Ep. 15 — "Something More" with Lars from Witcherflix
Lars from Witcherflix joins Alyssa from GoodMorhen to discuss “Something More,” the closing short story in Andrzej Sapkowski’s Sword of Destiny. Very important bits include: visiting each of our old episodes to connect the narrative of destiny throughout the short stories; themes of love, death, parenthood, and abandonment; a fanfiction request for the Mousesack and Geralt Assassain v. Assassin Smackdown; and a bittersweet end-of-season sign off.
Breakfast in Beauclair will return on June 4, 2020 with Season 2 of the podcast, which will discuss the recently released Netflix series.
This episode is available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.
In this episode
[00:00] Cold Open
[00:00] Introduction
[00:00] Discussion
[00:00] “Tidings from Toussaint”
[00:00] Discussion
[00:00] Outro & Credits
Relevant Links
Link
Transcript
Cold Open
ALYSSA: This, like, doesn't feel real.
LARS: Oh, man.
ALYSSA: Wooh!
LARS: Well, the first part of the journey.
ALYSSA: Yeah. Just the beginning.
LARS: That's just the beginning. Right.
ALYSSA: “Something ends, something begins.”
LARS: Yeah, definitely. This is – this could be the subtitle of this episode.
Introduction
[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]
ALYSSA: Welcome to Breakfast in Beauclair, a global Witcher Podcast. My name is Alyssa from GoodMorhen, and I’ll be your host as you, I, and our international hanza accompany Geralt of Rivia and his destiny, Cirilla of Cintra, across The Continent.
[Season 1 Announcement]
Well… this is it! The close of Season 1 of Breakfast in Beauclair. Nearly a year ago, in March, was the first time I begrudgingly confided in someone, a little embarrassed that this podcast was even an idea in my mind. They gave me a little shove and encouragement to get started and it’s wild that a year later, here we are at the last episode of the season.
I want to extend a thank you to our guests for season one: Chris, Charlotte, Cyprian, Oleg, Jess, Crisanto, Anita, Karolina, Adi, Luisa, and, of course, Lars. They took a leap of faith with me by signing on to guest when this was still just an idea. Thank you for your patience, encouragement, and friendship. And thank you to you! Our international company of friends, our hanza. It’s been such a honor getting to meet you all and share this journey together. I can’t wait to see you all for Season 2 of the podcast, which will discuss the recently released Netflix series, kicking off on Thursday, June 4 with “The End’s Beginning.”
During this break between seasons, I’ll be celebrating my birthday this Saturday, February 29th, and then I’ll hop back into pre-production, recording, and editing for Seasons 2 and 3 of the podcast, compiling and shipping new patron merchandise, taking a family vacation with my parents, filling out our transcript backlog, nurturing the GoodMorhen account, making short-form video and audio content across social, and setting up for a really incredible second season.
[Patron Announcements]
We have new friends in the company to introduce in this episode! I’m excited to introduce Jenny of Ard Skellig, Steph, and Cynthia of Kovir who have become the newest patrons of the show.
Shout out to our producer-level patrons: Luis of Kovir, The Owner of The Churlish Porpoise, Arix the Godling, Katie (The Redhead of Toussaint), Jacob B., Mahakam Elder Joe, Julie, Sylvia of Skellige, Jamison, Ayvo of Gulet, Bee Haven of the Edge of the World, Jacob Meeks, and Sebastian von Novigrad.
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[Episode Details]
As for this episode, Lars from Witcherflix calls in from Berlin to close out Andrzej Sapkowski’s Sword of Destiny with the final short story “Something More.” This episode is special, because we revisit many previous episodes and short stories to connect the narrative of destiny between Geralt and his Child Surprise, which will serve as a foundation for the five-part saga to come.
In “Tidings from Toussaint,” Lars shares a ton of exciting casting and production news about Season 2 of Netflix’s The Witcher.
After the episode, head over to r/thehanza and jump into our community discussion of the episode with your thoughts, reactions to the episode, or bring up new themes and ideas that we didn’t cover.
Without further ado, let’s get to this episode’s short story, “Something More.”
Discussion
[Breakfast in Beauclair stinger by MojoFilter Media]
ALYSSA: Welcome to Breakfast in Beauclair. My name is Alyssa and returning for the final episode of the season is Lars, also known as WitcherFlix, from Germany. Hi, Lars.
LARS: Hello, everybody. Hey, Alyssa.
ALYSSA: Hi.
LARS: How are you doing?
ALYSSA: I'm good. So, we were actually supposed to record this episode in Berlin when I was there last weekend.
LARS: Correct.
ALYSSA: Umm, but we had a little too much fun.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: So, we were together from, I think, like, 2:00 in the afternoon until 10:00. And then we just looked at each other, and we're like, “We ran out of time.”
LARS: Right. You're right. There's so much to see in Berlin. And, well, I think you had some fun in Berlin. So, it was the right decision, I think
ALYSSA: So much fun. So, it was the two of us. It was my friend, your partner as well Cyprian. It was really lovely to be able to – as it always is, to, like, meet others in person and to actually, like, see this internet friendship in real life.
LARS: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it is always nice to show your talent to someone from another country.
ALYSSA: Cyprian, if you guys know, he was the guest on Episodes 3 and 4. He actually took the four of us around on, like, this walking tour of Berlin. And it was really, really lovely. He's just so knowledgeable. Was there anything on Cyprian’s little walking tour that surprised you that you didn't know about your own city?
LARS: Well, I'm not a Berlin native. So, there was a lot of things that were new to me too, because, well, I think we were in Berlin Mitte, which is the center of Berlin.
ALYSSA: Mhmm.
LARS: And I'm living in another district. And I'm not every day in Berlin Mitte. So, there was lots of things for me to see. Some squares, I haven't seen before. So, it was awesome. Hope you're returning soon, of course.
ALYSSA: Yeah, I would love too. I had a really, really good time.
LARS: And you did like the currywurst, right?
ALYSSA: The currywurst was fantastic. I would highly recommend that.
LARS: Yeah, absolutely. Everyone has – everyone has to eat a currywurst when you're in Berlin. Very important.
ALYSSA: So, now that we've established that I am here in New York, I am back, and Lars is in Berlin, we're gonna be discussing “Something More” today, which is the last short story in Andrezj Sapkowski’s Sword of Destiny. And this takes us to actually the end of the first season of Breakfast in Beauclair. This is it.
LARS: Yeah. It went by so fast, but it was so much fun listening and being on your podcast.
ALYSSA: Awww. I'm glad you are in every single episode.
LARS: Yeah. Right.
ALYSSA: So, I'm glad that you're still enjoying it after 15 episodes too.
LARS: Of course. Always.
ALYSSA: Something more is the final chapter in Sword of Destiny. And it really ties together a lot of the themes and plot points that we've seen both throughout The Last Wish as well as throughout Sword of Destiny. We've seen Geralt as a protagonist kind of grow and resist this idea of destiny. In Something More, we really see the culmination of that resistance.
LARS: Yeah. It's a short story where everything comes together in the end; all plotlines, all characters. And, well, yeah, it's the perfect foundation for what comes next, mainly, the five books in the main saga.
ALYSSA: Yeah. We've got a really long way to go after this.
LARS: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
ALYSSA: Still.
LARS: Many episodes of Breakfast in Beauclair to go.
ALYSSA: A lot.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: In Part I, the witcher encounters a merchant in the wilderness, Yurga, who refuses to leave his stuck wagon in the face of danger. As the sun sets, Yurga promises the witcher “whatever he comes across at home on his return, but does not expect” in exchange for his safety and that of his wares. The witcher defends the pair against a swarm of monsters on the bridge, saving the merchant at his own expense. So, the section that opens up the chapter is actually incredibly interesting to me, because we get to meet the Witcher in the point of view of a very, very minor character. And this has happened kind of a few times throughout some of the short stories, but I think not as complete and not as holistic as we get in this first section of Something More. And I think it's really fascinating, because we get to see Yurga kind of process everything about Geralt’s existence.
LARS: Yeah. It's likely getting into another perspective, especially a very interesting one because, well, he belongs to the small folk of the continent. Rarely in fantasy or in The Witcher, you get the perspective of the common people. And this is especially interesting when somebody really common, really normal, really regular meets Geralt, and we see his feelings and his thoughts about this menacing man, who appears right in front of him.
ALYSSA: It's very sudden, I think, for this poor merchant, Yurga, because he's in the middle of the wilderness, on this bridge in the middle of nowhere. And then, all of a sudden, Geralt rides up, and it's just like, “Hello.”
LARS: Yeah, Classic Geralt. Not really.
ALYSSA: Oh, yeah.
LARS: Okay.
ALYSSA: Like I said, we don't always see Geralt or even his fights from the perspective of someone who's just an average Joe. We really get to see the disparity of skill set of familiarity with the supernatural, because we're with Yurga for the entire fight. Basically, Geralt rides up. He's like, “What, what are you doing here? Why are you here? Don't you know how dangerous it is?” And Yurga just says back, he's like, “But I'm not gonna leave my stuff. This is a whole year's worth of work. I'm not leaving it behind.” And Geralt just kind of grumbles, and he's just like, “Fine. I'll, like, help you.”
LARS: That's really interesting. I think that, well, this whole chapter takes place on the bridge. You definitely get the feeling that Yurga is trapped between – I don't know – the dangers that lurk in the dark. And, now, there's this strange, dangerously-looking man coming straight to him. Very menacing feeling you get when you're reading this, especially because you have the perspective of Yurga.
ALYSSA: It does seem that, by asking for Geralt’s help, he is taking almost the lesser of two evils.
LARS: Yeah, absolutely.
ALYSSA: And there's this thing that happens when Geralt actually decides to help Yurga. And, again, this is taking the themes of The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny full circle. Yurga begs Geralt to save him and save his stuff. And he says, “I'll give you whatever you want, whatever you ask. Just save me.” Geralt stops and he says, “What did you say? You'll give me whatever I asked for. Say it again.” Yurga just gets very nervous, and he starts fantasizing about all these things that Geralt could ask for. Anything and everything. And he's like, “None of that is as bad as losing all of my work for a year.” So, he agrees to give the Witcher whatever he asks for. But then there's this very interesting moment where we see Geralt, again, from the perspective of Yurga. He says, “What am I doing? What the fuck am I doing? Well, so be it. I’ll try to get you out of this, though I don’t know that it won’t finish disastrously for us both. But if I succeed, in exchange you will… You will give me whatever you come across at home on your return, but did not expect. Do you swear?” It just says, “Yurga groaned and nodded quickly.”
