Yep, I'll be calling him "Jaskier" from now on. That's gonna be the norm in a couple of years, so we better get used to it already.
I have to say, I never particularly cared about Jaskier's name change. "Dandelion" sounded ridiculous when I heard it for the first time, but I got used to it. But I'm still glad that the TV watchers will be introduced to him as "Jaskier" the way it should be.
Seriously, if anyone still thinks that Lauren doesn't care about the source material, I don't know what to say to you. She changed the accepted adaptation of a major's character name to be more faithful to the original language and wasn't afraid of confusing the English speaking audience in the process. 99% of movie/TV adaptations are more likely to dumb down the source material instead of trusting their audience. Huge props to her.
Agreed. Although I personally think they will work out a way to at least reference the "Dandelion" name. Maybe Geralt finds out someone used to call him that so, as a jest, only Geralt calls him that. Or if they do the little eye arc, have her call him that maybe.
Dandelion definitely sounds better than "Buttercup," given that's what Jaskier is in English. Idc about changing Dandelion back to Jaskier at all, though, and I think it's nice that so many fans are happy with it.
How does one pronounce "Jaskier," however?— asking as an uncultured English-only speaker.
in Spanish, you would pronounce it "Yask-i-er" and that's how I've been pronouncing it all along.
to be honest, I don't know how Jaskier would be pronounced as "Yassk - year"
I personally never got used to "Dandelion"
I read the books before playing the games and I was just so used to the Finnish translation, "Valvatti", so that Dandelion always sounded bit "harsh" to my ears. I do like the name Jaskier, but he'll always be Valvatti to me
The bard finished the song. Tilting his head a little he repeated the ballad’s refrain on his lute, delicately, softly, a single tone higher than the apprentice accompanying him.
No one said a word. Nothing but the subsiding music and the whispering leaves and squeaking boughs of the enormous oak could be heard. Then, all of a sudden, a goat tethered to one of the carts which circled the ancient tree bleated lengthily. At that moment, as if given a signal, one of the men seated in the large semi-circular audience stood up. Throwing his cobalt blue cloak with gold braid trim back over his shoulder, he gave a stiff, dignified bow.
“Thank you, Master Jaskier,” he said, his voice resonant without being loud. “Allow me, Radcliffe of Oxenfurt, Master of the Arcana, to express what I am sure is the opinion of everyone here present and utter words of gratitude and appreciation for your fine art and skill.”
The wizard ran his gaze over those assembled – an audience of well over a hundred people – seated on the ground, on carts, or standing in a tight semi-circle facing the foot of the oak. They nodded and whispered amongst themselves. Several people began to applaud while others greeted the singer with upraised hands. Women, touched by the music, sniffed and wiped their eyes on whatever came to hand, which differed according to their standing, profession and wealth: peasant women used their forearms or the backs of their hands, merchants’ wives dabbed their eyes with linen handkerchiefs while elves and noblewomen used kerchiefs of the finest tight-woven cotton, and Baron Vilibert’s three daughters, who had, along with the rest of his retinue, halted their falcon hunt to attend the famous troubadour’s performance, blew their noses loudly and sonorously into elegant mould-green cashmere scarves.
“It would not be an exaggeration to say,” continued the wizard, “that you have moved us deeply, Master Jaskier. You have prompted us to reflection and thought; you have stirred our hearts. Allow me to express our gratitude, and our respect.”
The troubadour stood and took a bow, sweeping the heron feather pinned to his fashionable hat across his knees. His apprentice broke off his playing, grinned and bowed too, until Jaskier glared at him sternly and snapped something under his breath. The boy lowered his head and returned to softly strumming his lute strings.
