The Witcher: 8 differences between the show and the books, explained

The Battle of Sodden Hill

The Battle of Sodden Hill is another event mentioned in the books, but again, it takes place entirely out of sight. On the show, we see it happen. In fact, it gets a whole episode to itself.

This showdown is a turning point in the story, and finds the mages of the Northern kingdoms uniting to stop the Nilfgaardian army, which at this point had already toppled Cintra, in its tracks. In the books, it’s described after the fact as one of the most horrific battles to ever take place in the north, recalled in short snippets by various the characters who were there. The show stayed true to some of these things, although overall it seemed less brutal.

Triss Merigold, a sorceress who plays a large role in the video games, is severely wounded in the Battle of Sodden, and the resulting trauma shapes her entire arc in the books. In the show, Triss is injured during battle but not to the same extent. Yennefer, Geralt’s on-again off-again sorceress love interest, is blinded by the dark mage Fringilla in the books, but in the show she seems to have injured herself by using excessive chaos.

Once again, the show fills in lots of details characters on the show could only guess at. For example, on TV the mages use magic to make poisonous mushrooms sprout from the ground, poisoning many of the approaching soldiers. Did the mages use this technique in Sapkowski’s Battle of Sodden? Maybe. If they didn’t, should they have? Definitely. Hissrich and her team were able to let their imaginations run wild when adapting this one.

On both the page and the screen, the Battle of Sodden is a nasty affair, pitting thousands of Nilfgaardian soldiers against a group of trained mages. In a powerful display of magic and sacrifice, the army is defeated at terrible cost.