The Hexer
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The Hexer or the Witcher (Polish: Wiedźmin) named Geralt is a character created by Andrzej Sapkowski. Hexers appear in Sapkowski's Hexer cycle, comprising two short story collections and five novels. The novels sometimes wrongly described as the Hexer Saga (Saga o wiedźminie), where the correct over-title is Blood of the Elves. The stories and novels have been translated into Czech, Slovak, German, Russian, Lithuanian, French and Spanish. English translation of The Final Wish short story collection is going to be published by Gollancz in 2006.
Hexers are professional monster killers who receive special training and preparation. They are sterile mutants with supernatural abilities. During their training they are also taught to suppress their feelings, which leads many people to believe that they have no emotions. Geralt, the central character in Sapkowski's stories, is one of the best hexers.
Alternatively, the word warlock has been used informally in English translations, while witcher, being a new word in English (as wiedźmin is in Polish) describes better the spirit of Geralt's profession. Witcher is also used by the makers of a computer game based on the books. Sapkowski himself prefers the translation hexer.
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The Hexer cycle
Short stories
The hexer cycle started as a series of short stories, at first published in Fantastyka, a Polish science fiction magazine. The first short story was Wiedźmin (Hexer) (1986), written for a contest of Fantastyka magazine, where it won the 3rd place. The first four stories of Geralt (and Droga, z której się nie wraca (The road with no return), which took place in the same world, but dozens of years before the Hexer stories) were published in a short story collection titled Wiedźmin. All fifteen short stories were later collected in three books published by superNOWA - Ostatnie życzenie (The final wish), Miecz przeznaczenia (The sword of destiny) and Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna (Something ends, something begins).
The Saga
Blood of the Elves is the over-title of the five novels about Geralt - Krew elfów (Blood of the Elves), Czas pogardy (Season of contempt), Chrzest ognia (Baptism by fire), Wieża jaskółki (The Swallow's Tower) and Pani jeziora (Lady of the lake) - in which Sapkowski joins the threads started in the short stories, and adds new ones. Apart from the hexer himself, another central character is princess Ciri.
List of books
Short story collections:
- The Final Wish (Ostatnie życzenie) (1993)
- Sword of Destiny (Miecz przeznaczenia) (1992)
- Something ends, something begins (Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna) (2000)
Hexer saga:
- Blood of the Elves (Krew elfów) (1994)
- Season of Contempt (Czas pogardy) (1995)
- Baptism by Fire (Chrzest ognia) (1996)
- The Swallow's Tower (Wieża jaskółki) (1997)
- Lady of the Lake (Pani jeziora) (1999)
Comic books
In 1993-1995, Sapkowski's stories were adapted into six comic book albums by Maciej Parowski (story), Bogusław Polch (art), and Sapkowski himself. They are:
- The Road with no Return (Droga bez powrotu, based on short story Droga, z której się nie wraca)
- Geralt (based on the short story Wiedźmin)
- Lesser Evil (Mniejsze zło, based on a short story of the same title)
- The Final Wish (Ostatnie życzenie, based on a short story of the same title)
- The Border of Possibility (Granica możliwości, based on a short story of the same title)
- Betrayal (Zdrada)
Film
The Hexer is also the title of a movie (2001) and television series (2002), directed by Marek Brodzki, written by Michał Szczerbic, and produced by Lew Rywin. The role of Geralt was played by Michał Żebrowski, and the music was composed by Grzegorz Ciechowski. The film was essentially the TV series chopped into about 2 hours and received very poor reviews from both the fans and the critics.
TV Series
A 13 episode TV series came out the following year. The series was much more coherent than the confusing movie, but was still considered a failure mostly due to the film's already bad reputation. The TV series has been unofficially released in English on the internet.
Role-playing game
In 2001 a role-playing game called The Hexer: A Game of Imagination (Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni) based on Sapkowski's books was published by MAG. A second edition of the game is currently in production.
Computer game
A computer role-playing game based on Sapkowski's saga called The Witcher is in develop stage by CD Projekt's studio called CD Projekt RED and it will be released spring of 2007.