Introduction

This article begins with a short survey of known contacts between Poland (emerging at that time as a state) and Scandinavia and Scandinavians in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The focus of the discussion is, however, on the problem of the possible Scandinavian origin of the Awdańcy family, which was one of the most powerful noble families in the first part of the twelfth century in Poland. While familiar to Polish medievalists, this question remains almost unknown among Scandinavian scholars. The article presents a hypothesis of Polish scholarship about a possible route by which the Awdańcy could have come to Poland (via Rus’ in the early eleventh century) and speculation about their role before the family rose to the height of political power. It is also shown that the Awdańcy were not a totally unique case in Poland, presenting an example of a Polish comes Magnus, a nobleman bearing a very unusual name and a powerful person probably with Scandinavian or even Anglo-Saxon roots.

The contacts between early medieval Polish territories and Scandinavia have been analysed frequently in the last two decades. I do not intend to summarise in this short article all the important questions already more or less investigated. This means that:. I will not address Jómsborg following Jakub Morawiec's book (2009b; cf. Słupecki 2000: 49-60). 2. I am not going to discuss archaeological sites in Poland with some Scandinavian elements, or Scandinavian or Scandinavian-like artefacts (although there is a lot to say about new discoveries and new investigations).