r/wiedzmin • u/pothkan SPQN • Feb 10 '20

Books Guide to editions of the Witcher books

This is a little project I compiled in last days, being an expansion on my previous covers of the Last Wish post. I wanted to list, and sort, all editions of books in the Witcher series, published in various languages (30 + Polish). Result of that ended in shape of a PDF file (6 MB) - which you can now browse and download!

Here is a sneak peek, if you can't right now (e.g. mobile), but want to see what is inside.

Take in mind, that it's still a WIP (supposed to by updated in future, at least once a year - as we can expect more editions after Netflix boosted series' popularity). So if you have anything to add or correct - please do! E.g. I miss many covers' artist names.

Besides that, here are some specific questions:

  • Which editions are sold in English-speaking countries except UK & USA?. I suppose American editions are sold in Canada, but what about e.g. Australia, South Africa, Singapore, New Zealand?

  • Are there any pirated editions, other than Iranian ones?

  • How is a witcher called in Dutch, Greek, Portuguese (European), Romanian, Swedish and Turkish translations?

  • Last but not least, which edition(s) do you own? :) And what do you think about it, both quality-wise, and translation itself?

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u/SirMoonMoonDuGlacial Emiel Regis Feb 19 '20

South Africa seems to stock the Gollancz UK English version in bookstores but online on takealot (SA equivalent to Amazon) then you can buy the original (not tie in) British, original American and Polish editions I believe. They had one or two Spanish or Portuguese ones too I think? If such a thing exists?

Hope that helps. I saw a British English version of Sword of Destiny or The Last Wish in Exlusive Books just after Christmas 2019 before the new year and my fiancée puppers ordered me the seven book set off takealot (at least I'm 90% sure it was takealot and not the other one) which shipped as everything British English versions that are in print with standard character photo covers and it was books 1.5-7 ie Storm of Swords to Lady of the Lake and thus being a complete set except for The Last Wish or 'The Malady and other short stories'. It's the standard official British translations too BTW. Just cos its South Africa and you never know! Hope this helps

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u/pothkan SPQN Feb 19 '20

Thanks, interesting!

They had one or two Spanish or Portuguese ones too I think?

Yeah, and both actually predate the English (Portuguese slightly; Spanish was the second "Western" translation).

Storm of Swords

That's Martin, not Sapkowski :3

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u/SirMoonMoonDuGlacial Emiel Regis Feb 19 '20

I meant Season of Storms! Sorry. That's really interesting about the Portuguese and the Spanish translations though. I just started the second game on Xbox One earlier today using a German enhanced edition 360 copy and it's interesting to see what CD Projekt RED made up to supplement the source material like with the signs and such. I'm only at the end of the tutorial just now but I'm liking it so far except for the American accent for the English voice acting for Geralt?! 😱 I got so used to the English narration from. The audible audiobook with the gruff but intelligent Northern Geralt that it's genuinely immersion breaking to hear him sound like that! It's the only complaint I've got so far but it's rather an important one!