Filip Ceunen

A Dragon's Tale

A Dragon's Tale tells the tale of the dragon of Kraków: Once upon a time, a very long time ago, a fire-breathing dragon lived in a cave at the foot of the Wawel Hill in Kraków, near the river Wisła. According to legend, this dragon terrorised the region: it devoured the peasants' cattle, and sometimes even demanded young maidens to be sacrificed. Many brave knights made valiant attempts to defeat the dragon – but to no avail. One day, the clever young shoemaker Skuba invented a ruse to defeat the dragon. He filled a dead sheep with sulphur, laid it in front of the cave and waited for the dragon to emerge and gobble up the sheep. The sulphur caught fire due to the sparks in the dragon's mouth, whereupon the dragon drank so much water from the river that it eventually exploded. Kraków was freed from the terrifying dragon, and Skuba, of course, was welcomed as a hero!Nowadays, an impressive statue of the Wawel dragon stands at the entrance to the cave, as a symbol of courage, resourcefulness, and the victory of good over evil. With A Dragon's Tale, Filip Ceunen won the 2023 VLAMO International Composition Contest.