„O chłopskich wojnach nie śpiewa się pieśni”. Wizerunek chłopa w szwedzkich źródłach narracyjnych XIV i XV stulecia. Zarys problemu

The image of the peasant in the Medieval literature was decisively critical and rather stereotypical: the peasant was Ham’s descendant (Ham was one of the Noah’s sons), and he was animal, primitive and lazy in his character. The theory of the functional division into three social groups (estates) mitigated that image a bit presenting peasants as part of the society that was necessary for the whole to function properly. The situation of the Swedish peasants was actually different from the position of peasants in ‘continental’ Europe: they possessed land and political rights. But d id a better situation of Swedish peasants influence their image in the Swedish narrative sources of the 14th and 15th centuries? The analysis of the 14th-century texts proves that the creation of a society based on estates in Sweden and a closer contact with the European culture were the reasons why Swedish peasants lost their social prestige, which they had enjoyed in the 13th century, and, as a consequence, their image in the Swedish 14th century literature does not differ much from European model. On the other hand, in the 15th-century sources Swedish peasants are presented as a social group that played a significant political and military role, with their own ethos, national consciousness, and as part of the body politic. The sources do not describe them explicitly in a positive way, but they bear testimony that the previous – rather negative – image was changed, and they show a significant role of Swedish peasants in the fights with the kings of the Kalmar Union.