The story
This legend tells the story of three brothers who left their overpopulated homeland with their people to find new territory. As they hunted and travelled, they decided to separate, with Rus going east, Czech going south, and Lech going west. At a clearing in a forest by a lake, he spotted a white eagle’s nest against a red sunset, took this as a sign and settled here, afterwards he named the place Gniezno, from the polish word gniazdo meaning “nest”.
History
The earliest written version of the story is found in Kronika Wielkopolska (the Greater Poland Chronicle), written either in Poznań or Gniezno. Earlier Czech chronicles from the eleventh century mention only two brothers, Czech and Lech, the figure of Rus appears later, when the legend was extended to account for the wider Slavic world.
Sources:
- https://genealogytour.com/who-founded-poland-legends-and-history/
- polandnative.com