Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/104

 successive dynasties which reigned prior to the adoption of Christianity by the Poles in 965.

The chroniclers of other countries first mention Poland in the tenth century when she is carrying on wars against her neighbours, at first against the German Empire and its Eastern Marks, and later against the Russian rulers of Kiev; that is, against the Roman West and the Byzantine East.

This situation between two mediaeval civilisations determined the whole course of Poland's evolution. It may be mentioned here that the most recent investigations into the beginnings of Polish history show that these wars were preceded by those against the Norsemen, and especially against the Danes. They represent the first stage of Poland's struggle for the Baltic. Hints about them are found in the old Norse and Icelandic Sagas. It may be mentioned, too, that Shakespeare was somehow acquainted with the Scandinavian tradition of these wars; for when describing the vision of the dead King in the 1st Act of Hamlet, Horatio says:This passage has long been the subject of contention, but the recent investigations show that in the first half of the tenth century the Danes were the most dangerous enemies of the little Kingdom of Poland.

These wars, however, end very early, in the middle of the tenth century, because of the expansion of the German Marks towards the East. The German Empire became the only great danger to Poland in the