Janosik, Polish Legend

Long ago, the people living in the Tatra Mountain area were poor and hungry, because they were charged unfair rents by greedy landlords. The landlords hired soldiers to take the sheep and crops from the people who could not pay their rent.

One day, a young man named Janosik, met a rich man climbing a mountain with two of his soldiers. One of the soldiers tried to push him off the mountain path. Janosik would not get off the path. He hit the bully and the bully fell off the slope. As the second soldier came to attack him, Janosik tripped him and he too fell off the mountain. Then, Janosik took the rich man's heavy bag, which was full of money the man had collected from the poor people, and pushed him off the path, too. The three men were lying at the bottom of the ravine!

Janosik gave the money to poor starving families. He had to hide in the mountains, because he knew that other soldiers would be looking for him. As he climbed the mountain, he noticed three witches walking silently behind him.

The witches told Janosik that they had been watching him and that they knew that he had pushed the soldiers off the mountain and had stolen the money. But they saw him give the money to poor families and considered him a hero. They also said he was now considered a thief because he stole a landlord's money. They offered to help him become the most famous thief who ever lived.

Each of the witches gave him a magical gift - the first was a woolen shirt that would stop any bullet or arrow, the second was a red leather belt that would help him run more swiftly than any other man and the third gift was a long handled mountaineer's axe that would allow him to climb steep cliffs and peaks where no one could follow.

Janosik soon became the chief of a group of bandits who robbed the rich and gave the money and the stolen treasures to the poor people. He was thought of as a hero by them. The landlords, who were afraid of Janosik, offered enormous rewards for his capture, but the gifts of the witches made it impossible for him to be caught.

A woman, who lived in the mountains and knew Janosik, told the soldiers about the three gifts the witches had given him. One night the woman stole the gifts and built a fire on the mountainside to signal the soldiers that she had burned them.

When the enemies arrived, Janosik no longer had the magic power. He fought bravely but was taken to prison. The soldiers promised the woman some money if she helped them capture Janosik, but they were dishonest soldiers and kept alt the reward. The woman had to run away. She died in poverty in another land. Janosik escaped and still lives in the mountains robbing the rich and giving to the poor.

Note: Janosik was a famous Slovak outlaw, who lived between the 17^th-18^th centuries and grew up in Terchova (NW Slovakia). Another version of Legendary Slovak Outlaw – March post 2015.

 

Source: http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/legends/J.html

The Sleeping Knights, Polish Legend

The outline of Giewont mountain massif is dominant over Zakopane (a town at the foot of the Tatra Mountains), south Poland. Many legends and tales associated with Giewont reflect the similarity between its outline and that of a sleeping knight.

Poland has always been a land of strong and courageous knights. Many old tales claim that the bravest of the knights never died, but have been asleep for centuries in a cavern beneath Mount Pisana.

Once, in a mountain village, a stranger entered a blacksmith shop. He told the blacksmith that he could earn a rich reward for doing a special job, but he must promise not to tell anyone. The blacksmith agreed. The stranger took a gold bar from under his coat and asked the blacksmith to make a horseshoe from it. When this was done, the stranger led him to the Koscieliska Valley. After hours of walking, they came to a cave hidden by rocks and trees.

There was a bright golden light inside the cave. On the floor was an army of knights in full armor, resting their helmeted heads on saddles as if they were pillows. In their hands were battle axes and spears. Along the walls of the cave stood beautiful sleeping horses covered with blankets made of delicate fabric and horseshoes made of gold.

The stranger told the amazed blacksmith to replace the broken shoe of a great stallion with the golden horseshoe he had made. The horse did not get up even when the blacksmith nailed the horseshoe to the stallion's hoof.

Of course, the curious blacksmith asked many questions, but this was all the stranger would tell him: the knights had been in a deep sleep for hundreds of years and they would not wake until the time came for a great battle. On that day, thunder would shake the earth and the sky, giant pine trees would break like little sticks, and boulders would crash down the mountainsides.

The knights would then gallop out of the cave to fight for Poland once more.

When the job was done, the stranger led the blacksmith back to his village and made him swear never to tell a living soul about what he had seen. Then, the stranger paid the blacksmith with a bag of gold and vanished.

The foolish blacksmith could not keep from telling anyone about what he saw. First, he told his wife and then his neighbors. Soon everyone knew his secret. However, the moment the blacksmith broke his word, his bag of gold turned to sand and although he searched for the cave many times, he was never able to find it.

 

Source: http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/legends/SK.html

 

 

Zakopane - the Winter Capital of Poland

Zakopane is a town located at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, which is the highest range in the Carpathian Chain and the most beautiful stretch of mountains between the Alps and the Caucasus. It is Poland’s best known place of recreation, as well as a center for culture and sport. No other place with so relatively few inhabitants (30,000) brings in so many visitors (3 million a year).  

It has been accepted that Zakopane appeared in 1578, on the strength of privileges extended by King Stefan Batory. However, the oldest document in which the name appears is one issued by King Zygmunt III Vasa in 1630. The oldest part of the town is Kuznice, where the working of iron ore began in the second half of the 18the century. However, the world only ‘discovered’ the place in the 1870s, thanks to the effort of physician and naturalist Dr. Tytus Chalubinski. In the late 19^th century and early 20^th centuries, Zakopane – still a small village of highland people – became a fashionable resort and spa town, a known center for the treatment of tuberculosis, a stopover for artists and a cradle of cultural life.

 

There are more than one hundred talents living here today, many of whom open their studios up to the public. Many creative talents include: Stanislaw Witkiewicz developed the Zakopianski architectural style so characteristic of Zakopane; Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz – writer, painter, philosopher; Tadeusz Brzozowski – painter; Wladyslaw Hasior and Antoni Rzasa – both sculptors; Ewelina Peksowa – painter on glass.

The Makuszynski Muzeum (above) is frequented by schoolchildren on visits to the mountains.

Time has stood still here, as if the writer had only left his desk for a moment or two. Standing in front of the Opolanka Villa on Tetmajera St is Andrzej Renes’s Monument to Kornel Makuszynksi. At his feet is the best-known hero from his books, namely the goat Koziolek Matolek (which stands on his desk in red shorts and shoes).

The town and surrounding villages are connected with still-visible styles of clothing, dance, folk music and song. There are several regional folk ensembles active in the area, with dozens of highlander music groups. A similar number of folk artists and craftsmen are resident and it is here that skill in painted glass, sculpture, woodcarving and violin-making reach their peak.

Source: Zakopane by Parma Press