#c: condwiramurs

[hanzajesthanza]

i realized something absolutely hilarious while rereading chapter 2 of lady of the lake yesterday!

when condwiramurs asks nimue about dreaming past the versions of the legend which she’s engrained in her memory, she lists the versions of the legends she’s read… and which, who, amongst these literary versions does she include?

the name rings a bell … let’s look deeper.

because you might remember the name “ravix” from the short story “a question of price,” where geralt attends princess pavetta’s birthday banquet disguised as “ravix of fourhorn”…

“ravix,” described with a coat of arms as such:

exceptionally similar, one may say, identical to the rawicz coat of arms in real life:

("ravix" being, from what i can tell, an anglicized spelling - maybe ravich also would work but, besides the point).

but, how does this relate to the name of the author? well...

in an article published in "magic and sword" 28, 29, 30, our author mentioned his own coat of arms being the very same:

(DeepL) Bears can be climbing (the coat of arms of the city of Berlin, the emblem of the former Brandenburg margraves) or walking (my own coat of arms, Rawicz, depicting a maiden riding a bear).

and from there, it's an obvious joke.

the author, andrzej, andrei... the book, lady of the lake.

sapkowski put the very book we're reading... into the very book we're reading! the characters in the book have read the book they exist in! so meta! with this, it seems to me that he is never beating the postmodernist allegations 😅

[hanzajesthanza]

btw wish your local vicovarian happy falsebloom!

[hanzajesthanza]

nimue and condwiramurs not only could have done the lighthouse (2019) but actually WOULD have done the lighthouse (2019) had it not been for the presence of the fisher king

[hanzajesthanza]

you had better like condwiramurs though because without her we would not have the beauclair chapters with geralt’s hanza!! only through her dreams do we see them…

and only through her dreams do we know which is the castle of the legend, so that ciri could navigate to stygga…

there are two reasons nimue chose her and her specifically to assist her… she chose her for a reason

[hanzajesthanza]

a small revelation i had this morning.

i have been frustrated for months that the appearances of nimue and condwiramurs are not described — asides from the fact that nimue is short, we don’t know anything about how these two look — their hair color, hair length and style, eye color, facial features, how they dress, which colors they favor… i mean, we know more about how the fisher king looks like than how nimue and condwiramurs look like!

it seemed unthinkable to me that sorceresses would be so described in this way — coming from the thanedd ball, the meetings of the lodge of sorceresses, where every little detail is described — from yennefer’s dark, curly hair like a rook’s wing, to the wispy autumnal chiffon fabrics of ida emean, the vermillion dress of philippa, to accessories like francesca’s tiara, keira’s citrine earrings, philippa’s sardonyx cameo, triss’ lapis lazuli heart, sheala’s silver fox collar, and the dark green color of assire’s fingernail polish… paragraphs upon paragraphs are dedicated to describing the sorceresses, so why are these two not described? before today, i only assumed that they were simply dressed more modestly, because their story takes place in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, after the witch hunts against the great lodge have transpired? has the societal view of sorceresses changed such that they are no longer expected, or allowed, such gratutious displays of wealth and nobility? perhaps, perhaps… it’s plausible. but even then, this doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be described, they would simply be described in other ways, in a less extravagant manner, such that the plainer-dressed characters are in the series.

but i had another thought this morning, and that is that their appearances are not described… because they are us. we as the readers are supposed to recognize their wonder and fascination with the legend of the witcher girl and search for how the legend ends as that of our own wonder and exploration, and in that, identify with nimue and condwiramurs as reader-adjacent.

how should nimue and condwiramurs appear? the readers, the lovers of the legend, the last piece which bridges ciri’s destiny to completion, the piece that the story cannot be completed without? how do they appear? … well, look in the mirror. you’ll see the key — the key that without which, the story could not become complete.

[hanzajesthanza]

sapkowski does a fantastic job with environmental descriptions, but they are often overshadowed by such lovable characters and interesting dialogue that readers often skip the descriptions of surroundings to get to conversations. truly, dj khaled suffering from success.jpeg.

each environment, each place, has such a specific vision with so many little details. each scene is a painting in prose.

thus, this is an appreciation post for some of my favorite environmental descriptions including landscapes, building, and food in the witcher, particularly from along the hansa’s journey as those are my favorite scenes…

dol blathanna, edge of the world

the marshes and dry land of angren, baptism of fire

the mountainous region of the north case, tower of the swallow

the beauclair banquet, lady of the lake

breakfast in beauclair, lady of the lake

condwiramurs’ stay in inis vitre, lady of the lake

[hanzajesthanza]

it really does matter so much that fringilla vigo is nilfgaardian, beauclairoise, for many reasons, but let's start here:

her entire role is that of an illusionist; one which she would not be were it not for her family lineage, rooted in beauclair:

