Talk:The Witcher

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The stuff about hexer code, hexers having no feelings and Geralt being an outcast are taken from the movie, not the books. In the books, Geralt made his code himself, other hexers definitely have feelings even if they don't admit it, and Geralt was on friendly terms with other hexers. --- I'm changing the Warlock to Witcher. Please observe Talk:Andrzej Sapkowski for explanations. This needs to be reviewed by english native.

The general idea is, that Warlock implies wrong profession. Witcher, is a word coined both in Polish and English.

The preferred author's translation is "Hexer" but this is getting inconsistent. HELP.

Furthermore, consistency translation corrections in the five book saga titles (again, see Talk:Andrzej Sapkowski for more details).

This should probably be moved to Witcher. Sapkowski himself has accepted this translation (as read in one interview), and it will probably be used for translations of Sapkowski's books. Ausir 22:27, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

In terms of the translation i think we just have to wait and see how the books are translated to English. This should be this year. I myself prefer "Witcher", but this is just my opinion, which is not based on the author's preferance's.

I have a problem with the translation of the second book in the saga: I think that "The Time of Contempt" would be preferred to "Season...". --M. Alexander 00:35, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Section 'The Name "Witcher"' claims:
 * "Hexe and Hexer are the German words for "witch" and "warlock" respectively.[21]"
 * ([21] being "Andrzej Sapkowski; Stanisław Bereś (2005). Historia i fantastyka (in Polish)")

"Hexer" (German) is the female form of Hexe (witch), nothing more and nothing less, hence not really a synonym for "warlock", which seems to have a negative/evil subcontext.

Hexer is closer to warlock than to witcher only in witcher being a neologism.

--80.6.22.83 (talk) 01:10, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
 * That basically disagrees with every dictionary and translation site I can find, never mind that its sourced. -- ferret (talk) 01:18, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

title translations
Although I am not English native speaker, I have few proposals on new story/book title translations:

The Last Wish (Ostatnie życzenie)

The Swallow Tower (Wieża jaskółki) - stems from the original hen llinge term: Tor Zireael

Jan II.

Names, etc.
Since it's now official that Gollancz will use "witcher" not "hexer" (along with CD Projekt), I changed the articles. I also made some minor changes: &#91;--anonymous&#93;
 * "The Last Wish" will be the name of the book in England
 * "Baptism of fire" is more frequent form than "by fire"
 * "season of contempt" is "okres pogardy", I see no reason for not using "time"
 * the correct word for books is series not cycle
 * added some missing capitals


 * I changed "contempt" to "disdain" as it seems more accurate. &#91;--anon.&#93;

Ok Hereisdx (talk) 13:06, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Loads of cleanup
I've done all manner of cleanup. Some of the salient bits to keep in mind: &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 12:08, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Short story, article, TV episode, individual comic book issues/stories, and other "short bit" titles are put in "Quotes Like This". Names of novels, comic book series, TV series, magazines, games, etc., are Italicized Like This.  If the comics have an overaching title, it should be done in italics, and the individual story names put into "quotes".  A series name ("Blood of the Elves") should also be done in quotes, not italics.
 * Until each story/book actually is translated and published in English, the titles of these works should be ordered, and wikilinked, in the following fashion, because the English titles are not titles at all, they are estimated translations, and thus if asserted as the titles they are bare original research guesses at what the eventual English titles will really be: Krew elfów (Blood of the Elves) (1994)
 * Do not create redlinks to characters, empires, races, etc., in minor works of fiction like this. Such things should be described in the prose of the main article, and/or assembled into lists of characters, etc., in the the main article.
 * This comment was quite old, but it was an excellent guideline for Polish/English titles. Each book now has an officially published English translation, so the ordering will now be adjusted for the English version of Wikipedia to help find titles they can look for in stores/libraries. -2pou (talk) 23:30, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Partial merge, rename, and cleanup proposal
Merge content in from Krew elfów that would help explain the Witcher universe. Clean up Krew elfów article (all those pointless redlinks especially). Rename The Witcher to Blood of the Elves or something else otherwise more descriptive of the fictional universe and of the series, and finally rewrite the article to be about that instead of about Geralt the Witcher as a character. Basically the 3-article set we have on this overall topic is a real mess - unfocused and confusing in intent, and does not agree with how we do things at the English Wikipedia. Compare Middle-earth and Lord of the Rings: One major article for the fictional universe, one for each notable work pertaining to it, and sub-articles on things like characters, races, etc., only when the main articles get too large and must be split, and even then only for notable examples - minor ones go in "List of..." articles (again, only when the main articles for the universe/works are so large that guidelines recommend that they be split; the lists should otherwise remain as sections inside the main article). &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 12:08, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

xCentaur | talk  20:17, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Redlinks removed.
 * Support page rename.
 * Support rewrite.
 * In current state, I don't support the merge, because it would only further clutter a page thats already messed up.

