieczna, 'the
immemorial nobility'. This meant that all certain knowledge of their origins had
long since been lost.^4
The name szlacbta (pronounced shlakh-ta) has been the subject of consider-
able dispute. It derives from the Old Low German slahta, which is etymologi-
cally associated with the modern German words schlagen (to strike, fight,
cleave, breed) and Geschlecht (sex, species, family, race). It came into Polish via
the Czech slebta (nobility), together with all the basic vocabulary of the
medieval polity - pan (lord, person with jurisdiction); krol (King = Karol =
Charlemagne); sejm (diet, or assembly); obywatel (citizen or 'resident'); herb
(inheritance, heraldic device, coat of arms). However, it is all but impossible to
determine either the exact context in which this German-Czech terminology
was introduced or the exact point when its later usage was stabilized. Today,
many experts would consider that the supremacy of the hereditary principle, or
rodowitosc as Bruckner called it, which put the szlacbta beyond the reach of
rulers and princes, and which gave them inviolable, exclusive status for all time,
was not finally secured until the reign of Casimir the Great (1310-70). At all
events, szlacbta neatly combines the two senses of 'high birth' and 'military
prowess' which together constitute the original ingredients of medieval nobil-
ity.^5
In the absence of definite information, studies on the origins of the Nobility
have long been characterized by a number of doubtful hypotheses. One such
theory explored the possibility of a prehistoric, alien invasion. Fired by the
desire to forge an analogy with the Norman Conquest in England, or with the
Varangians in Russia, it found little confirmation in fact.^6 Another related
theory, which stressed the role of the 'clans', enjoyed considerable respectabil-
ity throughout the nineteenth century. It was first developed by scholars whose
main interest had been in Germanic folklore, and was later applied to Slav and
Polish history. Its basic idea held that both state and society were formed by the
amalgamation of numerous related clans hitherto living in natural freedom. It
suggested that the early Slav rulers, including the Piast princes, were no more
than tribal chiefs (starosta rodowy) or overlords of the clans (nadpatriarch) and
that the nobility was descended from pure ethnic stock whilst the lower estates
had intermingled with slaves, prisoners, and aliens. Attempts were made to
relate the szlachta not only to a Germanic 'Geschlechtsverband' and the Balkan