I've been a hardcore fan of The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski since 2007 and I wanted to explain how I was introduced to this fantasy and fell in love with it. #thewitcher #sapkowski #slavic
I've made a mistake in the video. Old manor which Sapkowski calls "dworzyszcze" is not called "dvořiště" in Czech. I was thinking of the word "hradiště" which is also often used for Kaer Morhen.
As popular as the Witcher is what if I told you the Witcher is actually a rip off of pulp novel series called Elric of Melnibone. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TkiP64adGjY.html
I’m a Historian and you’re touching on the things W does right as low fantasy. Humans flock, just like birds; meaning that no matter the setting or supposed level of advancement the fundamental problems and bad behavior exhibited, especially by those with any power, are always the same. People always say the series feels so real. This is why. The only real monsters are people.
As a czech myself i can agree with all the points you've made, i have only recently gotten into the witcher universe, and i couldn't agree more with the point where you mention reading the books first makes experiencing the games that much better. can't wait for the next sap book and i am cautiously optimistic about the upcoming witcher game.
Yeah, I feel the same about the next Witcher games. Not sure if they'll be as good as the trilogy we have now because CDPR just isn't what it used to be but I hope the games will be good. I want more great Witcher games.
As a kid, my parents could not afford to buy me a kit to make our own computer, or early teens, to buy one. I started at the local school library, and those Choose your own adventure books got me hooked. Eventually I got into an online game, the original Never Winter Nights, and while making (later) games, I heard about an interview of Bioware and their Aurora Engine to use for making a possible Witch Game. It was like, OMG for real, finally a proper world. I still use one of the first prototype artworks as my desktop before the first game was defined :D Any Medieval books, movies, etc. I was like, another one for my growing hoard, aiming to reincarnated as a Dragon to guard my stash :P We need more low fantasy worlds, gritty and so on, I hope the W4 is a continuance of this games in general. I wish they'd had done an extra expansion with a remake of W1 and W2 areas though
Our childhoods and view of fantasy are fairly similar, except you're a western slav while I'm a southern slav. As I lived in a small border town, we didn't have cool stuff like Medieval Fares or cosplay events, though we made do by fighting with sticks in the nearby forest lol The way I got introduced to the Witcher was through my friend's older brother. He saw it in a magazine, and presented it to me like "it's like Lord of the Rings, but if it took place in the Balkans"... which isn't how I'd describe it, but LoTR was basically my bible, so I got myself a copy of the game. The atmosphere felt both like home, but also alien due to the fantasy elements. I was really hooked, and beat the game at least 20 times (likely more). It's still my fav Witcher game, of the 3 (though I like all of them). My opinion differs a bit on the Low VS High fantasy stuff, discovering and falling in love with Low Fantasy didn't really kill High Fantasy for me though. While I do find the former more immersive, I still get a kick out of the latter. Over the top armor with massive shoulder-pads, and super edgy swords still get me to say "hell yeah" haha.
This video was a breath of fresh air! I've been looking for content that puts a finger of this type of intangible, yet deeply meaningful, subject matter around atmospheres. I think, as human beings, we crave being immersed in atmospheres that transcend daily life, but also feel specific and personal. There is so much to be said about the atmospheres we consume and are exposed to, and the impact they have on us. So often, we gravitate to what's easily available, even if it doesn't reflect what we actually need. I really appreciate the care and clarity in the point of view you articulate. Thank you!
Thanks for the kind comment 🙂 I think that I might have go too overboard with repeating some points several times though. I need to cut down on that in the future. But yeah, atmosphere is one of my most favorite aspects of media. I could talk hours about atmosphere in some of my favorite movies and games 🙂
@@FolkWalkCZ You're welcome! That would be interesting! I really think you're onto something in connecting atmosphere with culture. I don't think we're only interested in constructed universes for escapism. There's a fundamental need for the collective imagination to be tied to a sense of meaning, nuance, and specificity, instead of generic, mass-produced fluff.