LARS: It's the good old Law of Surprise all over again.
ALYSSA: It is. And this is not the first time that we have heard Geralt recite these words.
LARS: Nope.
ALYSSA: We were first introduced to the Law of Surprise in Episode 4, "A Question of Price,” which was with Cyprian. At that time, Duny had requested the Law of Surprise from Calanthe’s husband, which is why Pavetta became Duny's child of surprise. By the end of the chapter, Geralt had requested the Law of Surprise of Duny. Again, now, we see this all the way at the very end of the short story compilations with Geralt invoking the Law of Surprise onto Yurga. After Yurga accepts the Law of Surprise, Geralt takes elixir, and he fights the swarm of monsters.
LARS: It's the classic Sapkowski fight description. Lots of action. Lots of danger. Lots of, well, blood, of course. Well, what is very interesting in this fight is that Sapkowski never describes the monster he's fighting. He doesn't give these monsters a name. Well, as many of your listeners might know, I have an Instagram page. And I think this is one of the most frequently asked questions on my Instagram page. What monster is Geralt fighting in Something More? I have no actual idea. Well, do we have this description here somewhere?
ALYSSA: Yeah, I do have the description here.
LARS: Awesome.
ALYSSA: The monsters that Geralt fights are described as small, misshapen forms—less than four feet tall, horribly gaunt, like skeletons. They stepped onto the bridge with a peculiar, heron–like gait, feet high, making staccato, jerky movements as they lifted their bony knees. Their eyes, beneath flat, dirty foreheads, shone yellow, and pointed little fangs gleamed white in wide, frog-like maws. We hear that they're just very fast. And then one of them also has a hand, which is like a chicken's foot. And that's kind of the description that we get.
LARS: Yeah. Actually, it doesn't matter what monsters these exactly are, because, well, it's about Geralt fighting and not being so successful, I would say. You mentioned the fog, of course. Maybe you can tell from this that this might be foglets. We know them from the games. Or maybe, because of the height, maybe they might be nekkers. But, well, it's not that important, of course, to give these monsters names, much more important what actually happens during this fight.
ALYSSA: Yeah, and it's not pretty.
LARS: No, especially for Geralt.
ALYSSA: Geralt does fight these monsters. Ultimately, they pull him off the bridge, which is where he finishes the fight. For a very long time, Yurga just hears the sound of like a massacre going on and then just silence. Eventually, Geralt makes his way back onto the bridge. He's walking with a limp. He's clearly injured, kind of out of it, and he just collapses on the bridge.
LARS: Except maybe for the Striga fight in the very first short story, it might be one of the few occasions where Geralt is – well, actually kind of defeated by the monsters his fighting.
ALYSSA: And we'll see Geralt coping with this injury for the rest of the chapter.
LARS: Yeah, right.
ALYSSA: In Part II, we see the aftermath of the fight. Yurga and his servants desperately attempt to care for the unconscious witcher and seek medical aid. Geralt suffers from heavy blood loss and only utters a single name; Yennefer. In Part III, Geralt falls into a fitful sleep and dreams of a night at Beltane with Yennefer.
LARS: This is, I think, a meeting lots of readers have been looking forward to since A Shard of Ice. Well, it starts again of course with Geralt drifting in and out of consciousness before we actually see Yennefer in a flashback or in a dream.
ALYSSA: He's definitely hallucinating, I think.
LARS: Absolutely. Yeah, I think so too. It's not only a dream. It must be a mixture of blood loss and the elixirs maybe he was – he had been taking.
ALYSSA: Yeah. I mean Geralt wakes up on Yurga’s cart, takes a potion, eventually falls back asleep. And, as Lars said, this is where we get this huge flashback sequence. Beltane is also known as May Day Eve. Do you have more information about this? Because I only know a little bit.
LARS: Yes. In fact, I've looked something up, because, Beltane, the festivities surrounding them are quite popular in Germany. I don't know if it's the case in Eastern or Central European countries, but I think I would say so. Well, Beltane is Celtic organic work. And it's the classic May Day festival with bonfires all over the place. The purpose of these festivities is to scare away the winter, and to welcome summer and spring. Well, it's the night from April 13 to May the 1st. And, in Germany, we have something called Tanz in den Mai, well, roughly translated Dance into the Month of May. Well, this means that you will go dancing, have a party, have a good time and stuff like that, of course. And, well, these festivities linked to something called “the Walpurgisnacht.” Have you heard about that? I don't know if this is something you've heard about outside of Germany.
ALYSSA: No, but maybe I should take a trip back to Germany.
LARS: Yeah, of course. When I was a child, I was always kind of scared about Walpurgisnacht, because this is the day when witches and demons meet.
ALYSSA: Oh, sick.
LARS: Yeah. It is said that they meet on the Brocken Mountain, which is right in the center of Germany in the Harz Mountains and where the witchers meet, the demons meet. They have orgies, celebrate the devil, and dance like crazy, and have parties. And, well, they do all this stuff. This is definitely not suitable for people under 18. So, so, you have to watch out around this time in Germany. Of course, during this time, we also have these bonfires and big fires all around the places, where you have a drink and meet each other. Well, we also have a thing called Maibaum, which translates to May tree or Maypole. Especially in the rural parts of Germany, you find May trees, which are erected at the town square, at the market square. And, on the 1st of May, people are dancing around this pole or this tree. And there are processions and bands playing music and, of course, drinking beer and eating sausages, you know, like the cliché German stuff. And, after that, well, this so-called Dance in the May, dance into the month of May starts. You know, there's lots of festivities in Germany around this time of the year. So, when I read this story, I knew what Sapkowski was talking about, because I've actually been to a festival like that before.
ALYSSA: I mean, I know that you said some things to try to curb me from going, but the more you say, the more I want to go.
LARS: Oh, yeah. But you only have to be wary of the witches.
ALYSSA: Okay. Noted.
LARS: But the rest – yeah. The rest sounds awesome.
ALYSSA: I'll keep that in mind. I'll book my ticket, and I'll keep that in.
LARS: Absolutely. Yeah. But it's interesting to see Geralt in a setting like this, which, at least within the context of The Witcher worlds and lore, represents, I think, as you also said, spring, nature, the renewal of change, the coming of seasons, fertility, all that fun stuff that you associate with spring. In the very beginning, Geralt doesn't really know why he's there. He's just like, “Well, why not? Why shouldn't I be here? Why can't I enjoy myself?” And then that kind of comes to a halt when he sees Yennefer.
LARS: Mhmm. Of course, what can you expect?
ALYSSA: And we do know that this is a bit of time since they last saw each other. According to Geralt, one year, two months, and 18 days. And, for the rest of the section that follows, it just becomes this very interesting portrait of Geralt’s and Yennefer’s relationship in, I guess, one of their, “off periods.” Presumably, the last time that they saw each other, it was either A Shard of Ice or another point in time that just didn't really go very well. And they're meeting again, unexpectedly. This is such a heavy section for the two of them, because you kind of see them almost fossilized in age, but being kind of surrounded by this night of revelry and fleetingness. And there's like this very stark contrast between how the world moves around them. And then the stagnant place within it.
LARS: Yeah. I think this is what makes this chapter so interesting, because of this juxtaposition. Is this the word?
ALYSSA: Mhmm.
LARS: I don't know.
ALYSSA: Yes. That is a – that is a perfect word.
LARS: Okay. Because of this juxtaposition of the – Yeah, as you said, the festivities, the drunk people, the joy, the happiness, and then you have this stern and serious conversation between Geralt and Yennefer that just summarizes this story perfectly. Even in later books, you could put this chapter or parts of this chapter, and it would perfectly fit in.
ALYSSA: This entire chapter is from Geralt’s point of view. We do get a lot more dialogue from Yennefer. I think, as you said, like it summarizes the complex nature of the relationship. We get to see how their dynamic works. So, for example, like, she has a tendency to read his mind. Geralt says, “She needs to make an effort to do it.” But, in the dialogue, she says, “Sorry, it's automatic. I can't help it.” So, we, as a reader, don't really know what's true and what's not. I think we'll never really understand the true dynamic between them. We see here the recurrence of the theme from The Bounds of Reason where Yennefer was desperately in want of a child.
LARS: Yeah. It all comes together. The themes from the short stories come together in Something More. Yeah. I think, especially in this chapter, the dialogue feels very realistic because we only have these short answers and short questions. It kind of describes the state of the relationship a bit. I, at least, got the feeling that they have to tell each other a lot of different things. But, on the other hand, they, they just can. They go back and ask very short questions with very short answers. And it's very, as I said, realistic. And this is what makes Geralt’s and Yennefer’s relationships so interesting.
ALYSSA: Yeah. I mean, as we saw, even at “A Shard of Ice” with Charlotte, their relationship just ends up being this huge dance of authenticity, half-truths, words said, and words overheard in someone else's mind. It's a very complex dynamic. You know, comparatively, normal human relationships are simple, because you get what's said and you get what's unsaid. But, here, there's still levels of, like, the independence that they have, their place in society, their questionable open relationship. And these are people who – they have a much longer lifespan than everyone around them. So, this dynamic can play out in a hundred different permutations for however long that they really want it to.
LARS: Yeah. They have experienced much more than us as regular persons with a regular lifespan. And, of course, if you experience lots of things, you get much deeper, much more complicated, much more layered. And this is reflected here again. Of course, these aren't regular people, Yennefer and Geralt. And, of course, their relationship isn't regular.
ALYSSA: After they make love, Yennefer asks Geralt if he remembers their time in the mountains with Borch also known as “Three Jackdaws.” This is recounting “The Bounds of Reason”, which was Episodes 8 and 9 with Anita and Karolina. And Yennefer recounts what Borch said to them at the very end of the chapter. She says:
[Reading] “We’re made for each other. Perhaps we’re destined for each other? But nothing will come of it. It’s a pity, but when dawn breaks, we shall part. It cannot be any other way. We have to part so as not to hurt one another. We two, destined for each other. Created for each other. Pity. The ones who created us for each other ought to have made more of an effort. Destiny alone is insufficient, it’s too little. Something more is needed. Forgive me. I had to tell you.”