There was a corridor in Beauclair Palace, and at the end a chamber, the existence of which no one knew about. (...) The corridor and the chamber, disguised by a powerful illusion, were known only to the palace’s original elven builders. And later–when the elves had gone, and Toussaint became a duchy–to the small number of sorcerers linked to the ducal house. Including Artorius Vigo, a master of magical arcana and great specialist in illusions. And his young niece, Fringilla, who had a special talent for illusions.

and since her talent in illusions is well-defined in the series, as it is her who grants geralt the very silver-mounted chrysoprase amulet which saves his life in the final fight against vilgefortz:

Geralt clenched Fringilla’s medallion in his fist. The bar fell with a clang, striking the floor a foot from the Witcher’s head. Geralt rolled away and quickly got up on one knee. Vilgefortz leaped forward and struck. The bar missed the target again by a few inches. The sorcerer shook his head in disbelief and hesitated for a second. (...) ‘I didn’t know …’ Yennefer said at last, scrambling out of a pile of rubble. She looked terrible. The blood trickling from her nose had poured all over her chin and cleavage. ‘I didn’t know you could cast illusory spells,’ she repeated, seeing Geralt’s uncomprehending gaze, ‘capable even of deceiving Vilgefortz.’ ‘It’s my medallion.’ ‘Aha.’ She looked suspicious. ‘A curious thing...’

that talent is something which cannot, by far, be separated from her character. and returning back to her lineage, it is again her familial relations which place her in beauclair.

she was positioned there, ready to intercept geralt, as early as the autumnal equinox in september, by which time geralt had barely just left the town of riedbrune:

The world over, the autumn Equinox was a night of spectres, nightmares and apparitions, a night of sudden, suffocating awakenings, fraught with menace, among sweat-soaked and rumpled sheets. Neither did the most illustrious escape the apparitions and awakenings; (...) In the huge castle of Montecalvo the sorceress Philippa Eilhart leaped from damask sheets, without waking the Comte de Noailles’ wife. The dwarf Yarpen Zigrin in Mahakam, the old witcher Vesemir in the mountain stronghold of Kaer Morhen, the bank clerk Fabio Sachs in the city of Gors Velen and Yarl Crach an Craite on board the longboat Ringhorn all awoke more or less abruptly. The sorceress Fringilla Vigo came awake in Beauclair Castle*, as did the priestess Sigrdrifa of the temple of the goddess Freyja on the island of Hindarsfjall.

* Slight correction - As explained in Chapter 3 of Lady of the Lake, Beauclair is not a castle, but a palace.

and she's only invited to beauclair in such a capacity because she is a relative of the duchess:

‘I’m in Beauclair because the largest, best-stocked library in the known world is here. Apart from university libraries, naturally. But universities are jealous of giving access to their shelves, and here I’m a relation and good friend of Anarietta and can do as I wish.’

(whom, you may note, she stands by and jointly receives geralt with at their first meeting, and participates in the festival of the vat with)

and therefore, she was in a perfectly strategic position to delay geralt, keep him captive:

‘(...) Please at least tell us … has the Witcher calmed down now? Are you capable of keeping him in Toussaint at least until May?’ (…) ‘No,’ she answered at last. ‘Probably not until May. But I’ll do everything in my power to keep him here as long as possible.’

because fringilla is not just an illusionist literally, as in the magic she is naturally gifted at, but 'illusionist' is her entire identity as a character.

and as her family hails from beauclair, this specific identity is compounded with the fact that beauclair itself is the center of illusions, a dreamland, a fairytale:

‘There’s something bewitched about this place, this fucking Toussaint. Some kind of charm hangs over the whole valley. Especially over the palace (...) no two ways about it, there’s something bewitched about this bloody Toussaint.’

fringilla is an illusionist because she is beauclairoise. she not only hails from a long line of illusionists, but hails from, is related to the ruler of, the very city of illusions and dreams.

she is the illusionist not just in a literal sense, but in the entire narrative role of casting an illusion over our hero, because it is the illusion of love which keeps her and geralt in beauclair. (the tricky trick is that geralt, taking a page out of yennefer's playbook of seduction, cleverness, patience, was able to cast an illusion upon the mistress of illusions herself, free himself from the witch's spell, awake from a pleasant dream to face the harsh reality).

