Once upon a time in Kraków there lived King Krak with his daughter beautiful Princess. They lived in a big castle on the top of Wawel Hill, next to the river Vistula .
At the foot of the hill there was cave. In the cave there was a horrible, fire- breathing dragon.
Every day people of Krakow had to feed it with some goats and sheep because the dragon was always hungry. Poor people were scared and unhappy and asked their king for help.
The King decided: “ The brave knight who kills the dragon will marry my daughter and get half of the Kingdom”
Many brave man from far away came and tried to fight the monster but it was too strong. The King and the people of Kraków were very sad and worried.
One day a poor, young shoemaker knocked at the castle gate
” Your Majesty”, he said. “I can kill the dragon”.
He took a sheep’s skin, stuffed it with tar and sulphur.
Next day he left “the sheep” outside the cave. When the dragon woke up, he was very hungry and wanted his breakfast. It swallowed the sheep greedily and… something strange happened. The dragon became very thirsty and ran to the river to drink some water. The beast drank and drank and its stomach grew bigger and bigger until it exploded - BANG!!! The dragon burst like a balloon.
“Hurray, hurray !!!” shouted the people. “Hurray for the shoemaker!”
The poor but clever shoemaker married the Princess and got half of the Kingdom.
Written and translated by Gosia Łupicka
