There is no critical consensus about Netflix’s The Witcher, but one thing everyone can agree on is: “Throw a coin into your witcher” is a direct hit.
The minstrel melody, performed by Bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) at the end of the second episode, tells of his mishaps with Geralt von Rivia (Henry Cavill) in the former Elven realm Dol Blathanna. Jaskier’s lyrics confuse the story a bit – Geralt talked himself out of a difficult situation with the elves, which doesn’t necessarily lead to an epic song – but the bard’s mission is to restore the despised witcher’s reputation. Why should the truth stand in the way of a great fairy tale and good PR? The important part comes at the end:
This is my epic story
Our champion prevailed
Defeat the villain
Now pour him some beer
Throw a coin to your witcher
O valley of abundance
O valley of abundance
Oh oh oh
Throw a coin to your witcher
A friend of mankind
The witcher’s soundtrack is currently missing from Spotify, but this breakout hit and three other songs can be streamed on the SoundCloud page for composers from the Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli series. The couple wrote the music for “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” and wrote the lyrics with The Witcher author Jenny Klein. If you don’t already sing it in the shower like I did last night, you can try listening to the song in a different language.
Netflix is a global company that provides audio tracks in various languages for an international audience. The Twitter user @_lemonowa_ has bothered to publish 12 different versions of “Throw a coin to your witcher” in one thread: clips in Polish, Czech, Japanese, German, Russian, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian , Spanish, Castilian, Spanish and Turkish.
Here is the song in Polish, the original language of the Andrzej Sapkowski novels and short stories on which Netflix’s The Witcher is based. If you have asked yourself, the literal translation of the refrain in Polish is – Grosza daj wiedźminowi / Sakiewką potrząśnij – “Give a witch a cent / shake the bag.”
The first season, with eight episodes of The Witcher, premiered on December 20. More than a month before its debut, Netflix announced that the show had already been extended for a second season.
