Adapted and translated by Anna Piwowarska

Directed and produced by Amy Drozdowska

In the thirteenth century in Poland, there lived a prince. Bolek was his name although to the rest of the world, he was known as Bolesław the Shy for the young prince was very timid indeed. He would blush if surrounded by people and spoke in a quiet, barely audible voice. He much preferred to pray or read by himself, then dedicate himself to state affairs that required him to be around large groups of people. And when he did try to say anything, this is what would happen.

(silence)

Now this wouldn’t have been such a problem if it wasn’t so important for Bolesław to find a wife. For once he was King, he would have to have a son to carry on the dynasty. And to do that, he would first have to find a queen. But if Bolesław was so bashful, that he could hardly speak to his court then how on earth was going to speak to a girl? That is why the rich noblemen of Poland, decided to take matters in their own hands. They decided to find Bolek a wife.

Now, Poland at the time was a rich and powerful kingdom so there were many beautiful princesses that were eager to become Queen of Poland. However beauty and charm was not the most important factor when choosing a Queen. The noblemen of Poland thought long and hard and finally decided on the King of Hungary’s daughter – princess Kinga.

Kinga was sensible, kind and very pious and would make a very good companion to the shy prince. She was a still a child when the offer of marriage was made but her father accepted it as he liked the Poles and anyway, that’s how you did things in those days. So, it was decided that right after her twelfth birthday  (that’s right – her twelfth birthday!) Kinga would leave her family forever and travel to Poland to marry Bolesław the Shy. When Kinga looked down at her sparkling engagement ring that the prince had sent her, she knew that she was wearing a small piece of Poland on her finger.

Before she left, the King of Hungary took his daughter to the dungeons of the castle and for the first time showed her the treasures that lay there. There were coffers filled with gold coins, sparkling jewels and silver plates and cups. The King looked at his daughter and to his surprise and amusement saw that she wasn’t very impressed:

“What, Kinga,” he laughed, “Are these treasures not good enough for you to take with you to your new home in Poland?”

“Oh no, father,” she quickly answered, worried that she had offended him, “ They are truly beautiful, it’s just that, er…

“That what?” asked the King, starting to get a little irritated.

“It’s just that I’ve heard that Poland has its own dungeons full of treasures and I’d like to take something that’s a little more useful…”

“Useful? Useful?! What do you mean useful?”  

“ Well, I thought that something that would be valuable for the whole Polish nation not just for the people at court, who have already got everything that they need, would be… salt.”

 “Salt!” the King’s furious voice boomed across that whole of the dungeons. Kinga realized that she had made her father very angry so she proceeded to explain the reason behind her strange idea.

“Well, father, salt is useful to everyone – for preserving meat so it won’t go bad and for adding flavour to food. A gift of salt would be something that all Poles could enjoy and we have such an awful lot of the stuff, whereas they don’t seem to have any… so, I thought it would be… well, useful.”

The King looked at his young daughter and broke into a smile. He felt touched by her thoughtfulness and lack of greed for the riches that were offered to her. She had obviously thought long and hard about her new role as Queen to the Polish nation and this impressed him.

“Of course, my love. Take as much salt as you wish to Poland” he said.

When they arrived at the deep, dark entrance to the Royal Salt Mine, the King looked down at his naïve little girl and said.

“Here is the salt mine, dearest daughter. Although, as you can see, salt comes in the form of heavy rock. Although I can order as much as you like to be mined for you, I don’t know how you will be able to transport enough for the whole of the Polish nation.”

The young princess furrowed her brow. Maybe she hadn’t quite thought out this plan as well she thought she had. Because Kinga didn’t know what else to do, she knelt down and looked down into the mine. It was dark and she couldn’t really see anything. Unbeknown to her father, she took off the engagement ring that had been sent to her from the Polish court and dropped it down the hole. Quietly, she whispered: “May this salt follow me to Poland…”

A few days later Princess Kinga was ready for make the trip of her lifetime. Her father kissed her on the forehead and tried to hold back the tears. For him she was still his little girl and he suddenly felt scared of sending her to a country and people that he didn’t know. But Kinga was brave. She may have only been twelve but in her short life she had already prepared herself for the role of a future ruler. She waved her father goodbye and started on her long journey to the new country that she had never seen – Poland.

After many days of travelling, Kinga arrived in the city of Krakow and was greeted by cheering crowds.

