The Sword and Laser discussion

I thought it might be useful to have a Generic Discussion Place to talk about what makes this an interesting pick, namely, it's Polish Fantasy! I'm guessing most of us are either American, Canadian, or British here, and no matter that mot of us don't have much experience with Polish culture or literature (aside from Uprooted). I have a little bit of Polish experience, do to being an Altar Boy at an uber-Polish immigrant Church back in the day (Which led to an awful trip to Poland), but I never got to experience much more than the religious traditions and the food, so I'm mostly in the dark here too.

Anyway, I have a couple of Poland-related observations and a couple of questions for those S&L dudes that know more about Polish culture (that hopefully exist).

1. Geralt's whole deal about refusing to choose between the lesser of two evils is a super Catholic approach to morality. (view spoiler)[ and the fact that in the story he is punished for finally abandoning this scruple and choosing what he thinks is the lesser evil indicates that the story itself is kind of super-Catholic in its morality (hide spoiler)]. Catholic ethicists would generally say that choosing a lesser of two evils is still cooperation with evil, and thus itself an evil act. The moral individual is instead obligated to not choose between the two, to refuse to act. I'm not sure if Sapkowski is at all consciously adopting a Catholic morality though, mainly because I've gotten the impression that Poland's brand of Catholicism cares less about intellectual/philosophical traditions and more about devotional piety/ folklory stuff.

2. Nevellan's story really seems similar to Uprooted in some of its details. Are they both drawning on the same Polish source myth/folktale, with Sapkowski just tossing in fun French stuff to spice it up?

3. How much of the monster stuff here is uniquely Poland? I doublt Poland has folktales about "Sylvans," but are Striga Polish monsters? What about the kinds of vampires that Geralt rattles off, are they Polish vampires? How much is Sapkowski drawing on tradition, how much is he borrowing from other traditions, and how much is he just inventing?

I can give some answers--I was born in Poland and I read this book in Polish the first time around.

1. Probably.

2. Uprooted wasn't based on a traditional Polish fairy tale. They might have read the same story, sure--I think the one Naomi Novik referred to was written in the 1920s or thereabouts, and it had a French fairy tale inspiration--but either way, Sapkowski is blatantly riffing on "Beauty and the Beast", so even if he did read it I doubt he was drawing any connections to the other story.

3. Strzygas are uniquely Polish. They often get called "vampires" in translation, but they're not the same thing. The "actual" vampires in the Witcher owe more to Bram Stoker than traditional beliefs, I think. There's a lot of Slavic and specifically Polish fairy tale material in the Witcher books, but there's French, German and English stuff (including direct ties to Arthurian legend) in equal measure. Also, references to other, modern fantasy works from the 60s-80s that S&L members are probably familiar with.

Michal wrote: Strzygas are uniquely Polish. "

Is that the one that if a young woman died suddenly, they used to bury her with a brick in her jaw?

Michal wrote: "I can give some answers--I was born in Poland and I read this book in Polish the first time around.

1. Probably.

2. Uprooted wasn't based on a traditional Polish fairy tale. They might have read ..."

Thanks for the answers!

Do you mind a couple followups?

What are Polish Elves/Fey like (if Poland has them at all). The Witcher Elves seemed to me like a middle ground between Tolkien and Otherworldly Celtic Faerie Types. Is that representative of those sorts of things in Polish Folklore?

Also, In the original, was there as much Scottish and English-sounding names/places/etc, or are those just kind of transliterated from different regions of Poland (like the way Osaka accents will be translated into Texan) ?

From what I've heard, you bury them face-down with a sickle, but I guess a brick would work too.

There are "fairies" in Slavic folklore but nothing like the elves in Tolkien or the Witcher. Sapkowski was definitely going for a Scandinavian/Celtic vibe with that one.

The original has lots of English, French and Celtic names, While I haven't read the English translation I doubt many were changed at all.