Legends from the sea / 飄洋過海的傳奇故事

PL-90010-1
Originally uploaded by Dodd Lu

From: Kraków, Poland
Date: 8 to 21 May, and
           25 May to 2 June, 2010
Sender: Karolina

來自：波蘭克拉科夫
日期：2010年5月8至21日及
            5月25日至6月2日
寄者：卡羅琳娜


Last month, I received a postcard of sailing from a Polish inland city. After I checked the Wikipedia, I found that it was the former capital of Poland and the European Capital of Culture for the year 2000.

I appreciated the postcard so much not only because the theme I like but also the great job the sender had done. The sender, Karolina, tried to find the postcard to match my interests and showed me the culture by telling me a local legend. She was new to postcrossing, so she was keen to write me another postcard to tell me another story . Therefore, I got the second postcard and another story.

Here are the two legends in brief by Karolina:

• The first story: The Pigeons and the "Encouragement" Message, 

Long time ago, Cracow was often target of enemies' attacks. During one of siege townspeople last their will to fight and hope to win. They were hungry and tired so they started to catch even pigeons but soon number of those birds started to lower, so hunting them became prohibited. Townspeople thought of giving up. Then one brave men sneaked out of the city and took six pigeons with him. Every bird had different colour. Couple of days later first bird returned to town with a message, 'Reinforcements will come in six days. From now on every day people saw a new pigeon with a message, '... five days... four days... ' In final day to  town arrived white bird but no one read the message. People believed strong that rescue will come on time so they started to fight and they struggle so hard that they won. After that, they finally read the message and they were dumbfounded because it said, 'Reinforcements were stopped, surrender the city!'

• The second story: Wawel Dragon,

Long time ago, there was a dragon living near King's castle. The dragon except for animals ate also young girls. King was afraid of his beloved daughter. He told to knights that the one who'll kill the dragon will receive beautiful princess as wife and half of the kingdom as reward. Many tried but dragon killed all of them. The poor shoemaker called 'Dratewka' made a sheep filled with sulphur. The dragon ate it and burned his throat. He tried to lessen pain and drank so much water from Vistula, Wisła in Polsih, River, that he splitted. Dratewka of course received his reward.

As what you may think, these are very very brief versions because the place of a postcard is so limited. Please use your imagination to expand the stories. Anyone who is interested in the second one, please look up the Wikipedia for more detail. Those who want to check out the King's castle and the river, please check out another postcard at the bottom which I received from Poland before.

PL-90010-2
Originally uploaded by Dodd Lu

上個月從波蘭的一個內陸都市寄來了一張揚帆的明信片，當時還想說怎麼來了個與當地不相關的片子。不過背面美麗的文字，卻讓我極為驚豔。一張寬幅的明信片，擠進了320多個字，敘敘道來關於波蘭的故事。（當天雖然收到兩張片子，但是99%的字都在這張上了。）

圖片的主題是配合我的興趣特地挑的，然後寄件人卡羅琳娜和我分享了一個當地的傳說。然後又說他是「交換明信片的新手」，所以可以寄片的額度很少，想要再寫一片給我，順便再跟我分享另一個故事。於是乎，我又收到第二張片子，一樣也是以配合我的興趣所選的海岸圖樣。我查了一下維基百科關於這個波蘭的內陸都市，沒想到他是波蘭故都，還是千禧年歐洲文化之都。我想和我分享故都傳奇，正是一種文化展現的方式吧。下面把小小的片子捎來的故事略為改寫翻譯。

故事都是這樣開始的，很久很久以前...

• 故事一：鴿子帶來的訊息

克拉科夫一直都是敵人想要取下的要塞。在某一次圍攻中，市民們靠著想要贏得最後勝利的意志撐下來。然而在頑強的抵抗中，能吃能喝的都被消耗一空，於是人們開始抓飛進城裡的鴿子。很快的，鴿子的數量也減少到難以捕捉了。大家只好先立個禁止補鳥的公約，然後開始考慮投降的事。

就在大家討論到底該如何與包圍在外的敵軍交涉時，有位勇士偷偷帶著六隻不同顏色的鴿子溜出了克拉科夫城。沒幾天第一隻鴿子飛回城裡了，還帶了個消息：「援軍再六天就會到了。」接下來的每一天，都有一隻不同顏色的鴿子飛回城裡，也帶著一樣的消息「...五天...」、「...四天...」、「...三天...」。城裡的人們士氣愈來愈高昂了，紛紛摩拳擦掌開始期待著再過兩天的大反攻，和援軍來個裡應外合。第六天，飛來了一隻白鴿子，想必這就是攻擊的信號了，城門一開，轟的一聲大軍就殺了出去。由於大家都在等著援軍到來，所以死撐活撐也要把敵人打個落花流水，絕對不能讓援軍白跑一場，更不能讓援軍看到自己疲弱的樣子。經過了數場鏖戰，沒想到援軍還沒到，克拉科夫城的將士們就得勝了。這時候，大家才想到回城裡看看那隻白鴿子帶來的消息。

上面這麼寫著「救援行動終止了，請投降避免傷亡！」

• 故事二：瓦維爾的龍

瓦維爾有一隻邪惡的龍，住在國王的城堡附近。這隻惡龍會破壞整個農村、吞噬牲畜，殺害村民、掠奪他們的家園，更甚者是喜歡吃年輕的女孩。國王不但懼怕惡龍欺凌他的子民，更怕自己摯愛的公主也會淪落龍口。因此只好求助於英勇的騎士們，他發出公告說：「不論是誰，只要可以打敗惡龍，將可以娶公主為妻，並且馬上獲得一半的王國。」那知惡龍實在太過強大了，眾多的騎士前仆後繼都鎩羽而歸，王國中的女孩還是一個接著一個犧牲。

有一天，有個窮鞋匠德拉特瓦 (Dratewka) 看到這個公告，馬上決定要接受這個挑戰。他做了一隻填滿硫磺的羔羊娃娃，並放在惡龍躲藏的洞穴口。惡龍出洞後，果然馬上吃了這隻假羔羊，因為生吞活剝的關係，連硫磺也吞下肚子裡。這讓牠非常地口渴，轉頭向維斯瓦河找水喝。但是，儘管喝了一半的河水還是沒法平息胃痛，因此惡龍又繼續喝個不停。最後，牠終於被滿肚子的水撐破肚皮炸開了。國王於是兌現承諾，讓小鞋匠德拉特瓦娶了美麗的公主和掌管一半的王國。王國裡沒了惡龍，小鞋匠和公主從此也就能過著幸福快樂的日子。

想必你一定可以猜到，這邊都是非常非常精簡的版本。不過篇幅有限，就請發會想像力自己編撰故事的其他細節。對瓦維爾的龍有興趣的朋友，可以看看維基百科裡的介紹。想要看國王的城堡和維斯瓦河的，可以看下面我收到的另一張明信片圖案。