Andrzej Sapkowski wrote the first story about the witcher for the competition. Even then, he did not win

On December 16, 1986, the issue of “Fantastyka” appeared in print, in which the editorial office published the best stories, in its opinion, which were sent to the literary competition. First place was taken by Mark S. Huberath’s “Come Back Sneogg, I Knew …” It was only on page 18 of the magazine that the novel entitled “The Witcher”, which took third place.

“Wiedźmin” was written for the son of Andrzej Sapkowski

Andrzej Sapkowski started his writing with translation: he translated the stories “Words Guru” by Cyril M. Kornbluth into Polish for “Fantastyka”. His first published text was a story about fishing for stalogłowy trout – “Stalogłowy”, in 1984 was published by “Wiadomości Wędkarskie”. The character of Geralt Sapkowski was created a few years later, at the urging of his unfortunately deceased son Krzysztof (he was a poet himself, he died at the age of 47 in 2019). It was he who was a die-hard fan of fantasy literature in his youth and infected his father with his passion. Years later, the writer recalled the circumstances of the short story in:

I wanted to please my son who is an avid lover of this type of literature and a regular reader of your magazine [Fantastyka]. He once asked me, “Why don’t you write something like this?” “No problem, I said, I’ll write.” And that’s how The Witcher was born. Anyway, it was from my son that I found out about your competition and its conditions.

Where did Andrzej Sapkowski get the specific idea for the character? The writer explained in one of the interviews:

Polish literature and mythology have a great influence on my books. Unfortunately, some elements are lost in the translation. There was one story about a shoemaker who killed a dragon. I figured it was an impossible endeavor and created Geralt, the professional monster slayer. I only took third place, the judges were forewarned, but it went well anyway.

You can see what the memorable issue of “Fantastyka” looked like on the Kulturalny Man profile, where the photos of the archival issue were posted:

The writer did not assume that the next episodes of this story would be written, in an interview he even emphasized “I was even deeply convinced that the payment of fees would end”. And yet the editors of “Fantastyka” did not forget about him and volunteered for more. As Bereś heard:

Suddenly, out of nowhere, “Fantastyka” started sending me telegrams, letters, inviting me to some reunions, Sabbaths, literary workshops and other Polcons (and then I had no idea what it was). I was really surprised! I even told them: ‘I already got my fee! What else do you want from me? ‘

Sapkowski took the third place thanks to his “technical skills and readership”. The prize was PLN 10,000. In 1985, the dollar on the black market was paid for around 500-600 zlotys, and that was also the price for half a liter of vodka. As reported by the Social Insurance Institution, in 1986 the average salary in the People’s Republic of Poland was PLN 298,140 per year, i.e. some PLN 24,095 per month.

The short story “The Road From Which You Don’t Return” was published in the August 1988 issue of the magazine. Interestingly, there were no direct references to Geralt, and the editors introduced changes not agreed with the author. Sapkowski did not assume that he was creating a great universe and did not plan too much what would happen in the next stories. How did one story turn into a whole series, and then a saga? In the film promoting the first season of the Netflix series, the writer said quite cautiously:

For me, it is still a great mystery of life. It was an impulse. Something that fell from the sky. And then becoming a full-time writer was something I never imagined. Never.

First, two volumes of the stories “The Last Wish” and “The Sword of Destiny” were published. Then the writer began to carefully plan his next moves and thus the whole saga was born. Michał Wojtczuk from “G” said:

I planned the witcher’s pentalogy in detail and wrote it according to this plan. The plan assumed a complete ending of the stories, closing all the threads important to the plot in five volumes. And that’s how it happened. The pentalogy is complete, it is an integrated whole.

In addition to the saga, readers can read about Geralt’s adventures in the aforementioned volumes of the stories “The Last Wish”, “The Sword of Destiny”, and “Season of Storms” – their action is set before the events of the saga. An alternative ending to the saga, or a non-canonical story from this universe, can also be found in the volume “Something ends, something begins”. Sapkowski describes the wedding of Yennefer and Geralt in it, but emphasizes in the preface that he wrote the story long before the end of the saga and should be treated as separate from the whole.

This is how the story of Geralt began, who, quite unexpectedly for his writer’s father, became an ambassador of Polish culture and our best export product. Because thanks to him, the well-received CD Projekt Red games were created (they were preceded by one unsuccessful one, which made Sapkowski lose his conviction for this format), a discussion Polish film and series with Michał Żebrowski and an international hit.