Ep. 29 — Chapter 1 from "Blood of Elves" (Part 1)

Brett from Whispers of Oxenfurt and Lars from WitcherFlix join Alyssa for Part 1 of our discussion of Andrzej Sapkowski’s first Witcher novel Blood of Elves, Chapter 1. Very important bits include: “Whispers of Hogwarts” and “A Short History of the Northern Kingdoms”, Ithlinne's prophecy, medieval warfare, fantastical beings from the Witcher world, “Who tells our stories?”, the lost history of the first Battle of Sodden, and the many names of the Continent’s most famous bard.

This episode is available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.

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In this Episode

[00:00] Cold Open
[00:44] Introduction
[04:20] Discussion
[27:21] “Tidings from Toussaint”
[33:26] Episode Sponsor: MojoFilter Media
[34:40] Discussion
[53:05] Outro & Credits

Relevant Links

Transcript

Cold Open

ALYSSA: The show is edited by Alyssa with tha–da–musi—

ALYSSA: The show is edited by Alyssa with music frm—

ALYSSA: The show is edited by Alyssa with muzch—

ALYSSA: [Chuckles]

[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]

Introduction

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.

And just like that we are back for Season 3 of Breakfast in Beauclair! I hope that you guys had a lovely break, as did I. Some of the things that happened over the last three months: our hanza over on Discord got very, very, very into D&D thanks to our lovely resident DM, Gary from Kentucky, and if you missed it, you can go check out the hanza holiday calendar that ran through December on Instagram and Twitter for a ton of behind-the-scenes content from Breakfast in Beauclair as well as special messages from your favorite Witcher content creators, Doug Cockle on the 17th, and Peter Kenny on the 24th.

Aside from that, I hope you all have been doing well, I’m really stoked to get back to Breakfast in Beauclair and to Season 3 and to finally start the Witcher novels. We have quite the stacked guest list for Season 3 and I’m really excited for you to meet everyone who’s going to come onto the show this season.

[Patron Announcements]

To get back to the usual business: This episode, we welcome Brett from California, Wolf, Brett from Whispers of Oxenfurt, Corey from the US, Tom from Australia, April from the UK, and Kyle with the 2 Cats to our hanza on Patreon! Shout out to Katrin from Austria and Jennidy Mundilovitch who upgraded their pledges.

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In addition to Patreon, Breakfast in Beauclair is now on Ko-fi! If you would like to support the show through a one-off donation, visit ko-fi.com/breakfastinbeauclair.

Thanks to support from the community, I was actually able to upgrade my microphone setup. And I upgraded from my Blue Yeti Nano, which has been with me since the beginning of Breakfast in Beauclair, and I now have a beautiful Rode Procaster, an XLR setup, and I hope that you do see an uptick in the quality of the episodes and editing in Season 3.

Thank you so much to our community for supporting the upgrade and continuing to support things that make the show better like transcripts, audio equipment, new music, and ensuring that we’re paying any vendors that contribute to the show a fair fee.

[Episode Details]

As for this episode, Brett from Whispers of Oxenfurt and Lars from WitcherFlix call in for the first half of our discussion of Blood of Elves, Chapter 1. Join us as we learn more about their upcoming projects, “Whispers of Hogwarts” and “A Short History of the Northern Kingdoms”, discuss Ithlinne's prophecy, analyze medieval warfare, list the many fantastical beings in the Witcher world again and again and again, take a critical look at how stories and history is made, lament the lost history of the first Battle of Sodden, and decode the many names of the Continent’s most famous bard.

In our mid-episode news segment, “Tidings from Toussaint,” Lars from Witcherflix shares tons of productions and casting updates for The Witcher Season 2, The Witcher: Blood Origin, and Nightmare of the Wolf.

Without further ado, let’s get to our discussion Blood of Elves, Chapter 1.

Discussion

[Breakfast in Beauclair stinger by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA: Welcome to Breakfast in Beauclair. My name is Alyssa and I have two special guests joining us for the first episode of Season 3. My first guest is an educator and coach from Texas. He's a member of Team Aretuza and plays the dwarven cleric Dyrin in our Discord’s America's East D&D campaign. He is also the host of the Witcher podcast, Whispers of Oxenfurt, and the new Harry Potter podcast, Whispers of Hogwarts. Lastly, he is also one of the most highly requested guests on Breakfast and Beauclair. A huge welcome to Brett from Whispers of Oxenfurt.

BRETT: Thank you very much for having me. And, yeah, that intro right there. Now, now, the pressure. Now, I’m feeling it. So, but, no, I'm ready to talk about this and, again, thank you very much for inviting me on.

ALYSSA: Absolutely. And you guys are also gonna recognize my second guest’s voice from his news segment on Breakfast and Beauclair as well as his 13 track album of original Witcher music. And I'm so pleased to have back: Lars from WitcherFlix.

LARS: Thank you for having me again. And, well, it's so awesome to be back here. Season 3 already!

ALYSSA: I know!

LARS: It went by so fast.

ALYSSA: It did. It did. So, did my three-month break, it just vanished into thin air.

LARS: Yeah, I can imagine.

ALYSSA: Brett, it's your first time on the show. As I said, welcome. I'd love to talk to you more about Whispers of Oxenfurt, which is the project that really got you into the Witcher community. Could you tell us about how you got into the Witcher and the origin of that podcast?

BRETT: It was The Witcher 3. The Witcher 3 came out. And I remember actually buying a PlayStation 4 and that game coming with it and me looking at it and being like, “I don't want to play this.” And I sold it.

LARS: Wow.

ALYSSA: [Gasps] Brett.

BRETT: And then—I know, I know! And then I don't know when it was. It had to be when, I think, the “Blood and Wine” DLC came out. I kept hearing about this game and kept hearing about this game. And I was like, “Okay. You know, it's medieval history. You know, what the hell. I’ll try to play it,” and just obsessed with it and ran through the main story and then both DLCs in basically under a week. It was nonstop. When I was home, I was playing it. Then got into it, got into reading the books. And then, at that time, I could not find another English-based Witcher podcast about—really about anything but especially the books. And I was having lunch with a friend and I started talking about it. I was like, “Yeah, there's nothing in there.” And it literally just was a click moment. He was like, “Why don't you just do one?”

