Why did Geralt become a witcher?

[dimbismp]

Why did Geralt become a witcher?

Greetings!
I haven't read the books,but i have played the two games.I was curious:Why did Geralt become a witcher?

The wiki says that his mother took him to the wolf school.Why?
And why does Geralt seem so satisfied with a life that was "forced" to him?

 

[Guest 3702081]

Male orphans or children some families had no use for were raised by witchers and they always needed new disciples. It's a bit similar to medieval times when "spare" boys and girls were handed over to monasteries and became monks or nuns. So Geralt didn't have much of a choice. Neither did his parents, I guess. The whole story of them is found in A Road with no Return, but I'm not sure, if it's canon and I haven't read it yet.

Geralt seems to embrace his fate firstly because there's no way back, and furthermore he has a definite role in the society of the witcher's world. Mind Geralt is quite a fatalist. That might have changed when it comes to his friends and his beloved, but in regards to him being a witcher, he simply accepted it.

 

[ajarn]

He was not "spare". He was Unexpected Child. He became a witcher by Fate. Like Ciri.
I suggest to read books by A.Sapkovsky. It'll be worth your while and many questions will be answered.

 

[Guest 3702081]

I can't remember that when reading the books. Unless it is said in A Road with no Return, of course.

Care to quote the passage where that is addressed?

 

[Mow2345]

One thing for sure, Geralt is Special. He is a sorceress's son. And it's near impossible, if not impossible, that a sorceress can have a child. So in a way, I think, he is like Ciri, a child of fate. And I don't think he is satisfied with his life. He is good at hiding it, but sometimes, he lets his guard down. For example with Yennefer, when she talks about him being a witcher, he belittles himself and sounds so pathetic ( to quote Yennefer ). And with his mother, when he is injured and that she cures him, he's mad at her, he show her his eyes, tell her a lot of children died to have those eyes, so she feels guilty and more. So no, he is not satisfied with his life, but he has no choice, what's done is done. But you are right, I think the most important question here is why his mother left him to be a witcher. I'd love to know the answer..

 

[wichat]

Sorceress or druid?

 

[Mow2345]

You got me there! I just know that when she heals him, it is mentionned several times that geral's necklace is shaking a lot. Iam not sure his necklace reacts to druids. When he is in Cintra the first time, I always thought his necklace reacted to Mousesack, but it was surely due to Pavetta's magic. I think. Yeah. You got me there Wichat!

 

[Guest 3702081]

Well, the English wiki isn't very helpful, since it states she's a druid, a healer and a sorceress at the same time. The German version is more specific:

"Visenna is a sorceress, who specialized on the field of healing through magic. She is of juvenile beauty [a typical trait of sorceresses] […] Most sorceresses can't bear children. Only a few are an exception; Visenna didn't know this, though, when she conceived Geralt. […] Geralt is slightly embittered because Visenna gave him away back then – while she speaks of destiny having met again."

For those who know German: Visenna

So the German entry doesn't make a difference between a druidess and a sorceress, or there truly are exceptions. I guess the issue also depends on how consequent Sapkowski is with his own "rules", with the inner logic of the world he created.

Still there's no definite motivation given why she brought Geralt to Kaer Morhen.

@Mow2345
You are right; I forgot about that passage. Yennefer also describes Geralt as self-pitying at times.

On the other hand, I found beneath the entry a quote from Sword of Destiny:

"Calanthe: Do you hate that woman, Geralt?
Geralt: My mother? No, Calanthe. I can imagine she had to choose. . . . Maybe she had no choice? No, she could choose, […]. The choice. The choice that must be respected, because it is the holy and unassailable right of every woman. […] But I think, meeting her, the face she would now make. . . . That would give me a kind of odd pleasure."

That passage is up to interpretations. At least it looks like he intended to forgive her or even forgave her later on.

 

[GuyNwah]

He has satisfaction in that what he does, he does well, and the ideals he lives by are his own and are good in his sight.

And though his trade and skills and even his body were forced upon him, he has made the most of these. Sure, he has regrets, as do we all, for roads not taken and paths closed to us. Some of these, especially infertility, must hurt him deeply.

But when we meet at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe and ask him "How did you do," he can answer "Funny old thing, life, it's what you make it."

 

[Mow2345]

Well, the English wiki isn't very helpful, since it states she's a druid, a healer and a sorceress at the same time. The German version is more specific:
So the German entry doesn't make a difference between a druidess and a sorceress, or there truly are exceptions. I guess the issue also depends on how consequent Sapkowski is with his own "rules", with the inner logic of the world he created.

If you think about it, druidess or sorceress doesn't really matter, what matters is that she uses magic. I don't remember who said it, if it was Nenneke when talking about Yennefer sterility or Yennefer when she teaches magic to Ciri, but it is the use of magic that make sorceress sterile. Visenna uses it several times when healing Geralt, and she must certainly did/do with others, so in my opinion her having a Geralt is destiny at work. Just like Pavetta.

 

[gadrael]

I don't remember who said it, if it was Nenneke when talking about Yennefer sterility or Yennefer when she teaches magic to Ciri, but it is the use of magic that make sorceress sterile.

If I remember well it was said in magic school at the beginning of the saga, that magic make most sorceresses sterile, and those few girls who stay fertile are sterilized by their principal (because she was convinced that magic shouldn't be inherited or something like that)

 

[GuyNwah]

"Ond yr wyf yn ailadrodd : nid oes neb yn cael ei eni dewin . Ac ni ddylai unrhyw un gael ei eni dewin ! ... Yr wyf yn ateb y rhan fwyaf yn bendant : rhaid i bob un ohonom benderfynu beth mae am ei fod - ddewin neu'n fam . Rwy'n galw pob prentis yn cael eu sterileiddio . Yn ddieithriad ." (Tissaia de Vries)

 

[didymos1120]

If I remember well it was said in magic school at the beginning of the saga, that magic make most sorceresses sterile, and those few girls who stay fertile are sterilized by their principal (because she was convinced that magic shouldn't be inherited or something like that)

She proposed it. It wasn't an official policy though. There's no evidence she was doing it unofficially either. Given that she was very much a "stick to the proper procedure" type, I doubt it.

 

[HeelPower]

Geralt's mom is alive ? It would be a waste not to meet her in TW3!

 

[MikeP999]

Because being a pimp daddy wasn't paying the bills,
Being a Witcher is much more lucrative.