The Witcher Season 2: Everything You Need to Know About Nivellen

One of the most anticipated new characters in The Witcher season 2 is the boisterous and delightful Nivellen, who will be played by Kristofer Hivju. The story of Nivellen occurs in the short story A Grain of Truth and is one of the beloved tales from those books because of its mix of magic, charm, violence, and heartbreak, and fans will get to see what Netflix did with the story in season 2’s very first episode. This story was actually supposed to be in season 1 of The Witcher but had to be moved to season 2, and now you can find out everything you need to know about Nivellen in this new edition of The Witcher CRAM!

In the books, Geralt follows a trail of bodies to an old mansion. That’s when Nivellen first appears, though in their initial meeting Nivellen is snorting and grunting at Geralt to scare him away. It ends up that he’s very capable of speech despite his beastly appearance, and so he invites him inside to chat, and the two have a quite intriguing conversation about how Nivellen ended up with a curse that turned him into a beast and how he has tried to break it over the years.

He reveals he’s lived with various women in order to try and break the curse, a solution often found in fairy tales, but that hasn’t worked. He has enjoyed living with women over the years though, and he treats them well and they leave with plenty of money after they’ve stayed with him. He won’t really talk about his newest companion though despite Geralt’s continued questions, and that’s why when Geralt leaves he only goes to the nearby forest.

That’s when the woman who has been staying with Nivellen most recently, Vereena, shows up, who turns out to be a Bruxa. Bruxa’s are extremely deadly, and she manages to turn the tables on Geralt, though Nivellen intervenes, and during that final fight, her love mixed with her blood (thanks to Geralt) cures Nivellen of his curse.

Now, the show’s take on the story does feature some changes to the timeline of Geralt and Nivellen’s friendship, and the biggest change is that Ciri isn’t around for this story in the books but is a part of it in the show. We’ll be interested to see how fans respond to the changes, but personally, I think fans will really like how it turned out.

Are you excited to meet Nivellen? Let us know in the comments, and you can find all of our Witcher season 2 CRAM right here! You can also talk all things Witcher with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!