The Last Wish (1993) Sword of Destiny (1992) Blood of Elves (1994) Time of Contempt (1995) Baptism of Fire (1996) The Tower of the Swallow (1997) The Lady of the Lake (1999) Season of Storms (2013) | |
Author | Andrzej Sapkowski |
---|---|
Country | Poland |
Language | Polish |
Genre | Fantasy |
Publisher | superNOWA Published in English by Hachette: |
The Witcher (Polish: Wiedźmin, pronounced [ˈvʲɛd͡ʑmʲin]) is a series of 6 fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous "witcher," Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are beast hunters who develop supernatural abilities at a young age to battle wild beasts and monsters. The books have been adapted into a film (The Hexer), two television series (The Hexer and The Witcher), a trilogy of video games (The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt), and a graphic novel series. The series of novels is known as the Witcher Saga. The short stories and novels have been translated into numerous languages, including Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Lithuanian, Czech, Spanish and Ukrainian.
The books have been described as having a cult following in Poland and in Central and Eastern European countries.[1][2] The video games have been very successful; as of 28 May 2020, The Witcher series has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.[3]
No. | Title | Pages | Release | Series | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Polish | English | Polish[4] | English | |||
1 | The Last Wish | 286 | 288 | 1993 | 2007[5] | Short story collections |
2 | Sword of Destiny | 343 | 384 | 1992 | 2015[6] | |
3 | Blood of Elves | 295 | 320 | 1994 | 2008 | The Witcher saga |
4 | Time of Contempt | 319 | 331 | 1995 | 2013 | |
5 | Baptism of Fire | 336 | 343 | 1996 | 2014 | |
6 | The Tower of the Swallow | 428 | 436 | 1997 | 2016 | |
7 | The Lady of the Lake | 520 | 531 | 1999 | 2017 | |
8 | Season of Storms | 404 | 384 | 2013 | 2018 | Standalone novel |
The Witcher short stories by the author Andrzej Sapkowski were first published in Polish science fiction and fantasy magazine Fantastyka, beginning in the mid-1980s. The first short story, "Wiedźmin" ("The Witcher") (1986), was written for a contest held by the magazine and won third place. The first four stories dealing with the witcher Geralt of Rivia were originally featured in a 1990 short story collection titled Wiedźmin (The Witcher) — now out of print — with "Droga, z której się nie wraca" ("The Road with No Return"), which is set before the Witcher stories and features Geralt's mother-to-be.
The second published short story collection was Sword of Destiny (orig. Miecz przeznaczenia). Although The Last Wish (orig. Ostatnie życzenie) was published after Sword of Destiny, it replaced The Witcher as the first book since it included all the stories in The Witcher, except "The Road with No Return" (the only story without Geralt). Although new short stories were added to The Last Wish, they took place before those in Sword of Destiny.
Although "The Road with No Return" and "Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna" ("Something Ends, Something Begins", an alternate ending of the Witcher saga about Geralt and Yennefer's wedding written as a wedding gift for Sapkowski's friends) were later published in 2000 in Something Ends, Something Begins and in 2012 in Maladie and Other Stories (Maladie i inne opowiadania) collections, the other stories in those books are unconnected to the Witcher series. In some Polish editions, "The Road with No Return" and "Something Ends, Something Begins" are added to The Last Wish or Sword of Destiny.
The saga focuses on Geralt of Rivia and Ciri, who are linked by destiny. Ciri, princess of a recently conquered country and a pawn of international politics, becomes a witcher-in-training. Geralt is drawn into a whirlwind of events in his attempts to protect her.
In Polish:
In English:
In 2013, with Sapkowski's permission, the Polish publishing house Solaris published a collection of eight short stories, Opowieści ze świata Wiedźmina (Tales from the World of The Witcher), written by eight Russian and Ukrainian fantasy writers (including Andrei Belyanin and Vladimir Vasilyev) set in the world of The Witcher and/or featuring characters from the saga.[8] In 2017, Szpony i kły (Claws and Fangs), a similar collection of eleven short stories by eleven authors, chosen through a competition organized in 2016 by the Polish magazine Nowa Fantastyka, was published by SuperNowa.[9][10][11]
The stories are set on an unnamed Continent,[12] which was settled several thousand years earlier by elves from overseas. When they arrived, the elves encountered gnomes and dwarves. After a period of war between the elves and dwarves, the dwarves retreated into the mountains and the elves settled in the plains and forests. Human colonists arrived about five hundred years before the events in the stories, igniting a series of wars. The humans were victorious, and became dominant; the non-human races, now considered second-class citizens, often live in small ghettos within human settlements. Those not confined to the ghettos live in wilderness regions not yet claimed by humans. Other races on the Continent are halflings and dryads; werewolves and vampires appeared after a magical event, known as the Conjunction of the Spheres.