Contradition needs fixing
The intro says that then entire series/universe is called "Blood of the Elves", but the section on the books implies that this really only applies to the novels. &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 12:08, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, the title actually only applies to the first novel of the series. --217.197.68.83 14:25, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

I think "The Witcher saga" is a better title for the series as a whole. It's the one used on the back of The Last Wish. Blood of Elves is the first proper novel, but several short stories exist which have nothing to do with the story in Blood of Elves. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.167.97.194 (talk) 19:51, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Wiedzmin plakat.jpg
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BetacommandBot 04:50, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

HEXER band?
What has the HEXER band in common with the witcher to be mentioned in the links section with the link to their myspace profile? --SkyHiRider (talk) 17:07, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Seems to me like it's just a ploy to advertise the band. I've deleted the link along with the misplaced and incoherent reference to Vader's "Sword of the Witcher" song. The latter should probably be covered in the computer game section as it was used to promote the game. Irritator (talk) 18:42, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Elric
Would I be right in asuming that Gerald is heaverly based on Elric of Melnibone?


 * No, I don´t think so. The similarity began and ends with both Elric and Geralt beeing albino and having a "White Wolf" nickname. The universe, the character, the story etc. all of it is completele different. I´d say it´s just a coincidence, a very vague one since albino characters are used multiple times in various literatures even before 70ties (when first Elcric books were published) and the nickname is clearly made from Geralt beeing albino, ie white, (what happened to him after the mutation) and wolf beeing symbol of a loner. --EllsworthSK (talk) 01:35, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Even if he wanted, Sapkowski couldn't possibly rip the Erlic character, as those books were not published in Poland. And The Witcher came out in 1986, when no foreign book was allowed in Poland, as the country was still ruled by the communist party.


 * I'll quote from the wiki article on Sapkowski here. "He started his literary career as a translator, in particular, of science fiction." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:598:D828:7B6:E0A0:2A4F:4D1:B775 (talk) 20:23, 31 July 2022 (UTC)

It is untrue that no foreign books were allowed in Communist Poland. Many were available in translation. In addition, Sapkowski had admitted he was inspired by a number of western fantasy novels which were never officially published in Poland. They were passed around the fantasy/sci-fi scene in Poland hand to hand. Moorcock's novels were certainly in circulation behind the iron curtain. The similarities between Gerald and Elric are too great to be coincidence. Buy plagiarism is not seen as very important these days, I guess. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.99.4.204 (talk) 08:41, 27 July 2014 (UTC)

Accurate?
I am unhappy with this line, "Moreover, quite contrary to the classical fantasy scheme, there is no black-white partitioning." Unless there is some kind of a source then I will delete it —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.191.179.99 (talk) 04:19, 24 April 2009 (UTC)


 * What part are you most unhappy with? The fancruft? The peacock language? The use of a neologism? The lack of a valid encyclopedic citation? The moronic use of Wikipedia by fans who appear to have no respect for the unbiased purpose of this public forum? Speak up! 76.126.217.195 (talk) 21:47, 4 November 2010 (UTC)

Something ends, something begins - not the alternate ending
I can see one mistake in this article. Even if it looks like, "Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna" (Something Ends, Something Begins)is not the alternate ending of the saga. It was written and published before the saga. Mr. Sapkowski also wrote it clearly in the introduction to this story, even saying that you mustn't connect it with the saga. It's a common mistake, but this information is absolutely wrong. 178.73.27.76 (talk) 21:00, 24 January 2011 (UTC)Barbara S.

