Blood of Elves
The first Witcher novel: kings and an emperor hunt for Ciri while Geralt hides her at Kaer Morhen.
Blood of Elves is the first novel in The Witcher series by the Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1994. It is a sequel to the Witcher short stories collected in The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, and is followed by Time of Contempt.
Quick Facts
- Original title
- Krew elfów
- Author
- Andrzej Sapkowski
- Release number
- 3
- Country
- Poland
- Language
- Polish
- Series
- The Witcher
- Genre
- Fantasy
- Format
- Print (hardback & paperback)
Lore & Background
About a year before the novel begins, the Empire of Nilfgaard attacks the Kingdom of Cintra; Queen Calanthe commits suicide and her granddaughter Ciri flees. The war ends with Nilfgaard's defeat by a coalition of the Northern Kingdoms. Almost two years after the armistice, the Northern rulers meet in secret and decide to start a war and regain Cintra; aware that the Emperor wants to marry Ciri to legitimize his occupation, they decide to find and kill her. Elves and dwarves have formed partisan groups called Scoia'tael.
Reader's Guide
Geralt takes Ciri to the witchers' keep, Kaer Morhen, where the sorceress Triss Merigold realizes that she is a "Source". The wizard Rience, serving an unknown powerful mage, searches for Ciri and tortures Dandelion, who is saved by Yennefer. In the spring Geralt delivers Ciri to the Temple School in Ellander, where the priestess Nenneke gives her a normal education and Yennefer educates her in magic; from an initial antagonism, their relationship develops into a mother-daughter bond.
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