ALYSSA: And this is where you first get the idea that destiny alone isn't sufficient and something more is needed. We actually get it from Yennefer. And it does seem like Geralt ponders over and obsesses over this idea, because it carries us throughout the entire rest of the chapter.
LARS: Well, it's, at least, what Geralt remembers Yennefer saying. I don't know. Maybe, at this point, he's in trance. He’s dreaming. Is he an unreliable narrator at this point maybe?
ALYSSA: But that's a good point, though. We actually don't know if this is a event-by-event flashback or if this is somehow a convoluted, unreliable dream.
LARS: Well, of course, he's dreaming exactly about the part that's important to him at the moment. Of course, you can argue, yeah, it's a book. It has to be the part that is important for the story. As you said, Something More, this is the most important phrase in the short story. Yeah. I think, at this point, we haven't heard Yennefer talk about destiny before, right?
ALYSSA: No. And it's interesting that you bring up this idea of an unreliable narrator, because, at the very end, we get this very curious exchange between Geralt and Yennefer. And she begged him to ride to Cintra to claim his destiny. He's like, “Wait. How do you know about this?” And she just says, “I know everything about you.” And it seems very weird when you're actually—
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: —reading it.
LARS: This is what I was thinking too. Of course, you could assume she was reading his mind again. And, when reading his mind, she would have stumbled upon the name Ciri and Cintra. But, well, it comes from nowhere, actually.
ALYSSA: Yeah. I also wonder if this was, let's say, a literal flashback and this really did happen the way that it's described. If she's just familiar with other courts, for example, given her position in Aedirn or if it really just is that he's not a reliable narrator. I didn't really put that specific thought to the chapter, but it just felt off to me.
LARS: Mhmm.
ALYSSA: But she does say, “Ride to Cintra, go there as fast as you can. Fell times are approaching, Geralt. Very fell. You cannot be late…” I don't know if this conversation is going to jump the gun. But, when Yennefer specifically says that destiny alone for them is insufficient and that something more is needed, how do you interpret that in the context of the relationship?
LARS: You're wondering what is this something more when it comes to the relationship. What is it? Maybe she only says that you need something more as an excuse for never wanting to be together with him, while knowing at the same time, that there can’t be something more.
ALYSSA: You know, specifically between Geralt and Yennefer, my assumption was that it kind of came down to the idea of choice. Relationships need work. And they need effort. You can't rely on destiny or however else you would describe it; fate, or just passion, or lust. There has to be the effort, and the decision, and the conscious decision to choose that person every day.
LARS: Mhmm.
ALYSSA: That's on my Hinge profile.
LARS: What?
ALYSSA: Actually, it’s totally on my Hinge profile. At least in my understanding and colored by my own experiences, something more for Yennefer and Geralt is in the choice.
LARS: Both of them are, in their ways, loners, lone wolves. No pun intended, of course. When you're a loner, it's very hard to let somebody else into your life even though maybe you love him, even though you maybe want to stay with him. But this is very tough for both of them, even though there's the sparks. The sparks, they will always be flying when they meet each other. I think it's this classical story of they definitely want to, but they can't. They just can't.
ALYSSA: The end of this conversation about destiny isn't enough for us and then also her plea for Geralt to ride to Cintra closed at the end of the section. In Part IV, Geralt dreams of his final visit to Cintra, six years after Pavetta’s banquet, as promised, to collect his Child Surprise. When the section first opens up, Geralt enters Cintra. There's a bunch of children playing around, and he's with Mousesack. He's trying to figure out if Pavetta’s child is amongst the children. And Mousesack can't say, because Calanthe won't let him. We hear a little bit about what happened in the last six years since the banquet. The biggest thing, unfortunately, is that Pavetta and Duny have died. Pavetta and Duny had gone out to sea, and there had been a massive storm. None of their ship was found. Since then, it's just been Pavetta’s child and Calanthe. There's this really interesting thing that happened in the translation to English. So, for everyone who’s reading an English copy of the book, this note is for you. When Mousesack and Geralt start talking. Geralt tries to figure out which of the children in the moat playing is Pavetta’s child. Mousesack says he can't say. And Mousesack says, “When the child was born six years ago, she summoned me and ordered me to cheat you. And kill [you].” And Geralt says, “You refused.” Mousesack says, “No one refuses Calanthe. I was prepared to take to the road when she summoned me once again. She retracted the order, without a word of explanation. Be cautious when you talk to her.” And, in the English translation, it actually says, “When the child was born six years ago, she summoned me and ordered me to cheat you and kill it.” “And kill the child,” which is incorrect.
LARS: Hopefully.
ALYSSA: Yeah. Calanthe wasn't prepared to kill her own grandchild just to spite Geralt. She wanted Mousesack to kill Geralt to avoid giving the child away. It's a very big difference.
LARS: Yeah, absolutely. This would make for a totally different story and would turn Calanthe's character upside down. Luckily, it's not like that. And, luckily, for Geralt, Mousesack didn't go through with it.
ALYSSA: But it's interesting to note that he was prepared to.
LARS: Yeah, he would have done it. Yeah, interesting.
ALYSSA: I wonder what that would have looked like had Mousesack and Geralt actually met in that manner. Would it have been conniving and cheating if Mousesack had just killed him or whether he had, like, confronted Geralt and been like, “I'm here, because I was told to kill you. I'm gonna do my best to.” Aaah.
LARS: This wouldn't make for a perfect short story.
ALYSSA: Oh, god. I'm sure there's someone out there in the fandom listening that will be happy to write up a bit of fanfiction.
LARS: We need this fanfiction. Yeah, right.
ALYSSA: I feel like I should compile all of the fanfiction requests across the episode.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: We have quite a few that have, like, come up throughout the short story.
LARS: There's so much not happening in these short stories that we actually have to see at one point. It's interesting, because Mousesack, as a druid, as somebody who's very close to nature, somehow personifies the old ways. And the Law of Surprise definitely belongs to the old ways. So, of course, he's in favor of it, I would say. He doesn't want to get in its way.
ALYSSA: And we've heard that from Mousesack before.
LARS: Yeah, of course.
ALYSSA: I think, in the short story that preceded this in A Sword of Destiny, Mousesack said that at the very end when he and Geralt had met. Eventually, Mousesack brings Geralt to Calanthe. Geralt notes that Calanthe is, obviously, a little older, has put on some weight since Pavetta’s death, which is totally an unnecessary note. Thank you, Geralt.
LARS: Yeah. Yes.
ALYSSA: He's like her rings fit a little tighter, and it's like dope. Thank you.
LARS: Yeah. Mhmm.
ALYSSA: Calanthe is understandably, I think, very hostile to Geralt, because she's under the assumption that Geralt is preparing to take away her grandchild. She both praises and chastises Geralt for being so punctual to the six years that he promised at Pavetta’s banquet. She apparently had done her research about what, you know, young children go through in order to become witchers through the Trial of the Grasses. She goes through this whole thing fantasizing about how future poets and storytellers will talk about their meeting of the evil witcher and the begging queen. And it goes through like this whole charade. And, eventually, Geralt’s like, “If you don't want me to take the child, I won't take the child.” It's a very interesting conversation between the two of them.
LARS: Yeah. It's one of my favorites back and forth in the short story. When reading this and, of course, when reading the dialogue in A Question of Price, you definitely get the feeling that Calanthe and Geralt are very alike. When it comes to the attitude towards life and, of course, towards destiny or the law of surprise, they're very much alike. And this is why, even though, of course, she's hostile at the moment towards Geralt, I think she deeply respects him for what he is, not as a witch but as a person, I think.
ALYSSA: Yeah. I think their dynamic is absolutely fantastic.
LARS: Yes.
ALYSSA: And, you know, we did see it in “A Question of Price”. And Calanthe is very clever. We got to see that during “A Question of Price” when Duny said, “I can't take off my helmet before midnight.” So, she had a servant ring the bell to announce midnight an hour early so he had to take off his helmet then. And we see this cleverness again here in this short story, “Something More”, in which Geralt saw the 10 children down in the moat. And Calanthe says, “If you really believe in destiny and if destiny exists, you'll have one chance to choose the child that's meant for you. And you're going to take that child.” It's putting him to a test. And I think it is a very clever test on Calanthe’s part. There's nine boys in the moat and one girl, but a one in 10 chance of picking the right child. Geralt says, “How am I supposed to know which one is Pavetta’s son?” And he doesn't. He has no idea which one is Pavetta’s son. He takes a shot in the dark, bets that Pavetta’s son isn't amongst the children in the moat. And then Calanthe admits that Pavetta’s son is not. They have a less hostile conversation. It's less about this queen and this witcher, and more about, you know, two people trying to understand destiny, which is a huge abstract concept to try to unpack. Geralt kind of admits that, you know, it doesn't matter if the child is one of destiny or not. Ultimately, it's the Trial of the Grasses that decides, and the physical changes that decide who ends up being a witcher and who dies. Calanthe is like, “Well, why do you bother forcing an oath like that onto people? Why do they create witchers out of this, like, grief of parenthood?” I don't know. Calanthe tries to challenge Geralt and asking like, “Why do you want a child surprise if there's no use to have one?” We have this really excellent quote from her here where she says,:
[Reading] “Let’s ponder on the reason for your silence. Logic is the mother of all knowledge. And what does she hint at? What do we have here? A witcher searching for destiny concealed in the strange and doubtful Law of Surprise. The witcher finds his destiny. And suddenly gives it up. He claims not to want the Child of Destiny. His face is stony; ice and metal in his voice. He judges that a queen–a woman when all’s said and done–may be tricked, deceived by the appearances of hard maleness. No, Geralt, I shall not spare you. I know why you are declining the choice of a child. You are quitting because you do not believe in destiny. Because you are not certain. And you, when you are not certain… you begin to fear. Yes, Geralt. What leads you is fear. You are afraid. Deny that.”
ALYSSA: The prose reads:
[Reading] He slowly put the goblet down on the table. Slowly, so that the clink of silver against malachite would not betray the uncontrollable shaking of his hand.
ALYSSA: Calanthe says, “You do not deny it?” And Geralt says, “No.”
LARS: Well, yeah, she reads him like a book.
