legend

A legend from Gdańsk Pomerania

The crow and frogs

A long time ago, a poor rafter Wojtek Crow lived in Gdańsk. He fell in love with a beautiful townsgirl Rose, but the girl's father did not want to agree to their wedding.

A long time ago, a poor rafter Wojtek Crow lived in Gdańsk. He fell in love with a beautiful townsgirl Rose, but the girl's father did not want to agree to their wedding.

Wojtek spent a long time collecting funds for a richly decorated bourgeois outfit in order to ask for his beloved's hand.

When he came dressed up to meet Rose, the delighted girl took him to the ball at the Artus Court instead of visiting her father.

They only danced a few dances when Rose was embraced by a mysterious, handsome stranger. The company was delighted and only Wojtek looked at the man suspiciously

By the time he realized he had the devil in front of him, it was too late. The devil turned the rafter into a raven, and he himself disappeared, holding the Rose in his arms.

The raven followed the devil, but it couldn't fly very well. It fell into a nearby puddle full of frogs. Seeing the despair of the raven, the frogs decided to help him. The Frog King has found out where the devil is hiding. But there was also bad news - Rose was crying so much that the devil, unable to bear her crying, turned her into a flower.

Wojtek thanked the frogs and set off in search of the devil's cave. His only weapon was a tranquilizer potion that the frogs gave him goodbye. When he managed to find the hiding place, the devil was asleep. Just in case, the raven poured all the potion into the devil's mouth, then jumped on his face and broke one of the devil's teeth..

Then the spell broke, and Wojtek and Rose returned to their human forms. They quickly escaped from the devil's cavern, taking the tooth with them. The overjoyed father of the girl immediately agreed to the wedding, thanking the rafter for saving his daughter.

In memory of these events, one of Gdańsk's streets was called Żabi Kruk (Frog's Crow). To this day, the devil's tooth rack hangs at the entrance to the Artus Court.