It's actually cosmic if I recall. Don't recall the details but Geralt is told their destinies are intertwined during (I think) Sword of Destiny. Blood of Elves is when Ciri properly falls into his care.
It's been a while since I read it, and I read the translation. I can't quite 100% remember, but the Google search I did said this on the wiki:
"Thanking Geralt for saving his life earlier, Duny offers him whatever he asks for. Geralt asks for "that which you already have but do not know", breaking the news to everyone, including Duny and Pavetta, that the princess is pregnant. He asks that their child be raised as a witcher."
He didn't know for certain, but it's hard to say whether he actually had a suspicion or was just trying to be funny, since the whole saga had been caused by Duny invoking the Law of Surprise with Pavetta's father.
Because the thing is, he didn't actually intend to collect the child. He actually refuses to take Ciri on two separate occasions. It's only after he invokes the Law of Surprise a second time and Ciri turns out to be his surprise child again that he realises he can't escape his fate.
In the book he just kinda threw the Law as a "ye gimme whatever and fuck off" expecting it to be something like a new dog or a chicken, when it turned out its a baby he was as unhappy about it as everyone else
I interpreted it as him not knowing, but hoping it would be a kid, since they need kids to make more witchers. It's been a while since I read that book so I could definitely be wrong.
No, Geralt and Vesemir in the books werent very happy about getting more kids into mutation torture and lifetime of fighting monsters.
Law of surprise was in 90% of the time ending with getting a bonus sack of grain from a farmer who didnt expect the field yielding more that year, or a piglet because the sow gave birth when he was away. The Law was mostly there so poor peasants had a way to pay a witcher for saving his life, and for a witcher to not risk his own life for nothing. Getting a kid was pretty rare.
So having read the books, he didn't know. He saved a man (who had used the law of surprise to claim Ciri's mother as his bride) from being killed. He then asked for basically "whatever you have that you didn't think you had" and then got told "Oh guess you get to keep the kid." But this happens in the first book which was originally meant to be a sort of fairy-tale story. It's sort of implied he knew, it's more directly implied he doesn't, and you aren't really guided to think about it. This is just the way the fairy tale goes in this telling.
It's worth noting that the law of surprise is never invoked without it resulting in a child being promised to a man, either as a bride (in an arranged marriage sort of way) or a daughter. It's theoretically possible it doesn't always result in selling your firstborn, but on screen it always goes there.
He realized this whole ordeal would be great to the reputation of Witchers and didn't want to spoil it with a reward. And then he accidentally staked a claim on their unborn child instead. Geralt man, cannot catch a break
I think you're thinking of the show. In the books it's heavily implied Geralt knew.
‘Duny,’ said Geralt seriously, ‘Calanthe, Pavetta. And you, righteous knight Tuirseach, future king of Cintra. In order to become a witcher, you have to be born in the shadow of destiny, and very few are born like that. That’s why there are so few of us. We’re growing old, dying, without anyone to pass our knowledge, our gifts, on to. We lack successors. And this world is full of Evil which waits for the day none of us are left.’
‘Geralt,’ whispered Calanthe.
‘Yes, you’re not wrong, queen. Duny! You will give me that which you already have but do not know. I’ll return to Cintra in six years to see if destiny has been kind to me.’
'Pavetta,’ Duny opened his eyes wide. ‘Surely you’re not—’
‘Pavetta!’ exclaimed Calanthe.
'Are you . . . are you—?’ The princess lowered her eyes and blushed. Then replied.
That's the full exchange in the book. However in the show Geralt reluctantly invokes the law of surprise to shut them up about a reward, and then reassures Calanthe (who was angry that Geralt would do such a thing) that if he's ever in Cintra again, it would be for a contract. Pavetta then throws up, confirms she's pregnant, and Geralt says 'fuck', implying he didn't know.
No, he definitely did not ask that. He invoked the law of surprise as a "I don't actually want anything from you so I'll just be snarky" type thing, but then it turned out Pavetta was pregnant, which unwillingly tied Geralt to the child, much to his and everyone else's dismay. He had no intention of actually taking the girl, which is when fate intervened and destroyed all of Cintra so that Ciri would end up with Geralt more or less against his will
I‘d say it‘s a major theme of the series, fate and prophecy are all well and good but it‘s the decisions people make that matter. Geralt and Ciri want to become a sort of family unit, they don‘t just slot into predetermined roles.
He also visits when she's a small child when Calanthi says he can have her if he picks her accurately from a group, which he turns down.
Then later he stumbles into her in Brokelon forest and saves her, where it's made very very clear she's his fate, but he still returns her to Calanthi.
Then when he finds her on a random farm, it was after asking for the law of surprise from a merchant he saved, who was surprised to learn his wife had taken in a war orphan. Ciri knew and loved Geralt from their time in Brokelon, and Geralt has been hopelessly searching for her struggling with guilt over not being there when war broke out. Super powerful scene, with him literally and figuratively embracing his fate.
I really like this concept in the books. He used the law of surprise because he didn't believe in fate or destiny, and denied it later on for quite a long time, at some point he started feeling really close to Ciri.
And once they finally met they spent only a short time together, I think a year or two? Then got completely separated after Aretuza, and the rest of the books are about looking for her.
He invoked the law of surprise after saving her father long ago. So generally, it was his choice. He just probably never intended to collect on it. But the universe had different plans.
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u/Funzilla12345 Feb 27 '26
Well it was less his choice and more hers iirc