As a Hungarian living in Transylvania I had the same feeling when I played The Witcher 1 back in 2007. The country side in game reminded me of the village where my grandparents lived that I used to visit on summer holidays. Also in The Witcher 3, in White Orchid there are villager houses with tulips painted on them. Almost the same as the Szeklers paint them on ceramic, cloth or other objects. Everything looked familiar. Same goes for Hungarian folklore and fairy tales, and also there are a lot of Hungarian names in the Witcher universe. Little things or maybe absolute zero value to some, but for me it's very important and special. 🙂
Just curious: Do the Szeklers in your opinion consider themself Hungarian or something different? What i read about Transylvania suggest everything, from Same, to same but different, to "do you have a death wish, asking me that?"(especialy thru the centuries)😅
As a Pole i find it hilarious how our languages differ. I have no prob talking with Slovakia ppl but you guys i"ve always had dictionary in hand before autotranslator. I've almost ended up in a lake after misuderstanding what is przed, za, po,. Oh and some shthead stole my tent and a backpack at Masters of Rock so i've had to walk and hitch-hike all the way from Vizovice to Warszawa. It was a fckn GREAT journey. XD yup ppl from Poland insisted to take me home, but i went with "their ppl stole my sh..t, they are going to get me home". I've met so many incredible ppl that i'm glad i was robbed xD
I have been enjoying The Witcher audiobooks immensely, and I appreciate you providing this information about the integrated folklore that makes this series so good! The imagery created by Sapkowski is so vivid and feeds my ongoing interest in medieval and fantasy culture, as well.
We would have been friends as kids, I didn’t know anyone else who loved medieval and fantasy I also love soooo much history of real life kings and queens and knights haha
It's really heart warming to see that our countries still have so much folklore in common. Witcher, Kingdome come deliverence and Stalker games always made me feel at home.
I am also czech (although from the Silesia part). This video really made me value our cultural traditions, folk tales and history. It is interesting how much of your own culture we take for granted, but hearing you explain different integral parts of our culture made me focus on them for the first time and really appreciate it in a new light. I would also like to add that Witcher has not only appropriated czech and polish culture, but has many more specifc nods to real czech and polish history (for example Menno Coehoorn reportedly saying "Only a coward would flee from the field" while loosing the Brenna battle, which is qoute by a czech king John of Luxembourg and is much more poeteic and specific in czech). These little nods really reward those in the know, while not disturbing others, which is a great feature of Sapkowski´s postmodern style of writing. I am sure I haven´t caught most of these references, bot noticing them is really rewarding :) Last thing I want to add that witcher doesn´t focus exclusively on slavis folklore, which might somewhat explain its popularity in other countries. It has mady nods to arthurian legends, myths from other regions (like Uroboros, cyclops or bruxas), theology and other territories (like vikingish Skelige, orientalish Ofier, frenchish Toussaint and africanish Zangvebar with hyenas and striped horses). Mentioned Menno Coehoorn has another famous nod to history, when he reportedly appears as spirit on the battlefield lamenting "Give me back my legions" quote by roman emperor Octavian Augustus. Great video
Very interesting, thanks for the comment 🙂 Yeah, I'm definitely not saying that The Witcher is just Slavic. It's obvious that that's not the case. But the village atmosphere is my favorite part of the fantasy because I can relate to that and it seems to me that people usually don't really understand it (Netflix either butchered it or left it out completely) that's why I'm focusing mainly on that.
100% agreed. Not only is it a shame they didn't tap into the different folklore traditions (including Slavic ones) because it's something the English-speaking audience is unfamiliar with - it would also be such an easy way to make the different regions or countries of the Continent visually more distinctive, adding a sense of variety and depth to the fictional world (like they did in the Game of Thrones where the North has a very different feel, clothing and sound than Kingslanding or the South. Or, of course, like they did with the distinctive locations and cultures in the Lord of the Rings). And it only makes the post-modern nods to real history funnier.
My first proper experience with the witcher was the witcher 3 in about 2018 (I’m only 18 now in 2023) and I was immediately hooked. I read all the books, played all the games and loved every second of it. I also think Sapkowski ingrained a fair bit of Arthurian/celtic culture (which resonated with me as an English man) so I can relate to that, but the sheer medieval nature and the absolutely awesome Slavic Mythos is so interesting. I’m of the firm belief that the witcher really is the MEDIEVAL fantasy for all Europeans, as there are hints of all of our cultures. Shame that people think of the Netflix show whenever I mention the witcher
I'm from Finland, and I agree with just about every point. It is exactly this that cemented The Witcher in my heart, better than any other game has managed.
As an Englishman, I imagine The Shire as the rolling green hills of England, my home. When I read The Witcher, I imagine those Polish foresty landscapes, the flavour of Eastern Europe. Not downtown LA like the terrible show. I've never been to Poland or Czech Republic but I can feel the spirit of the books and games! I've also driven these landscapes in a lot of rally games.
@@shylockwesker5530We had many other good bedtime stories animations such as Baśnie i Legendy Polskie, Przygody Kota Filemona, Miś Fantazy, Pyza na polskich drogach, Miś Uszatek, Zaczarowany Ołówek czy Wiklinowa Zatoka, Przygód Kilka Wróbla Ćwirka, Pingwin Pik Pok itd.
I’ve grown up in America, but I’ve always been enamored with the medieval fairy tale aesthetic. I loved watching cartoons of stuff like pied piper, rumplestiltskin, etc. My grandfather was Swedish, and his wife my grandmother was German. They started a small farm in the rural area of the state I live in. I don’t remember a whole lot about my grandfather because he died when I was really young. One of my most vivid memories of him though is talking about the surrounding woods during dusk. He said to my brother and I, that the “gikko” would get us if we went into the woods after dusk. I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with Swedish folklore, and he just a word he made up on the spot. It was such a contrast to where I live which is a small, but busy town. Something about the rural countryside is mysterious, and all over the world it seems it’s mostly the “country folk” that keep those old folklores alive, or in my case make new ones.
If you walk thru the woods in Central or Northern Europe, you definitly will belive that the gikko/Schwarze Mann/Waldschratt/whatever is out to get you😁. Even though it would be more likely that you stumble upon something dangerous in the american woods.
You can hardly see any thick woods. Białowieża is such place where you can find woods that are hundreds of years old. Sometimes you can meat a deer, bear, wild hog or a wolf. Yet it is animals that are more afraid.
I'm 100% sure that some kind mf werewolf was after me at Mazury lakes. I'm well over 40 and that happened when i was 19 but doods, smth lives there. No, i wasn't high... SOB teailed me through the forest and i've heard him walking around my yaht. I've spent whole night hugging an axe and a knofe ready to f this up but it just walked around and stole my f sausages.
Your childhood was similar to mine. Nobody told better bedtime stories than my grandma. She had been raised in a village in today's Lithuania and stopped going to school after fourth grade, but she knew all fairytales. And I still have my rolls of slides and projector.
I'm kind of having an emotional reaction to this comment section becoming a festival of nostalgic reminiscing from all the countries of our part of the world. We've got so much in common in this way 🙂
Living in the Netherlands has it's down sides, and this is one of them. We lost this, what ever this is It's one of the most urbanized country's ever and we don't have Folklore anymore! Some of my friends "zouden hier hun neus voor ophalen" as an old expression goes But those same idiots wonder why they can't find friends offline or keep a romance going for more than a year
greetings from croatia, we are nuts about fairytales aswell, probably all slavic countries are that's why the witcher is so popular in the eastern european block, anyways love these longer format videos you do.
