Sienkiewicz Trilogy

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Known simply as "the Trilogy" in Poland, its a series of novels by Henryk Sienkiewicz covering the lives and adventures of a group of Polish and Lithuanian nobles in the 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Originally published in parts, in a magazine, the Trilogy consists of three books -- With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i mieczem), which takes place during Bohdan Khmelnytsky's 1647 Cossack rebellion; The Deluge (Potop), occurring during the 1655 Swedish invasion of Poland; and Pan Wołodyjowski (lit. Sir Wołodyjowski, sometimes translated as Fire in the Steppe), which concludes the saga during the Polish-Turkish wars of the 1670s.

Written between 1884 and 1888 with the intent of "lift[ing] up the hearts" of the Polish people, "the Trilogy" immediately became a sensation in its homeland, where it was eventually adapted to film, the most famous being Jerzy Hoffman's versions of the saga, and is now seen as one of the masterpieces of Polish literature. It has received considerable acclaim outside its country. Its author won the Nobel Prize for Literature, after all. In some countries, though, such as Ukraine, and perhaps Lithuania, it is disliked if not reviled for its negative portrayal of the Commonwealth's opponents.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Sienkiewicz Trilogy franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.
  • Action Girl: Basia from Pan Wołodyjowski is as action girl as a 17th century woman in a 19th century book can get.
  • Adaptation Decay: In what is also an example of Politically-Correct History, the movie adaptation of With Fire and Sword depicts elite Polish hussars being defeated at Yellow Waters by a muddy stream, and not the defection of registered Cossack dragoons as noted by both the book and by history. Understandable, given the books' negative portrayal of the Cossack rebels and all, but still...
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Well, it is hard not to feel sorry for Bohun when you see his love for Helena.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Or more than ambiguously. Horpyna the witch in the 1999 film adaptation of With Fire and Sword. She nearly molests Helena, implying that she would were it not for her fear of Bohun. Crossed with Bury Your Gays when she gets shot, and then stabbed through the chest with a stake, a few minutes later.
  • Anyone Can Die: Sienkiewicz wasn't above killing a popular character to remind the readers that the danger faced by the heroes is real.
  • The Atoner: Kmicic
  • Badass Mustache: Though most, if not all of the male characters have mustaches, and many are badasses, Sienkiewicz pays special attention to Wołodyjowski's badass mustache.
  • Badass Unintentional: Zagloba, in so many occasions
  • BFS: Longinus's hereditary sword. Normal people require a demonstration to believe that fencing with this is possible. This became Running Gag.
  • Bad Export for You: The English-subbed version of the With Fire and Sword movie is decent... until someone speaks in Ukrainian. For some reason, the Ukrainian lines are dubbed in Polish, but both the Polish and Ukrainian lines are spoken at once! What's worse is that the Polish dubbing is done by the same male voice, even for female characters. It's extremely distracting to someone who cannot understand either language to begin with.
    • Such voice-overs (also known as Gavrilov translation) are actually the standard in Polish translated movies.
  • Blind Idiot Translation: Good luck finding a decent English translation. Many contain copious amounts of Narm.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Jan Zagłoba -- much more 'boisterous' than 'bruiser' but still.
  • Bring Help Back: Podbipięta and Skrzetuski are sent through enemy lines to do this during the siege at the end of With Fire and Sword.
  • The Cavalry: In an aversion of Deus Ex Machina and possible deconstruction, Podbipięta and Skrzetuski have to go through a virtual suicide mission to call for it at the end of With Fire and Sword. Podbipięta actually does die, but Skrzetuski makes it.
  • Celibate Hero: Longinus Podbipięta, who is sworn to celibacy until he decapitates three heathens at once with his sword, as one of his forefathers did. Though with his sword it's technically possible.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: It's easy for a casual onlooker to get the impression Zagłoba is a fat, aging drunk with a tendency to tell shaggy dog stories. This is because he is. Just don't get him mad or desperate...
  • Darker and Edgier: The third book, Pan Wołodyjowski
  • Downer Ending: Wołodyjowski's fate at the end of the third book
  • The Dragon: Horpyna has an unnamed dwarf as her dragon. She herself is sort of The Dragon for Bohun.
  • Duel to the Death: Played straight in With Fire and Sword with Wołodyjowski and Bohun, until we learn Bohun survived.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Wołodyjowski goes from supporting character to star of his own eponymous novel. And of course, there's Zagłoba...
  • Expy: Jan Zagłoba bears more than a passing resemblence to Falstaff when he first shows up. And then, he comes into his own.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: You would not want to be captured by the Turks in the 17th Century, especially if you are a woman.
  • Five-Man Band: With Fire And Sword, characters form one:
  • Flynning: Subverted. Wołodyjowski's duel with Kmicic shows actual skill despite what it looks like to an untrained eye.
  • Gentle Giant: Podbipięta
  • Get It Over With: Kmicic, when his duel against Wołodyjowski turns out to be a Curb Stomp Battle, begs him to stop humiliating him.
  • Heel Realization: Andrzej Kmicic
  • Heroic BSOD: Skrzetuski, when he finds his love's house burned to the ground and thinks she has died.
