Heart of the Dragon Wales

At the beginning of October 2007 Pamela Gaunt, story teller, and myself traveled to Krakow in southern Poland. Our aim was to explore the mythological, geographical and cultural similarities and differences between our towns.

Krakow is a large city with a magnificent central market square. An old covered cloth market originally built in the 1300 dominates the middle of the square with many churches on the periphery. On a hill to the south of the square is an imposing castle dating from the 11th century. Many of Poland’s monarchs resided here. The Vistula River flows in an arc around the foot of the hill.

Newcastle Emlyn could not be described as large; there is a population of less than 2000. However there are strong geographical similarities. There is a castle on a hill dating from 1240 and the river Teifi flows in a sweeping curve. Newcastle Emlyn is still a thriving market centre where as in Krakow tourism has taken over the market trading in Krakow’s centre.
Both places have dragon stories at their centre.

Krakow’s dragon resided in a cave beneath the castle and was terrorizing the local populace by eating all the virgins. Many had tried and failed to rid the city of this beast. A shoemaker decided to have his go. He filled a sheep’s fleece with sulphur and left the bait for the dragon. Having eaten the sheep the dragon developed a raging thirst. To quench this thirst he drank the Vistula River and promptly exploded. The shoemaker became a hero.

The history of Newcastle Emlyn’s dragon takes place in the 15th centaury. An English lord named Sir John Burley was occupying the Castle at Newcastle Emlyn. A large body of Owain Glyndwrs’ men gathered and took the castle. Apparently burning many houses on their way. Their victory was short lived as some thirty days later the castle and its inhabitants were attacked by Sir Thomas Carrew. Glyndwrs men were besieged. They were finally defeated and the Red Dragon standard shot down and thrown in the river. The water of the Teifi turning red and green.

Theatre Groteska is a puppet theatre with revenue funding from the culture department. There is a strong history of puppet theatres in Poland and there are twelve such funded companies throughout Poland. It is housed in a two theatre building in the Stare Miasto (old town) area of Krakow. They perform two shows daily, mostly for schoolchildren, at 9am and 11am. Puppeteers have 5 years training and generally stay with the same company for many years although never receiving a long term contract. There are two workshops on site and further building spaces throughout Krakow. The animation workshop is small and is where the more technical puppets are made. It has a permanent staff of about 5 animators.

The Larger workshop is for the construction of larger puppets. It has a staff of 4 artists. They maintain existing puppets from the current shows as well as creating new puppets for future productions. The giant dragons are made in venues outside the theatre. They are a mixture of processional ground based creations and helium filled floating dragons that are manipulated by puppeteers on the ground. They are particularly easy to transport, folding down to a suitcase size, and thus suitable for touring.

There can be up to 30 people working on these giant puppets at any one time. It is important to note how important sponsorship is to Theatre Groteska. The funding they receive from the culture department only covers the day to day running of the theatre building. Money for all activities outside the theatre has to be raised by sponsorship. The Dragon Parade and its associated activities are funded in this way. There is a team of four fundraisers working permanently at the theatre to gain the funds required to achieve such a high standard of community creativity and development. Groteska have an in put to many of the cultural and festival events in Krakow throughout the year.

Pamela and I observed techniques and materials used in the creation of Groteska’s puppets. This will prove invaluable during the creation of the Newcastle Emlyn festival Dragons.

There are three elements to the Krakow festival. A parade of Dragons made within schools. Each school submits drawings to Groteska following stipulated themes and criteria. The artistic director then selects 30 to be made up. The schools are awarded the sum of 500 zloty (approx 100.00 pounds) to realize the drawing. There is no accountability for this grant, it can be used for whatever the school wishes, but a dragon must be produced. Independent judges select a winner.

There is then a family fair on the banks of the Vistula. There are games and prizes for the best princess and most noble knight. There are sword fighting displays, puppet booth shows, jugglers, e.t.c.

The third part of the festival is an evening spectacular on the river. There is a host of inflatable dragons which are lit up by a dramatic firework and laser show. Enormous fire spurting metal dragons float across the river. The evening culminates in a reenactment of Krakow’s dragon story. The spectacular is fantastic and awe inspiring.

In conclusion there are notable similarities between our histories, myths and geography. The link between Krakow’s dragon festival and our own Heart of the Dragon festival are to be strengthened by the invitation to participate in the E.U. funded “Great Dragons Parade. European myths and legends” project. We, as a partner country, will be hosting trainers from Poland, Czech Republic and Ireland, working with the dragon mythology of Europe and most importantly sharing Newcastle Emlyn’s dragon heritage. All the work created here will be broadcast across the world on a Project website and we will be represented at three festivals in Dublin in March, Prague in May, and Krakow in June. The work will also be available for our own festival in July.

It is anticipated that the work will be exhibited in one other non European country. Possibly the Ukraine or Romania.

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