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: And, so, I just started it.

ALYSSA: And I'm just really curious because your background is in history, you teach US and World History… How has your experience with medieval history and, more specifically, the Crusades impacted or colored your reading of The Witcher series?

BRETT: It's fantasy, you know. And that's a good thing about fantasy is you can make whatever you want out of it. And the Witcher universe does blend this medieval fantasy world, but it's also an early modern, like, to even Late Renaissance kind of history with it. But I think what it is is just the background or insight thing. Like, I try to do that with the podcast. I don't ever want to just put out something that other people are doing or they can do. I want to have my own niche in it if you want to call it that. And, with history, it was it. And I figured there's gonna be some people that are into this that want to know more about the history of it. And I just kind of try to explain it as succinctly as possible. And, again, as a teacher, hopefully, [laughs] I’m good at it. I don't know. I'll leave that up for other people to say. But it's just a role that I was trying to fill and just trying to entertain and educate people as much as I can.

ALYSSA: Mhmm. And you recently, I think, finished all the books, right?

BRETT: I did and you were the final guest for the final chapter to wrap it up.

ALYSSA: I was. So, go check it out on Whispers of Oxenfurt if you have not already. And, as you've kind of closed out the Witcher series, you've also pivoted to a new show as well.

BRETT: I figured, “You know what? This could be something fun to do.” And, again, kind of bring—not exactly that same insight of, like, the historical part, because it's obviously not the same, but just another thing to get into. As I think you would know this, you know, once you start podcasting, it kind of becomes, “I got to do it, I got to do it, I got to do it.”

ALYSSA: Right.

BRETT: So, I just know I gotta keep that addiction going.

ALYSSA: Mhmm. And the last thing that I really wanted to ask you about, because I don't think we've ever discussed this on Breakfast in Beauclair before is Gwent. And you are a part of Team Aretuza. I am so not a part of the Gwent community, but, like, I see it on Twitter, of course, I see it on YouTube. And I'm really, really fascinated by it.

BRETT: Yeah, Gwent’s the—anybody who's played The Witcher 3 knows the card game in there, Gwent. Now, the standalone version is 100 percent completely different than that one. They've changed it. And, yeah, Team Aretuza is like an esports team. And I am not a competitive player at all. I have a very much love-hate relationship with the game. It's a great game, but it can be so infuriating as all card games can be. You know, I gambled on sports and played cards for, like, 18 months to two years when I was in college to kind of make money.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: So, I understand the furiousness you can have with card games. But, with Team Aretuza, I joined them mainly for, like, a podcast. I interview people in the Gwent community. It's normally not about the game at all. It's about the individual and about getting to know them a little better. And the community, again, is just very, very good. I recently sponsored a tournament with them, a charity tournament.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: And we raised something like $2200 or $2300 in a couple of days. And it was pretty, pretty incredible.

ALYSSA: Well, that's fantastic! I've played a little bit of Gwent here and there. I would go through, kind of, phases of sitting around my apartment just playing.

BRETT: Yeah.

ALYSSA: What could you tell our listeners who might be interested in it?

BRETT: It's the only card game, uh, collectible card game I've ever played. Like, Hearthstone is the big one that I think most people would know about if they, you know, pay attention to those or have ever heard of them or not on Twitch or anything like that. And the thing about Gwent that attracted me and I think a lot of people that do it is the Witcher part of it. That you can play cards with Geralt, Ciri, Dandelion, you know, all of these people you know from the books. And it kind of has that feel to it. And it's free to play. First off, you literally don't have to pay any money to do it. So, it's not going to cost you anything to try it. But it's a good thing to get that kind of Witcher... itch.

ALYSSA: Mhmm. Well, I'm excited to explore it again, uh, hopefully, soon! And, Lars, I just want to turn the conversation over to you. Again, welcome back.

LARS: Thank you.

ALYSSA: Lovely to have you. And you've been very busy since the last time we spoke... maybe about a year ago in podcast time.

LARS: Yeah.

ALYSSA: So, you have, as I said, released that 13 track album of original Witcher music, which has been incredible.

LARS: I got a little bit carried away to, you know, on this. I just—I don't know. There was one day – I think it was May last year or in April last – of last year—

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: —where I just had this strange melody in my – in my head and I thought, “Well, this sounds like something that could be played in the Witcher world.” And, well, this was the start of it all. Two or three weeks later, I had written about – I don't know – 14 or 15 songs? And, well, it just happened. I don't know—

ALYSSA: Yeah.

LARS: —what else to say. I, I didn't want to write a whole album full of Witcher songs. And it just happened, especially after rereading again, uh, the Witcher short stories as all of the songs are based on things, on lore that happened in the short stories.

ALYSSA: Yeah. Well, I feel like with the resurgence of bardcore and sea shanties—

LARS: Yeah.

ALYSSA: —I feel like you are right on par with what the youths are doing these days. So, I feel like that's great!

LARS: Yeah, definitely.

ALYSSA: I feel like you hinted at possibly having another album—

LARS: Yeah.

ALYSSA: —or creating more songs?

LARS: Actually, I wanted to stop right there because it was a lot of work, right, while doing my Instagram page at the same time.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: But, well, what can I say? I think I've written six or seven new songs this year alone. I just—

ALYSSA: Lars, it's only February 7th. [Laughs]

LARS: Just – I don’t know. Multiply it by 10 or 11 and then you will have the number of songs I have written at the end of 2021. No, of course not. If you start with the short stories, I think it isn't too far off to continue with the main saga, to say the least. So, I’ll leave it at that.

ALYSSA: Well, I'm looking forward to, like, eight albums of Lars’ work.