I first read the books when I was in college together with my best friend and roomate as bed time stories. Well, definitely bed time stories for not the faint of heart. It was hard to even get the books back then, this is how popular they already were in CZ. The translation was also pretty good, using different dialects etc. We loved it so much and to this day we're both The Witcher fans. It was by a complete coincidence that I had the chance to sit with Sapkowski at the same table at EuroCon, but unfortunately didn't talk to him :( Anyway, I was very happy that the games were so popular that it got more interest in Western Europe and it was translated into English. And yeah, I even got PS5 to be able to play Witcher 3, although I royally suck at it :)
I'm a big fantasy fan, but not a huge Witcher fan(I know, I am disgrace as a Polish). I like high fantasy, but with more fairy tail feel to it. I really like your videos tho. Makes me actualy want to play Witcher, which I had in my possesion for years, but never really got into it.
Hehe I lived 18 months in Poland and I could tell some Poles were a bit embarrassed not to be Witcher fans and slightly tired by the expectation to be a fan hehe. Most people appreciate the books and what it has done for putting Poland more on the map so to speak, but not everybody has to be a fan :D Greetings to Poland. It was nice to live in real life Novigrad/Gdańsk for a while :)
I've noticed you pronouncing Polish "rz" like r followed by z but actually it's pronounced like Czech ž (and in Old Polish like Czech ř) so Andrzej is pronounced like Andžej and Marzanna like Mažanna. edit. also Partyzaną is just the instrumental case of Partyzana
Ha.. good to hear. So I learned it right while I was there :D I actually didn't find Polish as hard to pronounce as everybody always claimed. You just need to invest the time to learn the letters and how they work differently than in other languages. After just a couple months I had the pronunciation mostly down, from the feedback I got. Now speaking the entire language.. that takes a while. But the pronunciation is not as horrifically difficult as people always say, even for a non-Slav like me :) I kinda like how it sounds too :)
@LeutnantJoker It's not pronunciation that is the worst but our grammar 😉 Sometimes we struggle with it ourselves. 😜 But, I'm just guessing, this goes to all Slavic languages, not only Polish. To some extent, I find German also somewhat complex in this regard. While I have problems with the correct usage of different tenses in English, I would say English is hilariously easy compared to my native language. I always admired foreigners learning Polish.
@@LeutnantJoker I feel like a lot of people shoot themselves in the foot right away by assuming it's hard. I mean sure - we it's kinda hard for foreigners to hear a difference between ż and ź, sz and ś, etc but it's not like you won't be understood.
I prefer the channel "schwerpunkt" it's in English and it's the videos are really from detail to detail (it's more for intellectual than entertainment)
I’m not sure if this is more historical fiction or low fantasy, but I would recommend reading the Warlord Chronicles trilogy by Bernard Cornwell. Idk if it has translated editions I’ve only read them in English. It’s a more historically based take on Arthurian mythos. It’s set in migration period Britain, and it told from the perspective of an old clergyman who is writing about his days in Arthur’s warband at the request of a young girl. It has the classic elements of the Arthurian myths, but in its own unique way. It’s a lot more based on the original Welsh stories as opposed the more popular medieval French Le Morte d’Arthur from Sir Thomas Malory.
I couldn't agree more with you, together with the well-written and special characters in the Witcher, and the dialogues, this is exactly why I fell in love with the Witcher, too. This more grounded version of a world, that seems more realistic, and I could see our world being exactly like this if magical creatures existed in reality (I even sometimes think that our world might be a continuation of the Witcher world, once the Eternal Fire has gotten rid of all 'magical abominations'). The societal problems touched are so grounded in our reality and humans act just like they would in the real world, be that cruel or not, it made this really special to me. I just wanted to add though, that medieval times are unfortunately almost never depicted accurately in fiction, whether that is in English fantasy or in other types of media, English or not, which makes the Witcher all the more special to me. And while I also like the High fantasy and anglo-saxon folklore, it's just overdone to some extent; and the Witcher was just something different, something that I as a Central European (though not of Slavic culture) could relate to on a deeper level.
