Michał Żebrowski as Geralt in the Hexer movie

Hexer or Witcher (Polish: Wiedźmin) is a character created by Andrzej Sapkowski. Hexers appear in Sapkowski's Hexer cycle, consisting of 2 short story collections and 5 novels. The novels are known as the Hexer saga (Polish: Saga o wiedzminie). They were so far translated into Czech, Slovakian, German, Russian, Lithuanian, French and Spanish.

Hexers are professional monster killers who receive special training and preparation. They are sterile mutants with supernatural abilities. During their training they are also taught to suppress their feelings, which leads many people to believe that they have no emotions. Geralt, the central character in Sapkowski's stories, is one of the best hexers.

The word witcher is a more direct translation of the Polish wiedźmin, and is used by the makers of the computer game based on the books. Sapkowski himself, however, prefers the translation hexer.

The Hexer cycle

Short stories

The hexer cycle started as a series of short stories, at first published in Fantastyka, a Polish science fiction magazine. The first short story was "Wiedźmin" ("Hexer") (1986), written for a contest of Fantastyka magazine, where it won the 3rd place. The first four stories of Geralt (and "Droga, z której się nie wraca", which took place in the same world, but dozens of years before the Hexer stories) were published in a short story collection titled Wiedźmin. All fifteen short stories were later collected in three books published by superNOWA - Ostatnie życzenie, Miecz przeznaczenia and Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna.

Hexer saga

Hexer Saga consists of five novels about Geralt (Krew elfów, Czas pogardy, Chrzest ognia, Wieża jaskółki, Pani jeziora), in which Sapkowski joins the threads started in the short stories, and adds new ones. Apart from the hexer himself, another central character is princess Ciri.

List of books

Short story collections:

• Ostatnie życzenie (The Final Wish) (1993)
• Miecz przeznaczenia (Sword of Destiny) (1992)
• Coś się kończy, coś się zaczyna (Something ends, something begins) (2000)

Hexer saga:

• Krew elfów (Blood of the Elves) (1994)
• Czas pogardy (The time of Contempt) (1995)
• Chrzest ognia (The Baptism of Fire) (1996)
• Wieża jaskółki (The Tower of Swallow) (1997)
• Pani jeziora (The Lady of the Lake) (1999)

Comic books

In 1993-1995, Sapkowski's stories were adapted into six comic book albums by Maciej Parowski (story), Boguslaw Polch (art), and Sapkowski himself. They are:

• Droga bez powrotu (English: The Road with no Return, based on short story "Droga, z której się nie wraca")
• Geralt (based on short story "Wiedźmin")
• Mniejsze zło (Lesser Evil, based on short story of the same title)
• Ostatnie zyczenie (The Final Wish based on short story of the same title)
• Granica mozliwosci (The Border of Possibility, based on short story of the same title)
• Zdrada (Betrayal, the only one not based on a short story, but on info on Geralt's youth provided by Sapkowski)

Film

Hexer is also the title of a movie (2001) and television series (2002), directed by Marek Brodzki , written by Michał Szczerbic , and produced by Lew Rywin. The role of Geralt was played by Michał Żebrowski , and the music was composed by Grzegorz Ciechowski .

Role-playing game

In 2001 a role-playing game called Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni (Hexer: Game of Imagination) based on Sapkowski's books was published by MAG. Second edition of the game is in production.

Computer game

As of 2004, a computer role-playing game The Witcher is being produced by CD Projekt. It takes place after Sapkowski's saga, and the main character is based on the character of Geralt.

External links

• Official website of Andrzej Sapkowski
• Unofficial website of the movie
• Internet Movie Database page for the movie
• Official website of the role-playing game
• Official website of the computer game