Andrzej Sapkowski’sThe Witcheris getting a lot of attention these days and come December 20 , you could expect even more . allow ’s search the mediaeval folklore that inspiredThe Witcher saga — the monsters , the heroic meter , and the trouble with being a freelance monster huntsman .
Netflix ’s upcoming seriesThe Witcher , based on Polish source Sapkowski ’s bestselling series of novel and short storey , centers on the fib of Geralt of Rivia , a “ Witcher ” who hunts magical brute for salary . It ’s # GigLife or , as Sapkowskidefines the jobin The Last Wish , “ itinerant grampus of basilisks ; traveling killer of dragons and vodniks . ” Basically , intend of Geralt as a supernatural bounty hunter .
And , there are dragons , circumstances of dragons , and basilisk and strigas and elves and dwarf and witches . Game of Thronestook its sweet ol’ clip before tilt into the more fantastical constituent of the series . With The Witcher , there will be a smörgåsbord of fantastic creatures from the outset .
Heikenwaelder Hugo, Austria” class=”size-full wp-image-2000106172″ />The Universe (a colored version of the Flammarion engraving).Image:Heikenwaelder Hugo, Austria
https://gizmodo.com/how-to-get-into-the-witcher-novels-1706064080
The Witcher’s origin story
The yr was 1985 . Sapkowski was a 38 - year - old traveling fur salesman who decided to infix a Polish scant story competitor . He had 30 page and thought he ’d fictionalize the Polish myth of the cobbler who vote down the Wawel Dragon . In the tale , the cobbler poison the dragon with a sulfur - laced sheep . Upon eat on said sheep , the dragon freaks out and drink so much water it bursts . It ’s your classical underdog storey .
Sapkowski , ever the realist , ground the news report unconvincing . “ Poor cobbler make good shoes , they do n’t down monsters,”Sapkowski told Eurogamer . “ soldier and knights ? ” he goes on to say , “ They are idiots in the main . And priests want only the money and bloody teenager . So who ’s killing monsters ? Professionals . You do n’t call short shoemaker ’ apprentices : you call for professionals . So then I excogitate the professional . ” And so , The Witcher saga was born , and Geralt , the professional monster slayer , with it .
Welcome to the Continent
Geralt ’s world is get it on simply as “ the continent ” and it ’s a flake of a Europe lookalike model ( like much of the folklore behind The Witcher ) around Eastern Europe and Scandinavia .
dwarf and dwarves were the first dweller of the continent . Then , the elves joined them . The gnomes , dwarves , and ELF — know by man together with as the Elder airstream — figured out how to coexist with relative simplicity . That is , until the humans make it to mess everything up . ( Go figure ! ) The homo went to state of war with the sr. races , leveling much of their civilisation in the process . The survivors were leave to either adjust into prejudiced human order , move back to their own enclaves away from human civilization , or unite the Scoia’tael , a mathematical group of anti - human guerilla hero rebelling against their persecution .
Conjunction of Spheres
Mass upthrow of the Continent ’s societies was not the only disorderly element of the human age . The arrival of the human beings coincide in The Witcher with a Brobdingnagian event known as the Conjunction of Spheres , which can equal the Avengers film inmultiverse jargon . During the Conjunction of Spheres , portals were open to new realms allowing beasts and puppet from other worlds to come into our own . The Conjunction also allowed trick into the continent , which in The Witcher is essentially the ability to control bedlam energy that permeates the humankind and gives it form .
The Conjunction of Spheres also means that Geralt can go out and kill all these monsters and it wo n’t bear on his world ’s ecosystem . Basically , these monsters are an invasive metal money — killing them is for the goodness of the continent .
The idea of a multiverse can be traced back to many religious custom . In ancient Egypt , the snake Apophis personifies the chaos of Duat , the Egyptian realm of the dead ; the same sort of Chaos that breaks into Geralt ’s universe during the Conjunction . In Mormonism , Apostle Orson Prattclaimed , “ world , and systems of worlds , and universe of worlds existed in the unbounded heights and depth of immensity . ” Is your head spinning with multiverse - speak yet ?
Facsimile of folio 53 of the Book of Leinster.Image: Trinity College, Dublin (Wikipedia)
While Polish folklore inspired much of The Witcher and the Conjunction ’s conception of the multiverse can be bump in many spiritual custom , it ’s Gaelic lore that inspires the backdrop to Sapkowski ’s serial publication . Like in The Witcher , the fabled Celts epically face off with the gremlin for control of Ireland .
The Gaelic myth can be base in The Book of Invasions ( or Lebor Gabala Erenn in Irish ) , the complete text edition of which can be plant in the 12th century Book of Leinster though the story go steady back much , much earlier .
According to The Book of Invasions , everyone from Noah ’s granddaughter to single - armed and individual - legged monsters populated Ireland at some point . But , it ’s the arrival of the Tuatha De Dannan , aka Irish pixy , that seems to have most inspired Sapkowski .