On the topic of the village atmosphere you mentioned, I'm Polish, and never any game I played made me feel at home as much as Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I was shocked at how much the landscape felt exactly like what I often saw in my childhood when I used to visit the countryside. The same terrain, forests, villages (even though some things obviously changed since the 14th century villages in KC:D still felt very much like the ones I used to spend every vacation in), even plants. I live in a big city (I hope to change that one day) so it was a bit like visiting my childhood itself, very calming. I also used to do medieval reenactment and the clothes in KC:D moved me back to those days, everything was so on point. We do have a lot of the same traditions, some exactly the same (like the burning/drowning of Marzanna), some slightly changed (like that shoe throwing thing, we have a whole holiday "Andrzejki" devoted to unmarried girls doing marriage-related divinations. If you were a man you'd instead meet up with your buddies and have a nice cold vodka, very Slavic). We also have a ton of local legends, that are also very folk-flavoured, slavic feeling. But i think your love for old fairytales is unmatched by ours, I envy you a bit. At least from my own experience, I don't remember any specifically Slavic/Central European ones being in the TV for example. The one thing I remember is my mum's book called "Fairy Tales of ZSRR countries" that she treasured a lot, but I don't think the book was very popular, so my point still stands. I think you managed to retain a lot more of those old fairy tales and that's incredibly cool, keep it up. In my case, my love of folklore and history grew in me all of a sudden a few years ago, not even related to the Witcher boom. I grew up in a country with an extreme inferiority complex. Our folklore was dismissed as something lame and tacky, if you were in a folk dancing group you were the lamest kid in school. The fact that people calling themselves patriots and referring to our history quite often were just nationalists with a whole bunch of -isms and -phobias going on didn't really help. I remember reading a quote as a teenager, that said patriotism was believing your country was better than all the others because you were born in it and it's what I truly believed and had no shred of love for my heritage in me. What changed it was actually, paradoxically, falling in love with other people's heritage. I saw a lot of Mexicans, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese posting their beautifully crafted traditional clothes, or themselves performing a traditional song/dance. I was enamored by it and envied them a lot. I wondered why all of them have that lovely heritage, while mine was so lame. And then it hit me - would I still consider a kimono beautiful if the Japanese treated it with such contempt I was treating my own culture with? If they never wore them, never celebrated them, never used as an inspiration to create something more appealing to modern tastes? Probably not. And so I began studying Polish traditions, music, history and clothing to find something to be proud of. It didn't have to be every single thing in my heritage, just some things. And boy, did I find it. All I had to do was look far enough in the past, our traditional clothes weren't lame, they just need a bit love, you need to use good materials (not the cheapest polyester) and limit the tacky plastic trims. So now I'm making myself a whole ensemble from my region to be a big fat weirdo and wear it publicly during holidays. Maybe I'll inspire someone to do the same. So to to all of people who managed to read this autobiography - if you're not Slavic and here on this channel regretting it - don't. It's great to be intrerested in other cultures and I'm not saying by any means you need to focus all that energy on your own, but please don't ever think your own culture isn't as cool as Slavic ones, because it likely is, you just don't know it. And if you're a Slav and here because you're interested in your culture - great, keep it up, learn all you can about it, wear your traditional clothes (I bet they're not lame!) and practice all of the aspects of it that you like - let's not let it get forgotten. Sorry @Folk Walk for boring your comment section to the death, you inspired me to share my own view on folklore and tradition. You're doing great work with your channel, I love finding out about the differences and similarities between Czech and Polish folklore.
First of all don't apologize. Your comment isn't boring. On the contrary, it's very interesting and comments like these are the reason why I love reading the comment section. Regarding the fairy tales..we might be obssesed with them and they're huge part of our culture but it seems to me that your nation is way better at preserving your Slavic roots and I sometimes envy you because most of our connections to Slavic culture have been lost throughout the history when we were part of the Austria-Hungary for example. I'm glad that you've enjoyed KCD. My cousin actually works as concept artist for Warhorse Studios and we want to do a book together about Czech and Slavic folklore creatures. I would write it and probably do a bit of graphic design for it and he would do the illustrations. So they will probably be pretty similar to concept art from KCD 😃 But that's what I'm going for 🙂 Also I would be very much interested in the traditional costumes you want to make. It sounds very similar to something we're working on with my friend Moritz.
@@FolkWalkCZ We have a lot of traditions, but have forgotten their meaning. I was around 25 when I found out that Marzanna was a goddess, even though I burned her effigy in preschool, and the tradition is practiced to this day. We lost a ton of them eithter in the Communist period or during the partitions, though during the latter we at least made history as extremely rebellious and resilient and I will forever love that part of our history because of it. That's super cool, we really need books like these. I'm on a few FB groups on Slavic paganism and when people ask for books on Slavic demonology I never know what to recommend, because the only book I know is worth recommending is "W kręgu upiorów i wilkołaków. Demonologia słowiańska." that never got translated to any language outside of Polish. What language will your book be published in? And do you mean the concept art as seen in loading screens in KCD? Because if so the art style fits perfectly! I'm making an ensemble from the vicinity of Cracow, since this is where I live. I'm basing the designs on the actual pieces that are in the local museum. If you want to see them, you can paste in Google Arts and Culture search engine "Gorset mieszkanki wsi Mydlniki", "Tybetowa spódnica mieszkanki Podłęża", "Zapaska mieszkanki Wyciąża". I'm limited by the materials available to me (for example nice woolen fabrics printed with Polish folk designs are not in production at all, so I had to use cotton), so I'm using them as an inspiration rather than doing full on reconstruction, but I want my ensemble to be as authentic as possible. I'm also gonna wear a red beaded necklace with Czech made beads (from Jablonec), because in all of Poland I couldn't find beads or readily made necklaces that wouldn't be either real coral or cheap looking plastic. It's gonna be the first ensemble of the few I plan to make - later I intend to sew an early-mid 19th century one, that had less embroidered or printed details. It's not as recognizable, so that one I intend to wear on a daily basis. And then I plan on making an Eastern Cracow one - even though it's close they were in a different partition and during that time our clothes began to look different. And I plan to make at least one more for my boyfriend, so he can be a weirdo with me, but I'm not raising my finger before he gets some proper boots ;) So are you planning to make traditional clothes from your area as well? I'd love to see them, I hope you plan to make a video on that as well. Do Czech people wear their traditional clothes more often than we do? In Poland we do it on some Catholic celebrations (mainly Corpus Christi) and dożynki on the countryside, rarely on any other occasion.
