Polish Legends – The Fern Flower

On the longest night of the year, an unusual flower blooms for a short while. Few have managed to see it because it is extremely difficult.

It is not known whether it will bloom in a place with many ferns or in a place with one small, inconspicuous and lost one. Sometimes all you need is a bit of luck at midnight when it blossoms on that one extraordinary Midsummer Night.

Many years ago, little Jacuś lived in one of the Polish villages. One day a boy heard a story about a miraculous fern flower. People often told beautiful and amazing stories about him. When a child listened to this story, he was lost in the world of his imagination, unusual images appeared before his eyes. The boy saw almost everything that the storytellers talked about – the wealth, the treasures that the finder of the fern flower brings, but he could not imagine the wisdom and knowledge that no one else has. In his dreams Jacuś did not see the flower itself, but it was not a problem for him, he imagined its unusual shapes of tiny leaves, delicately shimmering with colors. However, the fern flower was to be guarded by various powers that protected it from the eyes of curious people.

The boy decided to find the flower. On Midsummer Night, when all the inhabitants of his native village were celebrating by the fire and singing happy songs, Jacuś imperceptibly left the village and headed towards the forest. He searched for a long time for a beautiful flower among hundreds of ferns, but found nothing. As he was about to give up, his eyes saw a tiny light that turned out to be tiny petals of a fern flower. The flower was so bright that even against the black, impenetrable night it shone like a diamond. The boy watched this miraculous phenomenon, the flower began to grow and change colors, just as he had imagined before. Jacuś was about to pick a flower, when suddenly some dark figures began to emerge from the darkness of the forest, a strong wind started to emerge. The boy, when he woke up in his bed in the morning, could not remember if it all really happened or it was just his dream.

Jacuś couldn’t stop thinking about it, he was thinking about this beautiful flower all year round. He did not tell anyone about his night trip and he was looking forward to the next Midsummer Night with great excitement, the boy was dragging on his days. Months passed, autumn came, then harsh winter, finally green spring, the days grew longer and warmer, the trees were covered with green leaves, the birds chirped happily, all nature announced that another summer was approaching. The longest night of the year had finally come and Jacuś, as he had planned for a year, set off again in search of a fern flower. Everything repeated exactly as the year before, the boy found the flower and was almost plucking it when the secret powers shielded it again and the boy’s dream did not come true.

Jacuś, however, was stubborn, he decided to try again next year, “up to three times art”. His stubbornness and determination made the next summer successful! He plucked the flower and knew it was not a dream. From then on, nothing was as it used to be, now he had everything he wanted, a beautiful palace, riches, treasures, he lacked nothing. However, as the days and weeks went by, the boy stopped enjoying his treasures and delicious dishes. Jacuś felt very lonely, he had no one to talk to, he could not share his joy with anyone, he was getting sadder and sadder.

So the boy returned to his native village, found his family home, but his parents did not recognize him. Desperate, he shut himself up in his palace. When he returned home a year later, his father was dead, and the sick mother did not recognize her son again. The boy wasted away, he never smiled anymore, he didn’t want to see his beautiful palace or his valuables anymore. When he visited his family home again, it turned out that his mother was also dead. An enormous emptiness appeared in his heart, so great that he could not bear it, he wanted not to see this world anymore. As soon as he thought this, the ground collapsed beneath him and Jacuś wandered off to look for his parents, just like the fern flower once.