Zwierzęta jako symbol cnót – rozważania o literaturze staropolskiej w perspektywie wierzeń ludowych

Abstract Animals as a symbol of virtues - reflections on Old Polish literature in the perspective of folk beliefs In folk art, animals allegorically presented strongly influenced the shape of ideas about the earthly and spiritual world. Beliefs, wedding and funeral rites, rituals related to labor obligations and demonology were most often the result of observations of nature. The symbolic role of animals is also very important in the process of analyzing and interpretingOld Polish literature. Is it possible to try interpreting traces of folk beliefs through animalistic themes found in ancient literature? The indicated elements derived from folk traditions found in the works of Old Polish poets represent an attempt to indicate the threads that could show the poets were inspired by the culture of the Polish people and used the knowledge of folk customs as one of the literary contexts in the creative process. Of course, it is crucial to consider the hypothesis was formulated because of observations of the era, and many threads about the role of animals in literature have a diverse semantic background. Also, antique models such as, among others,Aesop’s fables transferred to Polish lands through works of Biernat of Lublin had huge influence. Therefore, a multithreaded analysis of conjecture may prove to be another direction of reception of the literary works under development. The selected motives within the works of Waclaw Potocki, Biernat of Lublin, Szymon Szymonowic, or Jan Chryzostom Pask, among others, are divided according to a key, largely inspired by the beliefs of the Polish people, however, the contexts cannot be separated from the influence of bucolic literature or landed poetry. As a result of the above considerations, this article presents an attempt to find animalistic motives that have inspired poets and may have had features in common with the world of folk imagination.