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The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel)

1999 novel by Andrzej Sapkowski

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ4113386 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Lady of the Lake (Polish: Pani Jeziora) is the fifth novel in The Witcher series and the final in the original Witcher Saga, written by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1999. It is a sequel to the fourth Witcher novel, The Tower of the Swallow.

Plot

King Arthur's knight Sir Galahad stumbles upon Ciri bathing by a lake in ancient Britain. Ciri tells him her story, warning that it does not have a happy ending.

In the Northern Kingdoms centuries after the main story, the sorceress Condwiramurs is apprenticed to Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, to study the legend of Geralt and Ciri. Condwiramurs has clairvoyant dreams and recovers many scenes about them.

Through the events of The Tower of the Swallow, Ciri portalled to the world of the Aen Elle elves, who have clashes with unicorns. Her dreams reveal more about her talents, as well her loved ones' troubles, but a magical barrier imprisons her. The sage Avallac'h explains that as Lara Dorren's last descendant, the Elven-designed engineered gene she carries will make her child the most powerful magic-user in history, able to save the world from a prophesied cataclysm, and that Ciri must bear this child with their king, Auberon. Ciri reluctantly agrees, but Auberon fails to perform several times.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel)” as 1999 novel by Andrzej Sapkowski. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lady, Lake and Sapkowski.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1999—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Lady, Lake and Sapkowski providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel)”, the useful work is to connect “1999 novel by Andrzej Sapkowski” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4113386. The first chronological checks are 1999.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel) primary sources, The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel) archive and Lady research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.