Once Upon a Time...

Before my posts return to the Netherlands I wanted to take one last opportunity to blog about some of the very interesting legends that I learned while I was away in Krakow, Poland.

One of the first stops that QueenB and I made in our tour of the Old Town was St. Mary's Church. This gothic basilica was built between the 13th and 14th Centuries. A bugle call is played from the taller tower every hour and the first time that I heard it I thought there was something odd about it. 'Do you hear the bugle, do you hear how it breaks off in mid-tune?' asked QueenB. And I did. She went on to explain that this call is cut off deliberately because as the story goes, back in the 13th Century or ‘once upon a time’ the Mongols were coming to invade the city. As was then the tradition, a call was played from that tower to warn all the towns people as well as the guard. As the bugler sounded his call on this particular attack, a Mongolian arrow flew threw the window and pierced his throat in mid-song and the bugler was struck dead. Today, this tune is re-enacted at every hour when the plaintive tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter. It was and remains the practice to sound out the call of distress through all four different windows of the tower to ensure you were heard in all directions. Standing in the square below, it is eerie to hear the close and distant calls of the bugle cut off in mid-stride. The noon-time call (or hejnał) is heard across Poland and abroad broadcast live by the Polish national Radio 1 Station.

Another legend I learned was about a painting of Madonna of Częstochowa a replica of which I saw in St. Adalbert’s Church. This church was built in the 12th Century in the Romanesque style and was converted to Boroque style in the 17th and 18th Century. The Madonna of Częstochowa is a depiction of the Madonna with two scars on her cheek. The legend concerning the two scars on the Black Madonna's right cheek is that the Hussites stormed the Pauline monastery in 1430, plundering the sanctuary. Among the items stolen was the icon of the Madonna. After putting it in their wagon, the Hussites tried to get away but their horses refused to move. They threw the portrait down to the ground and one of the plunderers drew his sword upon the image and inflicted two deep strikes. When the robber tried to inflict a third strike, he fell to the ground and squirmed in agony until his death. Despite past attempts to repair these scars, there has been great difficulty in covering up those slashes as all attempts usually sloughed off (artists have found out that the painting was painted with tempera infused with diluted wax). In commemoration of the attack, depictions of the Madonna of Częstochowa have been recreated by honouring the slash marks in the Madonna’s cheek.

Lastly, QueenB and I visited the Royal Castle (Wawel) where there is a figure of a dragon associated with the castle and even a tour of the Dragon’s Den during the summer months (alas, we were too late). A popular version of the Wawel Dragon tale takes place in Kraków during the reign of king Krakus, the city's legendary founder. Each day the evil dragon would beat a path of destruction across the countryside, killing people, pillaging their homes and devouring their livestock. In many versions of this story, the dragon especially enjoyed eating young girls, and could only be appeased if the town folk would leave a young girl in front of his cave once a month. The King wanted to put a stop to that awful situation, but his bravest knights fell to the dragon's fiery breath. When it finally came time to sacrifice the King's daughter’s life, the King promised his beautiful daughter's hand in marriage to anybody who could defeat the dragon. Great warriors from near and far fought for the prize and failed. One day, a poor cobbler's apprentice (or as I heard another version - a poor Tailor) named Dratewka accepted the challenge. He stuffed a lamb with sulphur and set it outside the dragon's cave. The dragon ate it and soon became incredibly thirsty. No amount of water could quell his stomach ache, and after swelling up from drinking half of the Vistula river, he exploded. The apprentice married the King's daughter as promised and they lived happily ever after. When QueenB first told me this story she was of the opinion that the reason why a lowly Tailor was able to suceed when no other nobility could has to due with a possible communist twist put on the tale. Either way, it’s entertaining and the dragon’s tale wins the hearts of many (when we were walking along the passage way in the mine our guide informed us that the dragon was so large, that his tail reached the mine and there in front of us was a replica of a dragons tail built into the wall).

I was enthralled with these legends. I have always been interested in folklore as my original degree was going to be Classical Mythology and Literature. It’s something missing here in Rotterdam and I’m wondering if it has to do with the fact that many of the old buildings here in Rotterdam were bombed away. Does one need the space of history and the past in order to have legends?