Many, many
years ago, when Krakow was still the capital of Poland,
there lived in
the castle on the Wawel mountain King Krak with his daughter
Wanda. All the
citizens in Krakow loved their kind-hearted King and the loving
Wanda. For
many years everyone lived peacefully and provided for the well-
being of their
town. Amongst them lived one of the cobbler's family, a capable
and
hard-working apprentice by the name of Dratewka.
One day the in
a cave in the Wawel mountains, an evil dragon had
settled. He had
three heads and his body was covered in scales. When he
was angry he
went into such a rage that the mountains shook and he breathed
fire and smoke
from his mouth. He made the whole town afraid. In order to
calm him down
the people put a sheep in front of his cave everyday. But this
was not enough
for him. Once a year even a small girl had to be sacrificed.
Many of the
citizens tried to fight against the dragon. However, no-one
was able to
beat him. The council of elders spent days and nights trying to find
a solution but
they couldn't find one. At long last there were no more girls left
in Krakow,
only Princess Wanda. The dragon became more and more
impatient.
Since there were no other girls to be found everyone knew that it
was the king's
daughter's turn.
There was
great mourning all over Krakow. The king announced to the
whole country
that he was looking for a brave knight who could defeat the
dragon. Many
courageous knights came and fought without success against
the beast.
Most were killed in their fight. When all hope had been abandoned,
the cobbler's
apprentice, Dratewka, appeared before the King. He asked for
permission to
fight the dragon. The king listened and agreed to what he was
intending to
do. The young man got to work on his plan straight away.
From the
butcher he got himself a sheepskin. From all the citizens he
collected
brimstone, salt, pepper and pitch. He filled the sheepskin with these
and sewed it
up tightly so it looked like a real sheep. At night he put the
"sheep"
in front of the entrance to the cave. The next morning the hungry
dragon came
out of the cave and ate up the sheep straight away. Shortly
afterwards he
felt a terrible burning all over his body. He tried to stop the
burning by
drinking massive amounts of water. He drank so much that the bed
of the river
Wisla could be seen. He carried on drinking until eventually he
exploded with
an enormous bang. There was great joy throughout Krakow.
Dratewka
married Wanda and they lived happily together for a very long time to come.
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