![]() ![]() They could not, however, defeat the creature by hand, so they came up with a trick. In the hope of killing the dragon, Krak called upon his two sons. The dragon required weekly cattle, or else humans would have been devoured instead. It was a "terrible and cruel beast" dwelling "in the depths of a certain rock ( scopulus)" or emended to "a certain cave ( spelunca)" according to Wincenty. In Polish translation of the work, the monster is rendered as the "greedily swallowing dragon" ( Polish: chciwie połykał smok). Wincenty's original Latin text actually refers to the dragon as holophagus ( Polish gloss: całożerca, wszystko żerca "one who swallows whole"), which was a neologism he had coined. Polish Chronicle (13 c.) Īccording to Wincenty Kadłubek's Polish Chronicle, a dragon appeared during the reign of King Krak ( Latin: Grakchus, recté Gracchus ). The oldest known telling of the story comes from the 13th-century work attributed to Bishop of Kraków and historian of Poland, Wincenty Kadłubek. A yet later chronicler ( Marcin Bielski, 1597) credited the stratagem to a cobbler named Skub (Skuba), adding that the "Dragon's Cave" ( Polish: Smocza Jama) lay beneath Wawel Castle (on Wawel Hill on the bank of the Vistula River). It also credited the king himself with masterminding the carcasses full of sulfur and other reagents. Later in a 15th-century chronicle, the prince-names were swapped, with the elder as "Krak junior" and the younger as Lech. Consequently Princess Wanda had to succeed the kingdom. But the younger prince (" Krak the younger" or "Krak junior") murdered his elder brother to take sole credit, and was banished afterwards. The man-eating monster was being appeased with a weekly ration of cattle, until finally being defeated by the king's sons using decoy cows stuffed with sulfur. The Wawel Dragon ( Polish: Smok Wawelski), also known as the Dragon of Wawel Hill, is a famous dragon in Polish legend.Īccording to the earliest account (13th century), a dragon ( Greek: holophagus, "one who swallows whole") plagued the capital city of Kraków established by legendary King Krak (or Krakus, Gracchus, etc.). The Wawel Dragon, in Sebastian Münster's Cosmographie Universalis (1544) ![]()
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