Díky 🙂 Mám na českou RU-vid scénu podobnej názor a nesleduju proto žádný český youtubery, protože mi přijde, že většina akorát kopíruje zahraniční trendy a je to cringe.
It was interesting to listen/watch this, because I agree, feel the same, about the low fantasy setting, and the world being very grounded into something close to reality. I love the point you made about small chapels, it reminded me that I used to see some of that in the countryside of Normandie, like having a virgin mary or a jesus on the cross at crossroads, or small chapels by the roads. It is a small element, but it's the little touch that makes it more relatable. I'd point that there might have been fantasy castles in the witcher, but elvish ones? Like I remember that their architecture mentionned to have been very different from the human ones in the books. And I leave it there, if you're looking for some good books look for the works of Miles Cameron or Christian Cameron, same author, but he writes fantasy under Miles and historical under Christian. His settings are well researched, and very grounded in the time period he is depecting or inspired from, medieval or even bronze age. And I don't know if there are any translations in another language, but Jean-Philippe Jaworski, a french author, also writes fantasy that clicks with low fantasy elements you like. Keep up the good work!
Thanks 🙂 On the point of elven architecture..I like how it's depicted in the games as this more elegant take on gothic architecture of later medieval period (Beauclair or elven ruins in The Witcher 2 for example).
Notable difference between elves in the witcher and in other fantasy lies also in the fact, that Sapkowski's elves occasionally tend to be rather cruel, arrogant and indiferent towards others (unlike f. e. in Tolkien).
I always thought that the elves are actually rather similar in Tolkien and the Witcher. In the Lord of the Rings, I also always felt as if they were arrogant and indifferent, though mostly less cruel. And while their extinction isn't really that much of a thing yet in LotR, it is still clearly stated that the age of elves is coming to an end, and the age of humans is beginning.
Great video. I have the same feeling about being immersed in folklore of witcher, living in small polish village makes me feel like in home while reading or playing
The Witcher is really a post-modern mix done good and this is what makes it great. Greatest influenced in my opinion are: West Slavic folk stories, celtic legends and semi-historical novels by Henryk Sienkiewicz. You missed Sienkiewicz in your analysis (which is understandable, because you’re not Polish), but believe me, his spirit is huge in the original Polish versions of the Witcher.
for me personaly warhammer fantasy, but it is still without a good rpg game. Glad to see some1 liking the vibe of witcher as some1 that was read the book when i was young by my parents i love to watch ppl perspective on it. also a big Czech county in withcer is indeed cintra and var attre to represent more holy roman bohemia and slovakia
@@FolkWalkCZ I'm from Poland, I found it very interesting how you showed our European elements in The Witcher. It's possible that I feel sentimental, like you, about these things.
I recommend you try some books from *Joe Abercrombie* He is also writing in this gritty, realistic low fantasy world, where character are everyday people of that "era"
This is a pretty good video about what makes the Witcher series unique, but one of my main critiques with this video is that you repeat your opinions and sentences a lot, making the video unnecessarily longer.
Yeah, I know. I even say it at the end of the video. I should've rewrite the whole thing and make it shorter and more concise but I was already working on the script for way too long and felt like I have to move on to recording and editing. I'll try to spend more time on the script next time.
Witcher 1 was the BEST Witcher game.... I considered it better than Oblivion (same time). Same as Gothic2 better than Morrowind (same year) . Sadly, back then most people never even heard of Witcher (and Gothic2). Eventually CDPR became a big company, invested huge money into marketing, gain massive fanbase and popularity but lost their souls in the process.... Now they announced Witcher 1 remake but without 'politically incorrect' elements.
