Blood of Elves Easter Eggs
Słusznie! [...] Patrzycie, a oczu nie macie, słuchacie, a uszy wasze głuche. Bo miłości bożej nie ma w was, boście są jako puste beczki… | True! [...] You look, but have no eyes, you listen, but your ears are deaf. For there’s no godly love in you, for you’re as empty barrels...
A clear reference to 1 Corinthians 13. Sapkowski likes sneaking in allusions to the Bible, both in the Witcher and, especially, in the Hussite Trilogy (where he has used parts of Song of Songs in a sex scene, cause he’s extra like that).
[...] Nie zrozumieliście, że ballady te o losie ludzkim mówiły, o tym, żeśmy w rękach bogów jeno zabawką, a krainy nasze bożym są igrzyskiem. | You didn’t understand that those ballads spoke about the fate of mankind, about the fact that we’re but a plaything in the hands of gods, and our lands are their playground.
A reference to Jan Kochanowski’s poem from 1580s. God’s Playground is also a title of Norman Davies’ book on the history of Poland.
Ha, nawet na żywej korze świętego Bleobherisa, spójrzcie jeno, o, tuż nad głową pana poety, wyrzezany kozikiem ohydny wyraz. Do tego jeszcze błędnie wyrzezany, nie dość, że wandal to był, to w dodatku nieuk, pisać nie umiejący. | Ha, even in the live bark of the holy Bleobheris, just look, right there, over the master poet’s head, someone’s carved a nasty word with a knife. Carved incorrectly, on top of it, not only was it a vandal, but also a dunce who couldn’t spell.
One of the most common Polish swear words is the word ‘chuj’, which, indeed, gets carved into a lot of poor trees, usually by kids, who misspell it as ‘huj’. Literally means a dick or a cock, but generally used in the same way as ‘fuck’ in English.
Nilfgaard to kara boża! To bicz, którym Nieśmiertelni schłostają was, grzesznicy, byście… | Nilfgaard is a divine punishment! It’s a scourge with which the Immortals will whip you, sinners [...].
A very common sentiment among christians during the Great Turkish War (also known as the War of the Holy League) that took place in Europe in the years 1683-1699. According to many priests and preachers at the time, the Ottoman invasion was the divine punishment for living in sin and forgetting the christian values.
Będzie to zależało od tego, czy przekażecie mi teraz pozdrowienia od naszych wspólnych znajomych. Powinniście to uczynić na wstępie, a zapomnieliście jakoś. | That depends on whether you’ll give me regards from our common friends. You should’ve done it at the beginning, but you somehow forgot.
The communists have developed an extensive surveillance system, causing widespread paranoia and making the citizens second-guess everything. People tried to establish ways of determining who could be trusted in a world where anyone could be a secret agent or an informer.
A i ów wstrętny paszkwil, owo szeroko kolportowane Monstrum, które wzburzyło fanatyków i popchnęło ich do zbrodni, też podobno było anonimowym dziełem jakiegoś czarodzieja. | And that horrid libel, that widely distributed Monstrum, which had shaken the fanatics and led them to commit that crime, was supposedly an anonymous work of a magician.
An allusion to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an antisemitic document prepared by tsar Nikolai II Romanov’s secret police. The document was largely a plagiarism of an anti-Napoleonic satire called Dialogue in Hell, where there are no Jewish characters.
The Protocols described a Jewish plan for global domination and were used by generations of antisemites, from the Romanovs, through the communists, the nazis, all the way to the Americans such as Henry Ford. It was exposed as a forgery in 1921, which didn’t stop people from spreading the lies, unfortunately.
Śmierć ma oczy błękitne i zimne, a wysokość obelisku nie ma znaczenia, nie mają też znaczenia napisy, jakie się na nim wykuje. | Death’s eyes are cold and blue, and the height of the obelisk doesn’t matter, nor do words carved into it.