  • Historical Hero Upgrade: Jeremi Wiśniowiecki; the man was so brutal that Sienkiewicz is not able to write around all the unsavory details in With Fire and Sword
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: Bogusław Radziwiłł in The Deluge. While his cousin Janusz manages to get a Redemption Through Death, Bogusław is so evil that this troper often imagined him twirling his mustache in sinister ways.
  • Honor Before Reason: Several characters take any vows they make very seriously, which puts some of them in unwinnable situations.
    • An interesting example occurs in With Fire and Sword, when one of the armies switches sides during the war and a unit that remains loyal is forced into a Last Stand. Ironically, its a mercenary unit -- the commander calmly informs his enemies that he will gladly switch to their side but only after his current contract has expired.
    • Wołodyjowski and Ketling choose to die rather than break a vow to not let the Turks in the fortress.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Used as a form of death penalty -- many mooks and several named characters dies this way.
  • Inspired By: Apparently, there was a real Jerzy Michał Wołodyjowski that died at Kamieniec Podolski in 1672. Sienkiewicz took these facts and wrote the whole trilogy around them.
  • Karma Houdini: Bogusław Radziwiłł
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: Azja Tuhaj-Bejowicz's execution is extremely brutal and written in the most graphic detail, but whatever any sympathy the reader had for him is long gone by the time it happens.
  • La Résistance: The Poles and Lithuanians rise up against the Swedes in Potop. Also, from a different point of view, Khmelnytsky's rebellion might be counted as this.
  • Last of His Kind: Podbipięta is the last of his clan.
  • Love At First Sight: Jan Skrzetuski and Helena Kurcewiczówna, Andrzej Kmicic and Alexandra Billewiczówna. Subverted in the third book with Wołodyjowski and Basia.
  • Magnificent Bastard: While one could argue that Jan Zagłoba is a Guile Hero, the fact is he's mostly out for himself, and frequently only helps others as a side-effect of helping himself, or because his soft side comes through. When you add in the facts that he often causes almost as many problems for his friends as he solves, and that many of his plots go beyond "cunning" into "actively amoral", and you've got the rare Magnificent Bastard on the side of good. Sort of.
  • Master Swordsman: Wołodyjowski. Also, every other hero, and good chunk of the supporting cast. It's 17th century Poland, people.
  • Memetic Mutation: Several quotes remain popular in Poland.
  • Moral Event Horizon: While Azja Tuhaj-Bejowicz's treachery is evil, one can understand why he's done it, and even feel a smidgeon of sympathy. Then he gives his Polish childhood sweetheart to the Tartar Horde, just so he can get back at her father for beating him, so many years ago. While she's declaring her eternal love for him. When he gets his, it's hard not to feel he deserves it.
  • Not So Harmless: Bogusław Radziwiłł. In the book we are informed that he is a competent fighter. But in the movie, this info doesn't show up, making him look like an effeminate spoiled nobleman... until he manages to shoot his would-be kidnapper with his own gun.
  • Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Andrzej Kmicic and Aleksandra Billewiczówna
  • Poles With Lances
  • Politically-Correct History: In the film version of The Deluge, released in Soviet-dominated Poland in 1974, not one mention is made of the Russians, who were at war with Poland in the original novel and in Real Life.
    • Well, duh. The original novel did not mention Russians at all, since it was written in Russian-dominated Poland.
    • There're definitely Russians in The Deluge. Kmicic was fighting them in Smolensk.
  • Proud Warrior Race: Everybody!
  • Redemption Equals Death: Janusz Radziwiłł
  • Reed Snorkel: Near the end of With Fire and Sword
  • Shown Their Work: Sienkiewicz did an incredible amount of research when writing his novels, delving into memoirs and chronicles of the time, even shaping the dialogue to resemble 17th-century Polish rather than its 19th-century successor, though he fell short of that mark. He did, however, sometimes fudge historical accuracy in favor of epic plots and heroism, and the fact that he thought model the Ukranian steppe on the American West, even modelling the Cossacks on Native Americans rather than actually looking into the Ukranian side of the story, might count as a Critical Research Failure.
  • Smug Snake: Azja Tuhaj-Bejowicz
    • Also, Bogusław Radziwiłł who, despite his Badass act of shooting a man with his own gun, blows his opportunity to make northern Poland into his family's own personal demense, just so he can try--and fail--to make it with the heroine.
  • The Siege: Zbarajh in With Fire and Sword, Jasna Gora in The Deluge, Kamieniec Podolski in Pan Wołodyjowski.
  • Take That : This Troper read once that Polish schoolchildren used to come home after a weary day of listening to party doctrine, and read this as a Take That to the Dirty Communists.
  • Values Dissonance: The Catholics in the novel often say things about Protestants that, while historically accurate, might strike modern Catholics as offensive. Plus, in The Deluge Sienkiewicz has to explain to his 19th-century audience why Andrzej Kmicic, who has already undergone a spiritual transformation, nevertheless lets his Tartar auxiliaries rape, loot and pillage when they enter East Prussia.
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