European Dragons
In European folklore, a dragon is a legendary creature.
The dragon is typically depicted as a huge fire-breathing, scaly and horned dinosaur-like creature, with leathery wings, with four legs and a long muscular tail. It is sometimes shown with feathered wings, crests, fiery manes, and various exotic colorations. Iconically it has at last combined the Chinese dragon with the western one. Asian dragons are long serpent like creatures which possess the scales of a carp, horns of a deer, feet of an eagle, the body of a snake, a feathery mane, large eyes, and can be holding a pearl to control lightning. They usually have no wings. Imperial dragons had five claws (for a king), or four for a prince, or three for courtiers of a lower ranking. The dragons were bringers of rain and lived in and governed bodies of water (e.g lakes, rivers, oceans, or seas). Asian dragons were benevolent, but bossy . In Western folklore, dragons are usually portrayed as evil, with exceptions mainly in modern fiction.
Many modern stories represent dragons as creatures who can talk, associated with powerful magic.
The most famous Polish dragon is the Wawel Dragon or Smok Wawelski. It supposedly terrorized ancient Kraków and lived in caves on the Vistula river bank below the Vawel castle. According to lore based on the Book of Daniel, it was killed by a boy who offered it a sheepskin filled with sulphur and tar. After devouring it, the dragon became so thirsty that it finally exploded after drinking too much water. A metal sculpture of the Wawel Dragon is a well-known tourist sight in Kraków. It is very stylised but, to the amusement of children, noisily breathes fire every few minutes. The Wawel dragon also features on many items of Kraków tourist merchandise.
Other dragon-like creatures in Polish folklore include the Basilisk, in Polish – Bazyliszek - living in cellars of Warsaw.
Here are some dragons drawn by students of 32 Primary School of Bielsko-Biała
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