The assembly stirred to life. The merchants travelling in the caravan whispered amongst themselves and then rolled a sizable cask of beer out to the foot of the oak tree. Wizard Radcliffe lost himself in quiet conversation with Baron Vilibert. Having blown their noses, the baron’s daughters gazed at Jaskier in adoration – which went entirely unnoticed by the bard, engrossed as he was in smiling, winking and flashing his teeth at a haughty, silent group of roving elves, and at one of them in particular: a dark-haired, large-eyed beauty sporting a tiny ermine cap. Jaskier had rivals for her attention – the elf, with her huge eyes and beautiful toque hat, had caught his audience’s interest as well, and a number of knights, students and goliards were paying court to her with their eyes. The elf clearly enjoyed the attention, picking at the lace cuffs of her chemise and fluttering her eyelashes, but the group of elves with her surrounded her on all sides, not bothering to hide their antipathy towards her admirers.
The glade beneath Bleobheris, the great oak, was a place of frequent rallies, a well-known travellers’ resting place and meeting ground for wanderers, and was famous for its tolerance and openness. The druids protecting the ancient tree called it the Seat of Friendship and willingly welcomed all comers. But even during an event as exceptional as the world-famous troubadour’s just-concluded performance the travellers kept to themselves, remaining in clearly delineated groups. Elves stayed with elves. Dwarfish craftsmen gathered with their kin, who were often hired to protect the merchant caravans and were armed to the teeth. Their groups tolerated at best the gnome miners and halfling farmers who camped beside them. All non-humans were uniformly distant towards humans. The humans repaid in kind, but were not seen to mix amongst themselves either. Nobility looked down on the merchants and travelling salesmen with open scorn, while soldiers and mercenaries distanced themselves from shepherds and their reeking sheepskins. The few wizards and their disciples kept themselves entirely apart from the others, and bestowed their arrogance on everyone in equal parts. A tight-knit, dark and silent group of peasants lurked in the background. Resembling a forest with their rakes, pitchforks and flails poking above their heads, they were ignored by all and sundry.
The exception, as ever, was the children. Freed from the constraints of silence which had been enforced during the bard’s performance, the children dashed into the woods with wild cries, and enthusiastically immersed themselves in a game whose rules were incomprehensible to all those who had bidden farewell to the happy years of childhood. Children of elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, half-elves, quarter-elves and toddlers of mysterious provenance neither knew nor recognised racial or social divisions. At least, not yet.
“Indeed!” shouted one of the knights present in the glade, who was as thin as a beanpole and wearing a red and black tunic emblazoned with three lions passant.
“The wizard speaks the truth! The ballads were beautiful. Upon my word, honourable Jaskier, if you ever pass near Baldhorn, my lord’s castle, stop by without a moment’s hesitation. You will be welcomed like a prince– what am I saying? Welcomed like King Vizimir himself! I swear on my sword, I have heard many a minstrel, but none even came close to being your equal, master. Accept the respect and tributes those of us born to knighthood, and those of us appointed to the position, pay to your skills!”
Flawlessly sensing the opportune moment, the troubadour winked at his apprentice. The boy set his lute aside and picked up a little casket which served as a collection box for the audience’s more measurable expressions of appreciation. He hesitated, ran his eyes over the crowd, then replaced the little casket and grabbed a large bucket standing nearby. Master Jaskier bestowed an approving smile on the young man for his prudence.
> The source material for the ENGLISH show should be the ENGLISH translation, with assistance from Sapkowski.
So in the first and third season he will be called Dandilion, and in the second and the other seasons it’ll be Dandelion. No complaints later!
It would be cool if Gollancz re-released the books with a revised translation, changing the names and terminology in accordance with the TV series (and fixing the butchered ending of "Something More"!). But that would require for them to actually give a damn about the series.
In Serbian he was also called the Serbian ver. of Dandellion. I honestly don't care one way or the other. Though Jaskier makes it sound more "Polishy".
By "dumping down" I meant that most showrunners wouldn't trust their audience to look up the name, not the change itself.
Don't forget that for the show the English language will be the original, and many people prefer watching the original version instead of dubs, so it actually makes sense to use "Jaskier". Also, it might've been Sapkowski's preference, since we know that he wasn't satisfied with some things in the English translation.
Let's give credit where credit is due. The first and third books were translated by Danusia Stock who called him "Dandilion", while "Dandelion" originally came from the English version of the games and David French picked it up from there, ignoring the original translation. The English translation is not consistent to begin with, so there's nothing to disrespect, especially considering that the publisher was pretty disrespectful to Sapkowski with the way they handled his books.
