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Ink and watercolor portrait of a man with long sideburns and swept-back hair, in a black frock coat, white collar and black stock, on a blue and ochre wash.

Lucjan Siemieński

Poland 1807–1877

Lucjan Siemieński (1807–1877) was a Polish poet, critic and translator of the Romantic generation, and he gathered the legends of Poland and its neighbors into a single book. He was born in Kamienna Góra in August 1807 and died in Kraków in November 1877.

As a young man he fought in the November Uprising of 1830-31, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. In 1838 he fled to France. He later taught world literature at the Jagiellonian University from 1849 to 1850, and in 1873 he became a member of the Academy of Learning.

His collection Podania i legendy polskie, ruskie i litewskie (Polish, Ruthenian and Lithuanian Tales and Legends) sets the stories of three neighboring traditions side by side. He also translated Homer’s Odyssey into Polish (1873).

Polish and Lithuanian legends by Lucjan Siemieński

1 legend