Legenda o żelaznym wilku z Kroniki Macieja Stryjkowskiego w kontekście mitów założycielskich i baśni magicznych

Abstract

The Legend about the Iron Wolf from Stryjkowski’s “Chronicle” in the Context of Foundation Myths and Tales of Magic Summary The present article is an attempt to look at Stryjkowski’s story of Gediminas’, the Grand Duke’s of Lithuania, and his dream, involving a vision of an iron-clad wolf, in the light of its possible folkloric and mythographic context. It is natural to look at it as a foundation myth, associated with the legendary origins of the city of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The author claims that the usually postulated connection with the story of Romulus and Remus and the Capitoline She-Wolf is rather tenuous and that it is better understood within the framework of fairy tales about supernatural, enchanted, animals, whose disenchantment, that is, a return to the human form, is the natural and expected conclusion. A comparative analysis of various legends, myths, and fairy tales (including literary fairy tales) suggests that this predominantly Lithuanian story has some links with a vast European narrative heritage.

Keywords

• stryjkowski’s “chronicle”
• tales of magic
• foundation myths
• the symbolism of the wolf
• the symbolism of iron
• the wolf and the hedgehog