I´m from the Deep Southwest of Germany and how you describe your feeling about KC:D fits for me too. Just a few months ago i was on a medieval festival in my old munincipality and took to strolling into the outskirts i allways saw from the bus but never walked thru. The old homesteads around it still look like the ones you find in KC:D, if you just look at the overall structure. I find it fascinating to see so many parallels with our Slavic neighbours. Maybe it is because of similar geographic factors but when i look at the pictures from the Games or ilustrations it is like looking thru a magic mirror in a parallel dimension. I even while some is foreign but i regcognise so much and even the "strange" parts(for my eyes) feel somehow familiar.(like: The clothes are different but i recognise farmers, peasants, other folk, if it is proably a marriage or a sesonal festival). The main difference seems to be that the slavic people seem enjoy ay more to beautify their cloths and houses😅
@@mer4975 Hey, I wouldn't blame Communists or partitions for lost folklore. Come on, Communists were the ones who put peasant culture into focus and literally sponsored folk song and dance ensembles and culture centres in villages. And I don't know about folklore lost during partitions. It's the period when Oskar Kolberg made ethnographic research and wrote everything down, plus we had Romantic poets and composers retelling old stories and fairytales. If you have to blame anyone, I don't know, maybe blame Disney and looney tunes. And I appreciate your initiative with recreating a folk group. Wishing you all the best.
@@mer4975Well, the main language used for the book will definitely be English because one of the things I hate about our nation and European nations in general is that we create beautiful culture for ourselves but we never present it to the outside world. And if Netflix did something well it's bringing content from other countries to the international market. Shows like Squid Game showed everyone that it doesn't matter where the story is set and people actually really want to see different cultures. That's the true diversity. I bet that if I would make english subtitles for some of my favorite Czech live-action fairy tales and show it to people from the West they would love it and want to see more. I'm really convinced that if we wouldn't keep our culture just to ourselves we could be as big as Hollywood and there could be some competition which is always good for the quality of the content. So yeah, English will be the main goal and I'll probably also make Czech translation since it will be about Czech folklore creatures. We'll see if it would be possible to do it in some other languages as well. Yeah, the illustrations will essentially be like the loading screens in KCD. Those were done by a different artist but I believe that my cousin knows him personally and he told me that he very much admires his work and his style is pretty similar. I'll explain all of this in a video I want to make. In terms of the costumes, that's something that has to do with the Slavic fantasy I'm working on. I want to also explain it in future video but with my friend Moritz we're essentially designing costumes for the people living in that world and when it comes to the villagers we will probably take inspiration from traditional costumes of different Slavic nations. It will be way more Slavic than The Witcher. I want to lean into the uniqueness of our culture. And we'll also make some of the costumes physically (we're already working on costumes for the faction that will be the focal point of this fantasy). Regarding your question about Czech people wearing traditional costumes, I think it's pretty similar to your country. Your average Czech person won't have any costume at all but there are more rural areas which managed to maintain their folklore and people there might have traditional costumes (I believe my friend from Moravian Wallachia has one even though he's not member of any traditional group). And then there are of course traditional dancing/singing groups all over the country and they usually wear traditional clothing typical for their region. But as you said people usually wear costumes like this only during some holidays and customs.
Absolutely wonderful! Hearing tales from a rich and beautiful landscape and certainly rooted in an ancient culture is the only way to spend our leisure. Storytelling is an art needing no physical aid in conjuring images to weave the tapestry.Thank you for taking us on this journey. Until we meet around the fire again, farewell.
@FolkWalkCZ unfortunately here in the US we're very far removed from our cultural heritage so it's comforting to know someone out there is keeping their's alive. Videos like this give me a new appreciation for The Witcher.
My first exposition to Witcher topic was via the tv series Zaklínač/ Wiedzmin. Michael Zebrowski made the White Wolf image in my mind that stays there even when reading the OG White Wolf by Michael Morecock. Next were the books and next games that expanded on the books. Zebrowski also shines in Polish historical film Ogniem i Mieczem (based on Sinkiewicz books). Thank you for pointing out and verbalizing what I felt for a long time. My journey was very similar to yours but with heavier medieval and weapons tilt to it and major boost of interest was reading the papal documents of old which lead to my conversion to the Faith of my Ancestors -> Catholicism - the Church of Christ and its still living Tradition of Mass in Latin - which gives another facet and unique glimpse in to the lives of our Forebears just as experimental archaeology and living history/reenactment gives theirs. Thanks to this platform there is plenty of high value information readily available if one could discerne between quality of the sources/experiences of the presenter. Real Crusades History Scholagladiatoria to name the two best examples ... Wish you lot of success in your future endeavors bratře Čechu. :) +][+
I got you reccomended once by some distant friend on a party when your biggest videos had no more than 2 thousands views. I subsbcribed but I forgot. Now I came back and I am so happy for the way your channel went. I rarely comment but this video gave me so many endorphines, especially 9:26 when you unlocked a memory to me. I got 4 older sisters and we used to play this shoe game: a little different but I completely forgot it! 🤯 Plus I am one of the dancers in the video at 10:20 😁 I completely didn't expect it, not only my memories to be here but also me myself 😂 Niech żyje Zapadoslavia! 😁
Oh wow, thanks a lot 🙂 I love Rokiczanka (and similar Polish folk bands) so it's a pleasant surprise to hear from someone who's in their music video ❤ I'm glad that my video could remind you of some distant memories. One of the main reasons why I started doing this is nostalgia for things from my childhood 😁
Great video, you really made your points very understandable. For me it's also the Low-Fantasy setting of the Witcher that makes it so special. I have nothing against High-Fantasy like Lord of the Rings, etc. but the Low-Fantasy, where magic is not everywhere and most common folk never interact with it just gives it a special feeling, and allows for some medieval things to be represented realistically. I also very much like Kingdom Come: Deliverance (or even Crusader Kings III) for it's medieval setting, I'm fascinated by history, but adding these fantasy elements just fits really well with the beliefs and superstitions of the people. It's not as much the Slavic part for me, although it's certainly nice to have something different to the overused Anglo-Saxon fantasy, but the Witcher takes inspiration from many different cultures in Europe, even though being predominantely Slavic. I expect that by "Western Counties" you mostly mean the US and some parts of the UK, because European cultures, while being very diverse, are still very similar in many aspects. I come from Germany, which I would consider a Western Country, and while I'm not familiar with Slavic folklore per se, I could still very well connect with the Witcher, because due to the geographical proximity, Germanic folklore is often very similar. Some stories or creatures I would know under a different name, and some would be entirely unfamiliar to me (I mean I obviously also don't know all of Germanic folklore), but the spirit and cultural meaning could still very much be felt and I was definitely reminded of my childhood. I would assume that this is very similar in most of mainland Europe. I even know that some people in the UK feel a very similar connection to their folklore when confronted with the Witcher, it's just a more grounded form of fantasy. Sometimes we Europeans are not so different after all... And while I haven't seen the Netflix Witcher show, I can see that you're getting a bit disillusioned by the direction taken. Like with many things, it seems that becoming main-stream may have also hurt this franchise a lot. But the core fandom is still very much the same, there's just a lot of new people with different ideas joining. I'm still very much hyped for the new book and carefully optimistic considering the announced new game (even though not playing as Geralt will hurt me), but I also feel this disconnect with a part of the new 'fans' at least. We're just gonna have to see what follows in the next months and years...
Yeah, the low fantasy is something which is very much interconnected with the medieval history part of The Witcher and I definitely agree that it's very unique because I don't know about any other fantasy which would use it so well. There's a bit of it in Game of Thrones but that still has many high fantasy elements as well and the same can be said about Warhammer fantasy which has beautiful armor designs but there's still people riding gryffins, big orcs and high fantasy elements like that.