ALYSSA: Yeah. She scares him.
LARS: Yeah, of course.
ALYSSA: She reads through into his fear. Like, he, he doesn't want to believe in destiny. And I think it's very much the kind of thing – well, you know, if you believe in destiny, then, then what? Like, is this an idea of fatalism? Is this an idea that everything within your life is outside of your control? What is he subscribing to when he just says, “Yes, I believe in destiny or says No, I don't?”
LARS: What I also find very interesting, in this chapter, especially at the beginning, she chooses to use fairytale as a metaphor for all these things that are playing out between her and Geralt and of destiny. It's – well, it's one of the biggest themes in the books; these fairytales gone bad or fairytales turn around. And it's very interesting that Calanthe does actually something similar in this dialogue like Sapkowski himself. She tells the story, the classic fairytale story between a witcher demanding his child of surprise, while, at the same time, maybe knowing that this won't play out like this. And, of course, Geralt says, “No, this won't play out like this because life is not a fairytale.” Of course, Geralt’s opinion of life being a fairytale is, of course, similar to his opinion of destiny as a higher concept. This doesn't have any place in the world – at least, in Garrett's world.
ALYSSA: Calanthe proposes the way that poets will sing of, like, the legend of Calanthe and Geralt. And Geralt’s like, “Umm, I don't know about that.”
LARS: Yes.
ALYSSA: And he, he renounces that. In his renouncing of the child, there is a lot of fear from Geralt and also fear from Calanthe. This isn't an arbitrary decision, I think, for both of them. I think it's one of those things where he's afraid to know and afraid to not know at the same time.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: You know – and Calanthe kind of turns around after Geralt renounces the child. She asks him, “Do you believe a child of destiny would pass through the Trials without danger? And Geralt says, “We believe such a child would not require the Trials.” And this quote ends up being rather important through the rest of the saga. And she says, “Is only the Trial of the Grasses hazardous? Do only potential witchers take risks? Life is full of hazards, selection also occurs in life, Geralt. Misfortune, sicknesses and wars also select. Defying destiny may be just as hazardous as succumbing to it. Geralt… I would give you the child. But… I’m afraid, too.” So, we kind of see them both being equally vulnerable with each other, which I think we saw a little bit in A Question of Price, but not nearly as much as we're seeing now. And I guess you wonder – I think Cyprian did bring this up in A Question of Price. But, like, how does this law actually work?
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: Like, does Geralt actually have a right to the child? Is it Calanthe’s right to say no? And this ends up being very similar to what we saw in A Question of Price, where it’s the child's decision as to whether or not they fulfill their destiny. And everyone else is just a player. But, even here, you have Calanthe and Geralt deciding the fate of this child for it. Toward the close to the chapter, Geralt and Calanthe, again, level with each other. And Geralt says, “For if destiny isn’t a myth, I would have to choose the appropriate child among the ones you have shown me. But is Pavetta’s child among those children?” Calanthe says, “Yes. Would you like to see it? Would you like to gaze into the eyes of destiny?” And Geralt says, “No. No, I don’t. I quit, I renounce it. I renounce my right to the boy. I don’t want to look destiny in the eyes, because I don’t believe in it. Because I know that in order to unite two people, destiny is insufficient. Something more is necessary than destiny. I sneer at such destiny; I won’t follow it like a blind man being led by the hand, uncomprehending and naive. This is my irrevocable decision, O Calanthe of Cintra.” The Queen stood up. She smiled. He was unable to guess what lay behind her smile. “‘Let it be thus, Geralt of Rivia. Perhaps your destiny was precisely to renounce it and quit? I think that’s exactly what it was. For you should know that if you had chosen, chosen correctly, you would see that the destiny you mock has been sneering at you.” You know, we, as readers and Calanthe, also know why this is fucking funny.
LARS: It is.
ALYSSA: Geralt assumes that destiny, you know, as a witcher himself, has given him a boy. And he says that repeatedly throughout the chapter, “The boy, the boy, the boy.” But we learn, in Sword of Destiny, the chapter that precedes this, that Pavetta and Duny’s child is indeed a girl. Cirilla of Sintra, who Geralt, eventually, meets in Brokilon.
LARS: Yeah, this is the matter of timeline. This chapter actually dates back to before this short story, Sword of Destiny. To be honest, when I read this whole short story for the first time, it confused me quite a bit, the whole timeline.
ALYSSA: And you're gonna break that down for us right at the end.
LARS: Yeah, at the end. Spoiler alert.
ALYSSA: Okay. Yeah. So, stick around for the end of the chapter when Lars breaks down the whole timeline for us
LARS: Spoiler alert, it even gets more complicated.
ALYSSA: Lovely.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: So, that kind of summarizes Geralt’s first visit back to Cintra after Pavetta’s banquet. And, to Part V, Geralt wakes in the care of a healer, Visenna, who he recognizes as his mother. So, this is not a flashback. This is not a dream. Geralt wakes up, and he's being cared for by a sorceress that Yurga and his men were able to find to care for Geralt. Geralt’s mother does come up in this previous conversation with Calanthe when Calanthe is kind of learning more about witchers from Geralt. They had a conversation about, “If you're looking for a child, why don't you just create one? And then it'll have your own traits and predisposition toward the Trial of the Grasses. And Geralt says, “Well, I can't. I'm sterile.” We do learn in his conversation with Calanthe that Geralt’s mother was a sorceress. And we finally meet her here and so does Geralt for the first time since their separation.
LARS: Yeah. When I first read this chapter, I got the impression of her as an – I don't know – otherworldly being, some angel-like creature who comes out of nowhere and heals Geralt and disappears again. Even though, as you said before, this isn't a dream anymore. And we're back into action with Yurga in the background. You get the feeling this is still a dreamlike sequence. Yeah. She's only there for a few moments when he's awake at least, and she disappears.
ALYSSA: Geralt’s relationship with his mother is very complex. He told Calanthe that he was just a foundling. That, despite what Mousesack had said during A Question of Price, he was not a childhood of destiny himself. You know, the conversation between Visenna and Geralt, Geralt’s understandably angry, but also, I think, has a lot of adrenalin despite how souped up he is on drugs. You know, this is his mother. This is someone who he struggles to remember but knows of. He recognizes her from just the color of her hair, which is described as fiery red. Like, it's interesting in, in his conversation with her, because he almost seems to lose control a little bit. And it seems that, you know, he wants not necessarily to hurt her, but he tells her things. Like, how do my eyes look? Do you know what they do to get eyes to look like this? Visenna refers to him as Geralt. He’s like, “Geralt. Vesemir gave me that name. Like, nothing about who I am came from you.” And it turns out, well, one, that's wrong. It turns out Visenna gave him the name, Geralt. I think we might have learned this in The Voice of Reason in Episode 7. Geralt does say that he learned to imitate a Rivian accent, because Vesemir gave him the name Geralt of Rivia. It seems like he has a lot of resentment toward Visenna in this moment. And this is the only time that he met her.
LARS: I think it’s very interesting that, of course, he mentions Vesemir several times at this point. He was kind of a substitute father to him. And Vesemir gave him, as a substitute father, what Visenna didn't give him. You definitely get the feeling that Geralt is much, much closer to Vesemir than he will ever be to Visenna. And this is, of course, because Visenna just gave him away.
ALYSSA: I think we have some interesting juxtapositions here, where we see almost the outcome of a child that was given away. We see Geralt given away by Visenna. We also see, in one of the previous sections, Yennefer, who is also a sorceress, but who desperately wants a child. And then we see Geralt, who has a child, who has some child existing in the world, but he keeps punting her off and, like, brushing her away. It's very interesting to see the shades of parenthood across Visenna, Yennefer, Geralt, and Vesemir even. Like, just even hearing about Vesemir, secondhand, you know what that looks like and also how it manifests for the parent and for the child. It's not easy. It's not straightforward.
LARS: Yeah. And, in the end of this chapter, when Visenna vanishes again, she says something to Geralt like, “You’ll fall asleep again. And, when you awake, I will be gone.” And, when reading this short paragraph, I got the impression that this disappearance is very, very close to their farewell when Geralt was little and when she gave him away to Vesemir. Maybe, it's played out in a very, very similar.
ALYSSA: That's really sad to think about.
LARS: Yeah, definitely. A very, very depressive chapter.
ALYSSA: I mean because we really have no idea how old Geralt would have been when he fell into Vesemir’s care, but he must have been anywhere from like six to maybe 12.
LARS: Yeah, right.
ALYSSA: I wouldn't imagine he would have been older than that.
LARS: Absolutely.
ALYSSA: I mean we see here, you know, Geralt having a ton of resentment for his mother who gave him up. And we've seen him, now, twice, renounce his child of surprise. Chronologically, first, with Calanthe in that six years after Pavetta’s banquet and then, second, during the Sword of Destiny when he ran away from Ciri after their time in Brokilon. You know, it kind of makes you wonder about the feelings of being unwanted and how that kind of manifests, how trauma makes itself known in adulthood. I think it's interesting to see, in contrast, his relationship with his child of surprise and Visenna and Vesemir’s relationship with him. At the end of the chapter, Geralt insists on seeing Visenna in the daylight and looking at her and asking her a question. This is where she says, “You'll never get the chance. I'll already be gone.” And, before the Witcher wakes, we're going to hand it over to Lars in the future—
LARS: Oh, it’s me. I'm from the future.
ALYSSA: —for recent news on the Netflix show. And, when we come back, Present Lars and I will continue our discussion of “Something More.”
“Tidings from Toussaint”
[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by Bettina Campomanes]
LARS FROM WITCHERFLIX: Hey, it's Lars from Witcherflix and this is “Tidings from Toussaint.” There is a lot to report this week, so let's jump right into it.
At first let's look back on Season 1: In an interview with PureFandom.com showrunner Lauren Hissrich talked about two scenes that got deleted in season 1: "We had a lovely scene in Episode 103 where Yennefer, Fringilla, and Sabrina all discussed how they felt about their transformations, and looking back, I wish we could have kept it. It was such a gorgeous example of female friendship, and it also would have served to ground Fringilla a bit more before she joined Nilfgaard. We also filmed a scene of Yen meeting a very young Triss, who’d just arrived at Aretuza; it served to show how far Yennefer had come in her years at Aretuza, and created a sense of mentorship between these two sorceresses. Looking ahead at some stories unfolding in season two, I wish we still had those scenes! But I’m proud of what we accomplished in the time we had." Maybe we will be lucky and the scenes will see the light of day one day.
