Pan Tadeusz
epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz
Pan Tadeusz (full title: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Foray in Lithuania: A Nobility's Tale of the Years 1811–1812, in Twelve Books of Verse) is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer, translator and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz. The book, written in Polish alexandrines, was first published by Aleksander Jełowicki on 28 June 1834 in Paris. It is deemed one of the last great epic poems in European literature.Pan Tadeusz, Poland's national epic, is compulsory reading in Polish schools and has been translated into 33 languages. A film version, directed by Andrzej Wajda, was released in 1999. In 2014 Pan Tadeusz was incorporated into Poland's list in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.
Content
The story takes place over the course of five days in 1811 and two days in 1812, at a time in history when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had been partitioned between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, thus erased from the political map of Europe, although in 1807 Napoleon had established a satellite Duchy of Warsaw which remained in existence until the Congress of Vienna held after Napoleon's defeat.
The place is situated within the Russian partition, in the village of Soplicowo, the country estate of the Soplica clan. Pan Tadeusz recounts the story of two feuding noble families, and the love between Tadeusz Soplica (the title character) of one family, and Zosia of the other. A subplot involves a spontaneous revolt of the local inhabitants against the occupying Russian garrison. Mickiewicz, an exile in Paris and thus beyond the reach of Russian censorship, wrote openly about the occupation.
“Pan Tadeusz” enters the record as epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tadeusz, epic and poem can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Pan Tadeusz” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Tadeusz, epic and poem provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1339346. VIAF identifies the subject as 316392742. The Library of Congress control number is n00034787. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1811, 1812, 1834 and 1999.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pan Tadeusz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.