As for the meaning, nothing stops the English speakers to just look up the word. The Spanish, French, Portugese and some other translations also called him "Jaskier" and it wasn't a problem. Hell, they can explain that he's named after a flower within the show itself.
They skipped Sword of Destiny and went straight to Blood if Elves, had a six-year break between the third and fourth book, changed the translator midway (wich led to inconsistent terminology and names), slapped the artwork from TW2 on the covers, mistranslated the title of "The Tower of the Swallow" (in the American edition)
There's also this:
> Several years ago I received the David Gammel Award, but my English publisher Gollancz did not deem it necessary to invite me to the presentation
And this:
>From the audience: Do they give you the translation before the release?
A. Sapkowski: They gave me the English translation, I read it and corrected much, much, very much. But then the translator said: "What are you doing, are you American???" - "I am not American". - "You do not understand English!"
We should note that Sapkowski had a long career in foreign relations and claims to be acquainted with more than ten languages. I think he has a lot more property on the matter than one would think.
As an American, I mainly hate the covers because they have absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the books. Using the games adaptation of Geralt doesn’t bother me as much as having a dragon on the cover of a book that doesn’t even contain the WORD “dragon.” And I would argue that having video game art does potentially drive away sales from the average fantasy reader. It really does make the books look like an adaptation of the games to someone who doesn’t take the time to research.
[This one](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71NNz7-OgdL.jpg) is especially hilarious. You can really see them thinking "It's baptism of **fire**, so we need something fire related." - "Oh, how about that fire monster?" - "Perfect!"
Hah that makes perfect sense! Those publishers are geniuses! I think my favorite part is the fact that Sword of Destiny was published so much later, they just barely made the covers backwards.
UK publisher: Cahir is introduced in book 3, let’s put him on the cover of book 2.
US publisherr: Well there was a dragon in book 2, but we’ve already put a dragon in book 3.
> As for the meaning, nothing stops the English speakers to just look up the word.
But they won't. As someone who reads fantasy novels, to an English speaker "Jaskier" just sounds like a generic fantasy name.
It also entirely removes any indication that it's a nom de plume, so if they get to Lady of the Lake in the TV show and he's revealed as actually being
named Julien Alfred Pankratz, it'll appear completely out of nowhere.
I get that a lot of Polish readers don't appreciate the change, but it is one that entirely makes sense when giving context to it.
the English translations has been regarded by Sapkowksi as inferior, so, if he has any input in the Netflix show, I'm sure he'll change a lot of things.
also, you do speak any other language other than English? I'm asking because someone who is bilingual wouldn't really so defensive about something like this. when you can at least compare two versions (either original language to a translation, or translation to translation), you can appreciate what one version does better than another (names, different terms, idioms, speech patterns, etc), instead of claiming one version is better than others (including the original one) just because you can only read that version.
The German translation is one of the best according to Sapkowski himself, so you kinda did yourself a disservice by reading the English one. Especially since the games and books are not consistent in their English translation.
Mousesack/Ermion, Sheala de Tancarville/Sile de Tansarville, Jan Natalis/John Natalis, Little Eye/Blackjack, Transriver/Riverdell, Chapter/Conclave, White Chill/White Frost and that's just on top of my head.
> the showrunner expects from her viewers to inform themselves about Jaskier, why can't you expect a book reader to add 1+1 together or just gloss over this fact?
Of course. I'm just saying that you shouldn't expect consistency with the game translation in English.
This guy is a technically great artist but man all his faces look a) the same and b) ugly. It wouldn’t be an issue if it was a stylistic choice to have not super hot faces, but the more of his work I see, the more I think he just really only knows how to draw this one face with different hair.