Don't know if you'll take a peak at this but much of what you're saying in this video I can deeply relate to. For context I'm a Canadian Ukrainian and like you I grew up obsessed with the world medieval aesthetic fairy tales, sleeping beauty was a favourite of mine. For my younger self it's definitely as you said, a form of escapism, but also less of power fantasy and more of a way to convince myself that I was capable and able to maybe do amazing things, I was kind of a sad kid that way. So growing up into my teen years and finding the witcher was, like yourself, a refreshing piece from a genre I held dear but had grown oversaturated to me. But most importantly it was the only big piece of media out there to represent Slavic cultures and match that with the fact it was a genuinely smart take on the fantasy genre and I instantly fell in love. I appreciate your mentioning of morana as she plays the opposite role to the spring goddess mylanka, whose especially important in Ukrainian celebrations similar to the holidays in the witcher books. So if you do see this thanks, I really found your story genuinely close to the heart.
Low fantasy for me means there's actual stakes at play with no McGuffins (or fewer at least) to randomly save the day. Leads to tighter plots, stronger writing overall and a story I can buy into. Cheers for the vid!
When it comes to books, I think the good alternative for the Witcher may be the Inquisitor series by Jacek Piekara. As far as I remember the world in this universe is the alternative version of late-medieval Europe. Really liked „Russian” trilogy which may be a good example of rus culture (I may be wrong, do not know much about Russian history). It is also non high fantasy, there are some demons and magic appearing but world is not based on that
23:58 konfrater comes from latin frater which means brother ... so the englsh translation may be more like colleague ( same job) than compatriot (same country). the english also uses confrere ( the french version of konfrater) which also means colleague.
Fascinating take with the Elves! I have also heard that they may be natives like indians or jews, but some say Palestinean, even.. The author made em' vague to be flexible i think... anyway Amazing video!! ❤
Good video. Your story reminids my own in many ways. Suppose I should recommend to you another of Sapkowski's medieval saga, but it seems you read the Hussite trilogy already :) Pozdrav
I was aware of the witcher through the games, played 1 and 2 a bit but never finished them. Watched a full play through of 2. I watch season 1 of the show and thought it was awesome, so I got the books and read the entire saga 3 times before season 2 came out. Needless to say my opinion of season 1 changed quite a bit after reading the books, and season 2.......... angered and annoyed me. Not watching season 3 ever, or any of the other garbage Netflix squeezes out in the universe.
@FolkWalkCZ Nope. I'm not Britsh, so my sarcasm is much less dry and more direct. I did, in fact, enjoy your recollections and agree with the points. KCD has informed how I present fantasy now.
Hey Folk!! Love your videos. Is there any plans to make some videos about KCD? I know it’s not a fantasy game but it’s the most Czech game you can have) would love to see you make some content on it.
I want to at some point 🙂 I just need to play it sometimes 😁 I don't have that much time for gaming anymore so I've played it only few times on PlayStation and PC and I've only got to Talmberk. I was waiting for the Czech dubbing made by the fans but when it came out I've already started doing RU-vid videos I think and now I have even less time for gaming. Especially when it comes to long RPGs like KCD. But I want to play it and make some videos about it 😉
What a wonderful love letter to the setting! If I may ask, what language did you read the books in? I tried The Last Wish a while back, and found some of the modernisms in the language jarring. think I recall "genetics" in one case, and at least to an American, "reservations" has a distinctly modern (well, very post medieval) connotation. I'd assumed that was a translation issue, and that in the original text the language is much more natural-sounding to the period. Is that the case?
Thank you 🙂 I've read it only in Czech language. I'm not sure if it's translation issue in the case of those words but from what I've read in Czech and heard about the Polish original both languages use words which are appropriate for the medieval setting and it's even more clear than in English that Sapkowski wanted The Witcher to be mainly medieval fantasy.
Did You play "Kingdom Come" czech game? I loved, i was only sorry i could't have czech langauge with english subtitels, but the game was very good in my opinion :-) As always is a great pleasure to watch Your material, time good spend! :-)
Andrzej Sapkowski also wrote an actual historic-fantasy series, a Hussitian Trylogy, which for you - as a Czech - should be even more interesting. In my opinion its far better than the Witcher, it's Sapkowski's real magnum opus. A complex, satisfying, dirty, rich story with amazing characters. Please check it out, it's worth it.