Typically, the colour blue is used as a symbol of peace, innocence, and purity. It has strong connotations with christianity as the colour of Mary’s robes. The Polish word niebieski, meaning blue, is derived from the word niebo, meaning the sky or heaven, which brings to mind vastness of an open space (something that can feel quite overwhelming and scary), but also passing on to heaven, a.k.a. death. It’s commonly used to depict the coldness and pallor of a corpse. In Slavic literature and art, Death is often portrayed as a pale young woman, usually blue-eyed. It’s also the colour of mourning in Iranian culture.
This particular line from Sapkowski always makes me think of one of the poems by Solomon Bart, where he says: “My death’s eyes are blue / and words oddly tender”.
Dobry elf to martwy elf. — Marszałek Milan Raupenneck | A good elf is a dead elf. — Marshal Milan Raupenneck
A (most likely) Soviet antisemitic slogan, sadly used by some up to this day.
Dziwna nazwa. To znaczy, jeśli się nie mylę, "Wiewiórki"? | Odd name. That means, if I’m not mistaken, ‘Squirrels’?
The name might seem a simple reference to the fact that Scoia’tael hide in the forests and work in packs just like squirrels, but knowing Sapkowski, it’s a little deeper than that. A squirrel eating a nut was used in Jewish art to represent a man studying Torah, while medieval Europe considered squirrels lazy and greedy, and their red hair symbolic of an evil, barbaric nature.
Squirrel is also one of the zodiac signs in the Zoroastrian totem calendar, which is important to note, since the most famous Scoia’tael unit, the Vrihedd Brigade uses lightning symbols on their banners and epaulettes. We can assume they look somewhat similar to the nazi SS symbol, also known as the double sig rune. Now, the sig rune is a part of the Black Sun — an Aryan symbol I talked about here — and Aryans were largely Zoroastrian. Coincidence? I think not.
Niestety, uważała, że źródłem większości chorób jest nieróbstwo, zaś nieróbstwo najskuteczniej leczy się kijem. | Unfortunately, she thought that idleness is the source of most sickness, and idleness is most effectively cured with a stick.
A very common sentiment among the older generations of Slavs.
A raz, gdy ni z tego, ni z owego dała mi pajdkę chleba ze smalcem i cukrem, to tak mnie tym zaskoczyła, że z wrażenia upuściłem tę pajdkę, smalcem w dół. | And once, when she suddenly gave me a piece of bread with lard and sugar, I was so shocked that I dropped it, buttered side down.
Soo, lard with sugar is a bit strange of a mix, but pretty much all of us have eaten bread with butter (or margarine) and sugar at some point of our lives. Other variations of this childhood classic are: bread with cream and sugar, sugar and water, or sugar and tea. And yes, that means you pour that water/tea over the bread covered with sugar.
It was a common sweet snack in the cold war, when sweets were difficult to find and very expensive.
To spleśniały chleb ze śruty. [...] Miażdżony czosnek z gorzką solą zaśmiardnąć nie ma prawa, choćby stał sto lat. | It’s mildewed bread of bruised grain. [...] Crushed garlic and bitter salt cannot stink, even if it stood there for a hundred years.
Garlic and certain types of fungi are natural antibiotics, while bitter salt (magnesium sulfate) can be used as a muscle relaxant and a laxative/purge.
Ludzi do morza, krzyczą, nie wiedząc, że nawet to chwytne hasełko podpowiedzieli im nilfgaardzcy emisariusze. Nie rozumiejąc, że to hasełko nie jest skierowane do nich, ale właśnie do ludzi, że ma wzbudzić ludzką nienawiść, nie zapał bitewny młodych elfów. | Throw humans into the sea, they yell, not knowing that even this catchy slogan came from the Nilfgaardian emissaries. Not realising that this slogan isn’t aimed at the, but humans, that it’s meant to fuel their hatred, not the fighting spirit of the young elves.
Most likely a reference to the nazi propaganda fueling national antisemitism, as well as conflicts between ethnic minorities, or the Soviet propaganda influencing multiple conflicts, such as the Arab-Israeli wars or the events leading to the outbreak of the Soviet-Afghan War.