Even though I'm Russian, an eastern slavic person, the world of western slavic folklore is a discovery to me! Thank you for such sincere and open essay on your cultural background ❤ subscribed!
Hi, my friend. I hope books by Juraj Červenák have already caught your attention (I just can't see how they wouldn't). Be it Rogan or Ilja, old Slavic world just comes alive around them, not even mentioning Bivoj, straight from Jirásek :-)
This video is such a beautiful love-letter to childhood stories. Here in Poland we used to watch a lot of Czech and Slovakian cartoons for the "dobranocka" (good-night story on state TV, every day at 7 pm). "Rumcajs" was one of my favourite 🙂 And I think it's such a shame that Netflix didn't try to tap into the Eastern European feel in their series - it was such a great chance to explore an aesthetic that, while still European, is not typically shown in English-language media. Not saying that it needed to be 100% Slavic - Sapkowski draws from many different cultures: Celtic, Scandinavian, Arthurian legends etc., but yeah, Slavic culture is also definitely also a part of it, so why not include it in some way?
Superb work as always!! I love hearing your story about journey into folklore, it is very relatable. Btw, did you read The Hussite Trilogy? Ive heared that Sapkowski's popularity in Czechia is owed more to the Hussite trilogy then to Zaklinac, although the latter is revered since the 90s (among fantasy book readers that is). respect from PL
Thank you 🙂 Yeah, I've read it years ago although I still haven't finished the last book because I had to return it back to library before I could finish it and buying the books was impossible for the longest time because they were sold out and only some time ago they reprinted them. I just haven't had the time to get them yet. But there's also audiobook version of the first one now so I want to get that. I'm really looking forward to it because the books are great and I love this period of history 🙂 I wouldn't say that Sapko is popular more thanks to The Hussite trilogy here. It's definitely more thanks to The Witcher. I don't know that many people who have read The Hussite trilogy but those who have definitely feel proud that such a genius writer created story about our country and this tumultuous period of our history 🙂
The Hussite Trilogy is good (or even splendid) but... I quite hated that it doesn ´t end in happyend (quite the contrary). I don´t know why I was surprised though, Sapkowski killed off Geralt and Yen at the end of the books, too. :) I personaly feel that it´s The Witcher that made Sapkowski famous around here (Central Europe). It is possible The Hussite trilogy got more recognized in the 2000s, since fantasy was still a silly subgenre in the 90s, lol. It´s practically mainstream now, thanks to the Lord of the Rings perhaps. :) As for me, I got to the Hussite thing through the Witcher books, not the other way round.
Meanwhile at Hollywood Netflix: Geralt of Riverdale: Yen hurry ! We have to save Ciri and her black non-binary girlfriend so she could grow up one day to become the C.E.O. of Kaer Morhen Inc.....also can you pass me the steroids please ? Ačiū už gera video kaip visada
truuue, countryside in W3 feels extremely familiar and game constantly references things in back of my mind, all the imagery you picked is just perfect. All of W3's bestiary is everything that might have scared you as a kid from the region or something we learned from literature in school like the countryside being depicted through the lens of Romanticism. Will the Witcher 1 Remake remember how grounded this world is?? 🙏 I love Velen too, Toussaint is ezz game for babies 😉
Hi Folk! These are really well done videos with lots of visual art to show exactly what you mean. I think it would be a minor, but well liked improvement if you credited some of the artists you used. I understand for a lot of the fairytale pics it may not be easy or even viable, but it would let others find some of the amazing folklore art you use. A lot of witcher art and monster images are from Gwent, CDPR's card game based on the witcher universe. In this video at 06:38 you have images of The Drowner and Abaya (both by Adrian Smith). At 15:17 you have 'Sunset Wanderers' by Anton Nazarenko (which was inspired by the TV show cinematography). At 18:18 you've got Eyck of Denesle by Nemanja Stankovic. At 18:38 youll see an image of 'Recruit' by Grafit Studio. 18:58 has the infamous image of the P.F.I by Marta Detlaff. Then we have Black Rayla by Bogna Gawronska, whos art originally debuted in CDPRs Gwent Stories (based on her character in the books, of course). I can't source the image of the noonwraith in your thumbnail but the illustration of Radovid Africa 23:56 is by Valeriy Vegera.
Thanks 🙂 Yeah, I'm trying to credit artist when it's fan art because those are usually people who need it the most. The offical art for The Witcher games and Gwent can be easily find and it's done by people who already made it in the industry. But I'll try to do it for everyone in the future. It's just that it's additional work, I already struggle with uploading consistently and in the end no one really reads the description box where I would put this info.
@@FolkWalkCZ That's a fair point, I can understand it would add on a few hours to the production of the video. It's not an urgent request, just an idea to help others find some of the cool art you show. Overall, I really enjoy the tapestry of art you use in your videos and it's great for creating a storytelling vibe
My comment partially diverts from your video but I hope you appreciate. I am from Southern Italy, which is the ancient Magna Graecia, but overall immersed in the Mediterranean mix of cultures. Part of the topoi and values of my family culture still reflect that of ancient Greece, or I would say Mediterranean culture (also Northern Africa shares them): complex laws of hospitality, divine punishment of hubris, evil eye if you are too beautiful or successful, appreciation for moderation, monsters linked to the zenit of the sun, and many many other elements. I feel the same disgust and "betrayal of my core childhood" when I see Americans completely miss the point and force their values in stories like mithological ones the way they are depicted in Percy Jackson or Iliad ones in Troy because in such stories there are some core values that are my heritage core value, and still live in popular shared knowledge. "Luckily" southern Italy has been neglected by capitalism and many local folklore stories and fairy tales survived the advent Disney, but they never have been transposed on mass media as cartoons you saw when you were a child. I think that Soviet Union did it cause they wanted to celebrate "popular/peasant culture" as a rich culture, so they managed to save their deep meaning in the transposition. Disney in the west Europe did the opposite: they completely use the fairy tale heritage to convey American values (individualism and so on). Most psicanalisis authors and novel writers deployed the pauperization and Disneyfication of European fairy tales and I definitively see the point. American culture don't see and don't want to see the core of our cultures, neither mine nor yours. I think we are seeing this happening with the Witcher.
What I learned from this video is that Czechs have their own version of Sandmännchen but with fairy tales. I'm pretty sure the socialist block made better children's television than the West.
As a Hungarian living in Transylvania I had the same feeling when I played The Witcher 1 back in 2007. The country side in game reminded me of the village where my grandparents lived that I used to visit on summer holidays. Also in The Witcher 3, in White Orchid there are villager houses with tulips painted on them. Almost the same as the Szeklers paint them on ceramic, cloth or other objects. Everything looked familiar. Same goes for Hungarian folklore and fairy tales, and also there are a lot of Hungarian names in the Witcher universe. Little things or maybe absolute zero value to some, but for me it's very important and special. 🙂
Just curious: Do the Szeklers in your opinion consider themself Hungarian or something different? What i read about Transylvania suggest everything, from Same, to same but different, to "do you have a death wish, asking me that?"(especialy thru the centuries)😅
As a Hungarian living in Hungary that is 100% the same for me, everything was so familiar in the games and books also bojler eladó.
