“Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials” | Around The Table: The Lore, Culture, and History Behind The Witcher
The world of Andrzej Sapkowski and Netflix’s The Witcher draws inspiration from real life history, folklore, and culture.
Join Alyssa from GoodMorhen, the host and producer of Breakfast in Beauclair, and Witcher content creators Anita and Karolina of Witcher Kitchen, Brett from Whispers of Oxenfurt, Charlotte from Vengerberg Glamarye, Cyprian from Berlin, and Lars from Witcherflix in this episode as they share facts and tidbits about a medieval female king, fairytales and folklore from Germany and Estonia, and the secret origin of some of Jaskier’s famous ballads.
Transcript
ALYSSA: What personal secret did author Andrzej Sapkowski reveal about one of his characters? What were the literary origins of a certain cursed knight in this episode? Welcome to Breakfast in Beauclair’s “Around The Table,” a segment where we go around the Beauclair breakfast table with other Witcher content creators sharing facts and tidbits about the production and real life history, folklore, and culture behind an episode of Netflix’s The Witcher. This week we’re diving into Episode 104, “Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials”.
KAROLINA: Hey! Here is Karolina from Witcher Kitchen. If you ever wondered if the characters created by Sapkowski have some counterparts in the real world and that he modeled the construction of the character on some historical or legendary character, we must disappoint you. The author denies to draw inspiration from existing characteristics of the characters, but on the other hand, he smuggled a small, personal tidbit into his books. We have in mind Jaskier’s character, especially his ballads. Sapkowski admits that several of the bards’ ballads, which you will find in the books, are his former college times poems.
CYPRIAN: Hey! This is Cyprian from Berlin. In Episode 4, we see Queen Calanthe trying to organize a royal wedding for Pavetta to form an alliance for Cintra. This was indeed a common practice in the medieval world, even beyond Europe. My favorite example of it has to be the marriage between Jadwiga of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Władysław Jagiełło, in 1386. Fun fact: Jadwiga and Władysław co-ruled the newly formed Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as both of them were formerly kings. Jadwiga was already crowned king of Poland before their marriage, because while Polish law at the time stated that the ruler must be king, it didn’t specify that the king needed to be male.
BRETT: Hey, this is Brett from Whispers of Oxenfurt. The inspiration of Duny, the cursed hedgehog, undoubtedly comes from Hans My Hedgehog by the Brothers Grimm. A man wants to have a child and wishes for even a hedgehog, which is exactly what he gets: Hans. Later on, a king stumbles across Hans, lost in the woods. In return for being shown the way home, he promises to give Hans whatever first greets him upon his return. Sound familiar? This turns out to be a princess and the king goes back on his word. A second king stumbles upon Hans—and seriously!? Do these kings have guides or a map? Or where exactly is Hans in this location? But he agrees to the same deal. She becomes, ahem, the property of Hans, who then goes to collect payment of the first deal. He strips the girl naked and pricks her with his spines until she is bloody all over and sends her back in disgrace. He eventually sheds his hedgehog skin and becomes a handsome prince, Disney style. And, yeah, maybe it’s not the best story...
LARS: Hey! It’s Lars from Witcherflix. Did you know Pavetta’s hedgehog lover, Duny, comes from a region called Erlenwald? This is a German word, which means “alder wood”. Alder, like the tree. As alder trees grow near bogs and swamps, in Celtic times, areas with alder trees were considered portals between our world and the netherworld. By the way, in German, “erlenwald” sounds kind of similar to the “Erlkönig”, which is the name of a famous poem written by famous German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In this poem, the Erlkönig, which can be translated as “King of the Alder Trees” or, simply, “Elf King”, is a supernatural being trying to steal little children. Maybe in Queen Calanthe’s opinion, Duny was also some kind of erlkönig. He came to Cintra to steal away her child, Pavetta.
CHARLOTTE: Hey, this is Charlotte from Vengerberg Glamarye. In this episode, we get to follow Ciri into Brokilon Forest. Magical forbidden forests that take children are rampant throughout fairytales. But the first magical forest I ever read about when I was young, was in a rare book of stories called Fairy Tales from Baltic Shores: Folklore Stories from Estonia. In this book, there was a story called “The Woods of Tontla”, a mysterious place where human-like creatures were said to move about the trees and not even the boldest men set foot there. A young girl whose mother had died and was running from a very hard life, finds herself in the forbidden woods and meets beautiful children and the golden Lady of the Wood, who asks if she would like to leave behind her tragic life and stay in the woods of Tontla forever. If you can get your hands on this book and you’re a fan of old fairy tales, I highly recommend it.
ALYSSA: Thanks for sharing breakfast with us in this installment of “Around The Table.” The Witcher Universe has so much to uncover! Let us know in the comments below what you found interesting from today’s segment and if you have something new to share with our hanza about this episode. We’ll see you after the next episode of Breakfast in Beauclair.