Tak zwana Bura Chorągiew, poznaję po płaszczach i bobrzych kołpakach. | So called Dun Banner, I recognise their cloaks and beaver calpac.
A nod to the song about Józef Piłsudski’s Polish Legions, called ‘The Grey Infantry’.
Bronić mężczyzn, by nie wieszano ich za ręce na drzewach, nie wbijano na pale. Bronić jasnowłosych dziewczyn, by nie rozkrzyżowywano ich między wbitymi w ziemię kołkami. Bronić dzieci, by ich nie zarzynano i nie wrzucano do studni. | Defend the men, so that no one hung them on trees by the hands or impaled them. Defend the fair-haired girls, so that no one spread them between stakes hammered into the ground. Defend the children, so that no one slaughtered them and threw into the wells.
These methods are commonly associated with Vlad III Ţepeș (the historical Dracula), who’s believed to have picked them up from the Ottomans (who, in turn, might’ve picked them up from the Golden Horde and Timurids).
Nie mam nic przeciwko wiedźminom. Niech sobie polują na wampiry. Byleby tylko płacili podatki. — Radowid III Śmiały, król Redanii | I have nothing against the witchers. Let them hunt the vampires. As long as they pay their taxes. — Radovid III the Bold
Paraphrase of a quote ascribable to Andrzej Zebrzydowski: ‘Let them believe even in a goat, as long as they pay the dessiatin’, as well as an allusion to the religious tolerance of medieval Poland (shame that nothing’s left of that).
Everett! Zostaw to, bo się ubrudzisz. | Everett! Leave that, you’ll get dirty.
Gives off the same vibe as ‘Victoria! Don’t kick that man, you’ll sweat’ from the movie Kingsize, a Polish classic.
Waluta jest? Waluta, pytam? Temerski albo nilfgaardzki pieniądz? | You’ve got currency? Currency, I ask? Temerian or Nilfgaardian coin?
Another nugget of the socialist reality: owning and exchanging foreign money was technically forbidden, but since the Polish currency was notoriously unstable and the national stores empty, everyone bought dollars and marks on black market to buy stuff at the ‘internal export stores’ (something like the duty free stores nowadays).
Przemoc rodzi przemoc. Nienawiść wrosła w serca... i zatruła krew pobratymczą… | Violence breeds violence. Hatred grew into the hearts… and poisoned the brotherly blood…
Two quotes. The first is by an Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta, the second by one of the most prominent Polish writers, Henryk Sienkiewicz (With Fire and Sword).
[Żacy] dyskretnie grali w cetno i licho, w 'kozła', w 'kupę' lub inne wymagające inteligencji gry. | [The students] discreetly played evens and odds, ‘buck’, ‘pile-up’, and other games that required intelligence.
Cetno i licho, literally meaning even and odd, is an old, old game, where one party hides some number of objects or simply thinks of a number, and the other has to guess whether that number is even or odd. The other two, I assume, are card games. The word kozioł in Polish means a buck, and since bucks have goatees, I think it might be a fictional version of barbu. I’m a bit lost when it comes to the last one, however, because the word kupa can mean a number of things, such as a pile, a stack, or a bunch, as well as, literally, poop. There’s a passage in the Baptism of Fire that sort of links this word to one of the suits of cards, an equivalent of hearts in our world’s cards, though, so it might be some variant of hearts, the game?
Medyczka zmarszczyła zadarty nosek, parsknęła, nie po raz pierwszy wprawiając Jaskra w podziw nad łatwością, z jaką żacy rozpoznawali wywiadowców, szpiegów i konfidentów. | The medic wrinkled her turned-up nose and spluttered, not for the first time filling Jaskier with awe over the ease with which the students recognised secret agents, spies, and informers.
Awersja żywiona przez studentów do tajnych służb była przysłowiowa[...]. | The aversion students felt towards the secret services was proverbial.