LARS: [Laughs]

ALYSSA: Aside from the albums, on the third year anniversary of WitcherFlix, you announced the fact that you're creating a Witcher lore book called A Short History of the Northern Kingdoms: Of Kings and Queens, Mages, and Witchers.

LARS: Yeah, it was a little idea I had – I don't know – about a year ago or even further ago. And, now, I'm at the point where I think, well, I'm so far in in writing a lore book, I can't stop now, I have to finish it now. Well, to summarize, it's a book – I don't know. Maybe you've read the Targaryen History book by George R. R. Martin about the history of the Targaryen dynasty. And, well, you know, Andrzej Sapkowski isn't the biggest fan of his own lore, of writing things that happened in the past, of the Continent. But, here and there, he puts some interesting information in the Witcher main saga and the short story. And he did some royal dynasties back in the 90s. You can find them on the internet. And I thought about putting all of this together in one book written by a fictional professor from the Oxenfurt Academy. So, I'm not writing it by myself. It's a professor called Eusebius Applerbeck from Oxenfurt Academy who's put all of this together. And, well, now, I'm riding along. I definitely want to illustrate this book. Everybody who likes to draw or paint Witcher stuff is invited to draw or paint something related to the Witcher history. Hit me up on Instagram and I’ll gladly include it in this book project.

ALYSSA: Oh, that's amazing. It's really fascinating to hear of more, obviously, community-based initiatives.

LARS: Right.

ALYSSA: And I'm excited that you have one coming up.

BRETT: You hit the nail on the head there about Sapkowski not caring—

LARS: Mhmm.

BRETT: —about his – like, he didn't care about his map!

LARS: Right. Right.

BRETT: Like, the geography really. I think the Netflix one that came out is almost the most official because he was involved in it. And I think Lauren said that he had a say in it or something.

LARS: Uh, doing a little bit of research for this episode today, I stumbled upon a map by his Czech translator.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: Stanislav Komárek. He was Sapkowski’s Czech translator and close associate. This is what was written in the Witcher Wiki. He has written a map about the continent, which is semi-official, I would say.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: George R. R. Martin, Fire and Blood is that Targaryen history.

LARS: Yeah.

BRETT: He has everything like it's a real history. He cares more about the past than, I think, he does the books now.

LARS: Absolutely.

BRETT: And Sapkowski just—

LARS: Yeah.

BRETT: Man, he does not care. He does not care. Yeah.

ALYSSA: I mean I do kind of like that about his work. He ties world building to the characters that we meet like the tertiary characters like Aplegatt, one of the deepest cuts I could possibly make. But, yeah, no sense of what—

LARS: Mhmm.

ALYSSA: —the history is outside of what impacts the plot itself.

LARS: Well, uh, to be fair, he's written, I think, four different royal lines for the four big kingdoms in the north—

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: —with – I don't know – about 10 to 12 kings with a little bit of backstories, their husbands and wives, their children, their – I don't know – close relatives. But, I think, you can only find about two or three sentences, maybe a little bit more, about these individual kings and that's all. And, well, George R. R. Martin has written books—

BRETT: Geez.

LARS: —about the obscurest kings on the far side of Essos you can think of. So, that's the difference between these two authors.

ALYSSA: Yeah. Well, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what you're able to compile.

LARS: Yeah.

ALYSSA: Yeah, if anyone in the community is interested in getting involved with A Short History of the Northern Kingdoms, definitely, get in touch with Lars.

LARS: That will be great. Yeah.

ALYSSA: So, today, we'll begin our discussion of Blood of Elves with Chapter One. And we opened the saga with the new introduction to the world of The Witcher with a recap of what has transpired on the continent in the two years since Sword of Destiny. The book itself opens with Ithlinne's prophecy. And, if you are coming from the Netflix series and haven't read the books, this is still going to sound familiar to you. I'll read it out for the sake of conversation. Um, I'm going to take out all the Dwarvish and all the Elven so I can actually read it smoothly.

“Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf's blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt. The Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of the Elder Blood, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout, but will burst into flame. Thus it shall be! Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves…”

This is a prophecy that exists in the world of The Witcher and Sapkowski has chosen to put it in the beginning of Blood of Elves in order to frame the book and its contents.

BRETT: I don't know how much spoilery this will be. But I think it's definitely to lead off with this is Ciri, and this is about Ciri, and so much of this is going to be about her. Those first two books you read of The Witcher, it's Geralt and, oh, there's this Child of Destiny we've been kind of hinting at. Right here, straight up, before you even start the chapter, is this prophecy. And then, when we get started with the chapter, look whose story it begins with.

ALYSSA: Mhmm. What do you guys think the “blood of elves” that kind of closes this prophecy refers to?

BRETT: Yeah, I don't – yeah, I don't want to get too in depth into it.

LARS: Well, maybe that's what it's all about. Maybe it's, when you read the book for the first time, it's very strange, obscure, and you don't really know what this refers to. Maybe, when you reread it or, well, at least, finished the first three or five, six chapters of Blood of Elves, well, it becomes clear what all of this refers to. Well, it's intentional, I think, maybe by Sapkowski to leave the reader a little bit in the dark—

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: —what all of this is about.

ALYSSA: And I think, as you said, Brett, it does a very nice job of introducing one of the protagonists of this series moving forward and that is Ciri. We’re immediately dropped into one of Ciri’s nightmares that takes her back to Cintra and to the massacre at Cintra. So, she wakes from this nightmare and the witcher consoles her back to sleep. But it is our first look at what actually happened during the massacre at Cintra.

BRETT: I like that you called it the “massacre of Cintra” or the “slaughter of Cintra.”

ALYSSA: I'm not a Nilfgaardian, Brett.

BRETT: That's the thing. You can tell who's a Nilfgaardian by – well, they call it “the battle” or “the slaughter.” And, again, I think it was good to lead off with this because we're actually going back to Ciri’s idea of what happened, and what's in her head, and how she viewed it. We're getting it, first off, this firsthand account from her. And, if there are any other accounts that come after it, we'll kind of have to piece it together and see exactly where it was leading because a lot of this was – actually just about all of it – was left out before.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: And, so, we're jumping straight into, you know, the major stuff that happened from the previous – mainly, the previous book but also just the previous two books in general.