Fan made translations
Re:. Unfortunately, they are a copyright infringement, thus illegal, thus we cannot link to them. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 05:47, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Anthologies
There are two Witcher anthologies: the "Witcher legends" and the "Claws and Fangs"--Юе Артеміс (talk) 09:27, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Not sure what do you mean by the first one but I added the second one (as a spin-off). --WikiHannibal (talk) 23:53, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Removed unsourced claim that Hexer was initially a translation of wiedzmin preferred by Sapkowski
Per heading. I couldn't find a single source to verify this. All there is online are some unsourced mentions, likely using our article as a source. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 12:37, 14 October 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 15:07, 19 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Redania COA.svg

Can someone explain to me why still no List of The Witcher characters yet?
I thought Yennefer actually deserve their own characters, but not even a list? SNAAAAKE!! (talk) 17:02, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

This whole article needs to be rewritten, but the video games perhaps especially - actually using edited lead sections from the games articles might work well at least in part. (Btw all the book articles need to be really just written, that is beyond the plot at most.) SNAAAAKE!! (talk) 18:08, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
 * I had to follow like 7 redirects to find it, because Lacon for some reason moved it like 6 times back in 2015, but the list was last located at List of characters in The Witcher series and was redirected in 2016. If you attempt to rebuild it, that is where it should start out, to maintain the past history. -- ferret (talk) 18:12, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
 * I found the article already, anyway it's such completely absurd for someone just go and to redirect a list of characters from one of the most popular series of video games ever made AND also one of the more popular fantasy franchises today and nobody having reverted and restored it for years now. --SNAAAAKE!! (talk) 18:23, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Why? Popularity isn't a metric for deciding an article is necessary or not. Well sourced content that is too large to merge is essentially the metric here. My suggest: Expand the list here in this article (with sourcing of course) until the size argument holds weight, then split it back out. -- ferret (talk) 18:33, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

There used to be the (mostly unreferenced) page for With characters, see the history of "List of characters in The Witcher series" page. Whoever wants to write a proper "List" article, has to work on this old page and then request move to the proper title. Staszek Lem (talk) 19:28, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

Yennefer had a separate article but it did not survive this AfD (Articles for deletion/Yennefer of Vengerberg). I'd think Yennifer, Triss and maybe Dandelion, Ciri and Yarpen, in addition to Geralt (who already has a decent article), should have stand alone articles, but SOURCES. As for the List of characters in The Witcher series I can't see any AfD or Merge discussion. It is true it was poorly referenced but I don't think it should be effectively deleted without a discussion (AfD, probably). I have now restored the list. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 03:34, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

Language subsection
The article is semi-protected at the moment so I cannot fix this myself, but here is a note. In the article in the Language section (2.4) it says "In an interview Sapkowski explained that he wanted the language to be reasonably legible to a reader, to avoid footnotes. As he said: "In my book, I do not want for an orc telling to another orc 'Burbatuluk grabataluk!' to be supplied with a footnote: 'Shut the door, don't let the flies in!'"[18]" The "Burbatuluk grabataluk" snippet is linked to the article on (JRR Tolkien's) Black Speech. There is no reason for this at all presented in the source reference (no reference by the author or interviewer is made to the black speech or Tolkien's works in general) and it seems to at best be unsourced or maybe original research but more likely just an opinion (of relation) by the editor. I also note that the article/interview being referred to is no longer available at the linked URL, but it can still be retrieved through the Internet Archive by going back to an earlier year. 188.151.19.218 (talk) 16:30, 13 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Added a ref relating to Tolkien. WikiHannibal (talk) 19:09, 13 December 2019 (UTC)

Polish/Russian inspired anthologies
See pl:Opowieści ze świata Wiedźmina and pl:Wiedźmin. Szpony i kły. They don't seem to be mentioned on en wiki at all. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 12:56, 30 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi, they are mentioned in this very article, under The Witcher. I've added them myself 2 years ago. Feel free to expand, but with WP:RS. WikiHannibal (talk) 15:52, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

Is the The Witcher a Hard Fantasy novel series?
The Witcher brings a lot of logically consistent worldbuilding regarding both the magical, societal technological aspects of fantasy. The easiest example is The Ithlinne's prophecy's "Era of the wolf's blizzard", which was later explained as an upcoming Ice Age due to the shift of the planet's orbit. The whole plot is implied to be revolving around the wormhole network, that connects different universes with different physics, who are all being consumed by the eventual heat death. Other examples include vibrant society response to both monster infestation and extinction, magical and social threats. Witcher creation and obsolescence, racial conflicts, war aftermath, genetical armaments, who turn rogue - the world of the novel series is constantly evolving and changing, changing the protagonists and everyone around them. Quite a realistic depiction of the medieval combat, lifestyle, politics is what The Witcher does right. 37.99.37.187 (talk) 18:43, 7 January 2023 (UTC)