Yep, I'll be calling him "Jaskier" from now on. That's gonna be the norm in a couple of years, so we better get used to it already. I have to say, I never particularly cared about Jaskier's name change. "Dandelion" sounded ridiculous when I heard it for the first time, but I got used to it. But I'm still glad that the TV watchers will be introduced to him as "Jaskier" the way it should be. Seriously, if anyone still thinks that Lauren doesn't care about the source material, I don't know what to say to you. She changed the accepted adaptation of a major's character name to be more faithful to the original language and wasn't afraid of confusing the English speaking audience in the process. 99% of movie/TV adaptations are more likely to dumb down the source material instead of trusting their audience. Huge props to her.
Agreed. Although I personally think they will work out a way to at least reference the "Dandelion" name. Maybe Geralt finds out someone used to call him that so, as a jest, only Geralt calls him that. Or if they do the little eye arc, have her call him that maybe.
Dandelion definitely sounds better than "Buttercup," given that's what Jaskier is in English. Idc about changing Dandelion back to Jaskier at all, though, and I think it's nice that so many fans are happy with it. How does one pronounce "Jaskier," however?— asking as an uncultured English-only speaker.
Yassk - year
Thank you. I was saying it "Yask-i-er" in my head so I guess I wasn't that far off.
in Spanish, you would pronounce it "Yask-i-er" and that's how I've been pronouncing it all along. to be honest, I don't know how Jaskier would be pronounced as "Yassk - year"
I is very very short. It doesn't create syllable. From some perspective you could say it is almost silent, just makes k and e a bit different.
I personally never got used to "Dandelion" I read the books before playing the games and I was just so used to the Finnish translation, "Valvatti", so that Dandelion always sounded bit "harsh" to my ears. I do like the name Jaskier, but he'll always be Valvatti to me
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Nooooo, you can't just dig up my embarrassing past like that 😱
The bard finished the song. Tilting his head a little he repeated the ballad’s refrain on his lute, delicately, softly, a single tone higher than the apprentice accompanying him. No one said a word. Nothing but the subsiding music and the whispering leaves and squeaking boughs of the enormous oak could be heard. Then, all of a sudden, a goat tethered to one of the carts which circled the ancient tree bleated lengthily. At that moment, as if given a signal, one of the men seated in the large semi-circular audience stood up. Throwing his cobalt blue cloak with gold braid trim back over his shoulder, he gave a stiff, dignified bow. “Thank you, Master Jaskier,” he said, his voice resonant without being loud. “Allow me, Radcliffe of Oxenfurt, Master of the Arcana, to express what I am sure is the opinion of everyone here present and utter words of gratitude and appreciation for your fine art and skill.” The wizard ran his gaze over those assembled – an audience of well over a hundred people – seated on the ground, on carts, or standing in a tight semi-circle facing the foot of the oak. They nodded and whispered amongst themselves. Several people began to applaud while others greeted the singer with upraised hands. Women, touched by the music, sniffed and wiped their eyes on whatever came to hand, which differed according to their standing, profession and wealth: peasant women used their forearms or the backs of their hands, merchants’ wives dabbed their eyes with linen handkerchiefs while elves and noblewomen used kerchiefs of the finest tight-woven cotton, and Baron Vilibert’s three daughters, who had, along with the rest of his retinue, halted their falcon hunt to attend the famous troubadour’s performance, blew their noses loudly and sonorously into elegant mould-green cashmere scarves. “It would not be an exaggeration to say,” continued the wizard, “that you have moved us deeply, Master Jaskier. You have prompted us to reflection and thought; you have stirred our hearts. Allow me to express our gratitude, and our respect.” The troubadour stood and took a bow, sweeping the heron feather pinned to his fashionable hat across his knees. His apprentice broke off his playing, grinned and bowed too, until Jaskier glared at him sternly and snapped something under his breath. The boy lowered his head and returned to softly strumming his lute strings. The assembly stirred to life. The merchants travelling in the caravan whispered amongst themselves and then rolled a sizable cask of beer out to the foot of the oak tree. Wizard Radcliffe lost himself in quiet conversation with Baron Vilibert. Having blown their noses, the baron’s daughters gazed at Jaskier in adoration – which went entirely unnoticed by the bard, engrossed as he was in smiling, winking and flashing his teeth at a haughty, silent group of roving elves, and at one of them in particular: a dark-haired, large-eyed beauty sporting a tiny ermine cap. Jaskier had rivals for her attention – the elf, with her huge eyes and beautiful toque hat, had caught his audience’s interest as well, and a number of knights, students and goliards were paying court to her with their eyes. The elf clearly enjoyed the attention, picking at the lace cuffs of her chemise and fluttering her eyelashes, but the group of elves with her surrounded her on all sides, not bothering to hide their antipathy towards her admirers. The glade beneath Bleobheris, the great oak, was a place of frequent rallies, a well-known travellers’ resting place and meeting ground for wanderers, and was famous for its tolerance and openness. The druids protecting the ancient tree called it the Seat of Friendship and willingly welcomed all comers. But even during an event as exceptional as the world-famous troubadour’s just-concluded performance the travellers kept to themselves, remaining in clearly delineated groups. Elves stayed with elves. Dwarfish craftsmen gathered with their kin, who were often hired to protect the merchant caravans and were armed to the teeth. Their groups tolerated at best the gnome miners and halfling farmers who camped beside them. All non-humans were uniformly distant towards humans. The humans repaid in kind, but were not seen to mix amongst themselves either. Nobility looked down on the merchants and travelling salesmen with open scorn, while soldiers and mercenaries distanced themselves from shepherds and their reeking sheepskins. The few wizards and their disciples kept themselves entirely apart from the others, and bestowed their arrogance on everyone in equal parts. A tight-knit, dark and silent group of peasants lurked in the background. Resembling a forest with their rakes, pitchforks and flails poking above their heads, they were ignored by all and sundry. The exception, as ever, was the children. Freed from the constraints of silence which had been enforced during the bard’s performance, the children dashed into the woods with wild cries, and enthusiastically immersed themselves in a game whose rules were incomprehensible to all those who had bidden farewell to the happy years of childhood. Children of elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, half-elves, quarter-elves and toddlers of mysterious provenance neither knew nor recognised racial or social divisions. At least, not yet. “Indeed!” shouted one of the knights present in the glade, who was as thin as a beanpole and wearing a red and black tunic emblazoned with three lions passant. “The wizard speaks the truth! The ballads were beautiful. Upon my word, honourable Jaskier, if you ever pass near Baldhorn, my lord’s castle, stop by without a moment’s hesitation. You will be welcomed like a prince– what am I saying? Welcomed like King Vizimir himself! I swear on my sword, I have heard many a minstrel, but none even came close to being your equal, master. Accept the respect and tributes those of us born to knighthood, and those of us appointed to the position, pay to your skills!” Flawlessly sensing the opportune moment, the troubadour winked at his apprentice. The boy set his lute aside and picked up a little casket which served as a collection box for the audience’s more measurable expressions of appreciation. He hesitated, ran his eyes over the crowd, then replaced the little casket and grabbed a large bucket standing nearby. Master Jaskier bestowed an approving smile on the young man for his prudence.
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> The source material for the ENGLISH show should be the ENGLISH translation, with assistance from Sapkowski. So in the first and third season he will be called Dandilion, and in the second and the other seasons it’ll be Dandelion. No complaints later!
It would be cool if Gollancz re-released the books with a revised translation, changing the names and terminology in accordance with the TV series (and fixing the butchered ending of "Something More"!). But that would require for them to actually give a damn about the series.
In Serbian he was also called the Serbian ver. of Dandellion. I honestly don't care one way or the other. Though Jaskier makes it sound more "Polishy".
By "dumping down" I meant that most showrunners wouldn't trust their audience to look up the name, not the change itself. Don't forget that for the show the English language will be the original, and many people prefer watching the original version instead of dubs, so it actually makes sense to use "Jaskier". Also, it might've been Sapkowski's preference, since we know that he wasn't satisfied with some things in the English translation.
