“The End’s Beginning” | 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 Lilit and The Curse of the Black Sun, real life Sumerian and Babylonian goddess Lilith, medieval lighting, Polish cuisine, the Tridam Ultimatum from "The Lesser Evil", and author Andrzej Sapkowski's own insight into his main character's moral conflicts.
Transcript
ALYSSA: How do modern Hollywood effects actually compare to real life medieval history? What does author Andrzej Sapkowski have to say about his main character’s conflicts? 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 101, “The End’s Beginning”.
CHARLOTTE: Hi, this is Charlotte from Vengerberg Glamarye. In this first episode of the Netflix series, we follow the story of Renfri, a princess who was born during an eclipse and deemed to be a cursed handmaiden of Lilit. The Witcher book and the Netflix series are full of references to modern and historical witchcraft. And if you enjoy classical word origins, you can gain some fun folklore information from just a few words. For example, the origin of the word “eclipse” comes from the Greek and Latin “ékleipsis”, which means “abandonment” or “forsaking.” Throughout history, eclipses have always been a herald of misfortune as well as a conduit for magic. For practitioners of witchcraft, a total eclipse is powerful. Solar eclipses only occur during a new moon. Magically, the new moon signifies new beginnings or endings. See that? Beginnings, ending. “End’s Beginning”.
LARS: Hey! It’s Lars from Witcherflix. Did you know that the demon goddess Lilith that was mentioned by Stregobor is based on a real life goddess of the same name? The Curse of the Black Sun says that she will return during a full eclipse and her way will be prepared by sixty cursed girls, among them, Renfri. In our world, the goddess Lilith is mentioned in Sumerian and Babylonian mythology for the first time when she’s described as living in the netherworlds. Lilith was also the name of the first wife of Adam in Christianity and in astrology, she’s also called “The Dark Twin of the Moon” or even “Black Moon”, a very fitting name for the bringer of the end of the world for the kingdoms in The Witcher.
CYPRIAN: Hey! This is Cyprian from Berlin. Let’s talk about lighting. How do you light a room in a medieval period? Well, besides windows, you use fire, presumably candles, rushlights, or oil lamps. Not torches. Especially not indoors. Medieval torches produce a lot of smoke and stink! So you’d have a rather bad time having a few of them burning in your room. We see examples of both things being shown in the first episode and, admittedly, throughout the season.
ANITA: Hello! It’s Anita from Witcher Kitchen. We all are aware that sometimes the translation of books from original to other languages may cause some slight differences. The overall sense stays the same, but the original work may indicate more details. Like in the case of this scene with Renfri and Geralt in the Blaviken's tavern. We cannot see exactly what Renfri eats inside the inn, but in Polish version of the books in conversation between Geralt and Blaviken's voyt, we read that the local cook serves groats with "omasta", which means liquid fat or gravy in Polish. In English translation of Sapkowski's book, bacon is mentioned instead. Very similar as it's still the kind of a fat, but the serving way of a dish may be slightly different.
BRETT: Hey, this is Brett from Whispers of Oxenfurt. The ultimatum delivered by Renfri’s band occurred in the story, “The Lesser Evil”, which is what inspired this episode. It is known as the Tridam Ultimatum, invoked due to it occurring in the titular town. A baron had imprisoned some bandits, whose friends then took hostages and threatened to kill them if their comrades were not released. The baron called their bluff, the bandits killed many of them, at which point the baron relented and acquiesced to their demands. He chose the lesser evil, as he called it, by freeing the bandits and saving the innocent. Geralt made his own decision of a lesser evil, and earned an infamous moniker in the process.
KAROLINA: Hey! Here is Karolina from Witcher Kitchen. As you probably know, Witcher’s job is mainly to kill monsters. In fact, this shows the first scene opening the first episode of Netflix series. However, Geralt also has duels with people in the story of the series and books, and the good example of this is his relationship with Renfri and their final fight. According to initial idea of book’s author and his aimed direction of Witcher character development, such conflicts were created not without the purpose. In an interview in Historia i Fantastyka, Sapkowski mentioned that he tried to avoid writing scenes with fights between witcher and people. And when they were created, clashes with people were traumatic for Geralt. According to author’s plan, the main character experiences moments of breakdowns and emotional weaknesses, which is rather unusual for a professional, “so-called”, butcher. That’s why when Geralt crosses arms with Renfri, it is ultimately a strong moral experience for him.
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.