During the centuries preceding the stories, most of the Continent's southern regions have been taken over by the Nilfgaard Empire; the north belongs to the fragmented Northern Kingdoms. The Witcher saga takes place in the aftermath of the first major war between the Nilfgaard Empire and the Northern Kingdoms, with a second war beginning in the middle of the series.
Further information: List of characters in The Witcher series |
Although no map of the universe created by Sapkowski has been released, several maps have been created by fans. According to Sapkowski, the existing maps are "mostly accurate" and he uses a version created by Czech translator Stanislav Komárek.[20]
Kovir & Poviss |
Hengfors |
Kaedwen |
Redania |
Mahakam |
Aedirn |
Cintra |
Temeria |
Lyria & Rivia |
Nilfgaard |
The Continent can be divided into four regions. The Northern Kingdoms (where most of the saga takes place) consists of Aedirn, Cidaris, Cintra, Hengfors League, Kaedwen, Kerack, Kovir and Poviss, Lyria and Rivia, Redania, Temeria and Verden and several minor duchies and principalities such as Bremervoord or Ellander. The Nilfgaard Empire occupies most of the area south of the Northern Kingdoms. The eastern part of the Continent, such as the Korath desert, Zerrikania, Hakland and the Fiery Mountains, is mostly unknown. The book series mentions overseas countries with whom the Northern Kingdoms trade, including Zangvebar, Ofir, Hannu and Barsa.[citation needed]
Sapkowski created a language for the series known as Elder Speech,[21][22] based on Welsh, English, French, Irish, Latin and other languages. Dialects are spoken on the Skellige Islands and in Nilfgaard. In an interview Sapkowski explained that he wanted the language to be reasonably legible to a reader, to avoid footnotes. As he said: "In my book, I do not want for an orc telling to another orc 'Burbatuluk grabataluk!' to be supplied with a footnote: 'Shut the door, don't let the flies in!'"[23][24]
The stories and novels have been translated into various languages, including Persian.[25]
See also: Vedmak |
Sapkowski chose wiedźmin as the male equivalent of the Polish word for witch (wiedźma).[26] In his book 2005 book-interview Historia i Fantastyka Sapkowski noted that the word "witcher" is a natural male version of the English word "witch", and implied that the similarity between those two words, as well as between the German terms, was the inspiration coining wiedźmin as a new Polish word.[26] Polish video game designer Adrian Chmielarz claimed to have invented the translation of wiedźmin into English as witcher around 1996-1997.[27]
Although wiedźmin is now usually translated into English as "witcher", an earlier translation of the title was "hexer" (the title of the 2001 film adaptation and the first official English translation in the 2000 short story collection Chosen by Fate: Zajdel Award Winner Anthology);[28] Hexe and Hexer are the German words for female and male 'witch' respectively.[26] CD Projekt used "witcher" for the title of its 2007 English release of the video game,[27] and Danusia Stok used it in her translation of Ostatnie życzenie that was published the same year.[29][30] Michael Kandel however used "spellmaker" in his 2010 translation of "Wiedźmin" short story for A Book of Polish Monsters anthology.[31]
From 1993 to 1995, Sapkowski's stories were adapted into six comic books by Maciej Parowski (story), Bogusław Polch (art) and Sapkowski:[32]
In 2013, Dark Horse Comics announced a comic book series called The Witcher, based on the video-game series and made in collaboration with CD Projekt Red.[33]
Story Arc | Issue | Release Date | Story | Art | Colors | Cover |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
House of Glass | #1 | 19 March 2014 | Paul Tobin | Joe Querio | Carlos Badilla | Dan Panosian & Dave Johnson |
#2 | 23 April 2014 | Joe Querio | ||||
#3 | 21 May 2014 | |||||
#4 | 18 June 2014 | |||||
#5 | 16 July 2014 | |||||
Fox Children | #1 | 1 April 2015 | Paul Tobin | Joe Querio | Carlos Badilla | Joe Querio |
#2 | 6 May 2015 | |||||
#3 | 3 June 2015 | |||||
#4 | 1 July 2015 | |||||
#5 | 5 August 2015 | |||||
Killing Monsters (HC) | 19 May 2015 | Paul Tobin | Max Bertolini | Carlos Badilla | Joe Querio | |
Curse of Crows | #1 | 31 August 2016 | STORY: Paul Tobin with Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz & Karolina Stachyra DIALOGUE: Travis Currit |
Piotr Kowalski | Brad Simpson | Grzesiek Przybyś |
#2 | 5 October 2016 | |||||
#3 | 2 November 2016 | |||||
#4 | 7 December 2016 | |||||
#5 | 22 March 2017 | |||||
Of Flesh and Flame | #1 | 19 December 2018 | Aleksandra Motyka | Marianna Strychowska | ||
#2 | 23 January 2019 | |||||
#3 | 20 February 2019 | |||||
#4 | 3 April 2019 | |||||
Fading Memories | #1 | 25 November 2020 | Bartosz Sztybor | Amad Mir | Hamidreza Sheykh | Evan Cagle Jeremy Wilson (variants) |
#2 | 30 December 2020 | |||||
#3 | 27 January 2021 | |||||
#4 | 31 March 2021 | |||||
Witch's Lament | #1 | 26 May 2021 | Bartosz Sztybor | Vanesa del Rey | Jordie Bellaire | Vanesa del Rey Anato Finnstark (variant) |
