Travel Love Poland Magazine – March 2021

lovePoland: Igor, you actively organise and participate in
historical re-enactments, write books, and you are involved
in films. You also starred in An Ancient Tale directed by
Jerzy Hoffman, took part in Hollywood films, and History
Channel productions. You were the co-producer of the movie
Viking Riders: The Raven and the Cross, filmed in Szczecin.
You are also the originator, founder and voivode of Drużyna
Grodu Trzygłowa (Triglav Strongold Warband). What do all
these activities have in common?
Could you tell us about the activities of the Warband? Why
was it created and what is its purpose? What do you really
do? It is probably not just a 'big boys' game, is it?
Igor: Well, certainly not, as it is suitable for adult girls and
our children as well! But seriously, I could not give it up after
we organized, conducted or participated in about a thousand
shows, festivals, history lessons, and all other forms for the
audience. We were watched by several million live viewers.
Besides, there is a relatively large presence in traditional
media, newspapers, folders, guides, TV programs, and
interviews about us or history. All this meant that we
contributed a lot to the promotion of Slavic culture, military
history and history as such.
Today, the Warband has been operating for 23 years. After
the first ten years of activity, we started to meet young
people attending our shows who told us about others who
got interested in history after one of our previous shows at
their school or in the castle and decided to take up historical
or archaeological university studies. Sometimes they talked
about the fact that thanks to our shows and stories, they
noticed the beauty of our culture and felt proud to be a Slav.
This was a big change, since Slavic culture was considered
unattractive and passé.
Besides, the Warband is primarily a group of people
celebrating a common passion, costumes, training, and
craftsmanship. For men, warrior training is an obvious form
of self-realization, although for many of us its role
decreases with age. We are also aware that the weapons,
replicas of which we use, carry a very deep symbolic content.
This is what three of my books talk about: Swords of Europe,
On warriors of the Slavs: Squads and Battles on Land and
Sea, and On Weapons of Slavs: In War and in Culture. Those
who do not fight and our ladies deal with various aspects of
"civil" culture, such as crafts, singing, customs, herbalism,
and cuisine. In fact, there is something interesting for
everyone.
As a team, of course, in various numbers, we go to festivals
and shows all over Poland and many different countries,
visiting places related to history. We spend time together at
festivals, kids run and grow up. Just life, but colourful and
full of meaning.
lovePoland: Let's move on to the main topic, Slavs, especially
in Polish lands. Until recently, writing about the oldest Polish
traditions was not common. It was probably only in the last
two decades that books, organisations, and associations
regarding this subject began to appear.
Igor: Slavic culture used to come back and go away again
from the field of interest of a wider audience. Of course,
Romanticism brought an interest in this culture. The greatest
creators of Polish culture referred to it, sometimes in
regards to aesthetics, sometimes in regards to customs, and
sometimes directly in regards to the spiritual values derived
from it.
In the Polish People's Republic, the subject of the Slavic
culture was highly appreciated. This was for several reasons.
Partly, it was a reaction to German racist ideas before and
during World War II, and partly because of a sincere interest
in the past and a search for roots. In part, for ideological
reasons, as the Slavic thread could counterbalance
Christianity, which, as we know, used to be programmatically
rejected. Also, in connection with the Piast idea, it was
supposed to strengthen the so-called "historical right" to the
lands in the west and north, included into the territory of
Poland in 1945. This purpose was realised through so-called
"Millennium Research" or a long-term program of
archaeological and historical research on the origins of the
Polish State, preceding the celebration of the 1000th
anniversary. After 1989, the pendulum rebounded and
Slavicism was perceived as unleavened, primitive,
uninteresting, or even dangerous. It was then that the
Vikings came back in good graces and they were seen
everywhere in the early medieval scene, every sword, axe, or
an unusual grave meant a Viking. It reminds me of the
sentence uttered by one of the dwarf-prisoners in the movie
Kingsajz: “If you wear glasses, it means you’re a professor”.
Unfortunately, some people are still convinced about that.
But, at the end of the '90s, in the popular layer of the
culture, an interest in the subject among young people began
to rise: historical re-enactments, folk music inspired by Slavic
folklore. Initially, these were small groups, but the niche
swelled and expanded, and Slavic themes appeared in mass
culture, music, games, and recently also in the film.
lovePoland: Do we know much about the culture of the Slavs,
their beliefs, and finally their wider influence on the shaping
of contemporary Poland and Europe?
Igor: We know a lot about their culture and beliefs, but of
course it is never enough. It is a myth, however, that there is
nothing left and nothing can be said about it. I was precisely
motivated by such a sentence, which I have heard many
times, so I started publishing and writing, bringing the
findings of researchers closer to a wider circle of readers.
14 TRAVEL.LOVEPOLAND