Let's look into the future now: The much anticipated animated Witcher film "The Witcher - Nightmare of the Wolf" that will be released on Netflix in between seasons has its first synopsis: "Long before mentoring Geralt, Vesemir begins his own journey as a witcher after the mysterious Deglan claims him through the Law of Surprise". So we have our protagonist for the movie: It's Vesemir. I think this is very good news, I'm looking forward to see young Vesemir in action and see what he was up to in his youth.
The filming for season 2 of the Witcher has finally started! We know that Henry Cavill has already filmed and trained together with his horses, Ciri has posted her beautiful Roman-Style sword on Instagram and Anya Chalotra has already appeared on forest sets. We also know some new actors and roles for season 2. And there are definitely some fan favorites among them.
Paul Bullion (known for Peaky Blinders and The Bastard Executioner) will play our beloved witcher Lambert. Coen, a witcher from Kovir will be played by Yasen Atour, an actor known for roles in movies like "Robin Hood" or "Ben Hur". Danish actor Thue Ersted Rasmussen will play Eskel. Now only an actor for Vesemir is missing. Arguably the biggest casting is Kristofer Hivju, who played Tormund Giantsbane on Game of Thrones. He will play Nivellen, the cursed man form the short story "A Grain of Truth". Other actors include Agnes Born as Vereena, a powerful bruxa from the same short story, Aisha Fabienne Ross as the sorceress and Vilgefortz's assisstant Lydia van Bredevoort and British model and actress Mecia Simson as the elven sorceress Francesca Findabair. According to a list released by RedanianIntelligence we also know that several new characters more will appear in season 2. Among them are book characters like Vesemir, the mage Rience, the legendary elven healer Ithlinne and Redanian spymaster Sigismund Dijkstra. On this list there are also characters that have been created for the show: For example a character named "Gary" the younger brother of Francesca Findabair, "Vanessa-Marie" (a demon with the looks of an old woman) or Violet, a sadistic and smart girl. We will see what this characteres will be like. In a statement to The Wrap Lauren Hissrich already commented on the new castings. She said: “The reaction to season one of The Witcher set a high bar for adding new talent for the second season. Sophie Holland and her casting team have once again found the very best people to embody these characters, and in the hands of these accomplished directors, we’re excited to see these new stories come to life.”
Beside these new characters a lot of old ones will of course return. Obviously Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri will return as leads, but we will also see again the sorceresses Tissaia de Vries, Sabrina Glevissig, Triss Merigold or Fringilla Vigo, as well as the mages Vilgefortz, Stregobor, Istredd or Artorius Vigo and the elves Dara and Filavandrel.
In a podcast named Writer experience Lauren S. Hissrich talked about season 2: "Season two is exciting. It’s a chance to look at the mistakes we’ve made in season one and do it better, tell stories better, improve some things, look at what didn’t work, get rid of it and start over. The Nilfgaard armor will be totally different. You have that opportunity [with season two] to go back and course-correct if you want to.” In the same podcast Lauren Hissrich talks about her filming plans: "We are shooting [season two] for about 125 days, however that breaks down. So we go for about five and a half months, depending, give or take. Season one was much longer. It took much longer for us to do, but we feel for season two that we’ve got things a little more under control.”
In addition all four directors for season 2 have been revealed by now. Everyone of them will likely direct 2 episodes, similar to season 1. These are the four directors: Stephen Surjik (who worked on Daredevil or The Umbrella Academy), Ed Bazalgette (known for The Last Kingdom and Doctor Who), Sarah O’Gorman (whose work includes Jamestown and Cursed) and last but not least Geeta Patel (known for Meet the Patels and The Runaways).
According to RedanianIntelligence we also know a little bit about what will happen in season 2: Beside the adaptation of A Grain of Truth and Kaer Morhen as one of the settings we also learned that a well-known (and loved) monster will make its appearance in season 2: A leshy or leshen will appear in an episode and "its encounter with one of the characters will have serious consequences". A leshen is a forest monster appearing in the game "The Witcher 3". It is also mentioned several times in the books.
Anyway guys, that's it for me for this season. What a ride it was! I hope to hear from all of you soon in the next episode of Breakfast in Beauclair. Until then, thanks again for listening and good luck on the path!
[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by Bettina Campomanes]
Discussion
ALYSSA: Hey everyone! Welcome back from the break. I’m here with Lars discussing “Something More” from Andrzej Sapkowski’s Sword of Destiny. When we left off, Geralt saved a merchant, Yurga, and his wagon in the wilderness. Weak and feverish after sustaining injuries, Geralt dreamt of previous encounters with Yennefer and Calanthe before coming under the care of his biological mother, the sorceress Visenna. In Part VII, back on the road, Yurga recounts the second Battle of Sodden and the fourteen sorcerers who died on the Hill defending the Northern Kingdoms. Yurga just gives, like, the SparkNotes version of what happened during the second Battle of Sodden Hill. During the Battle of Sodden, there were 22 sorcerers who fought from the Northern Kingdoms as well as, you know, anyone from, you know, soldiers, noblemen, and peasants who fought against Nilfgaard and under the 22 sorcerers, 14 died. And Yurga actually says that the people of this area have a lot of gratitude for sorcerers in general, because of their place at Sodden Hill. He mentioned, “It’s no feat for a soldier to fall, for that is his trade, after all, and life is short anyhow. But the sorcerers could have lived, as long they wished. And they didn’t waver.” You know, we just spoke about Beltane and how fleeting the human life can be. They took up their place in this battle.
LARS: Yeah. But maybe they also knew, at the same time, that, when this got conquered, the North, their ways of life would change. Well, they don't really know what – when Nilfgaard reigns into Temeria or Redania, what would happen to the sorceress and mages and their importance and their influence at court? Well, Nilfgaard would never let a sorcerer have a say in their political decisions. Of course, the sorceress and mages aren’t unnecessarily fighting for death, but they are fighting for importance and influence.
ALYSSA: We, as readers, don't really know too much about Nilfgaard at this point in the world, but we do hear kind of repeatedly, throughout the short stories, the brutality of Nilfgaard. And we'll hear a lot more about that in later sections of Something More, but it is absolutely brutal, the way that warfare is conducted between the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard. The Battle of Sodden Hill, although we never see it in the books, we hear about it through flashbacks. We hear about it through secondhand tellings of either people who were there or, you know, people like Yurga. It does seem to scar the landscape and the people very much.
LARS: Yeah, it's one of the decisive events in the history of the Northern Kingdoms.
ALYSSA: And it's grave enough that Geralt himself kind of bemoans the fact that he wasn't there. He didn't really know about it supposedly. The Battle of Sodden happened a year before the events of Something More. You know, Yurga says, “You must have heard about it. It happened a year ago. It was one the biggest battles.” And Geralt was like, “I was in the north.” And it almost seems like he feels that he should have been there somehow. And the reason why is because he believes that Yennefer was there. And not only that she was there, but that she died. And this is something that haunts him for this section and the following one. At the end, we learn how much of an impact the Battle of Sodden had kind of on the local population. And Yurga says, “Every child of ours knows the names of the fourteen, carved in the stone that stands on the top of the hill. Don’t you believe me? Listen: Axel Raby, Triss Merigold, Atlan Kerk, Vanielle of Brugge, Dagobert of Vole—“ And Geralt tells him to stop.
[Reading] In Part VII, Geralt climbs Sodden Hill to view the monument to the Fourteen. As he reads the names of the sorcerers engraved on the obelisk, a girl approaches and takes the flowers left at the base. She is Death, and Geralt confronts her. Yurga wakes Geralt, who had fallen asleep or collapsed at the top of the hill.
ALYSSA: Geralt climbs to the top of Sodden Hill. And he sees this obelisk, which we're told is enormous. So, it must have been held up there with the aid of magic. But, before he's able to read the very last name of the 14, there's a girl that approaches. She's described as being barefoot in a simple linen dress. She was wearing a garland woven from daisies on long, fair hair falling freely on her shoulders and back. He noticed she was not suntanned. That was all then at the end of summer when country girls were usually tanned bronze. Her face and the uncovered shoulders had a slight golden sheen. Geralt tries to make small talk with her, and it doesn't work. Eventually, it kind of comes out that, like, she is the personification of death. And it's actually kind of beautiful, the way that the dialogue is written here.
[Reading] He was tranquil. He could not be anything else. Not anymore. “I’ve always wondered what you look like, my lady.” And she responds, “You don’t have to address me like that. We’ve known each other for years, after all.” “We have,” he agreed. “They say you dog my footsteps.” She responds, “I do. But you have never looked behind you. Until today. Today, you looked back for the first time.” He was silent. He had nothing to say. He was weary. “How… How will it happen?” “I’ll take you by the hand,” she said. “I’ll take you by the hand and lead you through the meadow. Into the cold, wet fog.” “And then? What is there, beyond the fog?” “Nothing,” she smiled. “There is nothing more.”
ALYSSA: The imagery of this, being led into the fog, this is something that we're going to see in later books. At least, the examples off the top of my head, we’ll see in Tower of Swallows and Lady of the Lake this idea of fog and the foreboding of death.
LARS: Yeah. Well, it was even in this story. At the beginning of the short story, when he was fighting the monsters, it was said that they were – they came out of the fog or something.
ALYSSA: Yeah. That's also true. Yeah. When she talks about there being nothing more beyond the fog, I think in The Eternal Flame with Chris and Adi, we talked about religions on the continent and if our main characters are religious at all. When she talks about there being nothing more beyond the fog, I wonder if they have, like, the idea of an afterlife or not, if there were, or if there wasn't, if Geralt would believe in it either way.
LARS: Yeah. I wonder if this is also Andrezj Sapkowski’s opinion towards an afterlife, where it's a very depressive one. Of course, a very unchristian one, I would say. What's also very interesting is this woman that’s the personification of death, she's different to the classical Grim Reaper we, as a personification of death in our own world has. She's – well, she's a woman. This, of course, is the first difference. Christianity, I just assume that he was a male skeleton. I don't know. Is there a difference between the male and the female skeleton when it comes to mythology? I don't know.