As a Pole i find it hilarious how our languages differ. I have no prob talking with Slovakia ppl but you guys i"ve always had dictionary in hand before autotranslator. I've almost ended up in a lake after misuderstanding what is przed, za, po,. Oh and some shthead stole my tent and a backpack at Masters of Rock so i've had to walk and hitch-hike all the way from Vizovice to Warszawa. It was a fckn GREAT journey. XD yup ppl from Poland insisted to take me home, but i went with "their ppl stole my sh..t, they are going to get me home". I've met so many incredible ppl that i'm glad i was robbed xD
I have been enjoying The Witcher audiobooks immensely, and I appreciate you providing this information about the integrated folklore that makes this series so good! The imagery created by Sapkowski is so vivid and feeds my ongoing interest in medieval and fantasy culture, as well.
We would have been friends as kids, I didn’t know anyone else who loved medieval and fantasy
I also love soooo much history of real life kings and queens and knights haha
It's really heart warming to see that our countries still have so much folklore in common. Witcher, Kingdome come deliverence and Stalker games always made me feel at home.
I am also czech (although from the Silesia part). This video really made me value our cultural traditions, folk tales and history. It is interesting how much of your own culture we take for granted, but hearing you explain different integral parts of our culture made me focus on them for the first time and really appreciate it in a new light.
I would also like to add that Witcher has not only appropriated czech and polish culture, but has many more specifc nods to real czech and polish history (for example Menno Coehoorn reportedly saying "Only a coward would flee from the field" while loosing the Brenna battle, which is qoute by a czech king John of Luxembourg and is much more poeteic and specific in czech). These little nods really reward those in the know, while not disturbing others, which is a great feature of Sapkowski´s postmodern style of writing. I am sure I haven´t caught most of these references, bot noticing them is really rewarding :)
Last thing I want to add that witcher doesn´t focus exclusively on slavis folklore, which might somewhat explain its popularity in other countries. It has mady nods to arthurian legends, myths from other regions (like Uroboros, cyclops or bruxas), theology and other territories (like vikingish Skelige, orientalish Ofier, frenchish Toussaint and africanish Zangvebar with hyenas and striped horses). Mentioned Menno Coehoorn has another famous nod to history, when he reportedly appears as spirit on the battlefield lamenting "Give me back my legions" quote by roman emperor Octavian Augustus.
Great video
Very interesting, thanks for the comment 🙂 Yeah, I'm definitely not saying that The Witcher is just Slavic. It's obvious that that's not the case. But the village atmosphere is my favorite part of the fantasy because I can relate to that and it seems to me that people usually don't really understand it (Netflix either butchered it or left it out completely) that's why I'm focusing mainly on that.
100% agreed. Not only is it a shame they didn't tap into the different folklore traditions (including Slavic ones) because it's something the English-speaking audience is unfamiliar with - it would also be such an easy way to make the different regions or countries of the Continent visually more distinctive, adding a sense of variety and depth to the fictional world (like they did in the Game of Thrones where the North has a very different feel, clothing and sound than Kingslanding or the South. Or, of course, like they did with the distinctive locations and cultures in the Lord of the Rings). And it only makes the post-modern nods to real history funnier.
My first proper experience with the witcher was the witcher 3 in about 2018 (I’m only 18 now in 2023) and I was immediately hooked. I read all the books, played all the games and loved every second of it. I also think Sapkowski ingrained a fair bit of Arthurian/celtic culture (which resonated with me as an English man) so I can relate to that, but the sheer medieval nature and the absolutely awesome Slavic Mythos is so interesting. I’m of the firm belief that the witcher really is the MEDIEVAL fantasy for all Europeans, as there are hints of all of our cultures. Shame that people think of the Netflix show whenever I mention the witcher
I'm from Finland, and I agree with just about every point. It is exactly this that cemented The Witcher in my heart, better than any other game has managed.
The same here. :) Games and books. :)
As an Englishman, I imagine The Shire as the rolling green hills of England, my home. When I read The Witcher, I imagine those Polish foresty landscapes, the flavour of Eastern Europe. Not downtown LA like the terrible show. I've never been to Poland or Czech Republic but I can feel the spirit of the books and games! I've also driven these landscapes in a lot of rally games.
It's good to see you uploaded a new video. Thanks!
In Poland, we often watched Rumcajs at bedtime (večerníček), it's a wonderful Czech fairy tale!
It's weird being reminded Rumcajs isn't Polish in fact. The best wieczorynka ever.
@@shylockwesker5530We had many other good bedtime stories animations such as Baśnie i Legendy Polskie, Przygody Kota Filemona, Miś Fantazy, Pyza na polskich drogach, Miś Uszatek, Zaczarowany Ołówek czy Wiklinowa Zatoka, Przygód Kilka Wróbla Ćwirka, Pingwin Pik Pok itd.
I’ve grown up in America, but I’ve always been enamored with the medieval fairy tale aesthetic. I loved watching cartoons of stuff like pied piper, rumplestiltskin, etc. My grandfather was Swedish, and his wife my grandmother was German. They started a small farm in the rural area of the state I live in. I don’t remember a whole lot about my grandfather because he died when I was really young. One of my most vivid memories of him though is talking about the surrounding woods during dusk. He said to my brother and I, that the “gikko” would get us if we went into the woods after dusk. I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with Swedish folklore, and he just a word he made up on the spot. It was such a contrast to where I live which is a small, but busy town. Something about the rural countryside is mysterious, and all over the world it seems it’s mostly the “country folk” that keep those old folklores alive, or in my case make new ones.
If you walk thru the woods in Central or Northern Europe, you definitly will belive that the gikko/Schwarze Mann/Waldschratt/whatever is out to get you😁. Even though it would be more likely that you stumble upon something dangerous in the american woods.
Very interesting 🙂 It's nice to see that parents or grandparents are scaring children with creepy stories all around the world 😃
You can hardly see any thick woods. Białowieża is such place where you can find woods that are hundreds of years old. Sometimes you can meat a deer, bear, wild hog or a wolf. Yet it is animals that are more afraid.
I'm 100% sure that some kind mf werewolf was after me at Mazury lakes. I'm well over 40 and that happened when i was 19 but doods, smth lives there. No, i wasn't high... SOB teailed me through the forest and i've heard him walking around my yaht. I've spent whole night hugging an axe and a knofe ready to f this up but it just walked around and stole my f sausages.
What a joy to see this pop up. Cheers to you, dobrze ci idzie.
Thank you 🙂
Your childhood was similar to mine. Nobody told better bedtime stories than my grandma. She had been raised in a village in today's Lithuania and stopped going to school after fourth grade, but she knew all fairytales. And I still have my rolls of slides and projector.
Very nice 🙂
I'm kind of having an emotional reaction to this comment section becoming a festival of nostalgic reminiscing from all the countries of our part of the world. We've got so much in common in this way 🙂
Living in the Netherlands has it's down sides, and this is one of them. We lost this, what ever this is
It's one of the most urbanized country's ever and we don't have Folklore anymore! Some of my friends "zouden hier hun neus voor ophalen" as an old expression goes
But those same idiots wonder why they can't find friends offline or keep a romance going for more than a year
greetings from croatia, we are nuts about fairytales aswell, probably all slavic countries are that's why the witcher is so popular in the eastern european block, anyways love these longer format videos you do.
