Poland – The Dragon of Krakow

In Poland, a long time ago, in a den at the foot of Wawel Hill, there lived a terrible dragon. None of the inhabitants of the city Krakow from the poorest beggar to His majesty King Krak didn’t know where it had come from and how it got there.

Everyone always trembled with fear. Always having the scary thought that the knigths guarding the dragon made their hair stand on end when they heard the monster roar. People said there was no weapon and no way that they were going to defeat the dragon.

As the days past the dragon made himself feel more at home living there which scared the villains even more.
One day King Krak told a poem to the people of Krakow:
He who once and for all puts this dragon
Shall recieve my sceptre and my royal crown,
So come and defeat this most horrid beast
And win my daughters hand and a wedding feats.
After that many brave and valient knights made their way from different countries to reach Poland to defeat the dragon.

Swords and arrows shattered on its scaly body as if on a shield. But nobody was able to kill this dragon or even drive it away. Time passed, the dragon laid waste to the grounds of Krakow. Fewer knights came every day. More people cam to desert the town, until one day a young man, a shoemaker known to know one, knocked on the gates of the town. He bore no arms and wore no amour. Some twine, a needle,and sharp mind were his only weapons. The guards wouldn’t let him in unless he immediately went to see the king.

King Krak had heard what the boy was saying and decided to put some trust in him so he could have a go. The boy said that he would need: lambskin, some sulphur and mustard seed. The king nodded his acceptance to him.
All night long the shoemaker spent hard working on his plan. Local residents would peer through the window staring at his work. He took the lambskin, filled it with sulpher, pitch and mustard seed, and skillfully sewed up the hole of the lambs belly.

Everyone was now wondering what the morning would bring.
At sunrise the shoemaker set off to see the dragon with his bag of his ideal plan.There he laid his bait and quickly hid in the nearby bushes waiting to see what was going to happen.

The dragon awoke. The dragon knew he was hungary so he walked a bit for food. Suddenly the dragon saw a dead lamb(as it looked to him), looked at it and greedily jumped down to eat it and swallowed it whole with his jaws.
The dragon suddenly went “BANG!” and exploded. Exactly what the shoemaker had planned.

The villagers went silent. Then the sudden cheer began. All the knights ran to the bottom of the hill. The dragon was dead. But one thing was not. The river Wistula had been gulped up.