Wikipedia” class=”size-full wp-image-2000106178″ />John Duncan’s 1911 painting, Riders of the Sidhe.Image:Wikipedia
The Tuatha De Dannan arrive in Ireland like bosses , cloaked in glowering clouds and arm with trick . The Fir Bolg , a humanoid race who had been squatting on Ireland up till now , did n’t stand a luck . The Tuatha De Dannan successfully took over the Emerald Isle until humans arrive on the scene . After wandering through Spain and Egypt , the Gaels ( aka Celts , aka humans ) were looking to put down some beginning and do their sights on Ireland .
After the Gaels arrive in Ireland , the Tuatha De Dannan convinced them to return to their ships . ( It ’s not exclusively clear how , but they ’re magical extremely low frequency so I guess they may have some tricks up their elven arm . ) A conflict of sorcerous incantation ensues as the Tuatha De Dannan ’s wizard build the waves up to push back the Gaels . But the Gaels ’ necromancer die hard , driving the Tuatha De Dannan beneath the sid ( pouf ) cumulation , tiny hills where they persist out of sight in an inconspicuous public beneath the terra firma to this day ( or so the story goes ) .
Yes , there are elves in Eastern European folklore too . But , it ’s in the Gaelic legend where humanity and elves face up off in an heroic battle like that mentioned in The Witcher . Also , the names of both the Tuatha De Dannan and Sapkowski ’s imp in The Witcher saga are nearly selfsame . The imp in the novel are known as the Aen Seidhe . Another name for the Tuatha De Dannan ? The Aes Sídhe . The accented “ í ” means the two names are enounce very similarly as well .
Polish Wikipedia” class=”size-full wp-image-2000106183″ />Roman ZmorskiImage:Polish Wikipedia
Despite The Witcher ’s gremlin take Gaelic roots , the series is full of creatures from Polish folklore . Geralt needs some behemoth to hunt , does he not ? And , Sapkowski ’s globe is so vivid that you may start fearing a vodnik attack next time you take a paseo in the woodwind .
The striga
First up is the striga , a cleaning lady cuss to become a werewolf / vampire / beldame intercrossed and Richard Morris Hunt humans by the full moon .
In The Last Wish , the first script of Sapkowski ’s saga , a king and his baby have a daughter . ( Feeling the Jaime and Cersei vibraphone , yet ? ) Due to her incestuous nativity , the wretched girl is condemn to become the flagitious striga whenever the moon ’s full . Geralt is tasked with finding and curing , or — if curing rise impossible — killing the princess - striga .
As you might imagine , the striga is n’t something you want to find into on a dark nighttime . In The Witcher , the loud - mouthedVelerad describes , “ Her Royal Highness , the unredeemed royal bastard , is four cubits high , forge like a barrel of beer , has a trap which load from ear to ear and is full of dagger - alike tooth , has red eyes and a crimson mop of hair ! Her paws , with claws like a uncivilized bozo ’s , hang down to the ground ! ” It also comes out that Sapkowski ’s striga only ventures beyond the castle ’s crypt on full moons and hates silver medal . strait familiar ? A littlewerewolf - ish perhaps ?
Petrus Gonsalvus and his wife Catherine depicted by Joris Hoefnagel among animals in an early book of zoology.Image: National Gallery of Art Washington (Wikipedia)
The striga is a Polish cocktail of werewolf and vampire legends that spread throughout Medieval Europe . As scholar Brian Cooper points out in hisThe Word “ vampire ” : Its Slavonic Form and Origin , the Slavonic word for vampire , “ vampiru , ” got confuse with the Scripture for wolf - man , “ vlukodlaku . ”
Sapkowski did n’t just borrow the striga from Polish folklore , but remixed another Polish folklorist ’s story as well . As academic Dorota Michulka direct out in herLooking for Identity : Polish Children Fantasy Then and Now , Sapkowski lifts his story of the striga from Roman Catholic Zmorski ’s Strzyga . Zmorski , a Polish folklorist , author , and translator of the Romantic geological era , was deeply grip by Polish myth and fable like Sapkowski .
In both Zmorski and Sapkowski ’s story , the striga is the by - product of the king ’s incestuous family relationship with his sister . In both stories , the Billie Jean King seeks a hero who can cure his daughter offering her hand in marriage as a reward .
Wikipedia” class=”size-full wp-image-2000106209″ />The Wawel Dragon, in Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographie Universalis (1544)Image:Wikipedia
https://gizmodo.com/a-medievalists-guide-to-magic-and-alchemy-in-a-discover-1831463192
The difference between the two story comes from the hero sandwich that steps up to the challenge . In Zmorski ’s telling , the paladin is a handsome orphan who bear the daughter as a “ reward . ” In Sapkowski ’s , the Hero of Alexandria is the blanched - haired , demon bounty hunter , Geralt the Witcher , who ’s only interested in the money offered as a advantage .