A nod to the Polish history of March 1968, where university students started a wave of protests and demonstrations against the socialist government and their antisemitic policies, as well as censorship and lack of freedom in the broad sense. Many of the slogans and cries were about the secret agents and informers, most of which recruited from the so-called working-class active (and which were essentially the Party’s fighting squads). In 1980, students created a union, quite similar to “Solidarność”, and actively supported the strikes and protests, demanding change.
Awantura o getto ławkowe dla nieludzi ledwie się skończyła, a tobie już pilno do nowej? | The fight about ghetto benches just ended, and you’re already looking for a new problem?
Ghetto benches were a way of segregating and effectively limiting the number of Jewish students in Polish universities in the 1930s. They were introduced and violently enforced by the right-wing organisations such as National Democracy and National Radical Camp.
Popularne na dworze króla Vizimira powiedzonko głosiło, że jeśli Dijkstra twierdzi, że jest południe, a dookoła panują nieprzebite ciemności, należy zacząć się niepokoić o losy słońca. | A popular saying in king Vizimir’s court claimed that if Dijkstra says it’s noon, while it’s pitch dark all around, you should start to worry about the sun.
I mean, let’s just say it out loud: Dijkstra is basically Stirlitz, if Stirlitz was actually, you know, competent.
Nilfgaard stoi nad Jarugą, a ja tu słyszę: 'Niech sobie stoi'. Słyszę: 'Dalej nie pójdą'. | Nilfgaard stands at Yaruga and I hear: ‘Well, let them’. I hear: ‘They won’t move any further’.
For a very long time, the Danube was considered a natural border between the West and the East, and the European monarchies thought the Ottomans wouldn’t move past it. Guess what, though. They absolutely did.
Ale po Sodden nagle się okazało, że był przeciw, a wszystkiemu winna jest samowola marszałków. I poleciały głowy. Szafoty spłynęły krwią. To są pewne informacje, nie żadne plotki. Osiem uroczystych egzekucji, dużo więcej skromniejszych kaźni. Kilka pozornie naturalnych, ale zagadkowych zgonów, sporo nagłych przejść w stan spoczynku. Mówię wam, Emhyr wpadł w szał i praktycznie wykończył własną kadrę dowódczą. | But after Sodden it suddenly turned out that he was against it and it’s all the fault of lawless marshals. Heads began to roll. Scaffolds ran with blood. This is confirmed information, not some gossip. Eight formal executions, many more smaller. Several seemingly natural but suspicious deaths, a lot of sudden retirements. I’m telling you, Emhyr ran amok and effectively finished off his officers.
A common tactic, particularly popular in the Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, and Soviet Union. Though generally speaking, Nilfgaard bears more resemblance to the Ottoman Empire than the other two, the methods used by Emhyr are those of Ivan the Terrible or Stalin. The Ottoman executions were rarely public and usually bloodless.
A gdy ich słynna kawaleria zje już większość własnych koni, zrobimy im drugie Sodden. | And once their famous cavalry has eaten most of their own horses, we’ll give him another Sodden.
A fairly common occurrence, especially during winter campaigns and sieges. Even armies of Genghis-Khan or Napoleon had to resort to eating their horses (and in the Napoleonic Army’s case, their fellow soldiers) at certain points of their conquests.
Spotkali się na tajnej naradzie w zamku Hagge nad Pontarem. | They met for a secret conference in the Hagge castle on Pontar.
The name Hagge looks and sounds a lot like Hague. Ironically, the solution the monarchs agree on, is one that has been outlawed by the IV Hague Convention.
Jak znajdujesz ten kraj, namiestniku? Udało ci się polubić twą nową Prowincję? | How do you find this country, steward? Did you learn to like your new Province?
Another resemblance between Nilfgaard and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans turned the conquered states into Provinces (eyalets or vilayets), governed by valis (usually high-ranked officers or officials).
As usual, all translation is mine, sorry if it differs from the official.
dededos
kianamaiart
turnnoffyourmind
baratheonpilled
areudirty
romaincrisis
snowghoul