ALYSSA: The last we heard about Cintra and then also about Marnadal and Sodden, they were really just footnotes to Geralt’s story in “Something More”, the short story that closed out Sword of Destiny. This is the first time we really are experiencing a firsthand account of battle in the Witcher saga. And it's notably, you know, a child's. Ciri is only about – what? – like, eight, maybe 10 at the time. It's just complete chaos. The, the chorus that kind of goes in the prose is just “Hold on” and, eventually, just the word fear over and over again. Lars, you had a couple of notes here about the classic fantasy trope of the Black Knight.

LARS: Yeah, very important part of this beginning of the chapter is, of course, this ominous black knight kind of hunting for Ciri a little bit. Of course, hunting fits perfectly as Ciri describes him as a bird of prey with his winged helmet. Even more stresses that he's looking for something. And, well, the Black Knight in itself is a classic fantasy trope. In, yeah, fantasy and mythology, normally, the Black Knight is mostly a villain masking his own identity in contrast, of course, to the white knight. As Andrzej Sapkowski is a big fan of Arthurian legends, of King Arthur, and all of this related to the mythological cycle of King Arthur—

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: —and, of course, black knights appear several times in the stories about King Arthur, of course, the Black Knight makes an appearance in the Witcher books too. In all of literature, you can find the Black Knights even in movies like Monty Python and the Holy Grail even though, of course, there's a little bit of a twist to the black knight.

ALYSSA: Uh huh.

LARS: In Sleepy Hollow, for example... In video games, there are black knights in World of Warcraft, Dark Souls, of course. And, well, in Kingdom Come Deliverance, there's some episodes with the black knight. And this black knight isn't or doesn't seem to be a, a very nice dude either, I would say.

ALYSSA: No, not at all.

BRETT: That also comes with y'all can see in here one of those swords on the back over there is from Edward III, whose nickname was the Black Prince.

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Hey! It’s Alyssa. Brett misspoke here and wanted to add that the Black Prince, Edward of Woodstock, was actually the eldest son of King Edward III of England.

BRETT: And there are different accounts of how he got that name. And one of the accounts was the French peasants who gave him that name because of all the ravaging and marauding of the countryside that he did. So, even I don't know if that had anything to do with Sapkowski doing this. But, from that account would be, “Oh, no, it's black. It's dark. It's bad.” It's almost a... representation, if you will, of death.

LARS: Mhmm.

ALYSSA: And I guess if you guys look at the canon of Black Knight tropes, is there any way that this knight is different, at least, in the short scene we've seen so far? Or does it follow the trope, basically, to a tee?

LARS: Oh, well, what do we learn about him in the beginning of the chapter? There isn't too much. He's just the classic threat. We don't learn his identity.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: He's looking for Ciri. And he's – well, amidst flames and fire and a rubble city, a sea of flames is mentioned.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: So, he fits right into the scenery, like – actually, kind of like a hell. Like, well, the Christian hell, of course. But, yeah, it's Ciri’s own personal hell in that moment.

BRETT: I think it's also important to note that we don't get his identity and she can only see through the slits in his helmet. And, Lars, as you mentioned, there's a massacre going on. And it's just this absolute chaos. And it's through the eyes of a child. They mentioned the black knights like motionless arms. And it's almost where Ciri is, again, being carried away. And it's not even like a human or another person is doing it. It's a – again, like a manifestation, if you will, of something – of her fear almost, like, ripping her away from her home.

ALYSSA: You know, it has been quite some time since the massacre at Cintra. We know that she was in Transriver with the Druids for about six months. After that, she spent some time with them. And then she is now with Geralt. So, there has been quite some time, but she's still experiencing this trauma from that experience in Cintra. As we, kind of, continue to explore Ciri’s journey over, you know, the next five books, it'll be really interesting to see how this development – how her development, specifically, stems from this experience and from her trauma at Cintra. There was one other note that you had here, Lars, about the symbolism of fire and ice. How does that play into the opening scene?

LARS: Well, fire is a very important symbol in the begin – at the beginning of this chapter. Well, we have heard it several times in this prophecy you've read out before. Well, “a seed which will not sprout but will burst into flame.” The fire carries on into the beginning of this chapter. It destroys the city. Ciri is, uh, yeah, faced with a lot of fire and flames. Very important symbol that even carries on after Ciri wakes.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: After she awakes, she sits right by a campfire. And, well, the fire turns into a symbol of peacefulness and safety in the form of a campfire. So, when she's back in reality, when she's left her dreams or nightmares, fire isn't so scary anymore.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: And the reason for that, well, I think, we will see.

ALYSSA: She does wake up with Geralt. He's comforting her and kind of settling her back to sleep. We get to see more about her relationship with Geralt, at least, in [these] few brief paragraphs. And her attitude toward him is that of a child and a parent. In her words, she just says, you know, like, “This is Geralt of Rivia. He's the man who is my destiny. The one for whom I'm destined,” et cetera. So, there is, like, a very strong bond between them. And that's something that, that comes out in the prose. This is the first time we've really seen war like this in the Witcher books having come, of course, from the short stories. How would you say that this brief depiction of war compares to what you guys know about medieval warfare?