ALYSSA: Umm, I don't know about mythology, but, physically, yes.
LARS: Yeah. Physically, sure. Of course, biologically. But I don't know when it comes to iconography or something like this. Well, a skeleton is always a skeleton. Maybe it's neutral. I don't know. But, well, this is actually not what I was wanting to talk about, the gender of skeletons. When you meet the Grim Reaper, it's grim. It's dark. It's creepy. Well, maybe, as a child, you're afraid of depictions of the Grim Reaper. But, when Geralt meets this woman, well, she's the opposite of that. Well, as you said, she's fair-haired, a garland woven from daisies on her head. She almost feels like a goddess of life. Like, the goddess from the Edge of the World. It feels kind of similar.
ALYSSA: Yeah, absolutely. I mean she must look human enough that it takes Geralt a minute to actually realize who she might be. And I think it's only really from her demeanor that he's able to really guess, but it's very accessible image of death. But it's interesting to see, for Geralt, who’s an older man, death being this young woman. But, you know, as you said, this is not a Christian death and afterlife. They're still kind of like the parallels to, let's say, like, Greek mythology, where you have like the rubber sticks. You have Charon. You know, you have someone leading you into the afterlife. That's still very much the same. I think it's interesting. You know, after all this time, we constantly hear the phrase, “Death dogs its footsteps.” And we've heard this throughout the short stories. And, here, we, we see Geralt in this, you know, dream sequence or hallucinogenic state speaking to and confronting death in a one-on-one conversation. And she's very straightforward about the whole thing as well. The other thing that comes up through this conversation is Geralt admits that he's afraid that Yennefer is the last name on the hill. And he assumes that she is the last person who died. This personification of death, she doesn't confirm or deny this. She just takes the flowers that were left at the grave. Geralt says here. He's like, “If this is true, I have nothing left to live for. Just take me now.” And she just says, “Not now, but one day.” He argues back at her, “You have taken everything from me—“ And she interrupts him saying, “No, I do not take anything. I just take people by the hand. So that no one will be alone at that moment. Alone in the fog… We shall meet again, Geralt of Rivia. One day.” Knowing what I know about the rest of the saga, I find this passage, the imagery that this dialogue evokes, really, really interesting. I'm not gonna say anything more. But—
LARS: Right. Right. It's a very spoilery territory. But—
ALYSSA: Yeah, we're in spoilery territory. So, I'm gonna, like, chill.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: But I'm definitely going to bring up this section of “Something More” in future episodes of the podcast.
LARS: What I wanted to add, in this short paragraph, there's a lot of world building and a lot of background stories.
ALYSSA: Yeah, let's talk about it.
LARS: Yeah. There – there are some short paragraphs when Geralt reads the names on the obelisk. And he mentions a few sorcerers or mages he has met before, who were among the dead. Well, this is of course, what makes him think that Yennefer will be on this plaque too. If you go through the names, you see Triss Merigold. He also mentions Lytta Neyd known as Coral. And, actually, in this paragraph that consists of about four or five sentences, you have the summary of Season of Storms that will be released – I don't know – about 20 years later after the release of this book. I imagine Andrezj Sapkowski going back to this book, reading this paragraph, and thinking to himself, “Oh, this is very interesting. Let's write a book about her.”
ALYSSA: “I can make money off of that.” Yeah.
LARS: Yeah, right, of course.
ALYSSA: And, for all the listeners out there, as Lars said, that is Lytta Neyd, Charlotte does have a fragrance for Coral in her shop.
LARS: Oh, yeah.
ALYSSA: That is actually one of my favorite fragrances.
LARS: Check it out.
ALYSSA: It's very beautiful. There's also – if you'd be able to pull it up, because I don’t have it in front of me, the section that he has about the sorcerer who wants his eyeballs.
LARS: Yeah, old Gorazd, who had offered him 100 marks to let him dissect his eyes and 1,000 for the chance to carry out a post mortem. Not, not necessarily today as he had put it then. And, again, this would be a perfect short story.
ALYSSA: Yeah, it's just so silly. I like the fact that Sapkowski includes – like, he wanted to do an autopsy. And he would pay him for it, but it just didn't have to be today.
LARS: Yeah, right.
ALYSSA: It's one of these things where, as Anita and Karolina lovingly put it, during our Bounds of Reason episodes, you know, you're reading something that's so grave and so powerful.
LARS: Right. Mhmm.
ALYSSA: And then you have a little giggle for yourself in the middle.
LARS: This is – this is his style. This is what makes great work.
ALYSSA: I like the fact that, like, obviously, this would happen in this chapter because it becomes a summary of all the short stories, but I like that I'm able to reference every single episode that we've had.
LARS: Yeah, you can talk freely. Fine.
ALYSSA: Yeah, it’s nice. But it's nice being able to be, like, “Oh, yeah, in our conversation with this person and that person.” And, like, it's good. At the end of the section, Yurga wakes Geralt up. Apparently, Geralt had insisted on climbing the hill even though Yurga didn’t think that was a good idea. And then he either collapsed or fell asleep at the top, which is why his dream or his hallucinating of death happened. Geralt, at this point, actually does find out the last name on the hill, and it is not Yennefer. You know, obviously, we know how tumultuous the relationship is. But, you know, he was afraid of her death enough that he told, you know, at least his dream personification of death, like, “I'm ready to go then. Bye.” How, how deeply he must care for Yennefer. How much he sees her as, like, an irreplaceable part of his life that he cannot live for without her. It's surprising, I think.
LARS: Yeah. Well, he's a lone wolf. He is a loner. And, now, he's found somebody, and he throws all of this overboard for this woman. It's actually so out of character, at least, for the Geralt from before Yennefer.
ALYSSA: And this takes us to Part VIII.
[Reading] In Part VIII, on the road, Yurga reiterates his promise to Geralt, despite the witcher’s attempt to put the matter aside. The merchant insists that he will not find anything at home, but is willing to give one of his sons to the witcher’s guild. Geralt falls asleep again. This time, he dreams of hearing about the Fall of Cintra from Dandelion as the pair attempt to flee invading Nilfgaardian forces.
ALYSSA: Yurga and Geralt are just on the road. Yurga is having a chat. He doubles down on his promise to the law of surprise, which, Geralt, it turns out – he's like, you know, “Come off it. Like, I don't want anything from you.” And Yurga says, “No, sir. Should I find something like that at home it means it’s destiny. For if you mock destiny, if you deceive it, then it will punish you severely.” It just says, “I know,” thought the Witcher. “I know.” Yurga is insisting though. Like, “I'm really not gonna find anything at home. My wife can't have kids. Nothing's gonna be there. But, like, I do have two sons. I'll have to get them to apprentice somewhere. I figured one could be a merchant with me, and I'll – I’ll need to find something for the other one. So, why not a witcher?” This exchange that follows is actually quite interesting. Yurga says:
[Reading] “You had in mind a child for your witcher’s apprenticeship, and nothing else, didn’t you? Why does that child have to be unexpected? Can it not be expected? I’ve two, so one of them could go for a witcher. It’s a trade like any other. It ain’t better or worse.”
Geralt responds, “Are you certain ‘it isn’t worse?”
Yurga says, “Protecting people, saving their lives, how do you judge that; bad or good? Those fourteen on the hill? You on that there bridge? What were you doing? Good or bad?”
Geralt says, “I don’t know. I don’t know, Yurga. Sometimes it seems to me that I know. And sometimes I have doubts. Would you like your son to have doubts like that?”
And Yurga says, “Why not? He might as well. For it’s a human and a good thing.”
Geralt says, “What?”
Yurga says, “Doubts. Only evil, sir, never has any. But no one can escape his destiny.”
LARS: Yeah, it's a summary again from at least this short story and the one before and A Question of Price, of course, because the three are so linked. Umm, yeah, this is what destiny in the Witcher world is all about. It's not about good or evil or doing the right thing. You can't just escape destiny.
ALYSSA: I, I really like that section between Yurga and Geralt where Geralt admits to having doubts. Yurga says, like, “That's not a bad thing. That just makes you human.” I'm probably going to turn that into a GoodMorhen quote at some point.
LARS: Mhmm. Yeah.
ALYSSA: But I find it incredibly beautiful. When we talk about Geralt's struggle, also other people's perception of his humanity or lack of humanity, he admits to a very raw human emotion. Just doubt. Yurga kind of says, like, “That's, that's a good thing. That's – you're doing okay.”
LARS: Yeah. Yeah.
ALYSSA: And it's very sweet, I think. And, I think, says a lot not just about the human condition as a whole, but the human condition in relation to Geralt. People are not even sure if he is human.
LARS: Yeah, right. By stating doubting is okay. He is actually quite human. And this is what we haven't seen so much in these short stories so far. There are so many bandits and brigand Geralt meets who call him a mutant monster, a degenerate, or something like that. And, now, we have this poor merchant just calling him, “Well, you're doubting. You're just a human. What's so bad about that?” Well, this is very nice. And Yurga is definitely one of the – well, how can you say it?
ALYSSA: Yurga is very wholesome.
LARS: Yeah, wholesome and good-hearted. Of course, there must be lots of good-hearted people in the Witcher world, but we, we or Geralt doesn't really meet them.
ALYSSA: Yeah, it's a bit unfortunate.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: I guess if it was only a book of good people, I can't imagine much would happen.
LARS: Yeah, sure, of course. It would be boring, of course. But it's – at this point, it's very nice to meet one, especially for Geralt.
ALYSSA: Yes.
LARS: That he meets someone who really cares about him, even though he just met him. Of course, Geralt saved him, but, well, he really cares about him and just sees him as a person and not as a witcher or a mutant.
