Pan Twardowski was a mythical Polish sorcerer.
Pan Twardowski is pronounced: PUN tfarr-DOFF-ski. Pan is a Polish honorific, roughly equivalent to the English Sir (see Polish name). Twardowski's Chritian name is sometimes given as Jan (John).
Legend
According to an old legend, Twardowski was a noble (szlachcic) who lived in Kraków in the 16th century. He sold his soul to the devil in exchange for great knowledge and magical powers. The noble wrote two books, both dictated to him by the devil – a book on magic and an encyclopedia. However, Twardowski wanted to outwit the devil by including a special clause in the contract, stating that the devil could only take Twardowski's soul to hell during his visit to Rome – a place the sorcerer never intended to go to.
With the devil's aid, Twardowski quickly rose to wealth and fame, eventually becoming a courtier of King Sigismund Augustus who sought consolation in magic and astrology after the death of his wife, Barbara Radziwiłłówna. He was said to have called, by using a special magic mirror, a ghost of the late queen to comfort the grieving king.
After years of evading his fate, Twardowski was eventually abducted by the devil at an inn called Rzym (Polish name for Rome). However, while being spirited away, Twardowski started to pray to Virgin Mary who made the devil drop his victim midway to the hell. Twardowski fell on the Moon where he lives to this day.
Historical Twardowski
Some historians speculate that the lagend was based on the life of a historical person. It has been suggested that Twardowski was in fact a German noble who was born in Nuremberg, and studied in Wittenberg before coming to Kraków. His real name might have been Laurentius Dhur in German or Durus in Latin; Twardowski would be then a Polonized version of the latter name (durus and twardy mean "hard" in Latin and Polish respectively).
Twardowski in literature, music and film
The legend of Pan Twardowski inspired a great number of Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and German poets, novelists, composers and other artists.
One of the best known literary works featuring Pan Twardowski is the humorous ballad Pani Twardowska by Adam Mickiewicz (1822). In this version of the story, Twardowski agrees to be taken to hell on the condition that the devil spends one year living with his wife, Pani (Lady) Twardowska. The devil, however, prefers to run away and thus Pan Twardowski is saved. Stanisław Moniuszko wrote music for the ballad in 1869.
Other works based on the legend include:
- Pan Twardowski, a novel by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski;
- Tvardovskiy, a ballad by Semen Gulak-Artemovskiy;
- Pan Tvardovsky, an opera by Alexy Verstovsky, libretto by Mikhail Zagoskin (1828);
- Pan Twardowski, a ballet by Adolf Gustaw Sonnenfeld (1874);
- Pan Twardowski, a ballad by Lucjan Rydel (1906);
- Pan Twardowski, an opera by Ludomir Różycki, libretto by Stefania Różycka (1921);
- Pan Twardowski, a film by Wiktor Biegański (1921);
- Pan Twardowski, czarnoksiężnik polski [Pan Twardowski, the Polish sorcerer], a novel by Wacław Sieroszewski (1930);
- Pan Twardowski, a film by Henryk Szaro, screenplay by Wacław Gąsiorowski (1936);
- Pan Twardowski oder Der Polnische Faust [Pan Twardowski or The Polish Faust], a novel by Matthias Werner Kruse (1981);
- Pan Twardowski, a film by Krzysztof Gradowski (1995).
The popular image of Pan Twardowski is that of a Polish noble either riding a rooster or standing on the Moon.