The dragon, nightingales and deer in Jan Kochanowski’s "Threnody I". A commentary on the interesting transformation of the work on the Internet and beyond

Abstract

The article is devoted to a fairly widespread, though linguistically and semantically unjustified, transformation of the allegorical image of the dragon and nightingales in Jan Kochanowski’s Tren I (Threnody I; lines 9–14). In many contemporary editions of the poem, a characteristic typographical error can be observed, which unexpectedly introduces another, completely accidental victim – a deer – to the scene of the reptile’s attack on the chicks, rooted in ancient tradition. This error distorts the fundamental ideological premise of the work, according to which the dragon’s (death’s) activity is directed from the very beginning exclusively against the nightingales (Orszulka) and only in relation to them does it carry out its well-thought-out – almost demonic – plan. Despite the obvious shift in meaning, the thus metamorphosed elegy has recently enjoyed considerable popularity both in the virtual sphere and in the realm of traditional books.