How The Monsters In The Witcher Should Really Look

The creatures in The Witcher might've come from myths and legends, but they don't look exactly like their traditional counterparts. They don't act quite like them either. These are the stories that inspired some of The Witcher's most fearsome beasts.

Netflix's The Witcher opens with a swampy duel between Geralt of Rivia and the kikimora, a hulking spider-like creature with an unsettlingly human head. While Geralt makes quick work of the beast, the kikimora ends up getting the last laugh. Despite the kikimora's ferocity, no one is willing to pay Geralt for its corpse, making all his effort futile.

While the kikimora battle makes for a great opening set piece, The Witcher's version of the creature, both in the series and in the games, is a very liberal take on the kikimora legend. In Slavic mythology, a kikimora is a house spirit that sneaks into your home via your keyhole in order to deliver bad news. Once a kikimora settles in, it can also cause nightmares, sleep paralysis, and nighttime calamities like dying cattle and spoiled food. Don't ever look directly at a kikimora, either do so, and you might die.

Instead of a multi-legged monstrosity, a kikimora typically looks like a mix between an old woman and a bird, complete with a beak and chicken legs and a headscarf wrapped around her stringy hair. Unlike Geralt, you typically don't kill them with a sword, either. Just leave some food behind the stove, where kikimory live. According to some legends, that'll do the trick.

The striga is Geralt's foe in episode three of the series, "Betrayer Moon," and "The Witcher," Andrzej Sapkowski's very first witcher story. On Netflix's The Witcher, the striga looks like a giant humanoid monster, complete with a long, dangling umbilical cord.

In Polish folklore, the "strzyga" is no less dangerous, but it does work a little differently. Strzygi were said to be people born with two souls, and who could be identified by their twin hearts or extra pairs of teeth. When a baby was born that people suspected was a strzyga, they were banished. Then, one of their souls died and they became monsters, often with feathers and blue or grey skin, who transformed into owls to suck the blood of their victims. Keep watching the video to see how the monsters in The Witcher should really look!

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The kikimora | 0:12
The striga | 1:13
Duny, the hedgehog knight | 2:09
The dragon | 3:48