The Tower of the Swallow

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Note: For reasons unknown, some of the translations have "Swallow" in its plural form in the title while the original, the Polish title is in singular form. Thus, the most correct translation would be "Tower of the Swallow" or "The Swallow's Tower". The mentioned swallow is a representation of a single person so it feels like a rather big error in translation. The error itself might be related to Polish language complexity; the word "Jaskółki" in itself is in a plural form, however in a phrase "Wieża Jaskółki" it is not, here it is in its 2nd (of 7) declination case.

Hermit Guru: Vysogota of Corvo, a philosopher who was exiled for his views and had to settle down incognito on a swamp. Orifice Invasion: When Ciri initially refuses to take a hit of fisstech, Bonhart tells her she has three options: snort it, rub it into her gums, or he'll pull down her pants and apply it inside her vagina. She relents. But I don't think there will be enough space and moreover, I don't think I can put them in words properly! In the Northern Kingdoms centuries after the main story, the sorceress Condwiramurs is apprenticed to Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, to study the legend of Geralt and Ciri. Condwiramurs has clairvoyant dreams and recovers many scenes about them.One of my qualms about previous entries was about needless information dumping sections about political happenings one hundred years ago or who married someone else previously and what effect it had on characters I don't know. They distracted from the main story and thus far haven't heightened my enjoyment at all. There is only one such section here and although I did want to skip past it, it was an okay read but still seemed a bit like a dull interlude. Bury Your Gays: Ciri and Mistle's relationship comes to a gruesome end here. Mistle is disfigured, Gutted Like a Fish by Bonhart, and slowly expires in front of Ciri. Then Bonhart saws off her head while Ciri is forced to watch. For reasons unknown, some of the translations have "Swallow" in its plural form in the title while the original, the Polish title is in singular form. Thus, the most correct translation would be "Tower of the Swallow" or "The Swallow's Tower". The mentioned swallow is a representation of a single person so it feels like a rather big error in translation. The error itself might be related to Polish language complexity; the word "Jaskółki" in itself is in a plural form, however in a phrase "Wieża Jaskółki" it is not, here it is in its 2nd (of 7) declination case. Meanwhile, having saved Queen Meve of Rivia, Geralt and his party – the bard Dandelion, Milva the archer, higher vampire Regis, and former Nilfgaardian soldier, Cahir – travel with her army. Geralt seeks a group of druids whom he believes can locate Ciri. During their journey, they learn that a bounty has been placed on their heads by a half-elf and a group of criminals led by a man named Nightingale. Partnering up with the young woman Angoulême, a former member of this group, they decide to ambush the bandits and discover who hired them, who Geralt suspects to be the wizard Vilgefortz. Eventually, they stumble upon the half-elf, named Schirrú. A fight breaks out, in which Cahir is injured, forcing him and Geralt into hiding. During this time, the two reconcile. They reunite with the rest of the party, who have entered Toussaint, where the druids are. They attempt to locate the criminals, but are captured instead by the druids, who kill the criminals before Geralt can question them.

Geralt, who is wary of Avallac’h’s intentions throughout the game, agrees to explore the lab with Yennefer and Ciri. They discover a large genealogy tree and extensive notes charting the Lara gene and Avallac’h’s attempts to replicate it. If you’re like us and binged the Netflix show in one weekend and put countless hours into The Witcher video game, then the only next step is to take a look at the epic novels that inspired not one, but two different media adaptations! Auberon, Avallac’h, and other Aen Elle claim they want to reopen the gates to save their Aen Seidhe cousins from the White Frost. Avallac’h also tells Ciri that they plan to save not just the elves but also the humans. Then later, he says, “We used to say to ourselves, what’s the difference, we’ll spend some time here, some time there, so what if the Dh’oine insist on destroying this world along with themselves? We’ll go somewhere else…” The Tower of the Swallow (UK) or The Tower of Swallows (U.S.) (Polish: Wieża Jaskółki), was written by Andrzej Sapkowski and was first published in Poland in 1997 and is the sixth book in The Witcher series and the fourth novel in the saga.

Tropes found in the book:

Enter The Tower of the Swallow, Book 4 of the Witcher series, which pushed the plot so far ahead that I’m convinced this particular installment could have easily been two books. Avallac’h and Auberon believe the humans “stole” the Lara gene from the elves when Lara bore Cregennan’s child, shattering their prophecy. Avallac’h in The Witcher books

Apart from the above I pretty much like everything about this book. Just how Baptism of Fire was Geralt's book this is Ciri's book. The plot follows Ciri's life after the Rats were killed. As for the books, Auberon does confirm in The Lady of the Lake that the elves traveled between several worlds, although he doesn’t mention specifics: The Aen Elle were originally part of the Aen Seidhe elves who currently inhabit the Continent — the world where most of the Witcher games and books take place — but settled on a different world thousands of years ago.Avallac’h is a Knowing One. Knowing Ones have their own code of honor in which every second sentence there’s mention of the end justifying the means.’” Gladiator Games: Bonhart — implicitly a fan and occasional participant— forces Ciri to take part in arena fighting. It includes a protester who finds animal fights immoral, but human against human a fair game.

Not long after this conversation, Ciri makes her way to the stables for her daily ride with her mare. Eredin, an Aen Elle general and the leader of the Red Riders (known as the Wild Hunt to the humans of the Continent), enters the stable. He instructs her to follow him and reveals that Avallac’h lied to her:She refuses at first, determined to escape on her own — but, seeing no other option, finally agrees. Avallac’h gives Ciri his word that she’ll be free once she fulfills her task, and reminds her that it’s insulting to question an elf’s word. Kenna, too. She's one of the most emphatic characters in the book, and easily one of the nicest people in the whole saga. Yet she's on Skellen's payroll and just does her job. Similar to Mun, she is creepied by the sort of company she ends up in, and probing into Bonhart mind makes her literally puke. Bogeyman: Bonhart is this to Ciri. Even after killing almost all of Skellen's other men, she's still terrified of facing him in a one-on-one fight. Bavarian Fire Drill: A subverted example. Cahir gets the party across a bridge closely guarded by the Nilfgaardians by pretending to be a Nilfgaardian officer and browbeating the sentry. The subversion is that Cahir is a Nilfgaardian officer. He's just one who deserted. This is a difficult question which has many fans scratching their heads. It seems the timeline doesn’t quite add up. Nonetheless, translation errors only cause more confusion. In the original novel, Polish fans say she is “almost twelve”, but in the English translation she is named to be “almost fifteen”.