BRETT: The slaughter that happens in here I do think that people think was very common that, “Oh, a town fell and then everyone was massacred.” And that’s where the term rape and pillage comes from, which, again, the ‘rape’ part of the rape and pillage is not generally the rape that we think of. It's more or less plundering. And I'm trying not to say that word as much, but I do think it's important to understand that it's a different historical term that, like, stripping a city down and taking it was what they refer to as, like, ‘rape and plunder’. A couple of them, again, going back to Crusades, was Jerusalem at the end of the First Crusade and Constantinople in 1204 at the Fourth Crusade, where it was what you would describe as, like, a ‘bloodletting’, if you will, where people were hacked down in the streets. And, in the First Crusade, there's account of, you know, the streets flowing with blood, which, obviously, did not happen. That's impossible to have that many dead bodies and have, you know, all that in there. I think it was just saying, “There were a lot of people killed here!” And reading this kind of invoked that of it being the chaos part. And I never really thought about somebody who either wasn't doing the attacking or really being attacked. And the account we get here is an escape. It's an escape of somebody kidnapping someone from the viewpoint of the person that got kidnapped. So, I did really en—well, I shouldn't say I really enjoyed reading about the slaughter and kidnapping, but I thought it was done – I thought it was done very well.

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Before we continue with the episode, we're gonna hand it over to Lars from WitcherFlix for recent news on the Netflix show. When we come back, Brett, Lars, and I will continue our discussion of Blood of Elves, Chapter 1.

“Tidings from Toussaint”

[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by MojoFilter Media]

LARS FROM WITCHERFLIX: Hey, it's Lars from WitcherFlix and this is "Tidings from Toussaint". Welcome back everybody to a new season full of news, rumors and tidbits from the Witcher set. It feels great to be back again and I hope you are all doing fine. So, let's see what happened on the Witcher set since the last episode of Breakfast in Beauclair back in November 2020.

Just as a heads-up: The filming for Season 2 is still ongoing and is said to finish in the coming weeks—of course if there aren't any pandemic-related breaks anymore. So, let's keep our fingers crossed. Anyway, after finishing filming scenes at Fountains Abbey in the UK, the production had moved on to other corners of England in November 2020. The crew had filmed a big scene at Frensham Little Pond in Surrey involving Henry Cavill, Royce Pierreson (who plays the mage Istredd), Tom Canton as the elf Filavandrel and possibly Jeremy Crawford as the dwarf Yarpen Zigrin - moreover there was a big number of elves and Nilfgaardian soldiers. It is possibly that they were filming the big climactic scene for the season 2 finale here. Moreover they were also shooting some sequences at night. At the same time a big, dramatic scene involving Anya Chalotra and Freya Allen has been filmed at at Frensham Little Pond, too. According to some leaks from the set, the two share a dialogue where they about a "betrayal" from Yennefer's side. It is hard to guess what exactly that means. As some Nilfgaardian soldiers were present at this set, too, it's likely that this betrayal involves Nilfgaard in some shape of form.

Back in late November, the Witcher crew moved on to Bourne Woods, also in Surrey. And now an important name appears on the Witcher set for Season 2 for the first time: Stunt choreographer Wolfgang Stegemann films a big fight scene involving all witchers. Geralt, Vesemir, Eskel, Lambert and Coën were all part of this scene. Stegemann, by the way, is famous in the Witcher world for coordinating arguably the best fight scene of the show: when Geralt took on Renfri's band in the show's pilot episode. Unfortunately, we have no idea what exactly all the witchers were fighting.

Back in mid-December Henry Cavill had suffered an injury on set. It didn't seem to be too grave, as he was able to continue filming after the Christmas break, but what exactly happened on set is still unknown to us. But it was good to have Henry back that fast! Since then a great number of important scenes have been filmed. Thanks to some leaks from the set posted by Redanian Intelligence, we know some very spoilery things that will happen in Season 2. I don't want to give too much away now, so I only say this: These scenes involve a surprising plot twist for the witcher Eskel and some flashbacks to a kingdom that played a very important role in Season 1.

Of course, in the meantime, there have also been some casting news for the Witcher show. Most notably, actress Rebecca Hanssen will play Meve, Queen of Lyria and Rivia. She will appear in at least 2 episodes. Rebecca Hanssen featured in various films and TV shows, such as Netflix's Enola Holmes (alongside Henry Cavill by the way) and on the Amazon show "Lore". Moreover she seems to have a thing for fantasy: She will also voice a character in the upcoming video game Baldur's Gate 3. Of course, when there is Queen Meve, the other Northern kings cannot be that far away: British actor Edward Rowe (known for "Bait" or "Kernow King's Poldark") will play King Henselt, the ruler of the kingdom of Kaedwen. Both will play a role in one of the most important scenes in the book Blood of Elves at Hagge Castle. Moreover, actor Alastair Parker has also been cast for Season 2, unfortunately in an unknown role. Beside MyAnna Buring, who voiced Anna Henrietta in Blood and Wine, Alastair Parker is another Witcher 3 alumni: he lent his voice to the dwarf Cleaver in the Witcher 3 main game. Another acclaimed actor was also cast in Season 2: Richard Cunningham who was in "His Dark Materials" or "Star Wars: Rogue One" will appear in another unknown role.

But let's not forget the Witcher spinoff miniseries, "Blood Origin", about the early history of the Continent, from the Conjunction of the Spheres to the creation of the first witchers. The lead role for this show has been cast! British actress Jodie Turner-Smith (known for roles in the thriller movie "Queen & Slim" or on shows such as "Nightflyers") will play an elven woman named Éile. Thanks to Deadline, we already have an idea what her character is about: She is "an elite warrior blessed with the voice of a goddess, who has left her clan and position as Queen’s guardian to follow her heart as a nomadic musician. A grand reckoning on the continent forces her to return to the way of the blade in her quest for vengeance and redemption." Moreover, we got the casting call for a second lead character in "Blood Origin". This time it is about a male elf named "Fjall". The casting call reads as follows: "While about the same age as Eile, he is from an opposing clan – implying that there may be a clash for dominance. Not only is he physically strong, but is described as raw, gritty and visceral. Certainly a contrast to the graceful strength that one might expect from Eile."

Oh, and last but not least, there is also the Witcher spinoff animated movie called "Nightmare of the Wolf" about a young Vesemir. And, fortunately, there are some things to report about it as well: the movie got its first official logo that includes its name and a wolf skull. In addition, we have also learned how long this movie will be: "Nightmare of the Wolf" will run for 81 minutes. The film is being made by the way by the Korean Studio Mir, who are most famous for the animation of “Legend of Korra.”

