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with a specified number of cattle heads, “as if some offerings,” they wouJd be punished “by losing the equal number of human heads.” The country, haunted by the monster, is inhabitable. The dragon resides in its centre, in the cave beneath the Wawel Hill, which towers over the wide bed of the Vistula. According to the etymology proposed by W. Taszycki (1955), the name of Wawel means a mountain situated upon a river (SSS, vol. 6, p. 341-342). Thus, the struggle with the dragon is located in the sacred centre of the area and influences the whole microcosm orientated in relation to Wawel.

The motive of fighting with a dragon, common in Slavonic culture, belongs to the universal mythical storę. Karol Potkański (1965, p. 208-209), commenting on the Cracow legend, referred to the struggle of Indra with Vritra. So what kind of creature was the Wawel Dragon and what was his Slavonic name? Master Vincent does not use the Latin word dr a co, but consistently calls the monster holophagus (Whole-eater, that who devours the victims whole), which is probably his own Greek-style coinage. It may be just Vincent’s erudition show-off - Grecisms belonged to his favourite style - or the name holophagus better corresponded to the sense of the Slavonic word that appeared in the legend, which does not entirely exclude the former explanation. The Bielskis, who were the first to write the tale down in Polish, cali the Wawel monster smok (dragon), while Latin texts later than Vincent show significant variations. The word smok is known in Old Church SIavonic; A Bruckner (1885a, p. 503-504) connected it with the verb smoktat' (suck), claiming that the very naturę of the mythical beast was swallowing everything (cf. Linde, 1951, vol. 5, p. 351; Moszyński, 1968, vol.2/l, p. 468; Kurbis, 1976, p. 170-174). If so, the expression Holophagus renders the sense of the Slavonic word better than draco. A similar creature was called Żmij (He-Viper). K. Potkański (1965, p. 209), referring to folk legends, wrote that in the Ukrainę “an enormous Żmij devours people. It wrestles with them and imprisons a smith. Żmij, already captured, drinks all the water of the Boh and then Dnepr, and finally runs to the sea, but it has swallowed so much water that it dies. In Poland the folks in some areas cali the rainbow a dragon which drags water from the earth to the sky.” Similar information is ąuoted in K. Moszyński (1968, vol. 2/1, p. 468). In Bulgarian legends Żmij fights with the demons of thunder and hail, but if it settles in a village, drought comes and it has to be ceremoniously expelled by a ritual in which fire plays the main role.

Ryszard Tomicki (1974, p. 490; cf. Kowalczyk, 1977, p. 192-212) proposed a structural interpretation of the role of dragon (Smok) in Slavonic folk mythology. In his account Żmij is Smok’s opponent, but they share many features. Two names, however, signify two diflerent creatures. The opposition between Żmij and Smok is followed by a number of structural contrasts: Żmij    fire    up    light

Smok    water    down    darkness

Eiements of this network can be detected in the legend of the Wawel Dragon (Smok Wawelski). In all the versions his death is caused by fire and heat coming from the saltpetre and sulphur with which he has been fed. He bursts of the excess of water, which he “drinks like a dragon” to extinguish the fire, just like the Ukrainian Żmij (Moszyński, 1968, vol. 2/1, p. 624). As M. Plezia (1971, p. 25-31) proved, the motive of the “sulfuric” ruse may be of literary origin, but no source related to the Cracow legend mentions the drinking of water. The dragon lives in the lower sphere, in a cave under Wawel. After the victory Krak builds the stronghold in the upper sphere, “on the dragon’s rock.” The dragon represents the powers of darkness and chaos, the fact that he snatches people “at daylight” - as Długosz puts it - arises astonishment. Krak, a legislator and mythical hero, represents the “light” side of the opposition, law and order. The dragon, a calamity for the whole local microcosm, has to be defeated at the dawn of the history, to make the land habitable and the building of the town possible.

But who is the killer of the dragon? The legend does not mention Żmij. V.V. Ivanov and V.N. Toporov (1988, p. 11-12; 1974, p. 175-177) claim that the name of Wawel can be included into toponims connected with Veles, whom they view as the opponent of the god of thunder, consequently they interpret Krak as a figurę similar to Perun, the Thunderer and killer of the dragon. Although this conception is really exciting, it has got a weak point. In nonę of the legend’s versions Krak is the killer of the Dragon or faces the monster in battle. In the Cracow myth the role of the ruler and legislator honoured with the fuli power and majesty was not to fight, but to govem. According to DumeziTs classification he is an obvious representative of the secular, Legał aspect of the leading social function.

Another similar figurę is the Bohemian Krok. When the Bohemians settled around the Rip mountain showed the desire of possession, which calls for authority, they came to a person, who “was considered morę reflned in manners and afłluent (...) without any official or seal, out of free will - and preserving their freedom they debated over controversial matters and the harms that they did to each other. Among them there was a distin-guished man całled Krok, whose name is known as the name of a stronghold, now overgrown with trees, in the forest near the village of Zbecno.” He was a rich man, “constant in deliberating over judgments, to whom like bees to the hives all people, both of his own clans and of the tribes of the whole province, came for adjudication” (Kosmas, I, 3). Krok had no sons, but in the legend his three daughters were endowed with supematural powers: Kazi was a herbalist and witch, Tetka a priestess of pagan rituals, while the youngest Lubuśa a diviner (Kosmas, I, 4). The dynasty of Premys-lids allegedly descended form the latter (so in the female linę from Krok) and the ploughman Premysi. Krok bears some resemblance to Krak. He is not the first dynast and legislator (just like Piast, the legendary ancestor of the Polanian dynasty) — the legend ascribes both those functions to his

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