The Fairytale Concept at the Heart of ‘The Witcher’
It’s as fantasy and as folkloric as they come.
The third season of The Witcher, Netflix’s hit fantasy show based on the book series of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and the subsequent video game franchise, has just been released for audiences around the world to stream on June 29.
These five episodes make up the first part of season 3, with three more following on July 27 before turning towards season 4—where Geralt of Rivia will stop having Henry Cavill’s face and will be portrayed by Liam Hemsworth instead, a recasting choice that definitely had fans and casual watchers alike talking back when it was announced in the autumn of 2022.
Before that happens, there are still a whole lot of troubles and adventures that Geralt, Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer of Vengerberg, and Freya Allan’s Ciri have to go through. The second season built up the found family relationship between the three, and especially between Geralt and Ciri—they are, after all, bound by destiny in one of the most fundamental worldbuilding creations of the entire Witcher series.
So let’s take a closer look at the Law of Surprise, what it is, and how it operates within the world Sapkowski created, since everything else pretty much hinges on it.
What is the Law of Surprise? How does it work?
The inspiration for the Law of Surprise comes from European folklore and fairytales, wherein getting saved or helped often means paying a price that might not be what one expects to pay.
Something along the lines of the story of Rumpelstiltskin, a German fairytale collected by the Brothers Grimm—which is actually reprised in The Witcher canon with the legend of Zivelina, who becomes queen of the kingdom of Metinna with the help of a gnome named Rumplestelt and then refuses to pay the price he requests: her firstborn child. Of course, breaking promises with magical creatures is never a good idea, and both Queen and child die of the plague after a short while.
In the universe of The Witcher, the Law of Surprise is a custom that is considered as old as humanity itself, invoked time and time again throughout history. It dictates that someone who is saved by someone else should offer them a boon, the nature of which is often unknown to both parties. For instance, the savior might ask for “the first thing that comes to greet you when you return home,” or “what you find at home yet don’t expect.”
While said boon could be pretty much anything—it is a surprise, after all—it usually takes the form of the first child of the person that was saved, whose conception or birth might have been unknown at the time of the request. The Law of Surprise becomes one of the many manifestations of Destiny, which ties together two people—the savior and their child of surprise, usually—whose paths were always meant to cross.
How does the Law of Surprise come into play with Geralt and Ciri?
That’s exactly the case for Geralt of Rivia and his own child of surprise, Ciri, whose full name is Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, crown Princess of Cintra. She becomes Geralt’s child of surprise when he saves the life of Ciri’s father, Duny, also known as Lord Urcheon of Erlenwald and recently revealed to be none other than Emhyr var Emreis, the Emperor of Nilfgaard.
In a series of flashbacks during the first season of The Witcher, we learn that Duny himself was promised a child of surprise after saving an injured King Roegner of Cintra. That child was Pavetta, with whom Roegner’s wife Queen Calanthe was pregnant, unbeknownst to Roegner.
Duny had no intention of claiming Pavetta, but the two were still pushed together by destiny and met anyway, falling in love. It all leads to the night of the celebration of Pavetta’s 15th birthday, where a cursed Duny—his face looking like a hedgehog—claims the princess by virtue of the Law of Surprise and their blossoming love.
Calanthe is understandably not pleased about that and tries everything to stop this union from happening. First, she commands Geralt—who is in attendance at the celebration—to kill Duny, believing him a monster. Then Calanthe tries to stab Duny herself, unleashing Pavetta’s Elder Blood powers. After that, the Queen has no choice but to agree to the union, thus fulfilling the promise her husband made under the Law of Surprise.
The Law of Surprise is invoked once again when Duny thanks Geralt for not killing him and asks what he can give him to repay his debt. The witcher is not particularly interested in gaining a reward so he turns to the Law of Surprise—more to please Duny than anything else—and asks for “that which you already have but do not know.” And in perfect dramatic fashion, Pavetta throws up at that very moment, revealing that she is pregnant with her and Duny’s first child.
That child, of course, turns out to be Ciri. And to further prove the connection between the two, Geralt unknowingly names Ciri as his child of surprise a second time.
Traveling through a decimated Central refugee camp, Geralt encounters the merchant Yurga, saving him from ghouls and getting infected by their poison in the fight. Yurga takes him to his house as Geralt recovers from his wound, and since he doesn’t have anything else to give Yurga for his help, he offers the witcher the Law of Surprise. And unbeknownst to Yurga, his wife Zola had just saved a lost Cintran girl from the woods—Ciri, of course.
Geralt finally meets Ciri as he runs into said woods immediately after hearing Zola’s words. Ciri jumps into his arms as he tells her that “people linked by destiny will always find each other”—even if they had no intentions of claiming their child of surprise, as Geralt had told Duny the night when all of this was put into motion.
(featured image: Netflix)
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