Polish titles would be: 1) Narrenturm, 2) Boży Bojownicy, 3) Lux Perpetua. I'm convinced it's all already translated to both English and Czech as well.
Do you know Juraj Červenák? He is slavic fantasy author, at least he was now he is writes detective stories. Sadly his book are not in english (I think) only in slovak and czech. He uses heroes like Bivoj or Ilya Muromets from slavic mytology.
@@FolkWalkCZ V tom případě doporučuju (obzvlášť jeho detektivní série Stein a Barbarič je skvělá), ale i ty fantasy jsou super. Byť jsou to spíš jednoduché Conanovky a občas až power fantasy, kde se nakonec často všechno vyřeší hrubou silou (trochu škoda). To velice silné slovanství a sympatické postavy mi to ovšem většinou vynahrazují.
Awesome video. As I said before in another comment in a community post announcing this video, the backgrounds that inform our perceptions are different to some extent, but our experiences with The Witcher are really similar overall, and we arrive pretty much at the same conclusions regarding why we think it is good fiction and what novelties and valuable things it brings to the table in relation to what we commonly see out there. It's nice to find somebody that thinks so much like me when it comes to entertainment in so many aspects. I wonder if you're also the annoying nitpicker and grumpy guy that complains about everything never being good enough and even has to talk about stuff that he likes by prefacing the problems they have hahaha.
@@FolkWalkCZ Well, at least I'll still get to be special in that way, I guess hahaha (in truth, I don't draw pleasure from it, but it is who I am and I can't help it).
I mostly agree, though I think some volumes of the books were forced storywise. I definitely loved the short novels, and how Sapkwoski wrote his characters but the later volumes of the books were somewhat disappointing to me - like Ciri jumping between different worlds. Sure, I understand she was not controlling her powers, but from the reader's perspective there is nothing meaningful in this - it felt like a filler to me, just to cover the pages with something. Aside from this, I agree. I loved all three games too. But I love high fantasy still. Apples and oranges to me. By the way, "Partyzana" (in denominator) in Polish ends with "a", same as in Czech. "Partyzaną" is an instrumental case.
he last book with Ciri jumping and a lot of filler stuff was also disappointing to me. But it was mainly just the last one. I think Sapkowski just ran a bit out of steam on that one. I think he just needed a good editor for that one. When a book is a bit out of whack and lacks focus like that it's usually the fault of the editor, less of the author.
Novigrad mean basically "new Castle" it's just Slavic etymology same as there are many places in Slavic countries name as visegrad/Vyšehrad, as he mentioned "my culture" he meant Slavic.
@@o0TraceuR0o Grad means castle or city , there's no particular difference as proto Slavs didn't had form of cities or feudal castles and the word in original mean basically something like "fortified settlement or building". The Bohemia was more "westernized" in a sense so the grad (Hrad) was formed to just a castle, while cities was made from German law's, but in Balkan the grad stayed in it's let's say more "archaic" form of being fortified settlement a city.
@Folk Walk You should check more Sapkowski's books if you not done it yet. I would just add one thing you not mentioned. Witcher world is not our Earth. Becouse Ciri visiting our "real world" once (or if you include arturian Camelot twice). So it not pretending to be our world just some people from our world were transported there by this Conjunction of spheres.
As a Warhammer fan - you got one thing rather wrong. Warhammer fantasy is very much high fantasy through and through. You have Deamons, Rat people, Orcs, Ogres, Undead, Undead Egyptians and more deamons. Some races like the Empire (esentially Holy Roman Empire) and Bretonnia (medieval France, but honorable) are more grounded, but those are exceptions. Then you have characters able to murders thousands of enemies on their own and magical weapons that can slay gods and deamons and so on.. Každopádně zase super video Martine!
Yep. People in the books also sometimes use the word "vědmák" which is closer to the Polish original "wiedźmin" but it doesn't sound very cool I guess.