Anyway guys, that's it for me for today. Have fun with the new season of "Breakfast in Beauclair". I hope you all stay safe and well. We'll talk again in the next episode. Until then, thanks again for listening and good luck on the path!

[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by MojoFilter Media]

Episode Sponsor: MojoFilter Media

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Discussion

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Hey, everyone! Welcome back from the break. When we left off we had discussed the introductory prophecy to Blood of Elves and examined Ciri’s nightmares.

ALYSSA: The scene with Ciri and Geralt is our opening to the chapter and the meat of it actually happens quite a bit later. About two years after the fall of Cintra, Dandelion serenades a mixed group of travelers who exchange information from around the Continent. I really enjoy the scene. It opens with Dandelion closing a ballad and we just get all of this gossip from around the Continent from elves, from dwarves, from halflings... humans as well. And, from their dialogue, we get to not just hear about what's happened on the Continent, but also see the relationship between humans and nonhumans, between different kinds of classes and guilds.

BRETT: I understand, like, this was needed because it's one of those – the first two books are short stories. And this is starting a novel. And they really needed to catch people up because I still see questions to this day of people not knowing where to start reading The Witcher books.

LARS: Mhmm.

BRETT: Because they hear the first two are short stories. And then the third one is a novel. And then it's always, “Well, do I need to read the short stories?” It's, like, well, you don't need to. And there's maybe only, like, two or three that will really help do it. But, this right here, you just need to kind of catch people up. It's almost like the new season of a TV show when you have “Previously on…”

LARS: Mhmm.

BRETT: And they kind of catch you up to speed in how it was done. And, yeah, there's a lot of stuff they put in here. But, like you mentioned, it's laying the groundwork for so much that is to come. And it was done – it was done very smoothly. And reading through and just looking at the name – and, Alyssa, I know—

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: —uh, you're with me on this. When I see Dandelion, all I hear is the audiobook—

LARS: [Laughs]

ALYSSA: [Laughs]

BRETT: —and Peter Kenny's ‘Dan-dillion’. And I can't not say or think at least – I'll say Dandelion but just ‘Dan-dillion is always right there on the tip of the tongue.

ALYSSA: Yeah, bless Peter Kenny. Also, thank you Peter Kenny for creating an entire audiobook for the hanza holiday thing. But, yeah, whenever I listen to the audiobooks, I have to switch a little bit. Honestly, even after the Netflix series using Jaskier—

BRETT: Yeah. Yeah.

ALYSSA: —I have to just kind of switch in my mind between Jaskier and Dandelion as well.

LARS: It's hard for me too because I have actually three name, uh, names for this character in my mind.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: Well, ‘Jaskier’ is the show one. Then ‘Dandelion’ is the, well, English one while reading the books in English and, of course, the German one for me. He's always ‘Rittersporn’. So—

ALYSSA: [Chuckles]

LARS: —it’s not that easy. [Laughs]

ALYSSA: Amazing. And does that mean ‘buttercup’ in German?

LARS: No, it actually means ‘larkspur.’ I think it's a flower maybe.

ALYSSA: Okay.

LARS: It's another kind of flower. Well, literally, it means knight's spur.

ALYSSA: Okay.

LARS: ‘Ritter’ means knight in German and ‘sporn’ like spur. Yeah.

BRETT: Do y'all know if they changed any other names? Because I still can't get over that Jaskier’s is changed in seemingly every other language.

ALYSSA: Lars, did you make a series of posts—

LARS: Right.

ALYSSA: —about the names of The Witcher characters in different languages?

LARS: Right. And a few – a few weeks ago, I did – actually, I did one on Jaskier and – I don't know –there are at least, 12 different names for Jaskier. Why are they doing it? I think because, well, his name literally has a second meaning and it's always a flower that kind of represents this character. You know, the English name Dandelion is perfect as you have the word ‘lion’ and ‘dandy’, which kind of describes his character. In German, you have Rittersporn as the word ‘ritter’ and knight kind of describes his character. I have – I have no idea how all these other languages went by, which I can look it up. Well, most of the languages that translate him literally as Buttercup, I think.

ALYSSA: I appreciate the, uh, the German impulse to just kind of pull out all the contracted words.

LARS: Yeah. Right. You're right! I did that! Right. That's the way German works: putting thousands of words together and creating a new word.

ALYSSA: It’s incredible. Something that I would love to touch on is talk about the setting a little bit. And I'm going to butcher this, as I do, but I have a plausible reason for why I might pronounce it this way. Is it Bleobheris? [pronounced “Bleo-VER-is”] Like Dana Meadbh, M-E-A-D-B-H, does that get the ‘VE’ sound? This giant oak is spelled B-L-O-E – no sorry – B-L-E-O-B-H-E-R-I-S. Is it Bleobheris? [pronounced “Bleo-VER-is”]

[Silence]

BRETT: Sure.

LARS: Yeah. [Laughs]

BRETT: Maybe. Sure. What I – what I—

ALYSSA: Who knows?

BRETT: I, I literally, in my head, was like, “Yeah, Bleobheris.” [“Bleo-BER-is”]

LARS: Yeah.

BRETT: Bleobheris. Yeah. Although, I do like Bleobheris with a ‘v’. That does sound like a lot better.

LARS: Yeah, sounds like elder speech. So, it must be right.

ALYSSA: All right. We're gonna – we're gonna go with that.

LARS: [Laughs]

ALYSSA: And it's described in the book as a meeting ground for wanderers and famous for its tolerance and openness. And it is known to druids as the ‘Seat of Friendship’. We very quickly learn that, despite everyone who has gathered under the tree, all of the humans and nonhumans are separated. The non-humans are separated by species. So, elves, dwarves, halflings, et cetera. And the humans are separated by class. So, you have all the peasants, the merchants, and the nobleman all separated as well. And there's a really sweet passage that is in this introduction as well, where it says:

“The exception, as ever, was the children. Children of elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, half-elves, quarter-elves, and toddlers of mysterious provenance neither new nor recognized racial or social divisions. At least, not yet.”

