Lech, Czech, and Rus

Background

In the Polish version of the legend, three brothers go hunting together but each follows different prey and travels in a different direction: Rus went east, Čech headed west to settle on Říp mountain, and Lech travelled north. While hunting, Lech saw a white eagle against the red setting sun, took it as a good omen, and settled there, naming his fortified settlement Gniezno (meaning 'nest') and adopting the White Eagle as his coat-of-arms. The white eagle remains a symbol of Poland to this day.

According to the early 14th-century Wielkopolska Chronicle, Slavs are descendants of Prince Pan of Pannonia, who had three sons: Lech (the oldest), Rus (the middle), and Čech (the youngest), who settled north, east, and west respectively. A Czech variant involves only two brothers (and three sisters), with Čech as founder of the Czech nation and Lech as founder of the Polish nation. His brother Lech continued north to found Poland.

A Croatian version with partly changed names (Čeh, Leh, Meh and sister Vilina) was recorded in folk tales in the Kajkavian dialect of Krapina. Some believe it was introduced among commoners by literary people starting in the 16th century. This legend was one of the reasons the Croatian language was chosen in the 17th century as the common Slavic language for Catholic books for all Slavic nations.