The aim of the paper is to discuss the linguistic and onymic properties of the geographical names of the Hutsul region (Гуцульщина, Ukraine) used by Stanisław Vincenz in the first volume (“Prawda starowieku”) of his tetralogy “Na wysokiej połoninie” (“On the High Uplands”). The volume was first published in 1936. The second edition appeared in 1980 in Poland and was the one which had the greatest impact on the reception of the Vincenz’s work in the Polish readership after WW2. This is why the 1980 edition has been used as the source of analysed toponymic material. The main finding is that the analysed toponymy is of heterogeneous and (to a certain extent) hybrid nature, combining Polish, Ukrainian, and dialectal Hucul linguistic properties, which perfectly coincides with general tendency in the use of geographical names of the Hucul region in texts produced in the Polish language from the mid-19th century. The names used by Vincenz in the book written in the period 1930–1936 seem to faithfully reflect some specific characteristics of Hutsul toponymy in the 1930s (as discussed by the linguist Stefan Hrabec in his dissertation). Finally, some instances of toponyms’ declension present in “Prawda starowieku” are discussed together with some examples of (partially folk) etymologies codified by Vincenz in his work.

The problem of Hungarian identity is one of the themes of Stanisław Vincenz’s essays written at the time of the Second World War. Inspired by Wincenty Pol’s thinking about relationship between the sense of geographical place and literature, he decided to explore the ‘general impact of landscape’ and in particular identify the place that would convey the essence of ‘Hungarianness’. The article looks at various aspects of this problem in Vincenz’s essay ‘Landscape – the background of history’ in the context of his other essays in which the idea of place is discussed. In effect, the article lays down a theoretical formula of indeterminate spots in modern literature. The indeterminate spot possesses six constitutive features: changeability and transmutability; fuzzy borders; shifty positioning between utopia and atopia; great semantic potential; the experience of place is involved in irreducible inconsistencies but rests on a solid ideological foundation.