And I think it does a really nice job of showing us the world of the continent without having any dialogue yet.

BRETT: Yeah, it's one thing that drives me crazy when you hear people complain about, “Oh, SJW Witcher and all that are – or I don't want politics in my blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” And then, again, right out of the gate here, Sapkowski is showing – now, it might be harsh to say it gets beat over our head later. But it's showing here there is racism here. There is segregation. And then, amongst the humans, there's even class segregation. But – and, again, I'm really glad you put that in there – it's showing the children. That children don't care. That children don't care about, you know, the racial divisions. They don't care about anything else. And that's Sapkowski’s way – and maybe I'm reading too much into this – of him saying that this stuff is all learned. And they're innocent at first. And the adults that are doing all of this are doing it because it's not natural. It's done in their own way. And it's not of the natural order, I should say.

ALYSSA: And I think one of the things that I really do appreciate about this opening as well is that it grounds the reader in something that feels real and flawed. I think it's very easy to fall into the trap of, like, making everything “perfect fantasy world.” It introduces us to the nuances of the Continent, and to the society that's here, and what that integration successfully and unsuccessfully does. So, I think it's a really lovely introduction to the rest of the story as well as the rest of the series. So, as all of these travelers are talking, there are really three main points of discussion that happen throughout this chapter. The first is the debate of Geralt, Yen, and Ciri as myth or reality. The second is detailing the battles of Sodden. And the last thing that we get from this discussion is what is the state of the Northern Realms. So, with Geralt, Yen, and Ciri, there's just a lot of speculation about are they real because Dandelion keeps singing about them and what actually happened to them because everyone at various points thinks that they're dead.

LARS: I mean, yeah, I think it's the first time at least in this book where one of the universal themes of The Witcher main saga is discussed and that is the question: “What is a story, what is history, and how is it perceived?” Well, we learn, in this chapter, that history and stories depend on the viewpoint of those who tell them. Not necessarily in the sense of “history is written only by winners” because everyone has his or her own perspective on things, regardless if you won the war or if you lost the war. Even among those people who won the war, there are different views on things. And all those views are discussed in this chapter. Well, I kind of did the math for – math for this chapter as I counted all the characters who are talking in the scene. Especially when I read it for the first time, it was a little bit confusing for me to get who was talking, what kingdom are they from. And, excluding Dandelion, there were 14 characters, named ones and unnamed ones, who were talking and all of them with different backgrounds: dwarves, elves, humans, mages, druids, barons, journeymen – I don't know what do we have here – warrior, of course. A gnome—

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

LARS: —is among them, too. And I think he covered the whole Continent in this chapter.

ALYSSA: And, again, big props to Peter Kenny for voicing 14 separate characters—

LARS: [Chuckles]

ALYSSA: —in the same scene. Absolutely nuts. But, yeah, definitely speaks to the diversity and the culture of the Continent just by having all of these different people from different backgrounds and heritages in this one location. As you said, this is a huge theme of the Witcher. How do we define myth? How do we create it? And where do these stories come into play in both the present and the future? And it's something that we're gonna continue to explore all the way to Lady of the Lake, which is where this whole idea really blows open.

BRETT: Yeah, to hit on what you mentioned there about history. One thing that blew my mind and a lot of people could not handle it when I was in graduate school is the first class is basically – at least, my experience in it, it was basically them saying, “Oh, yeah, everything you learned as an undergraduate in history, it might not mean anything.” And then we learn that history is this blending of anthropology, of even sociology, and all of these kind of Social Sciences, if you will, because all that we know that happened in the past were firsthand accounts from there, primary sources. And, if there's only one primary source and it's only from one side, then that's all we have. If it's from one side who was in service to the king or a person in charge, they're going to be very biased. And we know from studying, numbers are always just throw them out the door. Like, they say, “Oh, there was 100,000 strong army.” And then we know about certain population numbers that is impossible. And anybody who has studied Ancient History – I'll just use the Greeks as an example. There is so little actual evidence from there that we cannot say, “This 100 percent happened.” So much of Ancient Greek history is the vases.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: Like, we look at vases and we're like, “Oh, they’re depicting this.” It's like, “Yeah, well, also, depicting Heracles and other Greek gods.” And, so, so much of that is just taken with this massive – with a mountain of salt. And, like, that was the one thing that was hardest to understand was it's like, “No. No, this is what happened. This is what was written down.” But then you're like, “Well, this is written down by one side that was there. Well, this other side, they were there also and they're writing completely differing accounts.” So, what do you do? And the thing is both are correct. And people are saying like, “Well, no, they're – they’re – they're different. Like, both cannot be correct.” And it's like, “They were there. We cannot actually disprove it.” Now, if someone said an angel came down and sliced half an army in half, we don't have to take that as real. But, if they're both offering realistic accounts, you have a primary source. Then you're correct. It happened.

ALYSSA: To get back to the texts and the content of The Witcher, the people that are having this discussion about Geralt, Yen, and Ciri: there's an unnamed priest and there's two people of immediate little importance that will turn up later in the series. And that is – I'm going to butcher this again – Vera Loewenhaupt – I don’t know if I'm saying that correctly – and Rayla of Lyria. As I've said before, Sapkowski does a really lovely job of building out the world using tertiary characters. And these are two people that, you know, we will at least see in tiny little cameos through the rest of the series. But they do make their first appearance here. The second thing that's discussed in this – in this grand conversation are the battles of Sodden. So, do you guys have a little bit more information about the context of both these battles in the first Nilfgaardian war?

BRETT: Yeah, the battle – the Battle of Marnadal was Cintra, right?

ALYSSA: Yeah.

BRETT: Where Eist was killed.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: Yeah. And, in the show, Calanthe was there, but, if I'm correct, in the book, she was not there. Isn’t that right?