ALYSSA: Yeah, there's a lot of desire to just do something good. Like – I don’t know – like, as simple as that is, I think, as you said, like, that's not always something that we see in the Witcher world. And that's something we very rarely see in the Witcher world. So, to have someone – you know, a minor character like Yurga, who sticks out from the landscape, just simply due to goodness and integrity is something that it's really nice for Geralt to see and nice for us as readers. The scene between Geralt and Yurga is then followed by another you know, flashback dream sequence this time between Geralt and Dandelion. Geralt comes across Dandelion on a bridge fleeing the south. They're kind of coming across each other unexpectedly, because Geralt is going in the opposite direction. Geralt is going toward the warfare to Cintra. Dandelion is insisting, like, “No, we have to flee.” And Geralt says, “No, I'm going to Cintra.” Dandelion says, “Cintra is no more. What are you talking about?” Geralt hears from Dandelion about the fall of Cintra. Nilfgaard surprised Cintra by surrounding the army in the Marnadal Valley. King Eist, who we met during A Question of Price when he got married to Calanthe, he dies in battle at Marnadal. Calanthe gathered the remaining troops. And they fight their way through the encirclement and fall back toward the city. During this retreat, Calanthe’s injured in battle. Eventually, they retreat back to the city. The Cintra nobility barricade themselves in the castle keep. After four days, Nilfgaard, eventually, got into the keep. They found no one alive. It says that the women had killed the children, the men killed the woman, and then fell on their own swords. No one would kill Calanthe. So, she flung herself off the battlements headfirst. Geralt can't really believe any of this from Dandelion. And we're not really sure why Geralt hadn't really heard about any of this. I think it, again, says that he was just, like, in the north or whatever. He hears about Calanthe. He then asks about Calanthe’s granddaughter, Ciri. Dandelion says, “I don't think anyone made it out alive.” Geralt then changes his plans and says, “Nothing's in Cintra for me anymore now.” So, that's kind of how Geralt finds out secondhand about the fall of Cintra.
LARS: Yeah. And it says a lot again about Nilfgaard and the warfare and the cruelty. Well, it's especially sad, because, well, we as readers have already been to Cintra. We've met Calanthe again in this chapter. And we know what this kingdom and the city is about. And, even though we, as readers, haven't been there, when Nilfgaard attacked Cintra, almost had the impression to have been there when Dandelion retold the story. Again, it's only a few paragraphs. Especially in this short story, lots of very, very important content is only told in a few short paragraphs, but it doesn't diminish the impact of the things.
ALYSSA: It's interesting. One, because, as you said, we don't actually get to see it, but we, as readers, still mourn because we're experiencing this with Geralt as he's experiencing it. The second thing is we didn't talk about this earlier at the close of Geralt and Calanthe’s flashback, Calanthe says to Geralt, “I have a very curious and foreboding that this is the last time that we'll see each other.”
LARS: Right. Mhmm.
ALYSSA: And, ultimately, it is because what follows is, eventually, the fall of Cintra. Geralt, at this point, believes that he's lost his child of surprise. He had renounced her when she was six. He again let her go in Brokilon. And then, eventually, on his way, presumably, to claim her, maybe this is after Beltane when Yennefer was kind of begging for him to go. But, if that was a real event, maybe he then was on his way to Cintra at Yennefer's behest. But, on his way, he's then stopped because Cintra has already fallen. He's resigned to her twice. And, on his third time to actually claim her, he's too late. It's a very long build up to then something that he feels is now taken from him that he's lost.
LARS: Well, at this point, from all the things Geralt has said about destiny, we wonder if he feels a weight being lifted from his shoulder. Of course, he doesn't want this little girl to be dead. But, at the same time, he says, “Well, my destiny, it's gone. And I don't have to decide anymore.” And, well, this is what you wonder when reading this. But, at the same time, well, he's obviously set. From his short answers when he talks to Dandelion, you get the impression that he set even though this weight of destiny has been lifted from my shoulders,
ALYSSA: And I wonder if there's regret, not sadness as well.
LARS: Hmm. Definitely.
ALYSSA: Yeah. Like, if he said I could have claimed her at six, I could have claimed her at Brokilon, because I said no, she was there. She was at the fall of Cintra, and now she's gone.
LARS: He feels responsible. I think so too.
ALYSSA: By the end of the chapter, Dandelion has been begging Geralt to just ride north. And it's not until Geralt hears all of this that he eventually says to Dandelion. “You know, there's nothing for me in Cintra anymore,” which I think is very heartbreaking. I feel weird not reading out the very end of the chapter even though that may take a while.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: But it's just so – I feel like I can’t – I feel like I can't summarize it.
LARS: But this is the best part in the whole book, at least. So, I, I think you have to.
ALYSSA: I have to. In Part XI, Geralt and Yurga reach the merchant’s home, where they’re greeted by Yurga’s wife who tells Yurga that she’s taken in a young war orphan. The unexpected orphan fulfills Yurga’s promise of a Child Surprise to the witcher. The young orphan is a mousy-haired young girl, Ciri, the Princess of Cintra, who Geralt had denied twice before: in Brokilon and in his last visit to Cintra. The pair are reunited at last and Geralt embraces his Destiny. I was – okay. I was taking notes for this this morning. And, when I pulled this quote and like reread it, I was like tearing.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: The emotional payoff is so good in the books when you're actually reading all of this for the first time, Oh, it's so beautiful.
LARS: Two books leading straight into this chapter, and it's so worth it. Perfect fit.
ALYSSA: Yurga and Geralt, eventually, get to his homestead. Yurga’s wife comes out to greet him. And she's actually referred to as Goldencheeks.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: We actually never know her name beyond that.
[Laughter]
LARS: This is absurd. Yes.
ALYSSA: Yeah. Just totally very silly. Yurga asked after his son's and Goldencheeks says that they're doing very well. She tells Yurga that she also took in a young girl. And Yurga’s like, “Oh, god. Like, I really didn't think I'd have anything at home. But, now, I have something at home that I wasn't expecting. Oh, my god, this is the law of surprise. It’s destiny.” And he's bugging out, because he and Geralt have been talking about this for days. And his poor wife has no idea. Do you have anything to say about that? The first little section?
LARS: Not really. It's really hard not to talk about the, the end of the story at this point.
ALYSSA: So, should I just finish it off?
LARS: Yeah, maybe.
ALYSSA: Okay. Yurga’s children and this war orphan come back to the homestead. And I'm going to do my best to read this part out because I feel like it's not going to do it justice to try to summarize or paraphrase it. Hopefully I don't cry in the middle.
LARS: Yeah. We'll just stop, and you'll come back.
ALYSSA: Okay.
LARS: So don't worry. Take your time.
ALYSSA: Thank you, Lars.
LARS: I'm rooting for you.
ALYSSA: Oh, that’s so sweet. Thank you. Yurga broke off, seeing a small, very slim, mousy-haired creature walking slowly behind the boys. The little girl looked at him and he saw the huge eyes as green as spring grass, shining like two little stars. He saw the girl suddenly start, run…He heard her shrill, piercing cry. "Geralt!" The Witcher turned away from his horse with a swift, agile movement and ran to meet her. Yurga stared open-mouthed. He had never thought a man could move so quickly. They came together in the centre of the farmyard. The mousy-haired girl in a grey dress. And the white-haired Witcher with a sword on his back, all dressed in black leather, gleaming with silver. The Witcher bounding softly, the girl trotting, the Witcher on his knees, the girl's thin hands around his neck, the mousy hair on his shoulders. Goldencheeks shrieked softly. Yurga hugged his rosy-cheeked wife when she cried out softly, pulling her towards him without a word, and gathered up and hugged the boys. "Geralt!" the little girl repeated, clinging to the Witcher's chest. "You've found me! I knew you would! I always knew! I knew you'd find me!" "Ciri," said the Witcher. Yurga could not see his face hidden among the mousy hair. He saw hand in black gloves squeezing the girl's back and shoulders. "You found me! Oh, Geralt! I was waiting all the time! For so very long…We'll be together now, won't we? Say it, Geralt! Forever! Say it!" "Forever, Ciri." "It's like they said, Geralt! It's like they said! Am I your destiny? Say it! Am I your destiny?" Yurga saw the Witcher's eyes. And was very astonished. He heard his wife's soft weeping, felt the trembling of her shoulders. He looked at the Witcher and waited, tensed, for his answer. He knew he would not understand it, but he waited for it. And heard it. "You're much more than that, Ciri. Much more." Hmm.
LARS: Goosebumps.
ALYSSA: I'm glad I got through my rendition of it.
LARS: Yeah, very good.
ALYSSA: What are your thoughts on the close of the short story compilations with the reunion?
LARS: What can you say? Well, the, the inner struggle of Geralt is finally over. He meets his destiny, his child of surprise. And he literally embraces it. Well, when reading the short stories, especially the one about the law of surprise, you're rooting for Geralt embracing his destiny. Well, they finally meet and the words are so nice. It’s worded poetically.
ALYSSA: I think, for me, the reason why the emotional payoff is so nice in the story; I think it comes down to Geralt's denial of her multiple times.
LARS: Sure, of course.
ALYSSA: And I think this relates to how I personally interpret this idea of “Something More.” Like, what is something more? And, as I said in our conversation about Yennefer and Geralt, at least in my interpretation, you know, it's about the choice. It's about the effort and the hard work that it takes to build a relationship. So, I find it very interesting that you have his denial of her in Cintra when she's amongst the boys, followed by the denial of her in Brokilon, and then the expectation that she's dead. He then invokes, again, this law of surprise. And then it turns out to be the same little girl that he said no to twice already. That's, at least for me, like, what makes it so strong and so poignant.
LARS: You can't escape destiny as Yurga said in the chapter before.
ALYSSA: And as Mousesack had said at the end of Sword of Destiny. He tells Geralt, like, “You won’t escape it.” And Geralt’s like, “Escape destiny?” And the Mousesack said, “No, escape her.” Because she's just always gonna crop up. So, something that you brought up was actually the timeline of events that take place around this chapter. Did you want to talk a little bit about that and clear some stuff up?