Thanks, glad to hear that from a fellow Slav 🙂
On the topic of the village atmosphere you mentioned, I'm Polish, and never any game I played made me feel at home as much as Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I was shocked at how much the landscape felt exactly like what I often saw in my childhood when I used to visit the countryside. The same terrain, forests, villages (even though some things obviously changed since the 14th century villages in KC:D still felt very much like the ones I used to spend every vacation in), even plants. I live in a big city (I hope to change that one day) so it was a bit like visiting my childhood itself, very calming. I also used to do medieval reenactment and the clothes in KC:D moved me back to those days, everything was so on point.
We do have a lot of the same traditions, some exactly the same (like the burning/drowning of Marzanna), some slightly changed (like that shoe throwing thing, we have a whole holiday "Andrzejki" devoted to unmarried girls doing marriage-related divinations. If you were a man you'd instead meet up with your buddies and have a nice cold vodka, very Slavic). We also have a ton of local legends, that are also very folk-flavoured, slavic feeling. But i think your love for old fairytales is unmatched by ours, I envy you a bit. At least from my own experience, I don't remember any specifically Slavic/Central European ones being in the TV for example. The one thing I remember is my mum's book called "Fairy Tales of ZSRR countries" that she treasured a lot, but I don't think the book was very popular, so my point still stands. I think you managed to retain a lot more of those old fairy tales and that's incredibly cool, keep it up.
In my case, my love of folklore and history grew in me all of a sudden a few years ago, not even related to the Witcher boom. I grew up in a country with an extreme inferiority complex. Our folklore was dismissed as something lame and tacky, if you were in a folk dancing group you were the lamest kid in school. The fact that people calling themselves patriots and referring to our history quite often were just nationalists with a whole bunch of -isms and -phobias going on didn't really help. I remember reading a quote as a teenager, that said patriotism was believing your country was better than all the others because you were born in it and it's what I truly believed and had no shred of love for my heritage in me.
What changed it was actually, paradoxically, falling in love with other people's heritage. I saw a lot of Mexicans, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese posting their beautifully crafted traditional clothes, or themselves performing a traditional song/dance. I was enamored by it and envied them a lot. I wondered why all of them have that lovely heritage, while mine was so lame. And then it hit me - would I still consider a kimono beautiful if the Japanese treated it with such contempt I was treating my own culture with? If they never wore them, never celebrated them, never used as an inspiration to create something more appealing to modern tastes? Probably not. And so I began studying Polish traditions, music, history and clothing to find something to be proud of. It didn't have to be every single thing in my heritage, just some things. And boy, did I find it. All I had to do was look far enough in the past, our traditional clothes weren't lame, they just need a bit love, you need to use good materials (not the cheapest polyester) and limit the tacky plastic trims. So now I'm making myself a whole ensemble from my region to be a big fat weirdo and wear it publicly during holidays. Maybe I'll inspire someone to do the same.
So to to all of people who managed to read this autobiography - if you're not Slavic and here on this channel regretting it - don't. It's great to be intrerested in other cultures and I'm not saying by any means you need to focus all that energy on your own, but please don't ever think your own culture isn't as cool as Slavic ones, because it likely is, you just don't know it. And if you're a Slav and here because you're interested in your culture - great, keep it up, learn all you can about it, wear your traditional clothes (I bet they're not lame!) and practice all of the aspects of it that you like - let's not let it get forgotten.
Sorry @Folk Walk for boring your comment section to the death, you inspired me to share my own view on folklore and tradition. You're doing great work with your channel, I love finding out about the differences and similarities between Czech and Polish folklore.
First of all don't apologize. Your comment isn't boring. On the contrary, it's very interesting and comments like these are the reason why I love reading the comment section. Regarding the fairy tales..we might be obssesed with them and they're huge part of our culture but it seems to me that your nation is way better at preserving your Slavic roots and I sometimes envy you because most of our connections to Slavic culture have been lost throughout the history when we were part of the Austria-Hungary for example.
I'm glad that you've enjoyed KCD. My cousin actually works as concept artist for Warhorse Studios and we want to do a book together about Czech and Slavic folklore creatures. I would write it and probably do a bit of graphic design for it and he would do the illustrations. So they will probably be pretty similar to concept art from KCD 😃 But that's what I'm going for 🙂 Also I would be very much interested in the traditional costumes you want to make. It sounds very similar to something we're working on with my friend Moritz.
@@FolkWalkCZ We have a lot of traditions, but have forgotten their meaning. I was around 25 when I found out that Marzanna was a goddess, even though I burned her effigy in preschool, and the tradition is practiced to this day. We lost a ton of them eithter in the Communist period or during the partitions, though during the latter we at least made history as extremely rebellious and resilient and I will forever love that part of our history because of it.
That's super cool, we really need books like these. I'm on a few FB groups on Slavic paganism and when people ask for books on Slavic demonology I never know what to recommend, because the only book I know is worth recommending is "W kręgu upiorów i wilkołaków. Demonologia słowiańska." that never got translated to any language outside of Polish. What language will your book be published in? And do you mean the concept art as seen in loading screens in KCD? Because if so the art style fits perfectly!
I'm making an ensemble from the vicinity of Cracow, since this is where I live. I'm basing the designs on the actual pieces that are in the local museum. If you want to see them, you can paste in Google Arts and Culture search engine "Gorset mieszkanki wsi Mydlniki", "Tybetowa spódnica mieszkanki Podłęża", "Zapaska mieszkanki Wyciąża". I'm limited by the materials available to me (for example nice woolen fabrics printed with Polish folk designs are not in production at all, so I had to use cotton), so I'm using them as an inspiration rather than doing full on reconstruction, but I want my ensemble to be as authentic as possible. I'm also gonna wear a red beaded necklace with Czech made beads (from Jablonec), because in all of Poland I couldn't find beads or readily made necklaces that wouldn't be either real coral or cheap looking plastic. It's gonna be the first ensemble of the few I plan to make - later I intend to sew an early-mid 19th century one, that had less embroidered or printed details. It's not as recognizable, so that one I intend to wear on a daily basis. And then I plan on making an Eastern Cracow one - even though it's close they were in a different partition and during that time our clothes began to look different. And I plan to make at least one more for my boyfriend, so he can be a weirdo with me, but I'm not raising my finger before he gets some proper boots ;)
So are you planning to make traditional clothes from your area as well? I'd love to see them, I hope you plan to make a video on that as well. Do Czech people wear their traditional clothes more often than we do? In Poland we do it on some Catholic celebrations (mainly Corpus Christi) and dożynki on the countryside, rarely on any other occasion.
I´m from the Deep Southwest of Germany and how you describe your feeling about KC:D fits for me too. Just a few months ago i was on a medieval festival in my old munincipality and took to strolling into the outskirts i allways saw from the bus but never walked thru. The old homesteads around it still look like the ones you find in KC:D, if you just look at the overall structure. I find it fascinating to see so many parallels with our Slavic neighbours. Maybe it is because of similar geographic factors but when i look at the pictures from the Games or ilustrations it is like looking thru a magic mirror in a parallel dimension. I even while some is foreign but i regcognise so much and even the "strange" parts(for my eyes) feel somehow familiar.(like: The clothes are different but i recognise farmers, peasants, other folk, if it is proably a marriage or a sesonal festival). The main difference seems to be that the slavic people seem enjoy ay more to beautify their cloths and houses😅
@@mer4975 Hey, I wouldn't blame Communists or partitions for lost folklore. Come on, Communists were the ones who put peasant culture into focus and literally sponsored folk song and dance ensembles and culture centres in villages. And I don't know about folklore lost during partitions. It's the period when Oskar Kolberg made ethnographic research and wrote everything down, plus we had Romantic poets and composers retelling old stories and fairytales. If you have to blame anyone, I don't know, maybe blame Disney and looney tunes. And I appreciate your initiative with recreating a folk group. Wishing you all the best.
