"The Witcher", season 2. A hut on chicken legs and Voleth Meir - what is it? We explain

In the second episode of the second season of "The Witcher", three sorceresses - Yennefer, Fringilla and Francesca - go to a mysterious hut. This completely new plot, introduced by the scriptwriters of the series, turned out to be extremely important from the point of view of the entire series - the creators clearly recognized that the original story lacks a sense of greater danger that the characters could face over the course of the coming episodes. As we know (assuming, of course, that the screening is behind us), the season ends with a great fight with the demon that has possessed Ciri. We decided to describe this plot and the figure of the Mother.

The Witcher season 2: Voleth Meir and her hut

In the series Voleth Meir - the Deathless Mother - is a demon that feeds on pain and hatred. Usually he takes the form of an elderly woman, but changes his face depending on the person he interacts with. Like monsters, demons came to the Continent through the Conjunction of the Spheres. The first witchers were hired to deal with Voleth Meir - they won the skirmish and imprisoned a dangerous existence in a hut near elven ruins in the North. For centuries, people forgot the enslaved demon, who could still reach its victims in dreams. After the Cintra Slaughter, Ciri destroyed the monolith, awakening an ancient evil that realized that the princess - by opening the door to other spheres - could allow him to return home. Visiting the dreams of the sorceresses, a visitor from another world lured them to his prison - a cottage. Only Yennefer resisted Voleth Meir and did not enter into a contract with her (she had the opportunity to regain the power lost after the Battle of Sodden). In the end, however (that is: a few episodes later) the sorceress is pinned to the wall and recites a spell - then she teleports to the hut again. The demon tells Yen that she can regain access to Chaos if she finds Ciri and brings her to a monolith overturned in Cintra. Meanwhile, Voleth still feeds on the suffering and hatred of Francesca and Fringilla.

The sorceress decided to follow the order, but at the last moment she changed her mind when she realized how much Ciri meant to Geralt. In the meantime, however, Francesca's child was murdered - her pain and grief fed Voleth Meir. The demon regained his strength and broke free from his hut. In the end, he possessed Cirilla and attempted to take revenge on the witchers in Kaer Morhen. At one point, Yennefer sacrificed herself to become a new vessel for existence and save the princess. Thanks to the Lion Cub's abilities, all three main characters moved to the home world of Voleth Meir - there the demon left Yennefer's body and joined the Wild Hunt, which suddenly appeared on the horizon. The Riders demanded the Star-Eyed Daughter of Chaos, but Cirilla at the last moment teleported herself, Geralt and Yennefer back to the Witcher's Siedliszcze.

Chata na chicken legs is a tribute to the fairy tales by the creators of the series, from which Sapkowski himself drew abundantly. Chatka na Kurzej Stopce, Kurzych Łapki or Nóżkach is the home of Baba Yaga, a witch. In Slavic mythology, a witch's house resembles a house placed on something anatomically resembling a chicken leg. In the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, the witch's seat was always surrounded by an evil aura; it was a place that threatened all the curious who decided to visit it. In one of the fairy tales we also deal with a hut that reaches three witches. Even the series' spell was inspired by one of the fairy tales ("Polish Tale. Fairy Tales, Fairy Tales and Folk Stories" by Antoni Józef Gliński). To enter the house, you had to say the formula: "House, house! Move - on crow's feet underneath; turn your back to the forest, and stand facing me". The researchers interpreted the hut's rotation motif as a moment of elation, a dance that would lead to the liberation of the psyche, its final liberation. Of which? The conclusions vary depending on the version of the story.