The Complete Works vol. 40: Prussian Masuria. Prepared from manuscripts by W. Ogrodzinski and D. Pawlak. Edited by D. Pawlak. Wrocław – Poznań 1966, pp. XLVIII+678, illustrations.

The monograph presents materials from Masuria, that is the area whose northern and western border runs through the towns of Gołdap, Węgorzewo, Kętrzyn, Biskupiec, Olsztynek, Ostróda, Dąbrówno and Działdowo, while the southern and eastern border is delimitated by the range of the Mazovia monograph, published by Kolberg. The volume consists of two parts. The first one, entitled ‘Prussian Masuria’ was prepared by Kolberg in the form of a manuscript ready for print. The second one comprises materials from Kolberg’s archives that he did not utilize and those he received after the first part was already preapred. The volume basically consists of manuscripts and outside publications. Kolberg visited Masuria only once, in 1875, and despite his persistent efforts, the result of it appeared insignificant. His later correspondence with clergymen and organists did not bring desired effects, either. The descriptive materials to be found in the volume (chapters The Country, The People, etc.) are quotations or edited excerpts from the works of W. Kętrzyński, J. J. Ossowski, M. Toeppen. Only some parts in the chapter The Language, which result from Kolberg’s own observations, are an exception to the above. Folkloristic materials (about 660 texts of songs with 89 melodies, in both parts) come from the manuscript of G. Gizewiusz, from a collection of manuscripts of various authors sent to Kolberg by W. Kętrzyński together with his own records, and from relatively scare notes of Kolberg. Kolberg treated the manuscript of Gizewiusz and the manuscript collections of Kętrzyński as a substance that he formed quite freely, dividing texts, utilizing their fragments or compiling texts excerpted from different sources, or merging them often with his own records. The following elaborations supplement the manuscript materials published in this volume: a dialect glossary, a glossary of place names which includes variances and names evolution, biographical dictionary of persons associated with Masuria through activity or residence, and finally, a list of sources that indicates the way they were utilized by Kolberg, and bibliography as well as indexes.