Wars and Sawa

Wars and Sawa, first time I saw these two words was at Marszałkowska street in the center. 

I remember thinking that this was some kind of brand with either an illiterate brand manager or some kind of hip name sounding like Warszawa. Only a year later I read about the legend of Wars and Sawa, and realized that the shop name wasn't so strange.

The legend

There are a lot of legends about Wars and Sawa. They emerged because nobody really knew where the name of Poland's capital came from.

The three I know...

Version one

King Kazimierz Odnowiciel, while on his way from Kraków to Gniezno, came across a fisherman’s hut. The hungry king found his way to the hut thanks to the smoke and the smell of fresh food.

King Kazimierz I

Odnowiciel ('Restorer')

As he was having some fish from the night’s catch, the fisherman told the king the story of his family which had just recently grown bigger thanks to the birth of a twin boy and girl.

The poor fisherman and his wife could not baptise the babies, though, because there was no church in the area. The king, who had really enjoyed the meal, wanted to pay the the family with gold, but they, according to the old Polish tradition of hospitality, refused to take any payment. Then the king asked them for one more favour – he asked to be the twins’ godfather at their baptism that he would organize. An altar was set up on a hill, and a priest commissioned by King Kazimierz named the twins Wars (the boy) and Sawa (the girl). And King Kazimierz announced that Pietrko Rybak (Peter Fisherman) would from then on be called Piotr Wars, the royal fisherman, the father of Wars and Sawa, and the owner of the vast forest. The king also told him that one day, when a village began to take shape near his hut, that he should give it a name derived from his new surname – and that the village would carry that name forever.

Version 2

Another version of the legend says that a long, long time ago there was a tiny hut standing at the shores of the Vistula River. Wars, a fisherman, and his wife Sawa lived there. One day a hunt was organized in the area and Prince Ziemomysł, the owner of the estate, got lost in the forest. He wandered around for many days and nights and he finally reached the fisherman’s hut. Wars and Sawa made the stranger welcome and in the morning the grateful prince said, ‘You didn’t hesitate to take in a stranger and save him from hunger, cold and wild animals. Therefore this land will forever be called Wars Sawa, so your kindness can never be forgotten’.

Warszawa

Version 3

A long long time ago (typical how these legends always tend to start) Poland was covered by wilderness which was full of wild animals and people lived in small settlements. In one of them, on the bank of the Vistula (Wisła) river, li a young fisherman was living. Wars, that was his name. 

One night when he set off in his boat and started fishing a gorgeous woman suddenly surfaced out of water. He was staring at her because she had golden hair, big blue eyes and…a fish tail. At that time when the mermaid rose up singing, the young boy fell crazy in love with her. Since then he always waited for her and listened her songs.

One day, the mermaid noticed Wars and she swam up and asked him: ‘Why are you watching me? ’ 'Ehrr, I’m a fisherman so…’-
‘ I know who you are but…’- said mermaid but she couldn’t say anything more because Wars disturbed her and showed his love to Sawa, her name. She always knew he was there and she was singing for him because she had fallen in love with him as well. 

Then Sawa called a secret to her mind that if a mermaid falls in love with a human she can lose her tail and become human. Wars and Sawa left the Vistula river together and after that the couple lived happily ever after and after many years. Around their cottage, a huge fishing settlement was created, Warsaw.

Bed time stories

The pictures I showed are looking a bit childish but they were taken from children's books. At school the youngest kids learn about this legend and parents buy the book to read with their spouse before they go to sleep.

I bet there are many more versions, I guess where a mermaid protects the settlement as she wears a sword and a shield on Warsaw's crest. Fellow Varsovians please let me know any other versions might you know any!