Everyone was terribly eager to see the young Hungarian Princess who was one day to be their Queen. Kinga, on the other hand, suddenly felt very nervous. Not only was she tired after her long journey but her hair was dirty and the pretty raspberry coloured dress that she’d had made especially to meet her new husband was by now very crumpled. But most of all she was worried about meeting Bolesław. Was he handsome? Was he kind? And what language would they speak to each other in?

Thankfully, as soon as she stepped out of her carriage and was greeted by young Bolek, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Of course, he couldn’t look her in the eye and was as red as a beetroot with embarrassment. And when he tried to talk to her, it happened again.

(silence)

That’s right he couldn’t even manage to say ‘hello’. However, when he did finally glance at her, she saw that he had kind, intelligent eyes. She knew that she would grow to be happy with him. Bolesław, on the other hand, liked the look of his pretty fiancée but noticed that she wasn’t wearing the expensive engagement ring that he’d sent her. He wanted to ask her whether she had lost it or left it behind or perhaps she just didn’t like it. But when he tried to open his mouth to speak to her, once again nothing came out.

After a magnificent wedding ceremony, the young couple sat down to a feast in the castle, where Bolesław gathered all the courage that he had inside of him and to spoke to his wife for the first time. He spoke in Latin as it was a language that they both knew well from their love of reading.

“Dear wife, …I was wondering… where you would like to go … for our honeymoon”.

Princess Kinga thought for a moment, and then for some reason unbeknown to her, a name came to her lips:

“Wieliczka.” She said, „I’d like to go to Wieliczka.”

Bolesław was surprised. There were so many beautiful places to visit in Poland – from the mystical Tatra Mountains to the beautiful Baltic coastline; he didn’t understand why Kinga would want to go to a small town that had nothing very special going for it. However, he didn’t say anything as he knew, even then that he should listen to his wife. And anyway he would rather not have to speak if at all possible.

So the very next day they travelled to Wieliczka. Bolesław, who still knew very little about his wife, was eager to find out what exactly fascinated her about the small Polish town. When they got there, Kinga headed the whole party to the marketplace and waited for something to happen. Nothing did – it was indeed a small and frankly quite boring little town. So, Kinga, having always a practical head on her shoulders said to her servants:

“I want you to dig a well to mark our visit. A deep, deep well right in the middle of this marketplace” said Kinga. She always thought of what she could do for her people and a well in the centre of town would provide clean drinking water for everyone.

The servants looked at Bolesław but as usual, this is what he had to say. He thought this was very strange behavior but he didn’t want to argue so early on with his wife, especially on their honeymoon. And anyway, he was so shy he didn’t want any discussion in such a public place. So, he nodded and the servants started to dig. They dug and dug, thinking they were supposed to be looking for water. Finally, they got to some solid rock and could not dig any further.

“I’m sorry, dear lady” said one of the servants to his future Queen “ We will not be able to dig any deeper. There is only rock down here.”

“Well, knock a piece of that rock off and give it to me.” said Kinga, herself not quite knowing why wanted a piece of rock.

A crowd had gathered by now, drawn by the royal visit but also intrigued by why a giant hole was being dug in the middle of their market place.

Surprisingly, the servants found it very easy to knock off a piece of rock from the deep, dark hole. When they brought it up to full view, the crowd saw that the rock was bright white.

“That’s strange’” thought Prince Bolesław “I’ve never seen white rock before”.

“It’s salt!” exclaimed Kinga and she licked the piece of rock just to check. To her delight she was right! Her plea to bring salt to Poland had come true. Somehow she had known exactly where to come to discover Poland’s first salt mine! And that was not the end of it.

“There’s something inside that piece of rock” said one of the servants “ Maybe it’s an insect that’s been trapped inside for many years, like you find in amber.

However, when Kinga looked closely, she saw that the object inside the rock of salt was not an insect. It was a ring, her ring, the very same ring she had dropped into her father’s salt mine in Hungary. She promptly broke the rock of salt on the ground and out came the ring.

When Bolesław saw the engagement ring was the same one he had sent to Kinga, he was in awe. How did it end up here, in a secret salt deposit in a small town in Poland? Kinga didn’t know how to explain what had happened to her young husband. It was a miracle and miracles are never very easy to explain. All she knew that this deposit of salt was what she had dreamed of as a gift for her new nation.