The main topic of this paper focuses on the interdependencies between the 16th century historian’s craft and the legendary origo gentis. Two specific examples would be analysed: Marcin Kromer’s Sarmatian origine of the Poles and Nicolaus Petreius’s Cimbrian origine of the Danes. The general presentation of non‑political and non‑ideological presumptions for accepting the mythical past known from the medieval texts delivers the background on which it can be grasped, how Early Modern historians treated that tradition. The analysis of the working methods would be also preceeded by showing the variety of approaches observed in terms of the topic: when dealing with the ethogenetic theories, the historians decided to use polemical oration/treatise as the main form. Another form: the legendary history was applied for presenting the past “before” and “after” the process of shaping the nation/state. The scholarly methods used by both historians included both tradition and novelty: ethymological deductions, endorsment of the classical authorities (and obviously, the Bible), forgery, but at the same time impressive erudition and attempts to addopt some historical criticism.

This paper focuses on the development of critical methods and the growth of the erudite school in 18th-century Denmark-Norway. It shows how Hans Gram, Andreas Hojer and Jacob Langebek contributed to modernizing the study of history, turning it into a branch of science

The article presents the issue of researching emotions in international history. It has been noticed that the development of the research on emotions within other sub‑disciplines of history, humanities, social sciences and neuroscience, provides an international historian with many outcomes enabling further research opportunities. At the same time, it was indicated that the tools traditionally used by historians (i.e., internal and external critique of the sources, and the intuitive approach) may be useful in conducting such research. A historian who decides to deal with the problem of emotions, is, however, forced to pay special attention to the context in which the people whose lives he examines functioned. Therefore, the research on emotions, also in the international context, requires greater awareness of the achievements of other academic disciplines from the historian. This task is difficult and perhaps demands from the historian that they be more sensitive and intuitive than in case of other studies. Nevertheless, by approaching the issue of emotions, international historians have a chance to obtain a more credible image of the past.