The image of Swedes and Danes in Polish literature has been conveyed by two closely intertwined texts, Jan Chryzostom Pasek’s memoirs, written in the 1690s and first published in 1836, and Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel The Deluge, published in 1886. Both texts are related to the so-called Second Northern War (1655-60) and the invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Carl Gustav of Sweden’s armies. As Pasek took part in Stefan Czarniecki’s expedition to Denmark in 1658, he had the opportunity to visit that country and get acquainted with the habits and customs of its inhabitants. Pasek’s attention was drawn by Danish religious habits, some of which he found positively odd, but even more by their relaxed attitude towards nudity. Danish food was even more of a mistery to Pasek, a country-raised nobleman who could not possibly conceive to eat fish. A fierce Catholic and an arch-enemy of Swedish religious beliefs, Pasek was sure that a Polish knight thrown by an explosion onto the other bank of the Vistula could land safely and unscathed – himself and his horse! – because of the protection afforded to all Poles by the Holy Virgin, while the same fate could not be expected for the Swedes in a similar occurrence. Henryk Sienkiewicz made use of several episodes from Pasek’s memoirs when writing his historical novel Potop, dealing with the Swedish invasion of Poland and Lithuania in 1655-56. At times, Sienkiewicz makes use of the information he could find in Pasek’s memoirs for his own ideological goals. When Pasek mentions the Swedes’ belief in the existence of servant spirits, he treats it with a touch of humour. From that episode, Sienkiewicz, in his turn, gathers evidence that the Swedes are not real Christians, but can only counter the deep religious faith of the Poles with some sort of pagan superstition. In Sienkiewicz’s novel, the Swedes are mainly poor and therefore exceedingly hungry and greedy. Carl Gustav’s armies would supposedly have invaded Poland, a land literally dripping with milk and honey, in ...