ALYSSA: Aaaah—

BRETT: I don't believe she was there because it was an absolute, like, destruction. Everything got destroyed. It was one of those like, “Oh, my god, we lost the entire army.” And, if she would have been there, I kind of just would have assumed that she would have been captured. And then – well, there's the war.

ALYSSA: I think Dandelion’s account of Marnadal [in “Something More” from Sword of Destiny]was that, I think, she might have been there, but she still came back.

LARS: Mhmm.

BRETT: Okay.

ALYSSA: If I'm remembering it correctly, I think the past is that, like, she basically fought, like, a lion—

LARS: Mhmm.

ALYSSA: —all the way back through what I'm imagining is a moat, but maybe it's not. But she fought all the way back to the castle. At least, I think that's what it is.

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Hey! It’s Alyssa. I looked up the passage from “Something More” in Sword of Destiny and Dandelion describes Calanthe’s role at Marnadal and the massacre of Cintra as:

“The Nilfgaardians invaded across the passes. There were thousands of them. They surrounded the Cintran army in the Marnadal valley. A battle was joined lasting the whole day, from dawn ‘til dusk. The forces of Cintra fought courageously but were decimated. The king fell, then [Calanthe] headed off a stampede, didn’t let them disperse, gathered anyone she was able to around herself and the standard. They fought their way through the encirclement and fell back across the river toward the city. [Calanthe] defended the river crossing with a handful of knights, and shielded the retreat. They say she fought like a man, threw herself like a woman possessed into the greatest turmoil. They stabbed her with pikes as she charged the Nilfgaardian foot. She was transported to the city gravely wounded.”

BRETT: Because she got the nickname from a previous battle when she was a lot younger, right? And that was—

ALYSSA: Yeah.

BRETT: Okay. Okay. Like, I had everything good in the books. And then the show comes out. And so much of that was different.

LARS: Mhmm.

BRETT: And it has – so much as muddled and blended. Most of the stuff I say, I'm like, “Is that right?” Because I don't want to speak and, you know – as, like, an authoritarian on it. And it'd be like, “No, no, no, no, no, I didn't know.” But, yeah, I remember that was the battle that led to it. And then Sodden… what I get out of that was just the savagery from the magic—

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: —and the mages. That, you know, we can imagine or we can watch a movie and see a sword, you know, hack off an arm or someone get impaled. But, to try to imagine, you know, magic ripping people apart or – again, I'm not sure if this was – if it was mentioned in there. But the depiction of Coral, her body and what happens to her.

ALYSSA: Next chapter. Yeah.

BRETT: Okay. Well, I guess we saw the show. [Laughs]

ALYSSA: [Laughs]

BRETT: It kind of did that in there.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

BRETT: But, to me, it was just the savagery of Sodden and how much it was the sacrifice of the fourteen on the hill.

ALYSSA: Mhmm.

BRETT: I believe that's what it was.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

BRETT: And that's what I get out of that mainly, that battle.

ALYSSA: Lars, please feel free to correct me if any of this is – if any of this is incorrect. If I'm getting this, right, there were two battles of Sodden.

LARS: Mhmm.

ALYSSA: There was an earlier one where Nilfgaard was pushing their way forward and they did win that initial skirmish. And then the second battle of Sodden, which is the major one that we do end up seeing in the show, the one with the fourteen on the hill, that happened in retaliation for Marnadal and Cintra. So, Cintra ended up being the rallying cry of the North leading to that stand on Sodden against Nilfgaard, what Sheldon Skaggs and, and Donimir of Troy detailed here, which is having over 100,000 warriors at the Second Battle of Sodden with at least 30,000 maimed or killed. That's kind of the context in which they're talking about Sodden.

LARS: Mhmm. I think it's – well, it's not necessary for the story, but I think it's a little bit of a shame that we don't learn anything more specific about the first battle of Sodden where it's just a fact mentioned in passing, where it was the first one and the Nilfgaard won. And, well, as a Witcher history nerd, I'd really like to know more what happened there. What factions of the Northern Kingdoms fought at the first battle of Sodden Hill? Was it the rest of the army of Cintra? Was it the kingdoms in the south, the regions in the south of the Kingdom of Temeria? Was it Sodden – again, only Sodden? Was it only Sodden that Nilfgaard run over the army of Sodden? Well, this would be very interesting to know, at least, but we will never know. And our imagination needs to do the trick.

ALYSSA: The second battle of Sodden kind of definitively ended that first Nilfgaardian war. And we learn from this conversation, that the Northern forces—both mages and the actual kingdoms themselves—were led by Vilgefortz of Roggeveen and Vizimir of Redania. There's a brief summary of the Northern Kingdoms after this first Nilfgaardian war in that they came together to fight off Nilfgaard and then they just completely started going at each other's throats again, which is a bit of a shame, of course, to be unified for, for this cause and then to have that breakdown after the fact. By the end of the section, everyone under the tree is kind of at each other's throats, you know, debating Geralt, Yen, and Ciri, the state of the North, what happened, what will happen in the future. And then they realize that Dandelion has wandered off and he has snuck away after his little performance.

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Before we learn where Dandelion has gone, we’re going to end today’s discussion here. Join Brett from Whispers of Oxenfurt, Lars from WitcherFlix, and I in the next episode of Breakfast in Beauclair for our continued discussion of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Blood of Elves, Chapter 1.

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 music by MojoFilter Media.

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., Julie, Jamison, Ayvo of Gulet, Bee Haven of the Edge of the World, Jacob Meeks, Charlotte from Vengerberg Glamarye, RedKite, The Original Roach, AerialKitty, Dustin, Libby, The Castel Ravello Sommelier, Clare Odell, Jennidy Mundilovitch, Katrin from Austria, Brett from California, Wolf, and Corey from the US.

Special thanks to Brett and Lars for joining us for this episode and our international hanza for their support.

Transcriptionist: Rachelle Rose Bacharo
Editor: Krizia Casil

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Podcast EpisodeAlyssa EstebanMarch 4, 2021Blood of Elves