The Lesser Evil
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"The Lesser Evil" is a short story included in The Last Wish collection. This short story tells the tale of how Geralt came to be known as the Butcher of Blaviken.
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[edit] Summary
Geralt rides into Blaviken with a kikimore-carcass in tow. He seeks out Caldemeyn, the town's alderman, to try and get a reward for the dead critter. He's out of luck, though, but Caldemeyn suggests that the local wizard, Master Irion, might fancy a look at the creature.
Master Irion is far more interested in Geralt than the kikimora, however. When Geralt steps inside the tower, he steps straight into an illusion. Finding the wizard surrounded by a veritable garden of Eden, Geralt recognizes the man as Stregobor, a mage who he'd last seen in King Idi's court in Kovir.
Stregobor pleads for Geralt's help, because he claims there's a monster chasing him, seeking to kill him. After a little bit of prodding, the wizard tells Geralt that the monster is in reality a girl, born under the Curse of the Black Sun. Geralt scoffs at the idea, saying it's absurd. Stregobor begs the witcher to help him, to kill the girl.
Geralt refuses, and leaves.
Meanwhile, Renfri has entered the town together with her band of miscreants. Geralt meets them all, and speaks with Renfri. They don't part on exactly friendly terms.
That night, when Geralt withdraws to his room, he finds Renfri there. They talk, the girl tells the witcher her life story. She offers Geralt the same deal Stregobor did: choose the lesser evil, kill the other, receive any reward within reason.
Geralt refuses, again. He pleads with Renfri to forgive Stregobor, to prove the wizard and the alleged Curse wrong. She refuses.
In the morning, during breakfast with Caldemeyn and his family, Geralt realizes what Renfri's plan is.
He leaves at once, finds Renfri's band in the market place, and chooses to engage them in a battle rather than wait for them to fulfill their promise and start killing the townsfolk. Renfri returns in time to see the last of her men fall. She confronts Geralt, and they cross blades.
When it's all over, Stregobor approaches the witcher, intent on performing an autopsy on the girl's body, to prove the Curse right.
Geralt doesn't allow that. When Stregobor leaves, the townsfolk take up arms and Caldemeyn tells Geralt to leave Blaviken, never come back.
[edit] Characters
- Abrad (mentioned only)
- Aridea (mentioned only)
- Audoen (mentioned only)
- Bernika of Talgar (mentioned only)
- Caldemeyn
- Civril
- Eltibald (mentioned only)
- Fialka (mentioned only)
- Fifteen
- Fredefalk (mentioned only)
- Geralt
- Idi (mentioned only)
- Irion (mentioned only)
- Libushe
- Marilka
- Nimir
- Nohorn
- Renfri
- Stregobor
- Silvena (mentioned only)
- Tavik
- Vyr
- Zavist (mentioned only)
[edit] Adaptations
[edit] Graphic novels
The short story has been adapted as a graphic novel entitled "Mniejsze zło", written by Maciej Parowski, with art by Bogusław Polch. While the original short story did not feature Dandelion, he appears in the comic and meets Geralt for the first time (their first canon adventure was "The Edge of the World", not adapted as a graphic novel).
[edit] TV series
The short story has been adapted as part of episodes 10 and 11 of The Hexer TV series, entitled Mniejsze zło (The Lesser Evil) and Jaskier (Dandelion).
[edit] Computer game
While The Witcher computer game is not based directly any of the short stories nor novels, it features some refefrences to this story:
- The shadow of this tale is present even in The Witcher (computer game), for then and again, there are comments about and references to the Butcher of Blaviken.
- This story features the first mention of the Curse of the Black Sun and Nehalenia's Mirror.
