Edited by ARR S.A. | Silesia
Legend of the fiddler Jec
Country: Poland
Region: Silesia
Type of inspiration: Legends
Inspiracja
Once upon a time, in Zywicka Kotlina, there lived a fiddler called Jec. When his father died and his mother could not find work, the boy decided that he would make money by playing and singing. One day, when Jec was passing by an unnamed mountain, he met the beautiful daughter of the queen of the Beskydy - Lasbora. The girl told him that she had been sent here as a punishment and had to come up with a name for the mountain. Jec decided to help the princess and suggested that she stay with him. Days passed and they forgot about the girl's punishment, living like brother and sister and enjoying Jec's fiddle playing.
Their happiness did not last long. A harsh winter came and Jec's mother fell seriously ill and died after a few days. Lasbora blamed herself for her death. She sat at her grave all day and apologised for appearing in their lives. She became more and more closed in on herself and just stared at the mountain without a name. She decided that if she did not come up with a name for it she would bring great misfortune to the whole of the Beskids. Early in the morning she left home and did not return. Jec searched for her all day and when he didn't find her he thought she had returned to her mother the Queen of the Beskids.
Days, weeks, months passed. One summer day, news reached Jec that Lasborah had been found. She was very seriously ill. None of the doctors knew what was wrong with her. Her last wish was to be buried on the top of the mountain next to Jec's mother, and she asked him to complete the task she had been given. The burial was very quiet. Jec sat for days at the grave of his mother and Lasborah and played them the most beautiful melodies he knew. He was very lonely, neglected his work and finally died of longing.
When the halny blew between the trees on that mountain, the Zywiec highlanders used to say that it was Jec playing. And in the folk dialect, the word game sounded gro. This saying gave the mountain GROJEC its name, at the foot of which flows the Soła river.
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