#2 | TBD | TBD | ||||
#3 | TBD | TBD | ||||
#4 | TBD | TBD |
Title | Release Date | Collects | Cover | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Witcher – Volume 1: House of Glass[34] | 24 September 2014 |
|
Mike Mignola | 9781616554743 |
The Witcher – Volume 2: Fox Children[35] | 16 December 2015 |
|
Julián Totino Tedesco | 9781616557935 |
The Witcher – Volume 3: Curse of Crows[36] | 21 June 2017 |
|
Grzesiek Przybyś | 9781506701615 |
The Witcher – Library Edition Volume One[37] (hardcover) |
31 October 2018 |
|
Mike Mignola | 9781506706825 |
The Witcher – Omnibus Edition Volume One[38] (trade paperback) |
20 November 2019 | 9781506713946 | ||
The Witcher – Volume 4: Of Flesh and Flame[39] | 17 July 2019 |
|
Marianna Strychowska | 9781506711096 |
The Witcher – Volume 5: Fading Memories[40] | 28 July 2021 |
|
Evan Cagle | 9781506716572 |
The Witcher – Volume 6: Witch's Lament | 24 November 2021 |
|
Vanesa del Rey | 9781506722238 |
Main articles: The Hexer (film), The Hexer (TV series), and The Witcher (TV series) |
The Hexer is the title of a 2001 film and a 2002 TV series, both directed by Marek Brodzki. Michał Żebrowski played Geralt in both. In several interviews, Sapkowski criticized the screen adaptations: "I can answer only with a single word, an obscene, albeit a short one."[41]
As of 2021[update], Netflix has produced an adaptation of The Witcher and two adaptations are planned. All are created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.
In 2015, Platige Image planned an American film adaptation of the novel series to arrive in 2017.[42] In May 2017, they announced that they would be producing a The Witcher TV series in cooperation with Netflix and Sean Daniel Company, with Tomasz Bagiński as one of the directors and Sapkowski as a creative consultant.[43][44][45] Henry Cavill portrays Geralt in the Netflix adaptation.[46][47][48][49] On 10 October 2018, it was announced that Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra had been cast as main female characters, Ciri and Yennefer.[50] The first season was released on 20 December 2019, with all eight episodes available.[51] A second season was announced on 13 November 2019.[52]
Netflix announced a new animated film The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf in development in January 2020, with the involvement of series showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and series writer BeAu DeMayo, and animation to be provided by Studio Mir.[53]
A second live-action prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origins was announced by Netflix in July 2020, set 1200 years before Geralt's time to show the origin of the Witchers. The prequel is also being developed by Hissrich.[54]
Main article: The Witcher (video game series) |
In 2007, a video game developed by CD Projekt Red released a video game under the same name, called The Witcher. A sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was released in 2011 by the same team. The final game of the trilogy, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, was released in 2015.[55][56] All three of the games were received positively with Metacritic giving them an 81, an 88, and a 93 out of 100.[57][58][59] The games were extremely successful with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt selling more than 50 million copies.[60]
A tabletop role-playing game based on Sapkowski's books, Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni (The Witcher: A Game of Imagination) was published by MAG in 2001. Another tabletop game based on the video games, produced by R. Talsorian Games, was planned for release in 2016[61] but was delayed and finally released in August 2018.[62]
In 2007, Kuźnia Gier developed two card games based on CD Projekt's The Witcher video game. One, Wiedźmin: Przygodowa Gra Karciana (The Witcher: Adventure Cardgame), was published by Kuźnia Gier;[63] the other, Wiedźmin: Promocyjna Gra Karciana (The Witcher Promo Card Game) was added to the collector's edition of The Witcher in some countries.[64]
Main articles: Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales |
A card game, known as "Gwent", was included in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as an in-game activity. Two stand-alone games based on it, titled Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, were released in 2018.[65][66]
Main article: The Witcher Adventure Game |
CD Projekt Red and Fantasy Flight Games released The Witcher Adventure Game, a board game designed by Ignacy Trzewiczek,[67] in 2014[68] in physical and digital forms.[69] The digital version is available on Windows, OS X, Android and iOS.
A new board game, The Witcher: Old World, was announced in Feb 2021.[70] Designed by Łukasz Woźniak and produced by Go on Board in partnership with CD Projekt Red, the game is set prequel to the main video game series with deck building and role-playing elements. In May 2021, the game raised more than $3 million on Kickstarter and was planned to be shipped in June 2022.[71]