@@mer4975Well, the main language used for the book will definitely be English because one of the things I hate about our nation and European nations in general is that we create beautiful culture for ourselves but we never present it to the outside world. And if Netflix did something well it's bringing content from other countries to the international market. Shows like Squid Game showed everyone that it doesn't matter where the story is set and people actually really want to see different cultures. That's the true diversity. I bet that if I would make english subtitles for some of my favorite Czech live-action fairy tales and show it to people from the West they would love it and want to see more. I'm really convinced that if we wouldn't keep our culture just to ourselves we could be as big as Hollywood and there could be some competition which is always good for the quality of the content. So yeah, English will be the main goal and I'll probably also make Czech translation since it will be about Czech folklore creatures. We'll see if it would be possible to do it in some other languages as well.
Yeah, the illustrations will essentially be like the loading screens in KCD. Those were done by a different artist but I believe that my cousin knows him personally and he told me that he very much admires his work and his style is pretty similar. I'll explain all of this in a video I want to make.
In terms of the costumes, that's something that has to do with the Slavic fantasy I'm working on. I want to also explain it in future video but with my friend Moritz we're essentially designing costumes for the people living in that world and when it comes to the villagers we will probably take inspiration from traditional costumes of different Slavic nations. It will be way more Slavic than The Witcher. I want to lean into the uniqueness of our culture. And we'll also make some of the costumes physically (we're already working on costumes for the faction that will be the focal point of this fantasy).
Regarding your question about Czech people wearing traditional costumes, I think it's pretty similar to your country. Your average Czech person won't have any costume at all but there are more rural areas which managed to maintain their folklore and people there might have traditional costumes (I believe my friend from Moravian Wallachia has one even though he's not member of any traditional group). And then there are of course traditional dancing/singing groups all over the country and they usually wear traditional clothing typical for their region. But as you said people usually wear costumes like this only during some holidays and customs.
Absolutely wonderful! Hearing tales from a rich and beautiful landscape and certainly rooted in an ancient culture is the only way to spend our leisure. Storytelling is an art needing no physical aid in conjuring images to weave the tapestry.Thank you for taking us on this journey. Until we meet around the fire again, farewell.
Thank you ❤️ Very beautifully put 🙂
This video is simply enchanting. We can feel your love of fairy tales❤Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you for such kind words ❤️
This was beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for commenting 🙂 I'm always wondering if the time I've spent on these longer videos was worth it so it's nice to see that people like it ❤️
@FolkWalkCZ unfortunately here in the US we're very far removed from our cultural heritage so it's comforting to know someone out there is keeping their's alive. Videos like this give me a new appreciation for The Witcher.
Thank you for your channel.
I too love flowers and nature... And it is evident in the Witcher games.
My first exposition to Witcher topic was via the tv series Zaklínač/ Wiedzmin. Michael Zebrowski made the White Wolf image in my mind that stays there even when reading the OG White Wolf by Michael Morecock. Next were the books and next games that expanded on the books. Zebrowski also shines in Polish historical film Ogniem i Mieczem (based on Sinkiewicz books).
Thank you for pointing out and verbalizing what I felt for a long time. My journey was very similar to yours but with heavier medieval and weapons tilt to it and major boost of interest was reading the papal documents of old which lead to my conversion to the Faith of my Ancestors -> Catholicism - the Church of Christ and its still living Tradition of Mass in Latin - which gives another facet and unique glimpse in to the lives of our Forebears just as experimental archaeology and living history/reenactment gives theirs.
Thanks to this platform there is plenty of high value information readily available if one could discerne between quality of the sources/experiences of the presenter.
Real Crusades History
Scholagladiatoria
to name the two best examples ...
Wish you lot of success in your future endeavors bratře Čechu. :)
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Thank you 🙂 Very interesting. And yeah, I love Ogniem i mieczem ❤️ I'm thinking about doing a video on it one day but we'll see.
I got you reccomended once by some distant friend on a party when your biggest videos had no more than 2 thousands views. I subsbcribed but I forgot. Now I came back and I am so happy for the way your channel went.
I rarely comment but this video gave me so many endorphines, especially 9:26 when you unlocked a memory to me. I got 4 older sisters and we used to play this shoe game: a little different but I completely forgot it! 🤯 Plus I am one of the dancers in the video at 10:20 😁 I completely didn't expect it, not only my memories to be here but also me myself 😂
Niech żyje Zapadoslavia! 😁
Oh wow, thanks a lot 🙂 I love Rokiczanka (and similar Polish folk bands) so it's a pleasant surprise to hear from someone who's in their music video ❤ I'm glad that my video could remind you of some distant memories. One of the main reasons why I started doing this is nostalgia for things from my childhood 😁
Good video
Thank you 🙂
Great video, you really made your points very understandable. For me it's also the Low-Fantasy setting of the Witcher that makes it so special. I have nothing against High-Fantasy like Lord of the Rings, etc. but the Low-Fantasy, where magic is not everywhere and most common folk never interact with it just gives it a special feeling, and allows for some medieval things to be represented realistically. I also very much like Kingdom Come: Deliverance (or even Crusader Kings III) for it's medieval setting, I'm fascinated by history, but adding these fantasy elements just fits really well with the beliefs and superstitions of the people.
It's not as much the Slavic part for me, although it's certainly nice to have something different to the overused Anglo-Saxon fantasy, but the Witcher takes inspiration from many different cultures in Europe, even though being predominantely Slavic.
I expect that by "Western Counties" you mostly mean the US and some parts of the UK, because European cultures, while being very diverse, are still very similar in many aspects. I come from Germany, which I would consider a Western Country, and while I'm not familiar with Slavic folklore per se, I could still very well connect with the Witcher, because due to the geographical proximity, Germanic folklore is often very similar. Some stories or creatures I would know under a different name, and some would be entirely unfamiliar to me (I mean I obviously also don't know all of Germanic folklore), but the spirit and cultural meaning could still very much be felt and I was definitely reminded of my childhood. I would assume that this is very similar in most of mainland Europe. I even know that some people in the UK feel a very similar connection to their folklore when confronted with the Witcher, it's just a more grounded form of fantasy. Sometimes we Europeans are not so different after all...
And while I haven't seen the Netflix Witcher show, I can see that you're getting a bit disillusioned by the direction taken. Like with many things, it seems that becoming main-stream may have also hurt this franchise a lot. But the core fandom is still very much the same, there's just a lot of new people with different ideas joining. I'm still very much hyped for the new book and carefully optimistic considering the announced new game (even though not playing as Geralt will hurt me), but I also feel this disconnect with a part of the new 'fans' at least. We're just gonna have to see what follows in the next months and years...