(sighs) and even if you want to forget fringilla's beauclairoise identity and erase her entire positioning as the illusionist which poses a threat to our heroes, entices them to complacency, her role as nilfgaardian in the sense of her academic identity and imperial service also defines her.

because it is also fringilla, the illusionist who casts the wool over people's eyes... who blinded yennefer at sodden hill.

‘We’ve already met,’ Yennefer spoke again. ‘I don’t recall,’ Fringilla said without looking away. ‘I’m not surprised. But I have a good memory for faces and figures. I saw you from Sodden Hill.’ ‘In which case there can be no mistake,’ Fringilla Vigo said and raised her head proudly, sweeping her eyes over all those present. ‘I was at the Battle of Sodden.’ (...) ‘Occasionally one happens to see another person for only a split second, right before going blind, and one takes a dislike to them instantly.’ ‘Oh, enmity is considerably more complicated,’ Fringilla said, squinting. ‘Imagine someone you don’t know at all standing at the top of a hill, and ripping a friend of yours to shreds in front of your eyes. You neither saw them nor know them at all, but you still don’t like them.’ ‘So it goes,’ Yennefer said, shrugging. (...)

fringilla's (proud!) participation at the battle of sodden is a crux of the lodge, because she alongside her good friend, the scholarly assire, they are nilfgaardians who, owing to their nationality, find challenges meshing with the northern sorcereresses. the lodge brought together representatives of magic across nationalities in the midst of a raging, bloody war between them all.

and it's so integral to fringilla's character that she has imperial biases, that she approaches even the international lodge with an imperialist view.

with no factual basis, she initially exotifies and sexualizes the northern sorceresses, despite her own prior denial of these base stereotypes:

Fringilla Vigo was putting on a brave face, but she was anxious and stressed. She herself had often reprimanded young Nilfgaardian mages for uncritically yielding to stereotypical opinions and notions. She herself had regularly ridiculed the crude image painted by gossip and propaganda of the typical sorceress from the North: artificially beautiful, arrogant, vain and spoiled to the limits of perversion, and often beyond them. (...) Her untrammelled imagination offered up images of impossibly gorgeous women with diamond necklaces resting on naked breasts with rouged nipples, women with moist lips and eyes glistening from the effects of alcohol and narcotics. In her mind’s eye Fringilla could already see the gathering becoming a wild and depraved orgy accompanied by frenzied music, aphrodisiacs, and slaves of both sexes using exotic accessories.

she even has a difficult time understanding why the northern sorceresses are upset about the nilfgaardian invasion, believing it to be a boon to their society. only through their discussion does she just barely begin to grasp the meaning of "invasion" and why she wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of it:

Some were clearly anxious about the close proximity of Nilfgaard. Fringilla had mixed feelings. She had assumed that such educated people would understand that the Empire was bringing culture, prosperity, order and political stability to the North. On the other hand, though, she didn’t know how she would have reacted herself, were foreign armies approaching her home.

all of this indoctrination into imperial beliefs, at the same time that she is an educated woman, and herself, as an imperial sorceress, known for being rebellious and an upstart within her own culture:

‘Stop staring,’ Assire said, touching her bouffant and glistening curls. ‘I decided to make a few changes. Why, I just took your lead.’ ‘I was always taken as an oddball and a rebel,’ Fringilla Vigo chuckled. ‘But when they see you in the academy or at court…’

this is such a chaotic rambling post, but all i want to say is that fringilla's character, like most of the minor characters in the witcher series, was not invented through random generation, a roll of the dice, a spin of the wheel. her specific traits - such as her nationality, lineage, talents - all relate back thematically. everything is relevant, specifically chosen to create a specific character.

if once changes her backstory (e.g., to place her at aretuza... though i don't know who would do such a thing for no reason) they would change her entire character, the series' commentary on imperialism, and because of her role she takes later on, even the entire ending of the story.

[hanzajesthanza]

because dandelion’s half a century of poetry is probably one of the only primary sources the people of their world have about geralt’s company, and we know that he rewrote it after losing the original draft in anarietta’s walk-in closet…

and it’s not certain that all of the information in the first draft made it to the later draft(s) and publication…

do you think that scholars later on, studying the history and legend… know that regis was a vampire? or is it possible that dandelion concealed his identity and recorded him as just some guy?

[hanzajesthanza]

life may be a dream, may end in a dream… but it is a dream that you must actively dream…

[hanzajesthanza]