The basilisk
In Sapkowski ’s second collection of short stories , The Sword of Destiny , the basilisk , another tool from Polish folklore , rears its ugly cockerel head . Yup , the same basilisk that make an appearance in theHarry Potterseries , the same basilisk that was last reportedly seen alive in medieval Warsaw !
It ’s 1587 and monsters are a very real part of the medieval worldview . Real people with little - understood forcible differences were touted around to various royal court , like Pedro Gonzales , “ the werewolf of the Canaries , ” who was adopted by the French Court . And , get along 1587 in Warsaw , a Polish military man reportedly kills a basilisk with a mirror , turning the creature ’s deathly gaze on itself .
According to legend , the basilisk was a snake in the grass - like wolf with the head of a cockerel and its gaze was mortal . According to a 12th 100 bestiary,“If it looks at a valet de chambre , it put down him , ” though reference to the basilisk , the mogul of snakes , appointment as far back to Pliny the elderberry bush in 79 CE .
Just like with the striga , Sapkowski does n’t just borrow the demon , but remixes the entire Polish legend too . In The Sword of Destiny , a character protests , “ you ca n’t kill a basilisk without a looking glass , everyone knows that”—Sapkowski ’s nod to the Warsaw legend . But , Geralt remove no mirror with him to vote down the basilisk , only his steel .
He does n’t necessitate a mirror , as the Journal Bestiary for The Witcher video gamecontends : “ witchers … [ incur ] it is far proficient to smash the mirror on the puppet ’s psyche . ” Once again , Geralt defeats these monsters with brute force and honed acquisition making the Witcher world all the more vivid and grounded . Yes , there are dragons and basilisk and strigas , but they can be kill like any other puppet .
The dragon and the cobbler
Speaking of shoot down flying dragon , in another story from The Sword of Destiny , Sapkowski riff on the Polish fable of the cobbler who defeats the dragon , the folktale that inspire the whole Witcher saga we mentioned earlier . It ’s a moment that typify Sapkowski ’s worldly concern of fantasy , but also a world with a realist like Geralt at its heart . Despite the fantastical constituent in The Witcher , Geralt is as square - shooting as thebounty huntersand outlaws of older Hollywood Westerns .
The early telling of the Wawel Dragon dates back to 13th century Poland and has no reference of a shoemaker . Instead , the king ’s two Word defeat the dragon with the same sulfur poisoned calfskin that , in late retellings , the poor cobbler will use to defeat the dragon . It ’s not until Marcin Bielski ’s 16th century retelling that the shoemaker will supervene upon the magnate ’s Logos as the unlikely hero of the floor .
Sapkowski retells the Polish legend of the Wawel Dragon like your champion who never believes your most epic going - out stories . The sassy bard , Dandelion , who come to the story to Geralt , is just as surprised as the townspeople that the dragon actually ate the cobbler ’s poisoned sheep “ which stank to in high spirits heavens ” and was go for up by a stake . But the poisoned sheep was not enough to pop the flying lizard and thus begins Geralt ’s own adventures with the dragon . In the books , King Niedamirsends out a detail to drink down the tartar in a political move so as to be seen as a dragon killer and fulfill a vaticination to gain land and power .
https://gizmodo.com/a-medievalists-guide-to-decoding-the-creatures-in-godzi-1835689266
The professional
But , Geralt does n’t belt down dragons . It goes against his code of honour . So , the one monster you ’d await a medieval knight to go after , Geralt is n’t about to remove . Sapkowski is n’t going to play into your typical medieval fantasy pilot .
Geralt is n’t some romantic , brassbound knight . He ’s an 85 - plus - class - old Witcher , who does n’t have sentence for your court intrigue or power conflict . Geralt could care less about King Niedamir or flying dragon - killing , and only go on this whole flying dragon crusade because he heard his lady friend , Yennefer , was going . Geralt is a liberal agentive role , who only like about collect his amplitude . With a projected lifespan of a couple hundred year , he is n’t about to get wrapped in some political dramatic event of the minute . He has a line to do . He acknowledge how to do it . So , do n’t get in his way , okay ?
That is , at least until those he cares about get wrapped up in the political drama themselves — thus set about Geralt ’s character reference discharge . In a mankind pullulate with strigas , basilisks , and dragons , a world subject to genocide , political infighting , and a collision of dimension threaten the very framework of world , Geralt still does his best to discount the BS .
Sarah Durnis a freelance writer , actor , and medievalist found in New Orleans , LA . She is the author of an approaching book on interpersonal chemistry to be published in Spring 2020 .
Correction : One instance of “ vodnik ” being misspell as “ vodkin ” has been better .
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