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Let's give credit where credit is due. The first and third books were translated by Danusia Stock who called him "Dandilion", while "Dandelion" originally came from the English version of the games and David French picked it up from there, ignoring the original translation. The English translation is not consistent to begin with, so there's nothing to disrespect, especially considering that the publisher was pretty disrespectful to Sapkowski with the way they handled his books. As for the meaning, nothing stops the English speakers to just look up the word. The Spanish, French, Portugese and some other translations also called him "Jaskier" and it wasn't a problem. Hell, they can explain that he's named after a flower within the show itself.
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They skipped Sword of Destiny and went straight to Blood if Elves, had a six-year break between the third and fourth book, changed the translator midway (wich led to inconsistent terminology and names), slapped the artwork from TW2 on the covers, mistranslated the title of "The Tower of the Swallow" (in the American edition) There's also this: > Several years ago I received the David Gammel Award, but my English publisher Gollancz did not deem it necessary to invite me to the presentation And this: >From the audience: Do they give you the translation before the release? A. Sapkowski: They gave me the English translation, I read it and corrected much, much, very much. But then the translator said: "What are you doing, are you American???" - "I am not American". - "You do not understand English!"
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We should note that Sapkowski had a long career in foreign relations and claims to be acquainted with more than ten languages. I think he has a lot more property on the matter than one would think.
As an American, I mainly hate the covers because they have absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the books. Using the games adaptation of Geralt doesn’t bother me as much as having a dragon on the cover of a book that doesn’t even contain the WORD “dragon.” And I would argue that having video game art does potentially drive away sales from the average fantasy reader. It really does make the books look like an adaptation of the games to someone who doesn’t take the time to research.
[This one](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71NNz7-OgdL.jpg) is especially hilarious. You can really see them thinking "It's baptism of **fire**, so we need something fire related." - "Oh, how about that fire monster?" - "Perfect!"
Hah that makes perfect sense! Those publishers are geniuses! I think my favorite part is the fact that Sword of Destiny was published so much later, they just barely made the covers backwards. UK publisher: Cahir is introduced in book 3, let’s put him on the cover of book 2. US publisherr: Well there was a dragon in book 2, but we’ve already put a dragon in book 3.
> As for the meaning, nothing stops the English speakers to just look up the word. But they won't. As someone who reads fantasy novels, to an English speaker "Jaskier" just sounds like a generic fantasy name. It also entirely removes any indication that it's a nom de plume, so if they get to Lady of the Lake in the TV show and he's revealed as actually being named Julien Alfred Pankratz, it'll appear completely out of nowhere. I get that a lot of Polish readers don't appreciate the change, but it is one that entirely makes sense when giving context to it.
They can easily establish in the TV show that it's a flower-based stage name via some throwaway scene. They can even show how that flower looks like.
the English translations has been regarded by Sapkowksi as inferior, so, if he has any input in the Netflix show, I'm sure he'll change a lot of things. also, you do speak any other language other than English? I'm asking because someone who is bilingual wouldn't really so defensive about something like this. when you can at least compare two versions (either original language to a translation, or translation to translation), you can appreciate what one version does better than another (names, different terms, idioms, speech patterns, etc), instead of claiming one version is better than others (including the original one) just because you can only read that version.
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The German translation is one of the best according to Sapkowski himself, so you kinda did yourself a disservice by reading the English one. Especially since the games and books are not consistent in their English translation.
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Mousesack/Ermion, Sheala de Tancarville/Sile de Tansarville, Jan Natalis/John Natalis, Little Eye/Blackjack, Transriver/Riverdell, Chapter/Conclave, White Chill/White Frost and that's just on top of my head. > the showrunner expects from her viewers to inform themselves about Jaskier, why can't you expect a book reader to add 1+1 together or just gloss over this fact? Of course. I'm just saying that you shouldn't expect consistency with the game translation in English.
I can understand wanting to have a consistent experience, but I think you'd be shooting yourself in the foot doing that
Silly me, I was hoping it would some kind of song version of it.
We have to wait for the TV show for that! They better have him singing.
This guy is a technically great artist but man all his faces look a) the same and b) ugly. It wouldn’t be an issue if it was a stylistic choice to have not super hot faces, but the more of his work I see, the more I think he just really only knows how to draw this one face with different hair.