image094

Fig. 75. The Krak Mound near Cracow. Photo L. Słupecki.

is banished, and as the małe linę is extinct (the chronicler notes the version that Lech was sterile), the throne is inherited by Wanda. Hence, Długosz, like the author of Kronika Wielkopolska, regarded Krak as the founder of Cracow, contrary to Master Vincent, Kronika polsko-śląska and Kronika książąt polskich, in which the town is founded to commemorate him. Did he revert to the authentic Cracow tradition neglected by Vincent, or was it a secondary attempt at adopting the tale to the canons of the eponimic legend? This ąuestion, advanced by B. Kurbis (1976, p. 167), has ben answered in various ways. It seems, however, that Długosz adopted the ever--green motives of the old tradition, as his version does not conclude the list of the legend’s records.

Marcin Bielski (1551, p. 161), who was the first to write the story in Polish, supplemented it with the motive of the dragon dying of drinking too much water, which has been functioning in Polish folk tales until now. The beginning of his story follows Długosz’s version, but the end of the dragon is different: “which [the dragon] having spotted the caif, devoured [it], and when it was buming inside him, he drank water until he burst out.” The late Gracchus was allegedly “buried on the Lasotna mountain according to the pagan custom. On his grave they heaped a large round hill and sodded it, and it still stands in front of Kazimierz [part of Cracow].” Marcin Bielski, like Długosz, separates the fratridde from the issue of the dragon, saying that the crime was committed during a hunt. Joachim Bielski (1597, p. 30) added the motive of shoe-maker Skub and recorded the names of Wawel and Smocza Jama (Dragon’s Cave). In his relation it was Krok, who “founded the

łon

Castle on the mentioned rock of Wawel. He transferred the royal Capital from Gniezno to Cracow, as the latter place seemed to him morę suitable and easier to defend.” This version tries to combine the Cracow tradition of Master Vincent, according to whom Poland originated in Little Poland, with the dominant vision of Gniezno as the cradle of the State. In order to liąuidate the dragon, Krok ordered “to stufF a calf skin and to put it in front of the cave in the morning, which he did following the advice of Skub, a certain shoe-maker, whom he later generously rewarded. He [the dragon] went out of the cave, saw something like a calf and devoured [it] altogether; when it was buming inside him, he drank so much water that he died. There is still his cave beneath the castle, called Dragon*s Cave.” According to the legend of the Abdank coat of arms, recorded by Bartłomiej Paprocki (vol. 1, 1858, p. 216), Skub, who received the coat of arms with the letter W because of the dragon-snake (wąż), was the ancestor of the A wdani ec family. Marcin Kromer (Polonia, II, 1589, p. 20), a contemporary of Marcin and Joachim Bielski, did not include the version about shoe-maker Skub and the dragon bursting because of the excess of water. The legend of the Wawel Dragon was known also outside Poland (Plezia, 1971, p. 21-32).

It is evident that until the late 16thc. the legend reappears in new variants. If Długosz’s version may be suspected of a literary character, motivated by his wish to arrange the episodes logically, the same cannot be claimed about the texts of M. and J. Bielski, who added new motives of clearly folk provenance, rooted in topographic details. Multitude of motives is a natura! feature of orał tradition and it is unnecessary to reconstruct the “development” of the Cracow saga about the dragon. A morę interest-ing problem is its structure.

The legend comprises the following motives: 1) Krak-legislator, the first ruler and founder of the State, who never appears as a warrior and never fights with the dragon face to face; 2) the founding of the town - connected with the figurę of Krak and the killing of the dragon; 3) struggle with the dragon - the monster ravages the land and only after he is killed is it possible to found Cracow, or, in those variants in which Cracow already exists when the dragon appears, the death of the monster makes the development of the town possible. The dragon is defeated by the king’s sons, but they manage to succeed only by a ruse, which is a common mythical motive. The ruse is a stable element of the legend, also in the variants in which the king’s sons do not face the beast. In the latest records the cunning antagonist of the dragon is shoe-maker Skub. The struggle with the dragon is sometimes connected with fratridde, but some variants separate these motives.

Let us now analyse the legend. The Dragon does not oppress a particular settlement (in some versions Cracow is still non-existent at the time of the beast’s appearance), but the whole country. His tyranny is nearly religious in character: in Yincenfs words if the inhabitants did not supply the monster

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