Yeah, the low fantasy is something which is very much interconnected with the medieval history part of The Witcher and I definitely agree that it's very unique because I don't know about any other fantasy which would use it so well. There's a bit of it in Game of Thrones but that still has many high fantasy elements as well and the same can be said about Warhammer fantasy which has beautiful armor designs but there's still people riding gryffins, big orcs and high fantasy elements like that.
Even though I'm Russian, an eastern slavic person, the world of western slavic folklore is a discovery to me! Thank you for such sincere and open essay on your cultural background ❤ subscribed!
Hi, my friend. I hope books by Juraj Červenák have already caught your attention (I just can't see how they wouldn't). Be it Rogan or Ilja, old Slavic world just comes alive around them, not even mentioning Bivoj, straight from Jirásek :-)
I've never read any, just heard about them. I might try some in the future though 🙂
This video is such a beautiful love-letter to childhood stories. Here in Poland we used to watch a lot of Czech and Slovakian cartoons for the "dobranocka" (good-night story on state TV, every day at 7 pm). "Rumcajs" was one of my favourite 🙂 And I think it's such a shame that Netflix didn't try to tap into the Eastern European feel in their series - it was such a great chance to explore an aesthetic that, while still European, is not typically shown in English-language media. Not saying that it needed to be 100% Slavic - Sapkowski draws from many different cultures: Celtic, Scandinavian, Arthurian legends etc., but yeah, Slavic culture is also definitely also a part of it, so why not include it in some way?
Superb work as always!! I love hearing your story about journey into folklore, it is very relatable. Btw, did you read The Hussite Trilogy? Ive heared that Sapkowski's popularity in Czechia is owed more to the Hussite trilogy then to Zaklinac, although the latter is revered since the 90s (among fantasy book readers that is). respect from PL
Thank you 🙂 Yeah, I've read it years ago although I still haven't finished the last book because I had to return it back to library before I could finish it and buying the books was impossible for the longest time because they were sold out and only some time ago they reprinted them. I just haven't had the time to get them yet. But there's also audiobook version of the first one now so I want to get that. I'm really looking forward to it because the books are great and I love this period of history 🙂 I wouldn't say that Sapko is popular more thanks to The Hussite trilogy here. It's definitely more thanks to The Witcher. I don't know that many people who have read The Hussite trilogy but those who have definitely feel proud that such a genius writer created story about our country and this tumultuous period of our history 🙂
The Hussite Trilogy is good (or even splendid) but... I quite hated that it doesn ´t end in happyend (quite the contrary). I don´t know why I was surprised though, Sapkowski killed off Geralt and Yen at the end of the books, too. :)
I personaly feel that it´s The Witcher that made Sapkowski famous around here (Central Europe). It is possible The Hussite trilogy got more recognized in the 2000s, since fantasy was still a silly subgenre in the 90s, lol. It´s practically mainstream now, thanks to the Lord of the Rings perhaps. :) As for me, I got to the Hussite thing through the Witcher books, not the other way round.
Meanwhile at Hollywood Netflix:
Geralt of Riverdale: Yen hurry ! We have to save Ciri and her black non-binary girlfriend so she could grow up one day to become the C.E.O. of Kaer Morhen Inc.....also can you pass me the steroids please ?
Ačiū už gera video kaip visada
My man, I wish you all the best. Keep it up.
Thank you 🙂
Great video man!
Thanks 🙂
As a Quebecer, i'm jealous.
truuue, countryside in W3 feels extremely familiar and game constantly references things in back of my mind, all the imagery you picked is just perfect. All of W3's bestiary is everything that might have scared you as a kid from the region or something we learned from literature in school like the countryside being depicted through the lens of Romanticism. Will the Witcher 1 Remake remember how grounded this world is?? 🙏 I love Velen too, Toussaint is ezz game for babies 😉
"Will the Witcher 1 Remake remember how grounded this world is??"
That's the question..
I imagine it will be a woke mess sadly. Can't have Europeans having a culture or identity huh!
Hi Folk! These are really well done videos with lots of visual art to show exactly what you mean. I think it would be a minor, but well liked improvement if you credited some of the artists you used.
I understand for a lot of the fairytale pics it may not be easy or even viable, but it would let others find some of the amazing folklore art you use. A lot of witcher art and monster images are from Gwent, CDPR's card game based on the witcher universe.
In this video at 06:38 you have images of The Drowner and Abaya (both by Adrian Smith). At 15:17 you have 'Sunset Wanderers' by Anton Nazarenko (which was inspired by the TV show cinematography). At 18:18 you've got Eyck of Denesle by Nemanja Stankovic. At 18:38 youll see an image of 'Recruit' by Grafit Studio. 18:58 has the infamous image of the P.F.I by Marta Detlaff. Then we have Black Rayla by Bogna Gawronska, whos art originally debuted in CDPRs Gwent Stories (based on her character in the books, of course).
I can't source the image of the noonwraith in your thumbnail but the illustration of Radovid Africa 23:56 is by Valeriy Vegera.
Thanks 🙂 Yeah, I'm trying to credit artist when it's fan art because those are usually people who need it the most. The offical art for The Witcher games and Gwent can be easily find and it's done by people who already made it in the industry. But I'll try to do it for everyone in the future. It's just that it's additional work, I already struggle with uploading consistently and in the end no one really reads the description box where I would put this info.
@@FolkWalkCZ That's a fair point, I can understand it would add on a few hours to the production of the video. It's not an urgent request, just an idea to help others find some of the cool art you show. Overall, I really enjoy the tapestry of art you use in your videos and it's great for creating a storytelling vibe
My comment partially diverts from your video but I hope you appreciate. I am from Southern Italy, which is the ancient Magna Graecia, but overall immersed in the Mediterranean mix of cultures. Part of the topoi and values of my family culture still reflect that of ancient Greece, or I would say Mediterranean culture (also Northern Africa shares them): complex laws of hospitality, divine punishment of hubris, evil eye if you are too beautiful or successful, appreciation for moderation, monsters linked to the zenit of the sun, and many many other elements.
I feel the same disgust and "betrayal of my core childhood" when I see Americans completely miss the point and force their values in stories like mithological ones the way they are depicted in Percy Jackson or Iliad ones in Troy because in such stories there are some core values that are my heritage core value, and still live in popular shared knowledge.
"Luckily" southern Italy has been neglected by capitalism and many local folklore stories and fairy tales survived the advent Disney, but they never have been transposed on mass media as cartoons you saw when you were a child. I think that Soviet Union did it cause they wanted to celebrate "popular/peasant culture" as a rich culture, so they managed to save their deep meaning in the transposition. Disney in the west Europe did the opposite: they completely use the fairy tale heritage to convey American values (individualism and so on).
Most psicanalisis authors and novel writers deployed the pauperization and Disneyfication of European fairy tales and I definitively see the point. American culture don't see and don't want to see the core of our cultures, neither mine nor yours.
I think we are seeing this happening with the Witcher.
What I learned from this video is that Czechs have their own version of Sandmännchen but with fairy tales. I'm pretty sure the socialist block made better children's television than the West.
Indeed. Snow Queen from Soyuz Multfilm brought Hayao Miyazaki's hope that animation for kids can be good.
Precisely for this very reason the wokes in the Netflix hole made such a horrible show.
Hail to all Serbian peoples!
Good video
Good video