The Witcher’s bard song is just as catchy in a dozen different languages

There’s no critical consensus on Netflix’s The Witcher, but one thing everyone can agree on is this: “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” is a straight-up banger.

The minstrel tune, performed at the end of the second episode by the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey), recounts his misadventures with Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) in the former elven kingdom of Dol Blathanna. Jaskier’s lyrics fudge the story somewhat — Geralt talked his way out of a sticky situation with the elves, which doesn’t necessarily make for an epic song — but the bard’s mission is to rehabilitate the scorned witcher’s reputation. Why let the truth get in the way of a tall tale and some good PR? The important part comes at the end:

That’s my epic tale
Our champion prevailed
Defeated the villain
Now pour him some ale

Toss a coin to your witcher
O Valley of Plenty
O Valley of Plenty
Oh-oh-oh

Toss a coin to your witcher
A friend of humanity

(Note that the Netflix series maintains the bard’s original Polish name; in the video games and the English translations of the books, Jaskier is known as Dandelion.)

The Witcher’s soundtrack is available on Spotify, and this breakout hit and three other songs are available to stream on the SoundCloud page for series composers Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli. The pair wrote the music for “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher,” and penned the lyrics with The Witcher writer Jenny Klein. If you’re not already singing it in the shower like I was last night, you might try listening to the song in a different tongue.

As a global company, Netflix does a good job of providing audio tracks in a variety of languages for international audiences. The video splices together footage from The Witcher’s first season with lines from “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” sung in English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Hindi, Russian, Thai, French, Japanese, and Italian.

Polish is the original language of the Andrzej Sapkowski novels and short stories on which Netflix’s The Witcher is based. In case you were wondering, the literal translation of the chorus in Polish — Grosza daj wiedźminowi / Sakiewką potrząśnij — is “Give a penny to a witcher / shake the pouch.”

The eight-episode first season of The Witcher premiered on Dec. 20, 2019. More than a month before its debut, Netflix announced it had already renewed the show for a second season. Filming is underway, and season 2 is scheduled to debut sometime in 2021.

Update (Dec. 22, 2020): Netflix itself has posted a video of “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” sung in a variety of languages. We’ve updated the post with it, as the Twitter account that posted the videos cited in the original story has been deleted.