#witcherweekly: aug. 31st (pt. 3/3)
august 31st, sunset — baptism of fire, ch 7 — geralt, injured in his lower back from the fight, wakes up in the field surgeon’s hut. he leaves after being attended to, and sits by the river to ponder what has happened. (“alone,” i.e. missing his friends)
it is then that meve appears, in all her grey-haired, smacked-face glory: a nasty wound in her mouth, lacking several teeth from the battle
she grants him knighthood for his valour in the battle.
an interesting proposition — drawing on the themes of reciprocity of altruism and displays of gratitude, something which pops up in chapter 4 with the women from kernow, as well as in chapter 5 of tower of the swallow with the riverdell beekeepers
— but also interesting just for how geralt is usually thanked for his displays of valour and heroics — not very kindly, as we can tell from the voice of reason, pt. iv, which has him describe himself as playing at being knight-errant:
and something more, pt. iv, which occurs in almost the same place as he is in baptism of fire ch. 7: near riverdell, near the yaruga:
usually, geralt has been ostracized or left for dead, no matter how valourous or heroic his deeds were. but now, for the first time, he’s knighted, he’s recognized…
and, as you’ll remember, geralt is “of rivia” but it’s really just a taken name to inspire confidence in his clientele who do not want to hire jerry from next door to kill beasts, but a professional from a far land… so it’s wonderfully ironic
thus, geralt is knighted — and yet, can only still think of his friends — worrying about milva, feeling guilt over their journey, wondering what the next step will be…
so, happy geralt of rivia day :) tomorrow we wake up in september, meaning baptism of fire is over, and we have progressed into tower of the swallow territory…
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