LARS: I think I'll give it a try. The timeline is so convoluted in the short story, a little bit at least, and especially when it comes to other short stories that are deeply linked to this one. Throughout this whole episode, we mentioned the Sword of Destiny and A Question of Price several times, because they're so important for the overall story. Well, they are the foundation for Something More, for this short story. I think the dates of these short stories are very important too. So, okay, let's give it a try. We have some actual dates in the timeline of The Witcher. In Geralt’s lifetimes, we're in the 13th century. And, from several hints throughout all the stories, you can, well, at least, guess. But I don't think that even what I'm telling you now is fact. It's only my guess, of course, because even Sapkowski himself, I would suppose, doesn't really know what the timeline is because he doesn't really state it in any of the short stories or in the later books. So, this is only an educated guess. But let's start. I want to start my timeline with a short story, A Question of Price and the banquet at Cintra. This must have happened about September of 1251. And, of course, roughly nine months later in the night from April 13th to the 1st of May 1252, Ciri is born. And then we'll get straight to the first chapter of our short story, Something More. In 1258, Geralt goes to Cintra, six years after her birth and to invoke the law of surprise. This is the meeting between Geralt and Calanthe that we've talked about in Chapter 4. Around four years later in the summer of 1262, the short story Sword of Destiny happens. We know that Ciri, at this point, is 10 years old. Roughly a year later, on the 1st of March of 1263, Chapter 3 about the Beltane Festivities takes place when Yennefer meets Geralt, and she wants him to go back to Cintra. But, unfortunately, not even a half a year later, in autumn of 1263, the fall of Cintra happens when Nilfgaard attacks Cintra. Then, after attacking Cintra, Nilfgaard heads north. And, in late 1263, the Battle of Sodden takes place. After that, in early 1264, we go back to Something More to this Chapter 8, where a Geralt meets Dandelion at the River Yaruga, who tells him that Cintra has fallen. A few months later in autumn 1264, we go back to the start of the short story. This is when Geralt and Yurga meet for the first time and Geralt fights the monsters and is gravely injured. Also, of course, in autumn of 1264, we go straight to Chapter 2. Well, it's a short one where Yurga helps Geralt and Geralt falls into a deep slumber. After that, Geralt in Chapter 5 meets Visenna and is being taken care of. Then in Chapter 6, also, of course, still in autumn of 1264, Geralt and Yurga arrive at the obelisk on Sodden Hill. Then we go to Chapter 7, where Geralt climbs the hill to look for Yennefer's name. And he meets the personification of death. And then it's, of course, the final chapter in Something More. It's the one where Yurga and Geralt have arrived at the merchant’s home. And Geralt finally meets Ciri, which is, again, autumn of 1264. If you don't count in A Question of Price and the birth of Ciri, all of this short – Sword of Destiny and everything that happens in Something More happens roughly in the course of six years – six and a half years, maybe.
ALYSSA: It's great. I mean the TL;DR version is definitely, as you said, “A Question of Price”, the birth of Ciri, the rejection of Ciri, and then the outcome of the fall of Cintra, and, like, what happens after that. It's funny, because all the way back in Episode 7, when I was talking to Crisanto and Jess, Crisanto had asked me, like, “You know, what happened to Pavetta’s kid? Obviously, that kid is coming back.” And, you know, we get here. We see that, yes, A Question of Price kicks off this whole timeline and relationship between Geralt and that child. As standalone, as “A Question of Price” felt when we first read it, it sets up the entire saga to come.
LARS: We wouldn’t have guessed it from reading it back in your first episodes.
ALYSSA: Yeah, not at all. We don't really hear much about, you know, Calanthe or Pavetta until we get back to a “Sword of Destiny” and, and “Something More”. So, this is the last episode of the first season of Breakfast in Beauclair. What are your closing thoughts on all the short stories and on everything to come in the saga?
LARS: Well, it was all right, I would say. It was so awesome revisiting all these short stories again. It was a few years back when I read, read all of them. It was so awesome to go back to them and read them again and discuss them. And, of course, listening to the discussions about them, because there are so many insights I, I haven't thought about when reading the books, so many things to dissect. And I think there are so many things we haven't even mentioned in this episode. You could still talk about for hours and hours, because the stories are so rich and so much mythology and so many deep characters with so many complicated relationships and themes that are reappearing throughout the books. Of course, there's destiny, but there are so many other things. I think, even today, we mentioned stuff like parenthood, the symbolism of death, and really, really great stuff. And Sapkowski really manages to put his own spin onto it all and make it even more interesting, because they are – these topics are, of course, talked about so much in other fantasy literature works, but it just feels very fresh in his stories.
ALYSSA: I think one of the beautiful things about his work here is that it wraps up the philosophical and the fantastical and the human. And it just ties it all up into this sprawling work. It's such a joy to be able to talk about it and to be able to present it to other people out in the world. I think the fascinating thing about the short stories for me is that, as you said, like, they are so rich and then create this huge world that we're just dropped into. And we're kind of stuck with this strange kind of hero/antihero. You know, Geralt of Rivia. And we get to see him, you know, at first, as this almost stoic warrior hunting and finding a striga. And then we see his humanity kind of unfold over the course of these two compilations of short stories. We see the depth of his character, which I think is incredibly beautiful for someone who's perceived by the outside world as, you know, barely being human. Yeah. And it becomes this beautiful characterization piece of breaking down all these different sorts of people. It gets to be this very beautiful mosaic of the continent, which is why it's such a joy to read. So, one of the things that I've been hearing from people who are new to the series is that they find the flawed nature of all of the characters really interesting.
LARS: Of course, yeah.
ALYSSA: Yeah. And I think that's one of the beautiful parts of the short stories is that we get all of these shades of humanization and characterization. And we just get to, like, examine them and, like, nitpick them and grow with them and love them.
LARS: Yeah, right.
ALYSSA: It's really fascinating. The world that he even alludes to or hints at, even though we just get a small taste of it throughout the short stories --
LARS: Of course, yeah.
ALYSSA: —it promises a lot for when we actually jump into the saga, which makes it a really solid foundation for the next five books to come.
LARS: Yeah, right.
ALYSSA: How are you feeling? How are you? This is – it's heavy stuff.
LARS: Yeah, absolutely. Especially this short story is full of deeper, darker tones and themes. But I think these themes are necessary for this short story. Without these themes of, well, abandonment, for example, or death, again, this end wouldn't be so powerful, of course.
ALYSSA: Let's say, for all the new people, Lars, that might be listening to the podcast that – and maybe reading along with us and haven't read the saga yet, what words of advice do you have for them before jumping into the saga?
LARS: Well, I think I remember, when I finished the Sword of Destiny, the thing that I did was grabbing Blood of Elves and just continue.
ALYSSA: Just drop everything. Just keep reading.
LARS: Yeah, of course. That's the only thing to do. Just reading all day, of course.
ALYSSA: I think the advice that I would have for new readers when it comes to, you know, moving from the two compilations of short stories into the five-part saga – I mean, first of all, the saga is a series of novels. So, the format does change. Yeah. And, when you get from the short stories to the saga, we are dropped into a more or less, you know, roughly linear story. But the characters are the same. The volume of characters just grows and grows and grows. We still examine just as much of the human condition I think as we did in the short stories, but, honestly, I'm so jealous of people who are reading it --
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: —for the first time. It is such a joy. Like, I hope that, for all of our listeners, who are reading for the first time. that you really just, like, take it all in because, when you don't know what's gonna happen in the story, it makes it so exhilarating. It is a wonderful read the first time through and every subsequent time through I can tell you that much.
LARS: Yeah, it has all this stuff that makes the short stories great. And, well, it even improves them.
ALYSSA: There is something more as you could say.
LARS: Yeah. Then “something ends, something begins.”
ALYSSA: Of all puns that you'll understand.
LARS: Yeah, after reading these books. Right.
ALYSSA: I’m trying to think if there’s anything else we could possibly talk about. Is this – is this it?
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: Okay. Oh, my god.
LARS: I think we're through. It's a strange feeling, right?
ALYSSA: Yeah, I know. It feels weird, because, like, this is – this is the end of the season. So, with that, I feel really emotional right now.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: So, with that, that is it for our show today. Lars, thank you so much for joining us for this episode and, literally, for every single episode.
LARS: Yeah. Thank you for having me. It was so much fun. Always taking part in your podcast. I’m really, really looking forward for what is about to come.
ALYSSA: Yeah, I am too.
LARS: Yeah.
ALYSSA: So, I guess, just as a sign off, where can people find you and is there anything that our community can help you with or anything that you'd like to share with them?
LARS: Again, I'm mostly active on Instagram. WitcherFlix is my Instagram handle. Just hit me up, especially after you've read the books. Even though I'm talking a lot about the Netflix show, I will always love talking about the law of the books, the stories, the backgrounds of the books, and, of course, about the short stories. If you want to learn more about the short stories, I'll be really glad if you pay my Instagram page visit.
ALYSSA: Lars is killing it right now. He's doing really, really well with WitcherFlix. So, definitely go visit his page @WitcherFlix on Instagram. He shares all sorts of content everything from news about Netflix as the Witcher as well as lore, history of the Northern Kingdoms, monsters, all sorts of cool things. And you post daily or multiple times a day, which is incredible.
LARS: Yeah. I always try to post at least daily and, well, if something newswise happens in the Witcherverse I, of course, post.
ALYSSA: Yeah. This is daily for more than two years. Like, Lars is in it. Lars is doing really, really well.
LARS: Oh, thanks.
ALYSSA: And, if you’re ever in Berlin, let Lars and Cyprian know.
LARS: Of course.
ALYSSA: And maybe he'll talk you into going to some May Day festivities too.
LARS: Of course.
ALYSSA: Right. So, shoot, I guess this is it. This episode completes Season 1 of Breakfast in Beauclair, covering the short story compilations, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. Season 2 of the podcast will premiere on Thursday, June 4th with a discussion of Episode 1 of Netflix’s The Witcher, The End’s Beginning.
Outro & Credits
[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]
ALYSSA: Thanks for joining us at the breakfast table! For show notes, transcripts of each episode, and a complete list of our social platforms and listening services, head over to breakfastinbeauclair.com.
Breakfast in Beauclair is created by Alyssa from GoodMorhen. It’s hosted by Alyssa with the “Tidings from Toussaint” News Segment by Lars from WitcherFlix. The show is edited by Alyssa with the Breakfast in Beauclair theme by MojoFilter Media and the “Tidings from Toussaint” theme by Bettina Campomanes.
Breakfast in Beauclair is produced by Alyssa in New York City with Luis of Kovir, The Owner of The Churlish Porpoise, Arix the Godling, Katie (The Redhead of Toussaint), Jacob B., Mahakam Elder Joe, Julie, Sylvia of Skellige, Jamison, Ayvo of Gulet, Bee Haven of the Edge of the World, Jacob Meeks, and Sebastian von Novigrad.
Special thanks to Lars for joining us for this episode and our international hanza for their support.
Transcriptionist: Rachelle Rose Bacharo
Editor: Krizia Casil