Polish Legends - Dragon of Wawel/Lublin's Devil Claw

Last Sunday at Polish class, I agreed to give a presentation about a topic related to Poland. I'd heard a few presentations. Someone did one on coins. Someone did one on poppy seeds. Someone did one on the origin of Polish surnames. So, naturally, I had to come up with something fun that hadn't been done yet. So, I typed up two Polish Legends as I remembered them from my tours. Although, I did get some help in the story of the Devil's Paw from the website link you'll find there.

For my presentation, I decided to share two Polish legends. The first one is fairly well known: the tale of the dragon of Wawel.

At the bottom of Wawel hill in Krakow, there lived a terrible, fire-breathing dragon who ate the sheep and cattle of the surrounding farms. Many brave knights tried to kill the monster, but the dragon would breathe fire on them before they could get close.

The king invited knights and noblemen to slay the dragon, promising his daughter’s hand in marriage to the man who could destroy the destructive dragon. The man who married the princess would become king when the king died. Desiring the kingship, many men came, and many men failed to kill the dragon. The people of the countryside became more and more afraid to leave their homes.

One day, a young shoemaker’s apprentice named Krak asked the king if he could try to slay the dragon. The king reluctantly agreed, noting that Krak would surely die as he had no armor, no horse, and no sword.

Krak did, however, have a quick intellect. He bought a dead sheep and some sulphur. He cut the sheep open, stuffed it with powdered sulphur, and sewed the sheep up with the shoemaker’s thread. Krak approached the dragon’s cave with his sheep. He placed it near the entrance and hid behind a big rock.

The Dragon's Cave

After waking up from a long nap, the dragon came out of his cave to discover a midmorning snack in the form of Krak’s sheep. When the dragon ate the sheep, the sulphur caught fire, like a match, and the dragon felt his stomach burning. He ran to the river to quench the fire, but he could not stop it. He drank so much water that he began to swell up like a balloon.

Krak, coming from behind the rock, threw stones at the dragon. When the dragon turned to blow fire on Krak, all that came out of his mouth was steam because of all the water he’d drank. The dragon huffed and puffed, trying to blow fire on Krak, but he was so swollen that he exploded suddenly!

Krak and the princess married. Krak built the castle on top of Wawel Hill, and the people named the surrounding city Krakow after the king.

Some legends of the story have Krak filling the sheep with salt from the nearby Wieliczka salt mines. The dragon drinks so much water in his thirst that he explodes.

The second legend is less well known: The story of The Devil’s Paw in Lublin.

Once upon a time there was a poor widow. She lived on the little land she’d inherited from her late husband. A wealthy nobleman from a neighboring town raided the widow’s property, robbed what he could, and burned the rest. The nobleman knew that no male family members were alive to defend her. The widow went to court and demanded compensation, but she lost.

Appealing the verdict, she appealed to the tribunal court. The nobleman, being very wealthy, easily won at the tribunal court. The widow, exacerbated, exclaimed “Even the devils would have pronounced a fairer verdict!”

That night, at midnight, black fiery horses brought magnificent carriages to the Crown Tribunal building. The horses stamped the ground and snorted impatiently. Elegant gentleman stepped out of the carriages and entered the tribunal to examine the widow’s case again. These mysterious gentlemen called on a court writer. The court writer noted that under the long black robes, hooves could be seen. Under the ornate feathered hats of the mysterious gentlemen, horns peeked out.

Before the court writer could say anything, the mysterious men declared a new verdict. The nobleman would return the items he stole to the widow, and he would pay for the damage he caused. To emphasize the new verdict, the lead horned, hoofed mysterious man slammed his hand on the table, leaving a scorch mark on its surface. Some say that it was his way of signing the verdict, and he burned through the parchment.

The story continues that after the devil’s fair verdict, Jesus on the cross averted his face in shame from the scene and shed tears of blood. The devil’s party vanished. The next morning, the unfair judges fell down the stairs of the tribunal and broke their legs.

The scorched desk resides in the Lublin castle museum.

Lublin Castle Museum