Agatha NN

Filiation incertaine.

I agree that the "Polish Hypothesis" is very weak, and that some of thearguments that have been advanced in favor of it are worth very little, but

the two other hypotheses which I ranked higher (in the sense of less weak) in my analysis are also not that good. In my opinion, none of thehypotheses has been demonstrated as an "unavoidable answer." What theGerman, Russian, and Polish hypotheses have that the numerous other hypotheses lack (again, in my opinion) is an air of plausibility, in the sense of at least being somewhat consistent with the known sources. That being said, if I were told that there was a way of determining for sure which (if any) of the hypotheses was true, there is not one of themon which I would be willing to bet even money. I doubt that the matterwill ever be settled to the satisfaction of a consensus of competent scholars, although I have sometimes had the hope that some manuscript will surface proving her parentage to be something completely different from any of the theories advanced so far.

Stewart Baldwin

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