If you ever wanted to touch the bark of Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer of Vengerberg, or even Dandelion, now is your time. Some centuries-old, historic trees in the Polish city of Ostrołęka are now officially named after key characters from The Witcher universe.
The Ostrołęka city council has approved the initiative of the youth council, which proposed the idea of the project “The Witcher Trees” back in November 2020. The document was finally signed on 25 March 2021 by the authorities, however, the information appeared on the local media site GryNieznanePL only in late July.
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According to the regulation, the old ash tree is now named after higher vampire Regis, who appeared in books and played a major role in The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine expansion. The other six centuries-old oaks were given the following well-known names:
- Geralt of Rivia
- Yennefer of Vengerberg
- Triss Merigold
- Cirilla (Ciri)
- Vesemir
- Dandelion (Jaskier)
These trees were declared natural monuments in 2008 and have not been given names since. All of the above are located near the Ostrołęka city center and Księcia Mieszka I street.
Of the 19 city council members, two officials abstained from voting, and only one spoke out against the initiative. Ryszard Żukowski, a member of the Law and Justice Party, stated that the proposed names are not Polish by origin, in addition, he expressed the opinion that trees should not be named after “wizards and rats” from fiction books. The counselor also did not like that female names were suggested for ash and oak trees.
Despite the politician’s opposition, the initiative was accepted in the final vote. The authorities hope that such unique names will have a positive impact on tourism in the region.
We should probably add that even Andrzej Sapkowski himself was supportive of the idea from the start, giving the green light to the initiative, and formally agreed to the use of such iconic names.
The Witcher has gone beyond books, games, and TV shows long ago, sneaking into every aspect of our lives. Just recently, Olympic gold medalist Vitalina Batsarashkina from Russia appeared with a Cat School witcher medallion at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The other day she even scored a second gold medal – and even mentioned that she never used the witcher sense.
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