On Page 42: The Last Wish

[The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, translated by Danusia Stok, Orbit, paperback, 2007, p42-45]

Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Last Wish introduces the world of the Witcher through vignettes split by moments of respite at a temple. This structure allows the story’s timeline to be less linear and more intuitive. A lot of my ongoing points will be more directed by Danusia Stok’s choices as translator. Sapkowski and Stok are integrated in the most intimate form of story creation. The moment we are focusing in the text is the first section in chapter 2: The Voice of Reason.  

This scene revolves around Nenneke, a priestess of the Temple of Melitele mothering the Witcher back to health after a fight with a monster, the Striga. It centers mostly around those two characters, but also introduces the mute, Iola.

Throughout the book there is spontaneous use of a modern lexicon on page 44 the narrative comments, “how rich and comprehensive her pharmacy was.” There was a choice to use “pharmacy” rather than “apothecary.” If the modern lexicon was integrated more often it might fold into the fantasy aspect more fluently, but the rare nature of this language effects the reading momentarily.

The Last Wish also takes part in the rich tradition of fantasy focusing on description rather than character or plot. Right off in the beginning of this section we get:

“The sun was already high and forced blinding golden rays through the shutters, penetrating the chamber

with tentacles of light.” (p42)

“Golden rays through the shutters” implies that “tentacles of light” are “penetrating the chambers,” but the genre often asks for this drawn-out aesthetic sacrificing minimalism for redundancy.

Outside of redundancy, at points the text falls into this meta-commentary of denial. Nenneke offers sanctuary to the Witcher, heals him, chastises his bad choices, and tries to give him advice. They are all roles we could call motherly or nurturing, but Nenneke goes out of her way to say:

“Am I supposed to give you advice and teach you how to live? Am I your mother or something?” (45)

This feels like a justification for Nenneke’s motherly characteristics. A lot of the female characters fall into typical fantasy tropes with minor twists, like the Striga is a cursed princess.

This section allows us to see that The Last Wish follows a long tradition of fantasy writings. Even as two storytellers work together to bring this Polish translated tale to an English reading audience, we still get a typical fantasy story.