Blood of Elves

This chapter introduces a key faction in The Witcher saga—the Scoia’tael—and elaborates on the Racial Tensions Between Humans and Nonhumans. Although the Scoia’taels are primarily elves, there are other nonhuman races among their ranks. The commandos take their name from the Elder Speech for “squirrels,” in reference to the squirrel tails they often pin to their hats. The commandant at the Kaedwenian fort espouses a view quite similar to King Henselt’s own: that in order to eliminate the Scoia’tael, one must round up (and potentially even kill) all nonhumans because any of them could be commandos. This distrust devolves into paranoia, ultimately resulting in the attack on Yarpen’s caravan. King Henselt wished to see whether Yarpen would side with the humans or with the Scoia’tael in the event the latter group attacked. King Henselt’s men upped the stakes by telling Yarpen his caravan was on a special mission for the king’s army and that their cargo was an important secret. In reality, Yarpen’s caravan is both a decoy and cannon fodder. If they are attacked, no essential cargo is harmed, and the army sees where Yarpen’s loyalties lie; if they are not attacked, the cargo is irrelevant, and they can safely assume Scoia’tael do not attack other nonhumans. Yarpen’s statement to Geralt about not being a fence-sitter even if it means his race thinks he betrayed them is prescient: The Scoia’tael do attack him, likely because he was working with humans. Furthermore, by recruiting Yarpen to run the caravan through known Scoia’tael territory, the majority of deaths in the event of an attack would be dwarves, so King Henselt still achieves his goal of eliminating nonhumans.

Although Yarpen never “adopts” Ciri in the way that Triss and the witchers do, he still imparts lessons that profoundly shape Ciri’s worldview. Yarpen’s belief that Nilfgaard feeds the Scoia’tael “slogans” demonstrates that no faction is immune to propaganda, no matter how personal or justified they think their motivations are. Yarpen argues for assimilation, or something like it, since he thinks Nilfgaard will abandon the Scoia’tael as soon as they stop being useful; in other words, nonhumans will be no better off under Nilfgaardian rule than that of the Northern Kingdoms. However, the trap King Henselt sets shows Yarpen that no matter how clear he makes his loyalty, or how useful he proves himself to be, the humans will never regard him as a trustworthy equal.

The chapter also explores Geralt’s neutral stance, tying into the theme of Neutrality, Justice, and War. Witchers are “neutral” because they are meant to hunt monsters, get paid, and leave; everything else is not their business. However, Geralt does not sit idly by and watch the Scoia’tael attack the caravan; he joins the fight and protects Ciri, Triss, Yarpen, and the other dwarves and humans. Despite previously telling Wenck that he would not raise his sword against the Scoia’tael, Geralt does fight the elves—but only because they attacked the caravan unprovoked. Geralt views the Scoia’taels’ attack as the exact kind of personal hatred he warned Ciri against. It is in this scene that his lesson in Chapter 3 becomes clear: Neutrality does not mean being indifferent but rather “killing” the hatred in oneself. Geralt will not kill anyone or anything out of personal hatred, but he will kill to protect others.

Yarpen’s other lesson to Ciri comes outside the wagon after Ciri realizes she does not like Triss’s advances on Geralt. Yarpen’s warning about mistaking someone’s compassion and kindness for a deeper feeling (like love) is a pointed comment about Triss and Geralt’s relationship. Yarpen views Triss’s actions as desperate in the face of unrequited affection. This interaction is a key moment for Ciri’s understanding of Geralt: She learns what it means to for someone to love another person and that there are different forms of love. Geralt may not be in love with Triss, but he does care about her and values their friendship, which is a form of love. Triss wants Geralt because of what he makes her feel rather than what she feels for him, and she is so traumatized by Sodden Hill that she clings to him as a link to the intense emotions she has trouble accessing and expressing by herself. Ciri also learns to see Geralt as more than just her father figure or a witcher. He does experience emotion (contrary to widely held opinions about witchers being emotionless), and he is capable of great compassion, kindness, and patience. Geralt’s character becomes more rounded through Ciri and Yarpen’s assessments of his bond with Triss.

This chapter also serves to establish several historical facts that are directly relevant to the novel’s present conflicts. Elirena’s army was comprised of almost exclusively young elves, and when her forces were massacred, the older elves who did not fight were unable to repopulate the race. Elves live for hundreds of years but are only fertile for a brief window in their youth, and nearly all fertile elves died in Elirena’s army. The fact that Shaerrawedd is a palace, not a castle, is noteworthy: A castle is fortified whereas a palace is not. Before humans arrived, elves had no reason to fortify their structures—even against one another—whereas when humans arrived they built castles to protect themselves from other humans. Geralt points out that major human cities (including Ciri’s home, Cintra) were built on the foundations of elven cities. This is a callback to Triss’s explanation of makeup as an elven invention that humans now consider their own. The elves destroyed Shaerrawedd to prevent humans from doing the same thing to what they revere as a memorial for their dead.